Episode 78 - American blockhouses from Cuba and the enigma that was the pro-Boer John Tengo Jabavu
The Anglo-Boer War17 Mar 2019

Episode 78 - American blockhouses from Cuba and the enigma that was the pro-Boer John Tengo Jabavu

The ides of March were upon the British in South Africa as they continued chasing the ghost generals, Smuts, de la Rey, Beyers, de Wet across a cooling landscape that had begun its Southern Hemisphere Autumn in 1901. This week we’ll probe an American invention in Cuba called the Blockhouse chain as well as details of how journalist John Tengo Jabavu was publishing pro-Boer commentary against the wishes of both the British and most black intellectuals. We’ll return to his experiences later. The tactic of building a chain of forts is ancient, but the most recent examples before the Boer War came from the American War in Cuba. But this campaign had demonstrated that forts by themselves could not prevent guerrilla action and Lord Kitchener who was beginning to build them in South Africa knew that full well. Kitchener’s strategy therefore was to integrate the function of the fixed defensive units in fortified blockhouses with mobile attacking units on the drives. These began in January 1901, I’ve spoken about them in previous podcasts as the British tried herding or hustling the Boers into smaller areas of veld so that they could be overcome. Kitchener believed if the country could be divided into small areas by fortified lines, the Boers in each might be prevented from crossing to the next. His chessboard of maps across his HQ walls featured these regions with the addition of mobile columns that would be moved quickly by train from chess block to chess block while the blockhouses and barbed wire began to string out across the wide-open plains.

Episoder(143)

Episode 87 - The sad story of Gert Bezuidenhout (12)& Deneys Reitz starts his Quixotic Cape Quest

Episode 87 - The sad story of Gert Bezuidenhout (12)& Deneys Reitz starts his Quixotic Cape Quest

This week we spend some time with Johanna van Warmelo and Deneys Reitz, the former who starts a new position as a nurse in a Concentration Camp at Irene outside Pretoria, and the the latter who has ju...

19 Mai 201916min

Episode 86 - General Louis Botha grows despondent while Reitz plays cat and mouse with the English

Episode 86 - General Louis Botha grows despondent while Reitz plays cat and mouse with the English

We’ve reached May 1901 and surprisingly, General Louis Botha is trying to reach out to Lord Kitchener who is the British Army commander of the over 240 000 troops in South Africa. Botha wants specia...

12 Mai 201918min

Episode 85 - Emily Hobhouse mobilises against the "gigantic blunder" of the Concentration Camps

Episode 85 - Emily Hobhouse mobilises against the "gigantic blunder" of the Concentration Camps

It’s the first week of May 1901, and winter has come early in South Africa. As I mentioned last week, at this point social activist Emily Hobhouse was on board a ship heading for England after exper...

5 Mai 201919min

Episode 84 - Captain Phillipps frets about Tommy Atkins & New Zealanders learn a Maori War Cry

Episode 84 - Captain Phillipps frets about Tommy Atkins & New Zealanders learn a Maori War Cry

This week, we’ll track a Londoner who rode with Rimington’s Tigers then there’ll be a quick story about a Maori who arrived in South Africa during the war to fight, but also carried a Violin. At the ...

28 Apr 201920min

Episode 83 - Boer Secret Service Spy Johanna van Warmelo and the Petticoat Commando

Episode 83 - Boer Secret Service Spy Johanna van Warmelo and the Petticoat Commando

In this episode Easter Sunday had come and gone on the 7th April and for most combatants stretched across the vastness of the South African veld, it was characterised by fear and loathing. The concent...

21 Apr 201920min

Episode 82 - Aborigine trackers, the Great Comet Viscara and the case of Gideon Scheepers

Episode 82 - Aborigine trackers, the Great Comet Viscara and the case of Gideon Scheepers

Deneys Reitz had broken his own leg in a freak accident and was still hobbling about, his compound fracture causing some pain. General de la Rey ordered him to a small medical camp behind the lines ne...

14 Apr 201917min

Episode 81 - Black participation in the Boer War and Reitz breaks a leg

Episode 81 - Black participation in the Boer War and Reitz breaks a leg

Deneys Reitz will experience a terrible wound to his leg and we will probe an issue that caused much gnashing of teeth - the role of Black South Africans in the war. A quick note for my American list...

7 Apr 201920min

Episode 80- A Boer Rodeo near Swart Ruggens & General Bindon Blood makes his dashing appearance

Episode 80- A Boer Rodeo near Swart Ruggens & General Bindon Blood makes his dashing appearance

When we ended last week, Deneys Reitz had rejoined General de la Rey along with his Dopper companions, and had been regaled by the prophet, van Rensburg in late March 1901. The General was aware tha...

31 Mar 201917min

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