Two freedom wars fought during 1880–1881 and 1899–1902 by the British Empire against the farmers of the Transvaal Republic ( Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek) and the Orange Free State in the southern part of Africa. The African republics had no armies and the farmers had to defend their countries. The word ‘Boer’ is the Dutch for ‘farmer’. Also known as the Anglo-Boer War. 27,927 Boer women and children (22,074 under 16 years old) and 14,154 black people had died in the concentration camps set up by the British Empire during the Second Boer War as part of Lord Kitchener’s scorched earth policy.
Winston Churchill was a newspaper correspondent in South Africa during the Boer War. Japie Greyling was an Anglo-Boer War hero. Jan Smuts was a Boer General during the Boer War, a British General during the First World War and a Field Marshal during the Second World War.
by Isosha January 20, 2014