Significance of the Africans in the Anglo-Boer wars

Significance of the Africans in the Anglo-Boer wars


As noted earlier, the British claimed that they were fighting the Boars who were oppressing and exploiting the Africans. Therefore they claimed that they were protecting the rights of the Africans in Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
These wars have been described as purely a White man's affair. The fighters were purely whites though in Africa. The Africans did not participate directly but indirectly. Those Africans who had acquired arms and wanted to join were not allowed.
The role of the Africans in these wars was that the British used over 50,000 Africans as Wagoner's, cattlemen, scouts, messengers, guards, personal servants and general laborers and the Boer armies used them in similar roles.
African peasants produced most or the food eaten by the white armies. African lands in battle zones were laid waste. But those areas outside the battle zones, when not crowded with refugees, even prospered from high crop prices and labour wages during the war.
Africans were truck drivers, cooks, drug distributors, -acting as guide s and as servants and or weapon bearer.
In the 1899-1902 Second Anglo-Boer war, African allies to the British were used at the battle of Deer -deport, on the Bechuanaland - Transvaal border in November 1899.
In reality, Africans were not allowed into active fighting for fear that they could turn around and fight the exhausted Boers and the British. In fact the Xhosa, Zulu and the Tswana had offered to join the war but were turned down.
Africans never took part in actual fighting. In fact both the Boers and the British avoided African participation in these wars lest they acquired arms to dislodge their stay in the area.
After the wars, Africans were disarmed.
After the wars, Africans were never compensated instead their land war alienated.
The primary cause of the wars was Boer-British imperialism as the Boers fought the war to safeguard their hard von independence which increased enmity.
After the wars, African land was alienated and were pushed to reserve camps.
After the wars, Africans were to provide free and cheap labor on the Anglo-Boer enterprises such as farms, mines, roads and railway construction, among others.
Thus largely, Africans were not significant in the Anglo-Boer wars. Judging from the causes, course and effects of these was, they were primarily a white man's affair and not African