no Nation no Army is entitled to Target
women and children and for that we
strongly condemned the action of the
British government and the British army
here was done in the Anglo War by the by
the Brits it was done again by the
British in Malaysia called different
names of course in each instance I had
reserves in one instance strategic
hamlets in the case of the Vietnam War
outride concentration camps in the case
of the angop world war the term
concentration camp was first given
notoriety in the English language uh
during this war the term comes from the
Spanish uh
concentr and the actual process had been
used by General butcher wher in Cuba in
1896 when something like half a million
Cuban civilians were rounded up and put
in fortified villages in which something
like a 100,000 of them died the wher
method as it became known was reviled
throughout the world everybody including
Britain was against it and yet it was
used by kiter as a method of punishment
for the women and children the effect of
the concentration camps and the illness
and the starvation in them certainly led
to an awful lot of Bor women and
children losing their lives but I don't
think this was genocide in the way we
discuss it at the moment but it was
certainly um cous disregard for Life
contempt if you like for the sanctity of
Life of people even if they are
opponents and I there's nothing
praiseworthy about the way the British
army conducted the B War
[Music]
what happened and what it turned out to
be was a human
tragedy of immense and catastrophic
proportions and it is a story that needs
to be told properly and
well it has been lost in a mountain of
disinformation and
propaganda misinformation and lies
I think the time has come now to Shake
It Out open it up and spread it to
everybody who should
know for the board people the loss of I
will estimate 32,000 but the official
figure is
27,9 27 I believe was a significant
percentage for the Bor people for the
African people probably about 25,000 but
at least 20,000 is less of a loss L
percentage wise but a great tragedy
nevertheless was there a boore holocaust
it was
genocide very very clear genocide it
started off as a war against the bus the
republics and then for military reasons
they started with the concentration
camps but that then spilled over and
then they used the Cuban methods then in
fact they the war turned into genocide
it was planned nobody can say they
didn't know especially the command
how could they not
know concentration means
disease you don't need a
policy you just need to neglect 41 camps
right over the country there was a
Central Command that got all the
statistics and saw this
happening this is a nation dying I'm
quite sure that there was no intention
on the part of the British military that
women and children should Dil like flies
in camps there is no
evidence of a deliberate policy to
exterminate and it's therefore uh wildly
grotesquely uh Incorrect and unjust to
accuse the British of a genocide or an
attempted genocide of the Africana
population it's very easy to take the
word concentration camp and think of it
in terms of the Nazis when Geral pointed
out that the British had set up
concentration camps uh he was really
mistaking concentration camps in the
British sense in South Africa with the
extermination camps that the Nazis um
had set up and which uh which he himself
was involved with and this was a classic
propaganda technique obviously from the
point of view of the victim uh any
difference may be semantic I mean if you
die you die and if you uh almost starve
you almost starve doesn't matter what
the the policy behind it is now whether
you're going to do it by shooting him
through the head immediately or by
slowly starving to the death I mean it's
the same principle for the boor people
the number of women and children and old
people who died in the concentration
camps percentage wise was a holocaust
[Music]
England should never have done that to
strike down two independent republics
must have lowered our whole position in
the
world it was the year
1899 the high noon of British
[Music]
imperialism Britain was the globe's
greatest Trader and its Empire
encompassed more than a quarter of the
human race
the passionate figurehead of the empire
was the 80-year-old Queen Victoria she
did not have Ministers of Defense she
had Ministers of
[Music]
War indeed not a single year of her
64-year Reign passed without military
[Music]
Conflict at the turn of the century the
Scramble for Africa was in full swing
Britain France Germany and Belgium were
involved in a fierce inter-imperialist
rivalry
for control of the continent's mineral
riches in southern Africa the cape and
Nel were already British colonies in the
center lay the transval and the orange
free state where the bus descendants of
the early Dutch French and German
settlers had established independent
republics and Britain had old scores to
settle a few years before in 1881
Britain suffered a humiliating defeat at
the Battle of majuba hill during the
first bu War through which the transval
regained its
independence 5 years later in 1886
Providence decreed the discovery of the
richest Goldfield the world has ever
known in the
transval the Newfound economic and
political power of the Republic
threatened British dominance and control
of the
region on The Bu side president Paul
Krueger the staunchly conservative
father of the Republic could not be
moved to recognize the political
aspirations of the fortune Seekers
mostly British subjects who streamed
into his country in the rush for gold
they were regarded as at lunders or
foreigners in the opposite corner to
Krueger was cesil John rhs prime
minister of the cape colony who was
determined that the Union Jack would fly
over all of Africa but rhs was forced to
resign in January
1896 after a blundered coup attempt in
the transval by his associate Dr
[Music]
jamson president stain of the Free State
saw jamson's raid as a sign of Britain's
intentions to violently overthrow The Bu
governments he joined Krueger's cause by
treaty in
1897 krugger and stain's chief
antagonist was Sir Alfred Milner the
British High Commissioner in South
Africa
a man with grand visions of a unified
empire producing gold and diamonds for
his
Queen British colonial secretary Joseph
Chamberlain supported Milner in using
the disenfranchisement of British
subjects in the transval as a vehicle to
push the dispute to the brink of
War President krugger issued an
ultimatum for the withdrawal of British
troops which was predictably rejected
Britain was effectively at War again on
the 11th of October
1899 and for a brief moment South Africa
was the center of world
attention with the Advent of the media
War the unfolding events enjoyed
extensive coverage in newspapers all
over the globe supported For the First
Time by photographs and moving
pictures soldiers arrived from all
corners of the Empire to serve the
queen while volunteers from continent Al
Europe Russia and the USA supported the
bu
cause the world was at war in
Africa under the leadership of General K
delay the first shot was fired on the
12th of October 1899 when a group of bus
captured a British armored train at
cryan on the Western
Front this war was dominated by the she
expanse of southern Africa the potential
area of hostility stretched from Cape
Town to the zambesi an area equal to all
of Europe between Dublin and
Vienna the bus strategically took the
offensive by laying Siege to three front
towns in British territory mafang
kimbery and Lady
Smith the railways determined military
strategy due to the size of the land the
speediest advanc lay in possession of
the four tracks originating in the sea
port of the British
colonies at first the buers had the
advantage of Mobility speed and surprise
British troops arrived late and were ill
prepared Britain's initial reverses
culminated in what became known as black
week in mid December
1899 British generals experienced three
major defeats in one week at stormberg
on the southern front at the Battle of
fontain in the west and under General
bull at Kenzo on the nutel front against
bu General Louie B among the casualties
was Lieutenant Freddy Roberts son of
field Marshal Lord Roberts in the wake
of black week Roberts replaced General
Buller as his commander-in-chief of the
British forces in South Africa with him
came Lord kitner as his chief of
staff in January 1900 they took charge
of an army that was eventually larger
than the entire bu population of the
transfer the second British offensive
started in February
1900 Lord Roberts's great flank march
called the steamroller marched on Bloom
Fontaine and Petoria this massive
assault column managed to relieve
kimbery and mafa king from Nel Bull's
Advance relieved lady
[Music]
Smith The Bu Army was forced to withdraw
the steamroller March eventually led to
a major B defeat when General pit cier
surrendered with 4,000 men at
parur the capture of Blum fontain the
capital of the orange free state set the
seal on the complete reversal of Fortune
for The Bu cause the stage was Now set
to destroy the two bu republics and
force the buers to
surrender now when Roberts took control
of blue fontain on the 13th of March he
thought that now the war in the Free
State basically would have been over but
definitely he thought the war would be
over after he captured ptor on the 5th
of June which is what Roberts thought
fight the war take Bloom Fontaine take
ptor and then the bus who are After All
European People Like Us will recognize
that the seat of power has fallen and
they therefore surrender and that is the
end of the war this is what the handbook
said should happen but they didn't they
simply went on to another phase the
gorilla phase of the war and the war
escalated and the gorilla phase lasted
much longer than the initial phases all
the Brewers did was they merely
established a government in the field so
president stain and members of his
cabinet simply accompanied General devet
most of the time and from that Commando
he still governed the country to the
extent that it was still possible and
the same happened in the transval
Telegraph lines were cut Bridges were
blown up communications were disrupted
