Why go
Battlefield and museum visits gain depth when the war is seen through the experiences of civilians as well as armies. Pretoria’s surrender did not end resistance; the later guerrilla phase and British response devastated farms and displaced families. Black South Africans were drawn into the war too.
The full story
Tensions between Britain and the South African Republic grew around political rights for foreign white residents of the Witwatersrand and Britain’s wider imperial aims. War began in 1899. British and colonial forces fought the Boer republics, and Pretoria fell in 1900, but Boer commandos continued guerrilla resistance. British forces answered with scorched-earth tactics and camps for displaced civilians. Disease and neglect killed many inmates, including Boer women and children and Black South Africans. Black people also served or were coerced into work for both sides; incomplete records make any neat total of their deaths misleading. Emily Hobhouse’s reporting exposed conditions in the camps. The 1902 Treaty of Vereeniging ended the war, with the Boer republics accepting British sovereignty. At a battlefield or memorial, the campaign map tells only part of the story. The camps and civilian labour show how broadly the conflict reached into society.