(Un)sung Heroines

Matatu ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-279
Author(s):  
Christi van der Westhuizen
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
The South ◽  
African Nation ◽  
Feminist Politics ◽  
South African War ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Face ◽  
Heroic Narrative

Abstract In the South African War (1899–1902), Boer women emerged as more heroic than their men folk. When Boer leaders succumbed to a truce, much discursive work ensued to domesticate Boer women anew in the face of their recalcitrance in accepting a peace deal with the British. But attempts to re-feminise Boer women and elevate Boer men to their ‘rightful’ position as patriarchs faltered in the topsy-turvy after the war. The figure of the volksmoeder, or mother of the nation, provided a nodal category that combined feminine care for the family and the volk, or fledgling Afrikaner nation, but the heroic narrative was increasingly displaced by the symbol of self-sacrificial, silent and passive motherhood, thereby obscuring women’s political activism. Today, a re-remembering of volksmoeder heroism, combined with feminist politics based on the democratic-era Constitution, opens up possibilities of Afrikaners breaking out of their white exclusivism to join the nascent democratic South African nation.

V. ‘Capitalist Influence’ and the Transvaal Government during the Crown Colony Period, 1900–1906.

1968 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. N. Denoon
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Political Power ◽  
The South ◽  
Mining Companies ◽  
South African War ◽  
Responsible Government ◽  
Material Interests ◽  
The Face

It has become a tradition to portray Transvaal history as a struggle between Boer nationalism and international capitalism, from the beginnings of large-scale gold mining in the 1880s until the electoral victory of General Botha and Het Volk in 1907. J. A. Hobson, writing in 1899–1900, predicted that after—as before—the South African War, the Imperial Government would have to face the dilemma of choosing between ‘an oligarchy of financial Jews, and the restoration of Boer domination’, since there was no other basis of political power. In his analysis of Transvaal white politics, he admitted that some gold-mining companies (the J. B. Robinson group, Barnato's and sometimes the companies of Albu and Goertz) were hostile to the influence of larger companies (Eckstein's and Consolidated Gold Fields), but denied that this affected the monolithic nature of international capitalism in the Transvaal. Later writers on the period, who have rejected almost everything that Hobson wrote, have nevertheless endorsed his interpretation. The Boer leaders were understandably happy to approve of such an analysis, since it placed them in a flattering light as the only realistic salvation for a magnate-dominated society. General Botha, for example, ardently courted the white working men on the Rand after the War, stressing the identity of material interests between farmers and artisans, in the face of the capitalist threat. General Smuts presented a more subtle and persuasive version of the argument, when attempting to persuade the Colonial Office to grant responsible government to the Transvaal and Orange River Colony.

scholarly journals The Number of the South African War (1899-1902) Concentration Camp Dead: Standard Stories, Superior Stories and a Forgotten Proto-Nationalist Research Investigation

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
Liz Stanley ◽  
Helen Dampier
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Historical Sociology ◽  
Concentration Camp ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
The South ◽  
Huge Amount ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
South African War ◽  
The Face

Tilly extols the power and compass of ‘superior stories’ compared with ‘standard stories’. However, things are not always so clear cut, as the case study discussed here shows. A 1906 – 1914 research investigation headed by P. L. A. Goldman, which has initially concerned with the enumeration and commemoration of the deaths of Boer combatants during the South African War (1899-1902), and later with the deaths of people in the concentration camps established in the commando phase of this war, is explored in detail using archived documents. Now largely forgotten, the investigation was part of a commemorative project which sought to replace competing stories about wartime events with one superior version, as seen from a proto-nationalist viewpoint. Goldman, the official in charge, responded to a range of methodological and practical difficulties in dealing with a huge amount of data received from a wide variety of sources, and eventually produced ‘the number’ as politically and organisationally required. However, another number of the South African War concentration camp dead - different from Goldman's, and also added up incorrectly - concurrently appeared on a national women's memorial, the Vrouemonument, and it is this which has resounded subsequently. The reasons are traced to the character of stories and their power, and the visibility of stories about the concentration camp deaths on the face of the Vrouemonument, but their anonymity within Goldman's production of ‘the number’. Tilly's idea of an ‘in-between’ approach to analysing stories by historical sociology is drawn on in exploring this.

Agrionympha, the long-known South African jaw moths: a revision with descriptions of new species (Lepidoptera, Micropterigidae)

Zootaxa ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2764 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
GEORGE W. GIBBS ◽  
NIELS P. KRISTENSEN
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Morphological Description ◽  
Key To Species ◽  
The South ◽  
Single Male ◽  
Male Specimen ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Face ◽  
Males And Females

The South African micropterigid genus Agrionympha Meyrick, 1921 has long been known from a single male specimen and very few females with three named species. This revision, based on more recent discoveries, brings the total named species to nine, by the addition of A. fuscoapicella sp. nov., A. jansella sp. nov., A. karoo sp. nov., A. kroonella sp. nov., A. pseudovari sp. nov., A. sagittella sp. nov., and notes the presence of a tenth species, represented only by two males in alcohol. The South Afrrican micropterigid fauna is thus quite diverse although, apart from the presence of another as yet undescribed genus, turns out to be a phenetically tightly-knit assemblage of highly conservative species. This revision provides a morphological description of males and females and includes larval features and a key to species. The micropterigid fauna of South Africa together with recently discovered taxa from Madagascar comprise part of what is regarded as the ‘southern sabatincoid’ lineage within the family—a weakly supported clade also including representatives from Australia, Chile, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. The survival of these small archaic rainforest moths in the face of increasing aridity is discussed.

scholarly journals Reading Practices and Literacy of Boer Combatants in the South African War of 1899–1902

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-307
Author(s):  
Fransjohan Pretorius
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
South African ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
The State ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
The South ◽  
Planning Strategy ◽  
The Bible ◽  
South African War ◽  
Reading Matter

In investigating the reading practices of Boer combatants during the South African War, diaries, letters, and reminiscences were consulted. The state of literacy reveals a picture of a small number of highly literate men, a larger group of adequately literate men, a still larger group of semi-literates, and the illiterate. Reading matter included the Bible, newspapers, and books. Issues raised are: Did literacy (or illiteracy) influence military decision-making or troop morale? Were certain works making some impact on the battlefield? Was the practical experience the Boers had gained before the war more successful in planning strategy and tactics than literacy?

“When in Doubt, Leave Out”:1 The Country Editor Who Declined to Publish a Long Letter from Olive Schreiner

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-58
Author(s):  
Paul Walters ◽  
Jeremy Fogg
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
English Language ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Olive Schreiner ◽  
The South ◽  
Editorial Policies ◽  
South African War

The authors deal with six unpublished communications from Olive Schreiner to James Butler, Editor of the Cradock newspaper The Midland News and Karroo farmer between March 1893 and October 1905, as well as a reply from Butler to Schreiner. These documents are housed in the Cory Library for Historical Research at Rhodes University. Transcriptions by J. Fogg are appended. The heart of the article deals with Butler’s refusal to publish Schreiner’s “letter to the Women of Somerset East” which she had sent as a contribution to the protest meeting held in Somerset East on 12 October 1900 to mark the first anniversary of the declaration of the South African War. Keywords: Unpublished Schreiner Letters, South African War, Women’s Meeting Somerset East 12 October 1900, editorial policies, Cecil  Rhodes’s control of the South African English language Press.

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