ammunition depos were raided many B
commanders were armed with British
rifles British ammunition and even items
of British clothing although they might
be lesser breeds without the law as
Kipling once wrote they were
tremendously good Fighters superb
marksmen able to escape from a battle
and come in at a different angle almost
immediately uh good night Fighters all
the sort of things that the British
actually hadn't been um preparing for
and weren't very good
at the British army tried to transform
their slow moving troops into mounted
infantry great numbers of reinforcements
arrived from the colonies especially
Australia New Zealand and
Canada Australians were good Horsemen
and were soon able to fight the bus on
the same level in the the
field for the period from September 1899
onwards one has a situation in which a
British Army which by the beginning of
the following year is numbering 200,000
troops in South Africa are facing boa
Commandos fighting a Guerilla war of no
more than
25,000 they figured that well
this huge
elephant uh if you put an ant into
its into its trunk and it itches there
uh it's going to cause a lot of
irritation so there was a great deal of
frustration among the British who had um
expected to be home after about 6 months
of
War and the scorched Earth policy was
partly due to that
frustration the scorched Earth policy
was something that developed over a year
during 1900 with Lord Roberts in ptor on
the 5th of June he found himself
isolated from the outside world 2 days
later telegraphically because General
Christian DEET had attacked his Supply
columns at reval in the Free State and
also cut the telegraph Communications
and the way to punish the boers who were
attacking this line was was with a new
Proclamation on the 16th of June 1900 it
seems to me it was like a horse fly
stinging a
horse Roberts obviously lost his temper
he ordered no longer would he be so
kind he didn't say burn the houses he
said blow them up and Lord Robert said
to his offices to burn down the farm
closest to such an attack on the railway
line and I can think of no better
example than Christian De vet's
Farmstead on his farm raport near roval
and this was burnt on the morning of 16
June 1900 and then he began saying any
houses within a radius of one mile of
where the railway was blown up those
houses must be blown up and that people
taken prisoners of War later he said
within 10 square miles everything be
blown up that is a major area I mean if
you take that as a radius you've got
almost 250 square miles I think that is
burned down because of one incident and
this was a dramatic new step in the
direction of scorched Earth Lord Roberts
who had spent a lot of time in
India carried it out there after he'd
won his Victoria cross with startling
result results he found that um if
anybody was
ay burn the place
[Music]
down on the 29th of November 1900 Lord
Roberts handed over command as command
in- chief of the British forces in South
Africa to his successor Lord kitner and
Lord Roberts was convinced as a matter
of fact he actually put this in writing
that only police work was now left early
on kitchen is Keen on coming to an
honorable pece with bu generals who he
actually does respect in fact as as
opponents but when they don't see reason
in his
terms then it seems to me that um all
the nities the gloves come off
completely and and kitchen is absolutely
ruthless his main aim was to end the war
and as soon as possible because he
wanted to go off to
India he wanted to become the viceo of
India
kitchener's bad reputation has a lot to
do with the the farm burning it has a
lot to do with the destruction of the
countryside with burning of farmhouses
the destruction of herds the the hering
of women and children into the
concentration camps with the dire
consequences that that had the scorched
Earth policy was partly a reflection of
of kitchener's cast of mind I think
kiter is one of those great iconic
heroic figures in British history but in
fact he's an extremely unpleasant piece
of work in many ways I don't want to
defend kitner I think he was a brutal
man I think his record was of extreme
indifference to put it mildly to the
sufferings of his soldiers his own men
died in dust storms without water his
record to wounded of the enemy the
dervishes after Oman not providing any
assistance for them letting them die in
appalling way on the battlefield after
his victory I mean his record is
extremely bad in fact he writes to his
nephew School that The Bu don't fight
fair they're always jumping on their
little ponies and running away and they
he says they don't fight fair like the
sudin and of course we need to remember
that at omdurman 1896 Kina led the
British Army against the sudin and
massacred I mean killed I forget 30
40,000 sudanes peasants machine gun them
down for the cost of about 27 British
soldiers but for kitchen that was a fair
fight because they came on he's an
astonishing um complex human being
Kitchener he liked flower arranging and
um Chinese porcelain and things you
don't really expect in the man who also
relieved um Oman and uh and
cartoon he was utterly driven he
worshiped the Army uh he had his own
very strong and strict code of ethics he
was a very strong
Christian kitchena came with a
three-fold strategy of Total War four
first Farm burnings or scorched Earth
secondly the use of concentration camps
for civilians and third the Blockhouse
lines with barbed wire entanglements
right across South
Africa it's an astounding fact note that
8,000 of these blockhouses of various
designs were built all over the
country block housee lines were
initially built at Great expense along
the railways to prevent the bo from
attacking the vulnerable communication
and supply lines of the
British later these blockhouses
connected by barbed wire were built
crisscross through the felt as well as
Lord kiter put it in one of his letters
the purpose was to divide the country
into paddocks to lessen the freedom of
maneuver of The Bu Commandos The Bu
Guerilla Fighters succeeded in getting
through these bobbed wire fences and
moved at their own free will especially
under the leadership of people like
General devet who actually became a
secondary objective of the war there
were several attempts just to catch
theet a um saddle bag of uh general
devet or one of his Messengers rather
was captured and in there the board
leaders was describing that they're not
going to
quit and kitchener's
reaction now we will show them if that's
the way they want it we will destroy
this place literally a nation a
Civilized Nation lost its temper against
two of the smallest republics in the
[Music]
world approximately 30,000 bu Farms were
either totally or partially uh destroyed
most of the Farms were blown up with
dynamite or were burned down as well as
approximately 40 towns smaller towns and
also Villages were either totally or
partially destroyed by the British
including a few of the
churches when kitchen took over he set
everything on fire he shot all the sheep
and the
cattle look when they came here the
English they wanted to kill everything
on the farmyard even the chickens I
remember my grandmother told us how they
rung their necks
they came and took all the old people's
chickens they took them and hung them
from the Saddles and off they
went that's what the English
did and what still makes me sick to this
day is that they shot all the animals in
their pins and what also makes me sick
is how horses suffered in the
War the British had a a problem but what
could they do their orders were to
destroy the farms and the animals and
you know the British love their dogs and
their horses it must have been very
difficult now as much as the um
justification was given from time to
time that the Boman um supplied the
Commandos from the houses the Boman flew
White Flags the poor woman did this or
did that there is still no justification
for burning down a person's house even
though war is war and then gleefully
burn it down then take axes to pianos
burn books in a prelu to a time that was
yet to come in the second world war
destroy musical instruments break open
houses uh break open chests of drawers
strew clothing around the place this was
want and destruction my
Omar my grandmother was from the cape
and she was a highly educated woman
she used to tell us how they set her
house on fire and how she wanted to take
a small writing table with her she tried
to smuggle it out through a side door
but she couldn't manage and so she only
took out the little drawer with her
jewelry and went outside and tried to
get
away but one of the people who knew her
well a joiner of course wrenched it from
my hands and threw its contents onto the
fire she never forgave him for that
neither him nor his parents his family
or his
offspring in the book of corner on the
history of the 34th Battalion of the
Imperial yry there's a very nice story
where he explains how they actually
carried a piano out of the bu house
before they set it to Fire and a young
woman of about 16 years
old uh went out and in the open she sat
down to play the piano and after she
finished she she turned to the soldiers
and and uh told them that uh God will
curse you and of course there were many
soldiers who didn't mind doing this lot
of evidence of that soldiers who Rough
House soldiers from Liverpool and
Manchester who'd grown up in gang
cultures in inner cities who quite
enjoyed the violence and enjoyed burning
farms and and sacking farmhouses but
equally there were regular professional
soldiers who didn't like doing that for
whom war was not making War upon as they
s women and
children blomain 5 February
1902 I Yana Karina declare under oath
that on the 22nd of January 1902 I was
on the farm di with a 10-year-old girl
named talita Yuni
lez when Remington's troops marched
across my farm I was assaulted by three
of his
soldiers two of them grabbed me and
dragged me into the bedroom while the
third one ripped the little girl's
clothes off in another
[Music]
room aspect I'd go as far as to say that
this aspect of South African women's
experiences during the B War the rapes
the assaults the molestations by the
