The Boer War: 1899-1902 [DVD]

DVD mainly consisted of still photos , maps , a limited amount of film shot at the time and commentary. The introduction as to the causes of the War was covered reasonably mentioning prominent politicians like Milner ,Joseph Chamberlain , Cecil John Rhodes . There was the late Victorian pressures of imperialism especially with the economic rise of the Transvaal and Orange Free State with the development of gold mines which changed the perception of the European powers to Africa at the end of the 19th Century.Britain and the Empire eventually sent half a million men to South Africa overwhelming the better armed Boers with numbers and a ruthless policy of depriving them of support as farms were burnt down and livestock destroyed. Boer families were transported to internment / concentration camps where 28,000 died of disease and neglect- a sixth of the total Boer population. Even more Africans died in British run camps, which was not covered in the film. There was massive protests internationally about Britain's harsh policies from France, Germany , USA etc. and politicians like Lloyd George who opposed the War were attacked mobs in England. Half of Britain's dead in the War of 20,000 were as a result of diseases like typhoid rather than in military action . The economy of South Africa declined drastically as a result of the War - Rand down to 40% of pre War level. By 1902 politicians on all sides except for a few hard liners were desperate for peace and reconciliation after the misery of deprivations , disease and loss. The bitterness of the conflict especially with many Boers lasted for generations- in 1916 Kitchener's drowning in World War One was a cause for celebration amongst many in South Africa after his time as Commander in Chief and the neglect of those suffering in the concentration camps during the Boer War .

This 2 part production is narrated by Robert Powell and resembles a very long lecture, illustrated by lots of contemporary line-drawings as well as some black and white film footage. If you want the war described battle by battle it's reasonably thorough, but it would have been a great deal better if it had given us the South African viewpoint, by which I mean interviews with the descendants of those South Africans who fought in the war and, at the very least, interviews with South African historians. I don't think there was any mention of Rudyard Kipling. There was no quoting from newspaper reports to give a flavour of how the British saw the conflict. At one point there was mention of "the natives" - referring in that old fashioned way to the black population. The notorious concentration camps were mentioned about one hour into Part 2 and took up only about five minutes. Again, a better understanding of this aspect would have been achieved if there had been quotations from contemporaneous source documents dealing with the problems of accommodating the civilians and the difficulty in combatting typhoid, a disease which killed half the British soldiers in the region let alone the civilians. It isn't enough to say that concentration camps in South Africa represented some of the darkest days in British history - we need some illumination, we need the powerful glare of publicity and we ought to be told which officials or generals or politicians were to blame. The production did mention the callous way the British troops burned down the dwellings of civilians and slaughtered their farm animals. There was surely a great deal of well-earned resentment towards the British which must have persisted for generations. As a nation, Britain needs to acknowledge what it did in South Africa as well as pointing the finger at the atrocities committed by other nations.

A well written and narrated piece of British and African history that is often ignored in favour of the World Wars.Interesting to see names in this conflict that appear as the giants in WWI and to see the same thinking that killed so many in the "strategies" of the trenches a decade later.

