Emily Hobhouse
Although the Boer War happened so long ago, books conjure up images of it that are enough to give the hardiest reader nightmares. If the fact that Queen Elizabeth made a formal apology to the people of South Africa in 1999 for the atrocities of the Boer War had not been enough to set at rest the doubts of any sceptics who might read this, eyewitness accounts, provided not only by Boers, but also by appalled British people, are numerous and harrowing; most compelling among them the writings of an indomitable Cornish humanitarian and welfare worker by the name of Emily Hobhouse, and two other women, a Mrs Badenhorst and a Mrs Botha, in whom Emily found friends and allies. In her book, which is a veritable a mine of information, Emily Hobhouse would write: “It was late in the summer of 1900, that I first learnt of the hundreds of Boer women who became impoverished and were left ragged by our military operations … the poor women who were being driven from pillar to post, needed protection and organized assistance."

I was overwhelmed with excitement when I recently discovered that the Hobhouse books are now obtainable at Amazon. A book written by the Afrikaans woman Alida Badenhorst under the pseudonym of “Tant Alie of Transvaal” and her “Diary 1880-1902" translated by Hobhouse, is also available. The descriptions in the “diary” conjure up images that are enough to give the most hardened reader nightmares.

Childhood dread of being labelled a “Boer’
Until I was six, my life was as perfect as any child would wish, and all that marred my blissful existence was my surname. How I hated having a Dutch name, which might (horror of horrors!) have labelled me a "Boer" — especially as my father consorted with people like the Duke of Connaught, I had an aunt who had been presented at court, and, as a member of a Brownie pack, I had once proudly seen my father welcome Lord and Lady Clarendon on the steps of our Town Hall. 

How, I would wonder, could he possibly have run away at the age of sixteen from his prestigious English private school in Bloemfontein and contrived to find himself a horse in order to fight against the British, when we had a large portrait of him in the dining room, standing, shoulders squared, in his uniform as a major in the South African Forces during the Great War — on the side of the British? Truly one would have to understand the history of South Africa very well indeed, in order to be able to appreciate with what forgiving hearts its people had been blessed.

Article Author: Marie Warder

Born in Ficksburg, South Africa, trained to be a journalist, fell in love - for keeps - at 16, married at 19, wrote novels, played the piano in my husband's dance band for 35 years, had two children, studied to be a teacher, started my own school and …

Visit Marie Warder's author page — Marie Warder's Blog