British who regarded them as rightful
War woty has become a kind of cow I'm
sorry to say this but a veil of Silence
has been drawn over this although some
women were so embittered that they did
make sworn statements in front of
magistrates and in their Memoirs they
also described exactly what had happened
to
them in the field 20th February
1902 I the undersigned Jan Christopher
yar resident at omra District Bethlehem
Orange Free
State hereby solemnly declare under oath
that honor around the 30th of March 1901
a column of his Majesty's troops
abducted Miss Elizabeth F Mara only one
day after she had given birth the baby
who had passed away was left lying on a
table in the house and then the place
was set on fire a forementioned Miss F
Mara was taken to libber fle on an open
carriage and from there to H helbron she
passed away shortly after arriving in
[Music]
helbron contrary to popular romantic
sentiment the Anglo war was not a small
War nor was it a white man's War about
30,000 blacks participated as armed
combatant in the British army which is a
large number if you bear in mind that as
against 30 ,000 armed blacks in the
British army there were only 20,000 boor
bitter Enders by the end of the war I'm
not even talking of those guides and
dispatch Riders used by the British and
laborers wagon drivers
[Applause]
Etc the black participation as
experienced by the bers was either that
of blacks assisting the BS as AK for
instance uh henchman who went with these
boers on Commando so that they could
either cook their food or groom their
horses or there were other laborers who
were also in Commander the British were
quite
aware of what was already happening and
that was that black Farm Workers were
smuggling cattle to basan for their
masters their
employers that many blacks were loyal to
to the poor people I think the blacks
supported the the BS very well and
that's probably why they were also put
into concentration camps the British you
know would lock everyone up that they
found on a farm and put them
concentration camp inevitably Farm
Workers servants and so on couldn't just
be left on the farms because that would
also pose security risks in total
approximately
130,000 black civilians in other words
the farm laborers the farm laborers who
worked on The Bu Farms as well as
approximately 16 ,000 buor Africana
white civilians were left destitute and
the question was now what to do with
these people and the British then
decided to establish concentration camps
or as they called them refugee camps for
these
people the local population would be
removed on mass to uh concentration
camps in order to Denude the comp
Commandos uh the means of sustenance of
military intelligence so
on in some cases the leader of the
patrol uh went to the Farms gave the
women and children chance to load some
necessary stuff like beds Etc onto the
wagons in some cases it was not allowed
and they were taken to camps without
anything else but the clothes on their
bodies what do you take in 10 minutes do
you take blankets because you have
children do you take medicines because
you're ill do you take uh
pillows do you take books what do you
take they were taken in open cattle
trucks Railway trucks and in many cases
they were left at stations for days on
end without any food or any support of
any
kind brought about 450 year at a time in
open Railway carriages people were
forced to get onto open carriages full
of cattle and horse dung and stay on it
for 2 to 3 days without food and
water dressed in their finest in their
Sunday Best they also had no idea where
they were going what the British
intended to do with
[Music]
them some people had to travel for four
nights in all sorts of weather and then
there was a delay at Spring
Fontaine out and you offloaded whatever
Goods you have taken with you are
indiscriminately thrown on the ground
because the coal trucks are needed for
coal and and then they were dropped off
at our old station and had to walk
several kilometers to the first Camp
from uh trompsburg to Spring fontain
which isn't very far it has rained you
are shivering with the cold you cannot
keep warm and and you get to your
destination and there is nothing
[Music]
there the British colonial secretary sir
Joseph Chamberlain specifically said in
parlement that these camps were erected
for Humane reasons that doesn't tell
with the facts first camps are called
Burger camps they are then referred to
as refugee camps and then within the
British documentation itself they're
called concentration
camps what these camps really were were
interment camps for detaining women and
children who were primarily uh families
of bus out on Commando they were not
only brought there to shelter and to
save them from dying of
hunger but they were also brought there
to be
punished the boers got food for
themselves fodder for their horses but
also information concerning British
troop movements from those uh civilians
bu Africana women and children who
stayed behind on the farms and many of
these women were sent to the commanders
as emissaries to tell them that the
British say that if you don't surrender
your Farms will be destroyed your women
and children will suffer it is such a
curious position Hollow and rotten to
the hearts core to have made all over
the state large uncomfortable
communities of people whom you call
refugees and say you are protecting but
who call themselves prisoners of War
compulsorily detained and detesting your
protection in my opinion that they were
not Refugee a refugee is not a person
who is taken forcibly from their home
their home is burnt their crops are
destroyed their animals are slaughtered
and they forcibly removed that's not a
refugee originally they were or refugee
camps which was humbach they weren't
refugee camps primarily they were
internment
camps in July 191 the English abducted
us from our homes and brought us to this
camp where we were given tense to live
in we hardly get any food and we get no
clothes at all we have to collect our
rations ourselves and carry our own wood
coal and
water at times we are deprived of meat
and firewood for up to 3
weeks however we do not mind that we are
suffering all of this for the sake of
the transval independence and I still
believe that everything has not been in
vain I greet you and remain your friend
an
[Music]
DEET the camps were placed by the
military because because of military
reasons usually close to a railway line
where they could so-call protect them
and because they protected the railway
line but nobody gave a thought to the
actual placing of the camp in terms of
the weather call it the infrastructure
if you want in other words the camps
were usually on flat areas open exposed
to the Westerly winds bitterly cold in
winter time and then summertime very
very hot tense ragged tense sometimes
the camps were placed in very flat
ground in other words after the
rainstorm there was water everywhere
these concentration camps and I can talk
specifically about the one in brunford
it was totally inhospitable for any
person to live there there were no trees
today there are trees but 100 years ago
particularly in that winter of
191 which was a terrible winter it
rained a lot it was bitterly cold and
that particular terrain had a lot of
turf the water doesn't drain away we
know from reports from the time also
from Emily Hop House that people walked
up to their CVS in mud they had to live
in
mud one night a thunderstorm flooded all
the tents and even leveled some in many
cases the tent Pags were ripped
out in a book from the Dark Forest a b
gives a good description of how the old
people ran up and down between the tents
during this thunderstorm with lightning
and thunder all around
them she wrote about about how the Lord
made a parents arm so strong that a
mother could stand in the cold water all
night holding her child because if she'd
put it down it would surely have drowned
or frozen to
[Music]
death Puli was a terrible camp for many
reasons not withstanding the water it
was in a bad situation and it was
compounded by the fact that the
mountains that surrounded the camp were
in fact full of Commanders and the
British knew this I would suggest that
the punishment and it was punishment was
even stricter to women and children in
batuli than it was anywhere
else I still feel the main cause of the
very higher death rate was the polluted
water because the people living in the
camps used water from the stream that
was polluted by the human beings and the
Animals Uncle petus Fu from batuli was a
9-year-old boy at the time and he showed
me the carcasses of animals that had
died of cattle plague and had been
thrown into the stream which ran past
the
camp and there were worms in the water
as well many people died of
fever Puli Camp 25 February
1902 Mr PA fenter today it is 5 days
since we've had a funeral here during
the course of the past 8 months there
has been a a funeral almost daily dear
[Music]
brother talk about spring Fontaine which
is a far better camp and yet also a bad
one what struck me there more than
anything else was the wind that came
through on a particular
day uh when I was there and I had a
thick jacket and I had a thick shirt the
wind came through me like
paper that was it must have been
appalling nine children the oldest being
11 cooped up in a bell tent and they had
to stay there whatever the weather it
got incredibly hot there so where do you
hide it got hellishly hot in those belt
dents these people were actually lying
on the floor they had no mattresses they
were in Bell tents which gave very
little heat or very little cover and
preserved very little heat so they were
suffering with these extreme changes of
temperature a terrible evil just now is
the Dew it is so heavy and comes right
through the single canvas of the tents
wetting everything the night I slept at
norville's Pont I found this out for
myself though in a marquee with double
canvas all my clothes would damp through
and these people have to put their
things on saturated day after day in the
morning the gangways are filled with the
blankets and odds and ends regularly
turned out to dry in the Sun the doctor
told me today he highly disapproved of
