Concentration Camps

This article is based on a talk by Dr Mpho Manaka to the Archaeological Society on 1 June 2023. It was titled: Herstory lost in Memory: The Amnesia on the Commemoration of African Women in the South African War .

Dr Mpho Manaka, who recently completed her PhD at the University of Pretoria, presented an illustrated talk on a neglected aspect of our history, namely the experiences of African women in the concentration camps set up during the South African War of 1899-1902.

It is a difficult aspect of the war to research as, unlike the rich trove of recollections and diaries left behind by Boer women interned in these camps, Black people left no record of their camp experience other than a handful of testimonies collected by researchers at Wits University during the 1970s. The only recorded recollection by an African woman is that of the nonagenarian Emilia Mahlodi Pooe who as a young woman was interred at the Vredefort Road camp for two and a half years. For the remainder, the experiences of black women must be sympathetically inferred from those of their counterparts in the white camps.

Shelters at the Black camps (War Museum of the Boer Republics)

Nevertheless, the letters of Emily...

This week’s news reports about the current spike in the Covid pandemic echo down the ages to 120 years ago. Stories about the measles outbreak in the winter of 1901 in the Potchefstroom concentration camp sound eerily familiar with overcrowded hospitals, exhausted medical staff and a lack of beds and medical equipment – and a very high mortality rate.

The only visible reminder of the tragedy of the Potchefstroom concentration camp is a Garden of Remembrance tucked away in a quiet street in the suburb of Baillie Park. Since 1918 a memorial, known as the women’s monument, is standing sentinel. The inscription on the monument reads:

Gedenksteen ter eere van de 967 kinderen, 117 vrouwen en 57 mannen die omgekomen zyn in de kampen alhier gedurende den Oorlog van 1899-1902.

“Hul nachedachtenis sal voortleven”

Onthuld deur

Mev de Wed Gen JH de la Rey

The monument was erected in memory of the 967 children, 117 women and 57 men who died in the camps in Potchefstroom during the war of 1899-1902. “Their memory will live forever.” The monument was unveiled by Mrs Nonnie de la Rey, the widow of General Koos de la Rey. Click here to read my article on the monument.

The death of each person was a monumental tragedy to their family. Multiplied by 1 141, this became tragedy not to be forgotten. This is how it came about.

Backstory

The Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) is well documented. Scholars agree that the main reason for the outbreak of the...