Haat, vrees, afsku - boerevroue se houding teenoor swart mense soos weerspieël in dagboeke tydens die Anglo-Boereoorlog, 1899-1902, en die nalatenskap daarvan

Abstract

This article explores one of the many possible links between the Anglo Boer War of 1899-1902 and the Institution of apartheid in South Africa from 1948 onwards. The statement is made that the negative attitude towards blacks that contributed to the institution of apartheid, by especially Afrikaans speaking whites, was significantly fuelled by the Boer womens' experiences of blacks during the war. The hypothesis is that these Boer women transplanted their own hate and fear for and abhorrence of blacks during the war to their children, including their children born after the war; that those children grew up with an acquired sense of abhorrence for blacks; and that that abhorrence was an Important force in the shaping of their political preferences as adults.
The bulk of this article consists of an analysis of the way in which Boer women expressed their hate, fear and abhorrence in their diaries during the war, as well as in memoires compiled soon after the war. Even though it is clear that virtually all Boer women were much more outspoken in their articulation of their hate and abhorrence for the ''English''. the final conclusion is that the less vociferous abhorrence for blacks as a result of the latters' harsh actions against Boer women during the war cannot be Ignored in any analysis of the emergence of apartheid in Afrikaner political thought.