tents for young children and expected a
high mortality before
June in the concentration camps there
was an average of 10 people per tent and
then you have to also keep in mind that
they lived like that they had nowhere
else to go if you look at the extremely
high death rate in some camps you'll see
that the average number of people per
tent was considerably higher Puli was
the camp with the second highest death
rate
1,737 and in the batuli camp an average
of 18 people slept in a bell
tent
overcrowding that is very great privacy
is impossible in some camps two and even
three sets of people occupy one tent and
10 or even 12 persons are frequently
herded together in t of which the cubic
capacity is about 500 cubic feet now the
sanitation was very bad in most of the
camps in bloom Fontaine for example we
read in the reports of uh the British
army that there was one labatory for
every 300 persons 4,600 women and
children in the camp and you had 28
bucket pale
toilets now with dentry typhoid
diara pneumonia rampant meol rampant
throughout the camp how is it humanly
possible to get from your tent almost a
kilometer away to a lri so you couldn't
the ground was fouled the UIA reaching
one side of the camp makes those tents
at some sometimes unbearable and has
resulted in tonsilitis and various
throat troubles the people feel these
places a terrible degradation if you
take the camp in batuli as an
example the sanitation consisted of
trenches dug in the soil there and now
you ask now how do you use a trench they
was very easy you place logs across the
trench people fell
in children fell in assuming that this
happens where do you go to clean that
child the great lack has been soap
neither in this Camp nor in norval's
Pont has any been supplied and those
without money have been unable to wash
clothes or person properly men don't
think of these things unless it is
suggested to them they simply say how
dirty these people are how can you have
for instance 4,600 women and children
and some old men and frail old ladies in
a camp and not give them
soap soap became a ration only uh a
month or two before peace then there is
the water supply it has in many cases
been extremely bad extremely impure and
extremely
insufficient my my grandmother was a
little girl in the bloom Fontaine camp
and to the day of her death she wore
lace up shoes and thick stockings I
could see the white on her feet but I
never realized what they were until just
before she died they were water
restrictions and every day they were
given just enough water to make one
Kettle full of coffee but the children
elbowed one another and some were pushed
off their feet in their attempts to get
hold of this little bit of water often
some of the little ones being only four
or 5 years old were often knocked over
and that's how my grandmother sustained
third degree burns
in lentine for instance they rationed
water they got one bucket of water per
day per family in the beginning that was
for cooking and cleaning
purposes second they have no extra
utensil to hold the water when
boiled I propose therefore to give each
tent another pale or Croc and get a
proclamation issued that all drinking
water must be boiled
the woman had to make do with very
little
firewood that was also
rationed and our generation doesn't
realize how those children suffered they
had to walk for Miles many kilometers to
get a bit of wood and when they came
back with a wood the guard at the gate
took it from them then no bread could be
baked on those days
fuel is very scarce that which is
supplied weekly would not cook a meal a
day and they have to search the already
bare copies for a supply there is hardly
a bit to be
[Music]
had the planning for the concentration
camps took less than a month the camps
were run by the mil
they were designed for far smaller
numbers than were herded into them the
resources of water uh food above all
medical and nursing uh care were grossly
inadequate and
maladministration and one has to put it
simple low
priority the British had 24 40,000
soldiers in South Africa and in addition
to that upwards of 235,000 people in
concentration camps white and black they
had to supply with
Provisions in other words they had to
supply daily Provisions to a half a
million people while most of the Farms
had been burnt down the logistics of
getting those Provisions to the people
at the right time were virtually
impossible kitchen also had a system
whereby
if you were on Commando if your husband
was on Commando you got half the rations
of the women whose husbands were not as
to the differentiation of rations
between those whose husbands and fathers
have surrendered and those whose
relatives are still on Commando I will
say that a more diabolical Arrangement
was never entered into by any Civilized
Nation early on the instructions were
that uh people who had come to the camp
because of Acts of war and they had
actually
innocence within that they would be
given the ration a which included a
portion of
meat those however who were belligerent
and were in the camps would not be given
the meat but then this changes once they
discover these situations within the
camps uh is so dire they change it so
actually basically putting everybody on
the a ration so everybody gets meat and
everybody gets the basic
ration it was about 1 and 1/2 cups of M
or Bo meal 2 teaspoon fulls of sugar a
tablespoon full of coffee and a
tablespoon full of salt 1 12th of a tin
of condensed milk and some meat if there
was any
available and uh it was in such a small
scale that one woman complained that the
food is too much to die from and too
little to live from the quantity of the
food is less I carefully compared it
than the amount allowed in this country
to criminals under hard
labor here is the official report of the
medical officer in this very Camp about
which we are inquiring
today examine samples of the mes and of
the sugar used sample one moldy and
contains might unfit for human
consumption this is given to Little
Children sample two contains might but I
could not discover any living might it
is very dangerous as human food there is
enough evidence
of
purposeful addition of foreign stuff to
the food
stuffs there were these Barbed hooks in
the meat that's what that kitchen
did my grandmother swear it was poisoned
you know there was glass in it and she's
had the proof you know with the little
steel hooks in it and the whole toot to
what extent that was practice I wouldn't
be able but that it happened is a
fact the hooks came out of tins of
canned meat from the USA it was part of
a huge
shipment it's very difficult to prove
that the hooks were put in the tins on
purpose well if you look at Epsom salts
which the British use if their horses
get sick if their roses are dying or
anything it's called angel in Africa
and I'm sure that what they fed those
people was not ground glass but EPs and
salts and you had the Preposterous ideas
like ground glass in the diet at Bloom
Fain and things and actually the war
museum at Bloom faine was an amazing uh
exhibition of kind of race hatred in
which uh you know allegations of of of
deliberate attempts to poison uh people
with ground glass and things
one should not forget that black
concentration camps were also
established even though far less was
reported about them uh at the time the
historical writings of the 20th century
on the Anglo B War neglected this part
of camps in the case of the black people
to a large extent I do wish someone
would come out and take up the question
of the Native camps from odd bits I hear
it would seem to be much needed there is
some some
indication that because of the shortage
of Housing and the terrible deprivation
which the Bor families underw in those
camps that very often the black servants
particularly the women of course lived
in the same tent people who had grown up
with poor families and they were in many
instances part of that
family when the wom and children were
taken away a lot of these black people
went with them they were also put into
the same
camps and then they were separated the
black women who are in the white camps
for instance you'll often see in the
reports they'll say three black servants
or every mind no rations they weren't
given rations so the worldwoman either
had to share their rations with the
black women or the women had to somehow
find something to live on themselves in
many instances you had white camps close
to Black camps for the simple reason
that they were close to the railway line
when the first camps were formed around
the white
camps at first they were given no
rations but if they would come in the
white camp and clean the
grounds and there's lots of evidence of
this and clean
latrines remove the pales of of waste at
night uh work in the
hospitals uh they were fed in return for
that so the first payment to of black
labor coming out of the black
concentration camps even before they
were formally structured was in return
for
work mostly they were not given Russians
mostly they were not given tents and
they were obliged in many instances to
fend for themselves some of them they
never got to the shares the Russians
because they're not working you know and
then especially the old men and or old
men and old women there was tremendous
suffering among blacks because there was
very little food other than what they
could earn and no medical care at all
especially in the trans wall I don't
think in the big Military Hospital at De
Fontaine I don't think there's records
of any black people being treated there
they became very ill especially because
of pneumonia you know during winter and
then diarrhea because of some food were
rotten one of the reasons I say the
death rate is much higher than we know
is because there were no records kept in
the transf fall until the middle of 1901
and many many black people died there we
know for example at the heidleberg
camp the medical officer of Health for
the transval said they were dying there
at a rate of about one a day well that
would mean about 30 a month and Etc in
some of the black camps you find names
on the registers but in many cases you
only find numbers and you get the
impression that in the the black gamps
