The National Women's Monument: a reminder of hidden martyrdom.

The National Women's Monument (Afrikaans: Nasionale Vrouemonument) in Bloemfontein, South Africa, is a monument commemorating the roughly 27,000 Boer women and children who died in British concentration camps during the Second Boer War.

At the unveiling of the National Women's Monument in Bloemfontein on 16 December 1913, the father and initiator of the monument, President MT Steyn, also spoke about the meaning and message of the monument. He said, among other things:

The Women's Monument is not being erected as a sign of hatred or an eternal reproach, but "to promote love..."

The Women's Monument is being erected out of "pure piety" and as a national tribute to the 27,000 women and children who died in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 as "our heroines and dear children... as a result of the war" (a figure that was calculated in 2013 with more sources available for research, at 34,051).

According to President Steyn, the love symbolized by the monument should be guiding in the future of every part of the South African population. His speech and the speech of Emily Hobhouse, both of which had to be read aloud by other people due to their illness, contained this universal element in the message of the monument.

Hobhouse pleaded with the Afrikaner to forgive the British imperialists for their war crimes “because you can afford it”. In other words, because “you” are mentally strong enough, “you” can forgive “them” without hatred and bitterness.

“We claim it as a WORLD-MONUMENT, of which all the World’s Women should be proud: for your dead by their brave simplicity have spoken to Universal Womanhood…”

The Women’s Monument thus points to the suffering of thousands of women and children, but their spiritual and religious perseverance in British concentration camps and elsewhere carries the universal message that women – and their children – as worthy people must take their rightful place in society. The suffering of the Boer women and children in the years 1900-1902 became a triumphant martyrdom.

The monument was designed by a Pretoria architect, Frans Soff, and the sculpting was done by Anton van Wouw. It consists of an obelisk about 35m in height and low, semi-circular walls on two sides. A central bronze group, sketched by English anti-war activist  and depicting her own experience of 15 May 1901, is of two sorrowing women and a dying child in the Springfontein camp. The monument was unveiled on 16 December 1913, attended by about 20,000 South Africans. Thirteen years later, Emily Hobhouse's ashes were ensconced at the foot of the monument.

During the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902), the British operated concentration camps in the South African Republic, Orange Free State, the Colony of Natal, and the Cape Colony. In February 1900, Lord Kitchener took command of the British forces and implemented controversial tactics that contributed to a British victory.

Using a guerrilla warfare strategy, the Boers lived off the land and used their farms as a source of food, thus making their farms a key item in their many successes at the beginning of the war. When Kitchener realized that a conventional warfare style would not work against the Boers, he began initiating plans to destroy their farms and detain them, which would later cause much controversy among the British public.

In early March 1901, Lord Kitchener initiated a series of systematic drives aimed at killing, capturing, or wounding Boers. These were organized similarly to a hunting expedition, with success measured by a weekly "bag" of casualties. Kitchener also sought to sweep the country bare of everything that could give sustenance to the guerrillas, such as livestock, women, and children. Historian Thomas Pakenham describes the last phases of the war as being dominated by "the clearance of civilians—uprooting a whole nation."

Boer farms were destroyed by the British under their "Scorched Earth" policy, including the systematic destruction of crops, the slaughtering or removal of livestock, and the burning down of homesteads and farms in order to prevent the Boers from resupplying themselves from a home base

As this happened, many tens of thousands of men, women, and children were forcibly moved into camps. Eventually, authorities built a total of 45 tented camps for Boer internees and 64 additional camps for Black Africans. The vast majority of Boers who remained in the local camps were women and children. - Wikipedia et al.

The Women’s Monument is visited on our way back to Johannesburg during our annual Namaqualand Flower Tour, see it here: https://www.amatungulu.com/namaqualandflowertour

More Anglo-Boer War history can be experienced by doing our Kwazulu-Natal Drakensberg, Battlefields Route & Midlands Meander tour: https://www.amatungulu.com/drakensberg-kzn

You are welcome to visit South Africa, and to embark on a unforgettable tour with us, see www amatungulu.com.

National Women's Monument