To say "I don't like it" as offered by 2 star selection is not really accurate. It would be better to state that I am offended by the arrogance of the producers, concerning a number of matters. After more than 110 years there has been no attempt to correct offensive mispronunciation of names and places, often of names of internationally acclaimed figures. I am South African, of English descent, who had British connections lost in this war, and I cringe at the way the English, to this day still refuse to make any attempt to pronounce these correctly, Were South African commentators to mispronounce common English names,in this way, they would be castigated and ridiculed.Had the English narrator made some serious attempt to 'get it right', my assessment of the film would have been much more positive.His lack of sensitivity, like that of a large percentage of his countrymen, whose mispronunciation I have experienced, is unacceptable. The commentary also glosses over important issues, such as the terms of the Sand River(1852) and Bloemfontein(1854) Conventions, which recognised the political Independence of the Z.A.R.( 'Transvaal') and O.F.S (Orange Free State), respectively, and raises no questions about rapacious British Imperialism, or the pioneering role played by British interests, via the Chamber of Mines in creating the system of migratory labour,which transported rural tribal men to the gold and diamond mines to labour under oppressive conditions, in order to make gold mining profitable, as well as serving as the cornerstone of discriminatory labour legislation that characterised the Apartheid system. Much is said about the background and character of the British General Staff, but virtually nothing about their opponents. Trouble was taken to obtain recordings of popular 'Boer' songs of the time - 'Ou Tante Kooba' and 'Sarie Marais', but their value is entirely lost by the lack of sub-titles, and more particularly by the failure to refer to the content thereof, or the reason for their selection in the first place. I commend the producers on their collection of fine film material and stills. Perhaps the producers were unaware of the significant impact of the Concentration Camps on the mind of descendants of those who suffered there, particularly in the awakening of Afrikaner Nationalism, that eventually gave rise to the success of the National Party (Apartheid Government) in the 1948 election, that had much to do with the upliftment of those who had been impoverished by " Die Engelse Oorlog" ( the "English War"), as they knew it. The comment near the end, as the war entered the guerrilla phase, that 'Kitchener knew the land and the people', could not have been further from the truth!Restriction of the Franchise in Kruger;s Republic is not adequately handled. There WERE conditions under which foreigners could qualify for the vote, perhaps not as quickly as they wanted it.Examples of names and places that are routinely mispronounced, in brackets, include: Botha, a Dutch name, to be pronounced as the Dutch would have pronounced it ( not 'Boater'), Joubert, a name of French origin, to be pronounced as the French would say it ( not 'Youbot'), Boer forces. Boer means 'farmer', and the pronunciation is similar to the English word 'boor', which means something quite different! This was almost correct, but still had overtones of the typical English pronunciation ('Boa' - which is a kind of snake!). Reitz, President of the OFS is pronounced like 'Rates' in English ( not 'Rights'), Bloemfontein ( the 'oe' dipthong doesn't have an 'r' sound at the end ('Blermfontein'), Spioenkop ( 'Spy Peak') has an 'e' in it, and the same dipthong as in 'Bloemfontein', and the 'o' is not sounded as in 'top' but like the English dipthong 'au', as in maudlin ( 'Spionkop'). In Dutch and Afrikaans the 'v' in 'Veld', is pronounced as 'f' in English. Chritiaan De Wet's first name is not (Christian)The double 'a' is a lengthened sound, rather like the 'arn' in English 'barn'. Koos, the first name of De la Rey, is a shortened form of 'Jacobus' ( Jacob), and the double 'o' is sounded like the double 'o' in English 'boor' ('Coose', as in Highland cattle is quite different). 'Uitlander' means 'foreigner', which is what the English and other immigrants were(.'Uit' is pronounced like 'ate' or 'eight', and not 'Ootlander', with the same sound as in 'use' or 'loose'). 'Jan' Smuts was not ('Yan') but the -'an' is pronounced like 'un' in 'run'. You may be aware of his distinguished academic career at Cambridge, prior to assuming military leadership against the British, and possibly even know that he was a member of the British Imperial War Cabinet etc., as well as being significantly involved in drafting the Charter of the League of nations and the UN. surely well enough known to get the pronunciation of his name right?Perhaps the remarkably conciliatory attitude of distinguished Boer fighters, such as Deneys Reitz ( grandson of the OFS President), who, with many compatriots abandoned his homeland rather than signing acceptance of British authority, settling in Madagascar, before being persuaded by Smuts to return, whom he served as ADC, and was later an officer with the British forces on the Western Front, during the First World War, Not to mention the role of Smuts and Botha in the campaigns in German East and West Africa!This film would have been so much more authentic, had the producer/director taken the trouble to address the issues that I have raised. I could go on , but think that what I have said is sufficient for the purposes of this review.