the
bookkeeping uh was not all that
meticulous it would be incorrect to
think that the reason for the sweeping
of the Feld of the black Farm
Workers was to provide labor this was a
byproduct but there never was enough and
later when the department of native
refugees was formed it was even more
organized
and every able-bodied black man was
required to work for the Army
departments we are talking of a British
army or a Imperial Army that in total
was on to 450,000 men to support an army
like that you need a labor force and
very many of these black people were
taken to labor camps and were used also
as laborers to support the British Army
in other words a scorched Earth policy
had as a result white concentration
camps of
non-competent uh black refugee camps
black concentration camps and black
labor
[Music]
camps some people may have money and may
add to the above by purchasing certain
things at some little retail shops
allowed in the camp which charge
exorbitant prices for instance six P for
real of coton we have definitely
different classes of refugee we have
those that have absolutely nothing they
have no shoes they have Rags on their
backs and they have no means of
subsistence we have others that have got
all their furniture with them they've
obviously had a lot of help in
transporting their goods with them and
therefore they've got money they also
have contacts outside of the camp who
are willing to help and support
them you must differentiate between the
different camps because that even Emily
hop house um is a pains to point out
that the conditions vary between the
camps enormously nor point is one of the
best concentration camps because they
grew their own food they had the river
nearby so the morale of the people to do
something and not just sit around and
mope was much better as the camps went
Emy hobhouse rated this Camp the best
that she visited
and she gave her reasons mainly that it
was well cited the tents were laid out
in rows with street names and numbers
the tents contained Furniture beds and
mattresses there was fresh spring water
and a tennis court and classes were held
for the children and the nearby
Edinburgh South Africa Hospital provided
medical
services and certainly laying arur tents
in Rose with street names is quite
important to be to find
[Music]
people it is also documented that in the
Camp's conditioned varied according to
the camp commant perhaps what we ought
to be paying more attention to is not
assuming that there is one policy
towards of concentration one type of
administration which is pursued by all
commandants of the camps but maybe we
need to look at the particular
individuals in those camps that we know
where the death rates were at their
worst Russell
dear Russell deer and he didn't pull his
weight if the English got rid of a camp
Commander he must have been really
bad when so many people were dying of
measles it was an epidemic he boasted
and said he was doing much better in the
camp than the troops were doing on the
battlefields William Gosling who was
Camp commandant a magistrate he fought
for the camp inhabitants at Spring font
he went against orders and then he
caught dou Mania died and is buried at
Spring contain Cemetery but it is a
measure of his success perhaps that 700
people went to his funeral spring
fontain cemetry is a mixed symmetry
there are British soldiers and British
Administration people as well as woman
and children it is a very evocative
place it is a surprising place it has
one source of water which was a
continuous uh Source fortunately for the
women and children and that is today
recognized as a monument but it has a
graveyard for unbaptized
children on its outskirts bearing in
mind that perhaps the current feeling
then was that these children would never
be able to be buried with children who
had been confirmed or had a religion
because they would go straight to hell
and it's pathetic these little
gravestones they who are suffering most
keenly and who have lost most either of
their children by death or their
possessions by fire and sword such as
these reconcentrated women in the camps
they have the most conspicuous patience
and never express a wish that their men
should be the ones to give way it must
be fought out now they think to The
Bitter End if one looks particularly at
the role of B women in this war one has
abundant testimony both from sources
amongst the commanders and their
families and from the British soldiers
who recorded their Impressions during
the Guerilla phase of the war of bur
women often grandmothers as well as
wives who kept their men fighting who
stood up to the British soldy told them
that the bers would never give in and
are shown actually sending back their
husbands and Sons when they come home uh
to put their feet up for a bit and they
were extremely strong strong minded and
I think in very many instances they were
actually the people that kept their
husbands up that motivated them and in
mbank especially they were called
irreconcilables and some of them were
sent to campson AEL mbank amongst other
places where the British thought they
were a bad influence in the original
camp and they influenced people
negatively in favor of the war so they
had to be sent away they were seen as
hardliners people who were Troublesome
caused a lot of trouble and that's why
was sent on here so it was like a
punitive measure there were also those
women who argued uh that continuing the
war is a waste of um
resources and that the bu leaders
actually responsible for continuing the
war and for keeping us in the camp and
then they gradually they came around to
to the British side and there are
documentary examples of women who come
joyfully sewing a Union Jack at the end
of the war as a sign of an an offering
to Super superintendent of the camp of
the new found loyalties the wives of of
these two groups factions would squabble
and not get on at all well together and
of course that's very bad in a confined
area like a camp um so um I believe it
was Lord Kitchener who divided the
inmates in the camp into two categories
one category being very proor and
supporting the buor cause the other
category being well not necessarily Pro
British but more neutral they used to
assist the British authorities help to
run the camp would work perhaps for the
British authorities my grandmother told
me a lot of stories when I was young
about uh circumstances and what happened
to them and how they especially hated
the Hans kakis you see and Commander
Wasa hansar he was actually an English
speaking Africana for all honor be
especially under the command of a
certain makit he seems to have really
hated the bus that's obvious from their
documents he couldn't care less about
their General well-being they
particularly complained a lot about the
meat the problem with the meat was that
the British had to transport it to the
camps they didn't have any cooler trucks
or modern equipment and often the meat
had gone rotten by the time it reached
the people in addition to that the meat
was of a very poor quality
due to the scorched Earth policy the
animals had not been fed
properly it was rotten meat cut from
rotten animals and they said it was so
green and sticky and putrid that when
they threw it against a wall it stuck to
it they went to the camp commanders and
said look this meat's full of maggots we
can't eat it then Jacobs made the
mistake of telling them that the meat
was good enough for them and many was
and many else was 14 years old and she
grabbed his own shambach and started
chasing him around the tents and another
lady Mrs fumble yon grabbed a bottle and
crowned F Eden with it and then she
asked is he dead
now the men ran away they never saw them
again they were very angry and then they
stormed his office they looted the place
broke his furniture tore up his books
and from there they set off to the
Russian house where they threw sand and
things into the food which resulted in
them not having anything to eat for a
few
[Music]
days the death rate in most of the camps
is high in bloom Fontaine it is
terrible 172 deaths had occurred up to
the date of my
leaving on Sunday April the 28th 15
persons died in that camp it figures out
to about
25% above all
one would hope that the good sense if
not the mercy of the English people
would cry out against further
development of this cruel system which
falls with such crushing effect upon the
old the weak and the
children in the period May to August
1901 the High Commissioner Lord Milner
goes to London on a visit then Lord
kitner apart from his army duties and
having to look at these these civilians
blacken poor civilians he also act as
the High Commissioner at a very crucial
stage in the development of these camps
because it's the period just
before the start of the great suffering
and deaths in the camps October 1901
which was a very worst month in the
South African camps in general an
enormous number of people died in mean
Camp so if we go to the cemetery look up
the cemetery record we find that um a
large proportion of people who did die
died in October
1901 there can be various reasons for
this some will say that uh conditions on
the farms were probably at their worst
at that time and the people who came
were um more undernourished than they
had been previously one has to to
understand the the climate firstly
during those winter years of especially
19001
were uh you know some of the coldest
months that the Free State ever
had if you look at the the figures the
deaths in the camps during those those
months the winter months yes especially
in October November December uh under
normal circumstances that's the time for
a lot of um stomach problems with babies
and things like that and if you're in a
tent it's exacerbated people were
crowded together large numbers brunford
4,000 people in one Camp blo fortain
6,000
people whenever an epidemic struck a
camp it spread like wildfire through the
camp epidemic during the measles
epidemic there was no medicine
whatsoever for them and in her book my
aunt writes that in some tents the
mother and all her children were struck
by
measles if you were under the age of 2
years and I will actually say under the
