Conflict that changed SA
1899: ANGLO- BOER WAR
FOLLOWING years of negotiations of the conflicting political ideologies of imperialism and republicanism between the Boers and the British Empire in South Africa, in 1899 the talking stopped.
On the morning of October 12, 1899, Jacob van Deventer, a gunner of the South African Republic’s (SAR) State Artillery, sent the first shot of the Anglo-Boer War towards a British armoured troop train.
The story that followed is one of bloody conflict and in many ways, it shaped the history of 20th century South Africa.
Several causes of the war have been cited. They include: the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand; the expansion of the British Empire; and the Boer opposition to British rule in the Transvaal.
In the Transvaal, which straddled the Witwatersrand Basin, Paul Kruger’s Boer Republic heavily taxed Uitlanders, which included the British, and denied them political expression. At that time Cecil John Rhodes had his eye on starting an empire .
Neglected
What has been largely neglected when telling the multilayered story, however, is the role of four-fifths of the then population: black people.
Although the war was primarily between the British and the Boers, both sides often used black groups in South Africa, including the Zulu, Xhosa, Shangaan, Sotho, Swazi and Basotho, for a variety of reasons.
Photographs attest to the contribution made by blacks in both combatant and non-combatant roles, as trench diggers, scouts, cattleraiders, drivers, despatch runners, labourers and trackers.
The Kgatla who lived in the western region of the SAR took up arms against the Boer forces and the British supplied arms and ammunition to the Ngwato of chief Kgama, to be used in protecting their railway lines.
In the north-eastern Cape, African constables were hastily instructed to patrol the border with the Orange Free State.
According to SA History Online, from July 1900 onwards the Boers conducted a guerrilla war that kept nearly 500 000 British troops occupied until 1902.
“It was the bloodiest, longest and most expensive war Britain engaged in between 1815 and 1915. It cost more than 200 million pounds and more than 22 000 men were lost to Britain. The Boers lost over 34 000 people. More than 15 000 black people were killed,” the website reports.
The British army sent for reinforcements and in January 1900 the new soldiers arrived in Cape Town with Major-General Lord Kitchener and Lord Roberts. The British army moved inland, defeating the Boers as they travelled.
On May 31, 1902, the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging in Pretoria, and the two republics became British colonies.
In 1902, the Cape Times published a report from Klerksdorp.
It read: “About eleven this morning, a flag of truce arrived at the outpost with a message stating that Mr Steyn, General De Wet and General De la Rey wished to come in. An officer was sent with an escort about midday and three Boer leaders arrived in Cape carts. The representations of the late Orange Free State Government had been with quarters in the old town.
“General De la Rey, representing the Transvaal, has joined the Transvaal Boers in the new town. Communication is permitted between the parties.”