Episode 114 - Sarah Raal "the lady who fought" is bloody but unbowed

Episode 114 - Sarah Raal "the lady who fought" is bloody but unbowed

This week’s episode is dominated by a young woman who we heard about last week called Sarah Raal. While some of her exploits have been exaggerated for Nationalist reasons years after the Boer War, there’s no doubt that she was extraordinary by any measure. Remember she is in her early twenties and escaped from Springfontein Concentration Camp outside Bloemfontein heading to join her four brothers who were fighting with Commandant Nieuwoudt who was part of General Herzog’s commando in the Free State. It’s around November 1901 when she joins the commando, and immediately is thrown into the thick of action. Nieuwoudt and his men and one women head off to a place called Boomplaas. “I was apprehensive about going there as it was the scene of my previous capture” she writes in her biography published in English in 2000. The commando ended up in the small settlement of Excelsior which was only to become a town in 1910, well after the war ended. This is where Sarah caught sight of the mountains to the East which loomed in purple and grey tones, and appeared malignant. “The imposing mountains frightened me, they looked so mysterious and full of unknown danger that I felt as if some misfortune may befall us at any moment…” she writes. That was around 50 miles due east of Bloemfontein and the Sarah’s life became increasingly more desperate in the coming weeks. She was to face numerous skirmishes fighting alongside her Boer brothers, and as you’ll hear, Sarah became a target for the British who realised there was a woman fighting against them.

Avsnitt(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 Maj 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 Maj 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 Maj 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 Mars 201917min

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