age of 5 years if you were placed in a
camp it was the same as if your death
warrant had been signed because you had
almost no chance of survival if you were
under 5 years old and definitely under
one year no chance at all well of the
270 children that
died one family the Kruegers lost 12
children fer Mavis nine fer Vault nine
fenta nine fik 8 pinar's 8 pretorius 7
6 fun 6 forer 6 when you think about it
200 and 70 children in this District
died today that would be a whole
generation that would
gone give back my dead whom thou Hast
Riven from me by arms of men loud called
from Earth's farthest bound to wet my
bosom with my children
blood give back my dead the dead who
grew up on
me my grandmother's family fled and my
grandfather's family went to the
concentration
camp and uh the the deaths were suffered
by the family that was that went to the
Concentration Camp
Omar Grandma roten Bach didn't want to
go to a concentration camp she knew
about the camp
and she asked the farm laborers to warn
her when the English were on their way
they did and she fled but she only got
As far as V shook there in a ruin she
gave birth to a baby her sister-in-law
thought the baby was
dead but Grandma Rach said we should at
least B the child before we bury her
apparently the bath water was far too
hot and that made Max scream and she was
only buried 2 years ago at the age of
98 the women and children out in the
felt isolated were very very well
protected from these diseases in in fact
in such a in such a way that uh I would
argue that the children certainly were
safer with their parents or were their
mothers in the open F that in the
concentration camps this is an age of
disease this is something to be born in
mind British AR Lives In Bloom Fantine
then It suffers a major epidemic of
infectious disease and the casualty toll
from infectious disease is Way Beyond
that actually experienced on the on the
battlefield I suppose the feeling was
well our men are dying of disease it
makes no difference if if the BS don't
Prince Victor uh grandson of Queen
Victoria one of the soldiers who went
out to fight died of tyho the only ray
of light in that war was the fact that
the inoculation against
tyho got its main thrust during that war
it's one of the things that this war
gave to the world what really killed
most of the people was
measles and that would have happened
even if conditions had been better you
have to remember it was the time before
vitamins were known about and um
although there is no excuse for it of
course because uh because it was the
British uh policy of Total War that uh
that forced the women and children into
into these camps um in no sense can the
British be held entirely responsible for
every single death there were no large
hospitals they were mostly hatman
hospitals or hospitals under
canvas by m had my mother got deia in
the camp they hid her away at first
because they were afraid because of all
the children who went to hospital very
few came back
but later on when she became too ill
they could not hide her anymore and then
the camp sister came to take her to
hospital and Hospital neither they nor
their children understood
English and the mothers felt that it was
impossible to give the child into the
care of somebody who did not understand
him who did not really care for him and
this after the very often barbarous
method in which these people were
gathered for the Concentration Camp one
cannot blame the mothers for not
trusting the British one couldn't do
much for tyho you give sloppy Foods you
give milk you starve the patient that
was what happened in the camps and that
was a source of misunderstanding between
the medical Authorities on the British
side and the mothers of the children
they saw the child weakened they thought
that the child needed strong food to
make it better so the British are coming
with one perspective on how to prevent
this disease the poor women are coming
with another perspective and neither of
them had the tools that we have today
this was a misunderstanding far beyond
language it was a misunderstanding of
culture you must remember that the buas
were in the interior of the country from
the 18th 19th century and they had
brought a 17th century medical system
with them which was even in Britain also
in use up to a certain stage in the 19th
century there's this H up which is was a
box of medicines patent medicines the
original ones came from Germany and then
there were a series of I suppose one
could call folk traditions of healing
which are much more difficult to come to
terms with today things like using goats
dung or dung as was often used in a lot
of these things or animal parts which
they would Tire on children's Nicks a
certain number of Bor women and this is
really backed up with mountain evidence
14 blue books some of them 500 pages
long kept to unhygienic standards of
living which had been fine when they
were on the velt and there were tens of
Miles sometimes hundreds of miles
between uh them but when they were all
cooped up in um relatively small areas
this turned into tremendous danger in
terms of hygiene um the use of of cow
dong and goat dong for example in uh
medicinal ways was a disaster when um
diptheria and col and typhoid with the
major Killers well the British blue
books of course are government
Publications by Britain and what one
should remember is that that is one side
of the story and apart from that you
should read those books
critically who were the the reporters
there kitchener's uh report in this
instance is based on that of one of the
inspectors Kendall Franks who was sent
to inspect the camps shortly after the
great measles epidemic and Kendall
Franks was very prejudiced against the
bus not understanding that there is a
difference in medical
tradition uh he looked at it from the
upper middle class British point of view
the late 19th century this was his
finding that what these women really
needed was sharp discipline and if that
was the case we would not have this sort
of trouble and what they needed was a
bar of blue soap had his absolute
passion for having all the tents lined
up in neat rows and they often didn't do
this they'd move their tents to be next
to friends or other members of the
family so he saw this as being something
which was in some way detrimental to
health so when you have a British
medical officer saying to them in the
mornings um let the air run through your
Camp let the air go into your tent open
up the side flaps take your bedding out
and dry it in the sun or whatever which
would have been the normal regime for a
British army camp this is immediately
thought of by the uh internees as being
another way of getting AC the boers saw
sweating out of a fever as a solution
that was a typical 17th century idea in
medical practice the problem with those
doctor reports and with the report of
the forcet Commission in one level they
did their work they did point out the
deficiencies but it's the language in
which the whole thing is CED got these
very kind of middle class comments on PE
what people wore they would go into
these camps and the women would say we
haven't got enough clothing and they'd
make them show what they're wearing and
then they describe one woman for
instance had gy clothing they'll say or
dirty embroidery on it and you get this
kind of
judgmental attitude they're still not
taking full responsibility they doing
this job of Shifting the blame onto the
women saying that the women are dirty
they live in this fed atmosphere um they
don't look after their children properly
all those sorts of things the moment uh
the conditions in the camps were
improved because of Emily hop House's uh
visit and exposure of the whole
situation and the forced commissions
changes that they had proposed the
moment these changes occurred and you
had better medical facilities and
doctors and
food the the death rate dropped
[Music]
dramatically when your
husband is in Bermuda or India or
salon and you have children he may never
see it or
worse you have a child of six or seven
who gets inter and
dies take a picture of that
child
misunderstood by the British as being
bizarre and
cruel how else would that father know
what his daughter or his son looked like
at the end propaganda is an inherent
part
of preparation for and the conducting of
a
war and the propaganda usually goes all
out to paint your opponent in the most
awful colors I think people would be
naive if they would think for a second
that 100 years ago the British
government wasn't involved in a massive
propaganda ploy there was a government
propaganda machine and I think a lot of
people uh simply went went along with it
you know the these these buers must be
taught a lesson president kruer as they
called him is an evil old man and all
that sort of stuff the daily mail had a
series of Articles even before the war
started about what was the cause of the
war and they had a picture of the
typical bu and the typical bu for the
daily maale was a man in a hat and coat
and uh trousers who was a government spy
uh persecuting aanders not a nice person
at all not reliable and not at all
somebody you wanted to associate with
later on again it was the Daily Mail
which was particularly strong on anti-
buur propaganda of a very simple-minded
and direct kind it was inevitable that
there was going to be a certain amount
of demonization of the enemy this went
on in both sides there was a good deal
of um B demonization of um of the
British especially the British um office
class and the British royal family
it was um just part of uh the new style
of warfare that you not only had to
fight him but you had to hate him uh in
doing that they actually made out the
Bor people to be tremendously primitive
people of the book they would be called
uh and they were talking about the Old
Testament rather than the new and it was
um a way really of U making the um BS
less of individuals and more as a sort
of um uh a group that could be um
collectively despised the propaganda
machine was really quite powerful it was
being aided for the first time we must
remember by the moving film and there
are some wonderful bits of of black and
