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

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Episode 31 - The Battle of Sanna's Post & De Wet goes after Cape Afrikaners

Episode 31 - The Battle of Sanna's Post & De Wet goes after Cape Afrikaners

Now we swing back to the Orange Free State and there’s a very good reason. His name is General Christian de Wet the famous Boer commander. If there was ever a person who fit the bill as cometh the hou...

22 Apr 201821min

Episode 30 - Black & White Man’s war and scouting the place of stones

Episode 30 - Black & White Man’s war and scouting the place of stones

It’s April 1900, the new century is four months old. Lord Roberts has halted after seizing the Orange Free State Republic capital Bloemfontein, and General Buller had finally liberated Ladysmith in Na...

15 Apr 201823min

Episode 29 - Clumsy Diplomacy fails while Baden-Powell blunders in Mafeking

Episode 29 - Clumsy Diplomacy fails while Baden-Powell blunders in Mafeking

This week we’re going to probe a comedy of errors that started with a seemingly clever plan by Orange Free State President Steyn to dispatch a diplomatic mission to Europe in order to drum up support....

8 Apr 201824min

Episode 28 - Journalists take Bloemfontein but typhoid breaks out

Episode 28 - Journalists take Bloemfontein but typhoid breaks out

This week we’re traveling to the Orange Free State Republic capital Bloemfontein with Lord Robert’s army - and its not something to boast about. The capture of the town is known as a one-off - its th...

1 Apr 201822min

Episode 27 - Oom Paul Kruger evades capture at Poplar Grove

Episode 27 - Oom Paul Kruger evades capture at Poplar Grove

The Anglo-Boer war, embarked upon by both sides with confidence, was now to be maintained by faith and we shall see how that faith was expressed, and by whom .. and what became of it. One of these men...

25 Mars 201819min

Episode 26 - Ladysmith relieved and Buller makes film history

Episode 26 - Ladysmith relieved and Buller makes film history

This week I thought we’d concentrate on the town of Ladysmith in Natal which had been besieged by the Boers for over a hundred days by February 1900. It was also the town from which nearly 13 000 Brit...

18 Mars 201821min

Episode 25 - Hlangwane, Monte Christo and a key to unlock Ladysmith

Episode 25 - Hlangwane, Monte Christo and a key to unlock Ladysmith

After spending some time in the West where Kimberley has been relieved and Free State Boer General Cronje had surrendered with 4000 Burghers after a fortnight of retreat, entrenching and then being bo...

11 Mars 201820min

Episode 24 - Cronje surrenders to Lord Roberts

Episode 24 - Cronje surrenders to Lord Roberts

It’s February 1900 and things have begun to change in South Africa. The British Army corps which so far has found itself flailing against an enemy steeped in the concept of mobility and able to explo...

4 Mars 201817min

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