The Boer War began with a series of stunning Afrikaner victories. The Boers were superb cavalrymen. They could move swiftly and live off the land. But, in the long run, they could not prevail against the vast resources of the British Empire. By June, 1900, British troops had captured Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal.

The Boers switched to hit-and-run tactics. By day, they raided British railway lines and supply trains. At night, they faded into the countryside.

This was one of the first modern guerrilla wars. The British responded with another new military tactic–the concentration camp. Afrikaner farms were burned, and over 150,000 Boer civilians were herded into camps, to keep them from aiding the guerrillas.

Epidemic broke out in the camps and killed 26,000 inmates, mostly women and children. Faced with that catastrophe, the Boers surrendered in 1902–on the condition that the British would preserve white supremacy.

The Afrikaners have nerve forgotten the horrors of the camps. Today, at historical pageants, speakers tell Afrikaners that, once again, their survival as a people is at stake.

In 1910, the Cape Province, the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and the Province of Natal were joined to form the Union of South Africa. Two former Boer generals, Louis Botha and Jan Christiaan Smuts, led the Afrikaners to victory at the first national elections. By voting, the Boers got what they had failed to win in war.

The British government believed that it could win the loyalty of the Afrikaners by granting them self-government. That gamble paid off when World War I broke out in 1914. Botha and Smuts sided with Britain, and, in 1915, South African troops overran German South-West Africa.

After the war, Smuts helped to found the League of Nations, a forerunner of the United Nations. He suggested that conquered German colonies become “mandates”–territories that the victorious Allied would prepare for self-government, under League supervision. When the League gave South Africa a mandate for South-West Africa, he was disappointed. He wanted the colony to become part of South Africa.

The blood-chilling battle cries of Zulu warriors pierce the South African bush. Against a backdrop of flames, a small band of Afrikaner farmers defend their covered wagon, now riddled with spears. A white boy, armed with a rifle, is wounded. His sister falls to the ground, and her father carries her away.

The onlookers are thrilled, some to tears. For this is not a real battle but a re-enactment of one that was fought almost 150 years ago.

The show has a message–a racial one. “God is telling us,” an Afrakaner priest warns, “that a small people cannot become a great nation by mixing with a neighboring people.”

Afrikaners flock to such pageants–this one was staged last October–because they are acutely conscious of their history. A knowledge of that history is essential to understanding the current crisis in South Africa. It helps explain why rigid racial segregation exists there. It also explains why the Afrikaners, who have oppressed the blacks for centuries, still see themselves as a persecuted people.

South Africa is a strategic point overlooking the sea route between Europe and Asia. In 1652, the Dutch East India Company, which carried on trade with the Far East, set up a way station at the Cape of Good Hope.

The new colony attracted Dutch, Huguenot (French Protestant), and German settlers. The colonists gradually evolved their own language, Afrikaans, which is close to Dutch.

South Africa

A CHOSEN PEOPLE

The Afrikaners believed that God had chosen them for salvation–and condemned the blacks to servitude. Black slaves were first shipped to South Africa in 1658. By the early 1700s, the slaves outnumbered the whites. The South African economy had become dependent on a large supply of cheap, exploited black labor.

Intermarriage between whites and blacks was banned in 1685. White settlements often expelled “Coloureds”–people of mixed race–and forced them to live in their own communities beyond the frontier.

By 1815, Britain had taken control of the Cape Colony, and English settlers began to arrive. The British extended some legal rights to blacks and abolished slavery in 1833. They prosecuted Boers (Afrikaner farmers) who maltreated their non-white servants.

Afrikaners bitterly resented these efforts to protect blacks. In 1837, about 6,000 Boers embarked on the “Great Trek,” pushing northeast beyond the colonial frontier. These Voortrekkers hoped to escape British rule and preserve Afrikaner culture.

On February 6, 1838, the Zulu chief Dingaan met with a party of Voortrekkers and agreed to give them land. Then, on the same day, he had the Boer party murdered. Zulu warriors swiftly overran white settlements in a series of raids–the same raids re-enacted in last October’s pageant.

On December 16, 1838, at Blood River, the Zulus met a force of 500 whites. Badly outnumbered, the Boers drew their covered wagons into a circle–a laager–and inflicted a crippling defeat on the Zulus.

This battle still shapes South African racial attitudes. Today, Afrikaner teachers point to Blood River and tell their pupils that blacks cannot be trusted. Though all the nations of the world have condemned South Africa’s racial policies, many Afrikaners still believe that they can win by once again formin a “laager”–pulling into a protective circle and fighting off all demands for reform.

The Voortrekkers established two independent agricultural nations–the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Then, in 1867, diamonds were discovered on the banks of the Orange River. In 1886, there was a huge gold strike in the Transvaal. Hostility between Britons and Boers grew as they competed for these rich resources.

In 1884, Germany annexed the colony of South-West Africa, today known as Namibia. The British now feared that Boers and Germans might join to threaten the Cape Colony, which guarded the sea route to India, Britain’s most prized possession. By October, 1899, British goading and Boer stubbornness resulted in war.

In my country Tanzania we have a radio program where people get the opportunity to sent short messages via phone and even write letters trying to find their lost one who are; friends and family members.

I take little time to follow the program due to my schedule but one day I got home early than my usual time and I tuned on to the station and realized the program was on air. My surprise was that from all the messages sent, 90% were from young people who are desperate and looking for their parents, some haven’t met either of their parents since they were born. It is worse that 99% of them are looking for their fathers.

Clearly it indicates how men have become irresponsible to an extent of running away from their responsibilities after impregnating young girls some times or even their wives they abandon their children.

This has been the main course of the rise of street children inmost of the African countries. It’s quite unfortunate to see such kind of barbaric acts done by MEN!!! Why do men become such irresponsible to that extent???? Does it mean they can’t take care of their children or they are just playing dirty games around with women????

The department of Education need to relook its ministries and officials because there is serious incompetence and I’m not sure who is supposed to take the blame but I’ll point my finger at Naledi Pandor (Minister of Education).

The metric results roll-out was a disaster, the education of my beloved country is corrupt and out of hand and this started about 2 to 3 years ago and it is getting worse. Some matriculates are still awaiting their fate even today  and certain provinces still haven’t received results as yet.

The department of Education is one department that cannot afford to have mishaps such as these where they are so exposed and it clearly proves that they are not in control of the situation.

With the current rate of unemployment  the last thing any teenager wants to stress about is whether he/she has made it  right in the middle of March! And one wonders where the foundation of crime arises from when so many systems are failing us and not much is done about it!

Despite all the bad and negative events happening across our continent I read about one promising article that is positive and brings about a certain level of relief, hope and prosperity and the fact that it occurred on our continent makes it a bonus considering that Africa always had a problem with most of our countries being led by tyrants who are so power hungry and greedy that they hold on to any degree of borrowed authority.

“Ten of thousands of people yesterday crowded Accra’s independence Square for inauguration of John Atta-Mills, the opposing candidate who won the run off election with 50,23% of the vote.

It was the closest election in the west African country’s history. This marked the time power in Ghana has been transfered from one legitimately elected leader to another which experts say proves that democracy is has matured after an era of coups and dictatorship in the 1970′s and 1980′s.”

BIG UP GHANA WE HOPE SOMEONE IS TAKING SOME TIPS!!!!