white footage which are of course made
up their sort of bits of theater but
they do show Africana bu
[Music]
treachery British prisoners are are shot
nurses are
[Music]
attacked and Bs beg for water waterers
brought for them they shoot the people
to bring the water so the there's that
idea that the africanos can't be trusted
they're not really like us they're not
[Music]
[Laughter]
gentlemen the propaganda was
the conditions were terrible and they
were under no circumstances going to
tell the British public what they were
doing in in in South Africa which after
all was some 6,000 mil away it's even
sad for instance that these bore women
and children so many of them are crowded
into tents because that's the way they
naturally live anyway in fact they were
portrayed to the British public uh
almost a sort of well not exactly
holiday camps but uh certainly
humanitarian camps refugee camps at
worst remember that Britain was
controlling the Press of Europe with the
cable lines from Cape Town and therefore
what was going through to Europe was the
British propaganda if uh Revelations
come uh that actually we have a sort of
genocide even if it's
unintentional people are dying like
flies and so on
this is not uh very nice to acknowledge
the British public did not believe this
but as more and more and more reports
started to come through something had to
be done and then you find in the in the
European press the stories coming
through of the British concentration
camps and the suffering there and this
becomes a very strong voice people in
France people in Germany people in
Russia people in
Holland people in United
states are all in fact fastening on to
the camps you know that Britain is now
pursuing a barbaric war in in South
Africa so certainly in terms of
Britain's International position it's
not doing it any any good at all some of
the of the really powerful stuff of
course comes from France and Germany and
America and there British atrocities are
um played out in cartoon form in in all
sorts of um representations of brutality
um so the propaganda War swirls around
the masses the populations of these
countries were to a great extent proor
as was discovered when Paul Krueger went
to Europe in December 1900 he was along
the routs in France and in the
Netherlands and in Belgium he was
accepted by these people like Mr Mandela
was accepted 90 years
later there were many Brave women
on bu side during the
war but I think the bravest woman of all
was Emily
[Music]
o ladies and
gentlemen distinguished guests including
many of you who have traveled far to be
with us today we are gathered here to
pay homage to one who came to our Shores
many years ago in a gesture of love and
kindness her name is great and
reverenced not only in South Africa but
also in thousands of homes on the
continent of
Europe we stood alone in the world
friendless among the people the smallest
Nation ranged against the mightiest
Empire on
Earth then one small hand the hand of a
woman was stretched out to us as a
humanitarian
and belonging to a humanitarian benefit
Society if you like she was sent by her
committee to come and visit this country
and see uh how they could perhaps help
she's what we would call an aid worker
now and she manages to get through the
net other people hadn't been able to go
and see the camps she was also very
restricted as to where she was allowed
to go she was here for 3 months during
the war mainly in blue Fontaine also in
Spring Fontaine noral Spa Kimberly a few
other places maiking she wasn't allowed
to go to any camps in the transval and
what she sees is actually horrifying to
her because she expect she she was just
going to deliver these sort of extras
Comforts um and she finds the absolutely
basic things aren't there she asked for
soap she asked that the water um be
boiled she asked that the Russians be
improved she felt she had to stand up
speak for the women and children who
were being treated in an inhuman way um
being killed um dying uh because nobody
was bothering about proper medicines and
proper doctoring and proper treatment in
the
camps it was about 4:00 of a scorching
afternoon when I set foot in the camp
and I can't tell you what I felt like so
I won't
try I call this Camp system a wholesale
cruelty
can never be wiped out of the memories
of the people it presses hardest on the
children they droop in the terrible heat
and with the insufficient unsuitable
food whatever you do whatever the
authorities do and they are I believe
doing their best with very limited means
it is all only a miserable Pat upon a
great ill
Kitchener I think it is fair to
say if he didn't hate women he didn't
like them much he once said to his
sister Emily who came to Egypt wearing
Six Guns and smoking a
cigar what is wrong with
women perhaps kitchener's greatest
confrontation was with Emily
habous when he called her that Bloody
woman she had a very hard time with Kina
you know her first trip she made I don't
think he realized what was happening and
when she went back and she went to
Parliament with all the bad
news then when she came out the second
time she did that long sea voyage and he
wouldn't he actually arrested her in at
Cape Town dock he wouldn't let her off
the ship and she was ill and she had to
turn around and go all the way back she
was much more than just a pro bore
apologist she believed very passionately
throughout her life in supporting people
who were the underdog she made herself
extremely unpopular during the first
world war because she took a very
similar attitude towards the women and
children in Germany and she had been
writing letters back to uh Britain
telling them what was going on some of
the letters had been
published and the government uh labeled
her a liar because she
interfered in their scheme of punishment
um to the B woman and children so they
knew what they were doing and they
didn't want it spread around she was a
very courageous woman she stood up for
what she believed in and she was not
exactly Meely mouthed the letters she
writes to the times and the way she
approached things she was quite sharp
and quite Savage when The Saga of the
concentration camps comes
along and when these camps are
defended um when people argue against
Emily hob house and send letters to the
times to say that Emily hob house is um
misre representing what's happened there
the British public are inclined to
believe those defenses of the camps
there was the story of Lizzy fonel if
you ever see a picture of Lizzy fonel
she looks as if she'd come out of asz
the picture was published all over
Britain the London Daily Mail published
it saying that this was taken this was a
picture taken uh by a British doctor of
this child uh and and it was an
indication of Bor mistreatment but it
was actually a picture
taken by a b photographer the picture
was used for propaganda left right and
Center in England it was how B people
treated their children it was
101 different things Emily's answer was
quite simple she knew Lizzie
fonel she knew her mother and how her
mother had struggled it turned into a
huge fight really between
the British uh Administration and and
Emily her voice was heard and in
Parliament this came through and it
became an
uneasy reminder for the British that
something terrible was happening sou in
South Africa something that we're not
aware of she persuaded the leader of the
Liberal Party Campbell banman to take it
up Campbell banman made in his famous
speech the denunciation of this policy
of farm burning and the neglect in the
camps I mean he called this methods of
barbarism when is war not a war when
it's conducted by methods of barbarism
questions were asked in the House of
Commons there were debates and demands
for an investigative ladies commission
or committee to be set up to go and see
exactly what was happening in these
camps I think one of the reasons there
was so much Pro sentiment in London was
because the British people in Emily
hobal said it very well she said I'm not
to Milner I'm not pro I'm
British this isn't our
way so something went very wrong in
South Africa ment foret and her
Committee of ladies who visited many of
these camps gave a famous report which
led to the rapid Improvement of
conditions and the eventual transfer of
the administration of these camps into
civilian control and in due course uh
the death rate came right down showing
that the those deaths need not have
happened at all had the British
government recognized and done what em
hob house had suggested they do a year
earlier a lot of lives would have been
saved there was a a time lag of about
anything from 3 to 5 months before
things became effective but when things
became effective the Russians increased
but only right at the end near 192 that
they actually receive fruit and
vegetables when on the 31st of May 192
the bua delegates at F decided by 54
votes to six to accept the peace
proposals or the terms of surrender of
the British one of the reasons that were
cited why they decided to accept it was
that they were scared that the Afric FK
the Africana people would in fact die
out in the concentration camps
[Music]
the scotched Earth policy meant that the
state of South Africa after this war was
far more devastated and took far longer
to recover economically than anybody had
expected a huge Devastation of the land
30,000 or so B Farms burnt and destroyed
and huge destruction of Liv stock and an
enormous problem of resettling 30,000
Farm STS were burned to the
ground each each of those Farm stads a
family Bible was lost containing the
family tree you know the africanas were
very very particular about family trees
in those days they lost photographs they
lost heirlooms they lost artifacts which
had been passed from generation to
generation over a period of say 200
years has all been lost now you can be
cynical and you can also be practical
and you can say but you can replace the
people lost in the Ang World War but you
cannot replace the Heritage which the
africanas
lost the concentration camps and more
particular also the broader British
scorched Earth policy left a terrible
Legacy of bitterness and of hatred in
southern Africa hatred from the side of
many African speaking people at the
