Narratives of Suffering and National Identity in Boer War South Africa

Abstract

Examines the writings of women in concentration camps during the Boer War, subjects whose suffering was investigated by English reformer Emily Hobhouse. Notes how these accounts testify to the complicated racial and class position of women in Boer culture, and how Hobhouse’s efforts, while initially aimed at opposing the war, were quickly absorbed into a more partisan effort to rally Boer nationalist sentiments.