beginning of of the 20th century against
everything that was English my own
mother I remember very well how she
constantly referred to your Anglo War
your concentration camps and what was
done and the feeling of you know pain
and suffering which is there runs very
very deep I do think that the white
concentration camps uh are the most
indelible event in the history of the
afri Conor even today and the wounds
caused by that and the feeling of
Injustice I think had a traumatic
effect which carried through through
also the Next Generation I asked myself
the question what would have been the
case if we had something like a Truth
and Reconciliation Commission
after the bu war in
1902 because I think that could serve
the purpose or could have served the
purpose to ensure that the ongoing
hatred and need for the feeling of
Revenge that existed in the minds of The
Bu people after the war could have been
addressed through such a commission who
is to be
blamed
now I am inclined to blame the bu
generals on one
side I think it was irrational for them
to continue with the war given this the
conditions in which the women and
children were living and the large
numbers that died Etc every boa male
Commando who survived that war and lost
a wife or children during it had to live
with this terrible uh reflection that he
had been unable to defend the women and
children and had exported to his enemy
the job of actually doing that while the
war continued now how was it possible
that they could be so irrational now
they
were simple religious people there was
an absolute belief that God will give
them the victory over this British
people that they regard as people from
the devil we must remember that the B
generals went the policy
makers both the Republic had governments
in the field certainly they were very
much influenced by the generals what
made them carry
on wasn't just to extend the war but
they were fighting for a
principle who were fighting against
unjustice
taking away their
independence what they were trying to do
and especially president stain was to
continue this war for as long as
possible to force Britain to come to
terms if the burs had surrendered at the
uh time of the fall of the capitals and
had not taken the Guerilla war on you
wouldn't have had the um the terrible
loss of life and loss of civilian life
and you would have had a much more um
honorable end to what was to turn into a
a pretty dishonorable conflict
[Music]
but on the other hand I think Britain
must take a large part
of uh the blame for this extraordinary
destructive War the blame for the
excesses of the Concentration Camp
policy tend to be heaped on
kiter because he took over from Lord
Roberts at the end of 1900 and the worst
death rates and the highest
concentrations of Boer and black
civilians in camps occurred during 1901
to two kitner didn't make policy
entirely on his own there was a um a
secretary of state back in London there
was Milner the High Commissioner there
was the Prime Minister it was a uh a
policy that was made by an awful lot
more people than just Lord kitner the
camps were very much uh a sideline it's
even doubtful how fully aware he
personally was of the sheer scale of
what was happening in these camps kiter
claimed all along he didn't have enough
Railway space to send more food and
Tents but my research has shown that
when they moved the black concentration
camps away from the white camps to the
Farms to grow food where they were
compelled to grow
food they were able to come up up with
600 Railway cars in 2 months but the
most they could give the camps the white
camps was 35 to 45 cars a month so there
was a deliberate act on the part of Lord
kiter not to provide what could have
been provided for the camps I know
that's a serious charge what should
happen is Kitchener should have been put
on trial as a for war crimes um there's
no two ways about it manslaughter on a
massive scale against the most
vulnerable of our republics the
population of republics the women and
children if the Anglo bu War took place
today and the same scenario was playing
itself out in South Africa believe you
me Britain would be charged with crimes
against humanity no question about it as
a war crime it should have been punished
and not only that as a war crime we
should get an
apology um I don't think that would be
ever forth ever be forthcoming Her
Majesty who was here 3 years ago four
years
ago spoke at a dinner in Petoria of
detention
camps uh she spoke of um a new
willingness uh towards
reconciliation for detention camp the
British somehow perceive themselves as
still a power to Recon in world affairs
and it is not in their history to come
and apologize to any situation there
whether they' have been part of that or
they've been indirectly involved they
have never apologized in any situation
of course they have to apologize what
the British had done in South Africa was
immoral the kind of war that they fought
was an immoral War they had created
tremendous damage in this country damage
which had its historical effect or
decades afterwards also in terms of the
relations between the various population
groups in this
country it was very pleasing the royal
family to say at
Bradford we are
embarrassed and we are ashamed of what
happened here they are ashamed but they
can't apologize I think they want to but
they can't because if they do apologize
they are in the same boat as na Germany
my feeling about uh apologizing for your
ancestors mistakes is that perhaps we
could all get a bit too Japanese and we
would be apologizing for everything
because I'm afraid like all people
ancestors make a great number of
mistakes where does it all stop I mean
do we ask the French to apologize for
that little unpleasantness in 1066 when
King Harold got an arrow in his eye I
think an apology would be utterly
meaningless and this feeling that people
have to apologize somebody I believe
suggested Queen Elizabeth has to come
here and apologize for what kitner and
Milner and that lot did I think that's
nonsense she wasn't there she wasn't
responsible for it I'm personally very
dubious about this habit now of
apologizing for the sins of your fathers
or grandfathers or maybe your
great-grandfathers I think there's
something slightly humbuggish about it I
think that the normal way of doing that
is if a prime minister visits a country
or a foreign secretary visits a country
you can indicate both in the way you
talk to the people of that country that
you're not proud of what was done in the
past and sometimes it's appropriate to
go and pay tribute at some Memorial or
other but I do feel this great human
tragedy of the
camps black and white happened on such a
vast scale and was so
unnecessary
uh that I personally would if anyone had
listened to me I would have said uh
there could be a dignified apology for
[Music]
it soon after the Peace of Fung The Bu
generals notably the war hero devet
visited the camps to explain the
negotiated peace some women could not
accept the principle protesting that
they were resigned to carry on Till The
Bitter End and pay the ultimate price
for their freedom
but gradually the burgers arrived from
Commando to reclaim their
families many of them left as they had
arrived on loaned wagons transporting
their meager belongings back to their
ruined Farms with a bell tent to start
[Music]
again the complex logistical exercise to
ship B prisoners of War back from far
away locations like calina Bermuda and
India meant that most of the camps were
in operation for months after the
war anticipation and uncertainty were
constant
companions many moving Tales are told of
emotional reunions and tearful visits to
the cluttered Camp cemeteries as fathers
paid their last respects to the children
they would never see
again the last camps were finally struck
in 1903
all that remain today are rusted
artifacts in the felt and some restored
cemeteries that bear the names of
children and their mothers who paid the
ultimate price of
War some of the black camps were never
resolved unable to go back to their
Farms the inmates were forced to stay in
the camps and some of the townships as
they are known today were
performed it is very clear today when we
commemorate this war we find out new
Graves new sites new stories new faces
new names hardly known to all who believ
that it was a white men's War the
bringing in of new information about uh
who actually occupied the camps and that
it was a shared experience
both black and white um will endear the
Comm the larger community of South
Africa to the whole question of the
concentration camps it will be seen in a
more holistic way if though all of us in
South Africa both black and white look
at the history share
it reveal our deepest
feelings also the anger the suffering
the pain which there on both sides only
then can we expect that there will be a
full restitution and peace in our
country the mother sat on her little
trunk with the child across her knee she
had nothing to give it and the child was
sinking
fast we watched the child draw its last
breath in reverent
silence the mother neither moved nor
wept dry eyed but deathly white she sat
there in the depths of grief beyond all
[Music]
tears and now a 100 years later when
South Africans reflect on the tragic
events that shaped their history they
are compelled to seek reconciliation of
their deeply div Ed Society for a future
of Peace rather than
[Music]
conflict now we have a new type of War
World War being depicted now we have the
politics of the rainbow na in the '90s
and the New Millennium and what happens
now we have something called everyone's
war in the same way that the American
Civil War is the war that is America
this war is the war that is South
Africa looking at the two issues of the
scotch Earth and concentration camp that
war is bad War destroys not only life it
destroys the environment the problem is
that the war is immoral and it was an
unjust War
and then it was immoral wrong then to
use the women and civilians and and the
children and Africans in the
concentration camps memories which are
very terrible are being created and they
will last from one generation to the
other
[Music]