120-year Commemoration of the Anglo Boer (South African) War International conference. War Museum of the Boer Republics, Bloemfontein. Paper titled: Black concentration camps, Kimberley and Dry Harts, 1900-1902. 10 October 2019. As Chairperson of Council for the Museum, Benneyworth opened the con..., 2019
Paper titled: Scandinavia’s Magersfontein Dead-Their Final Resting Place? Heritage Lodge, Conference Centre and Spa. North West Province, 19 October, 2019
On 11 October 1899, the South African War commenced between the British Empire and the South Afri... more On 11 October 1899, the South African War commenced between the British Empire and the South African Republic and Orange Free State Republic. This conflict saw the targeting of civilians by all sides throughout the conflict and a harbinger of 20 th century "Total War", when civilians and their resources were harnessed to support military objectives. Set against the prior use of concentration camps in Cuba and the Philippines, the war was followed by a genocidal campaign undertaken by Imperial Germany against the Herero people in German South West Africa in 1906. Although civilian internment in South Africa was not genocidal by design and purpose, it caused a high loss of life and lasting bitterness amongst Boer descendants. Black concentration camps, however, were far more lethal to their internees and designed along a completely different model. Their role was to coerce labour while supporting the British war effort in defeating the Republican forces. Through a work or starve policy, combined with withholding food, medical support and shelter, many perished from systemic neglect. Yet the memory of this experience of the black concentration camps has entered historical discourse only recently, in the last three decades. The area of study, examined by this article, is those black concentration camps established during 1901 to 1902, at Klip River Station, Witkop, Meyerton and Vereeniging, in the former South African Republic (ZAR). Contemporary tangible evidence of these camps remains fleeting. However, this article identifies where these camps existed and how they were integrated into the British military's counter-guerrilla warfare strategy. This in turn enables further research into these camps that may conclusively establish their historic locations.
Objects-based learning as applied to Heritage studies, South African Museums Association Bulletin, December, 2019
Heritage Studies as a discipline at Sol Plaatje University, Kimberley, South Africa, commenced in... more Heritage Studies as a discipline at Sol Plaatje University, Kimberley, South Africa, commenced in 2015, with the introduction of a one-year Higher Certificate in Heritage Studies. Other programmes followed, including the three-year undergraduate BA degree, with Heritage Studies as a major elective in 2016. Postgraduate programmes in Heritage Studies continue to commence in 2020. These are built on the foundation of the Higher Certificate in Heritage Studies, in itself a post-matriculation tertiary qualification, and the experiences and lessons learnt in teaching and developing a decolonised curriculum. Through the reciprocal processes of teaching and learning experienced during the Higher Certificate in Heritage Studies, it was found that museums and spaces of public culture provide tools within the available heritage landscape with which to teach and engage. Working with students at the beginning of their tertiary experience, using a current methodology better informs the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. This paper outlines a teaching and learning experience while building the heritage programme at Sol Plaatje University. A case study testing this, encouraging decoloniality in object and museum literacy, was undertaken at a national art museum.
Abstract The road and rail pipelines operated by the liberation movements in Bechuanaland (Botswa... more Abstract The road and rail pipelines operated by the liberation movements in Bechuanaland (Botswana) were known as the ‘road to freedom’. An aerial pipeline enabled high value South African political refugees and freedom fighters to move through the Protectorate as fast as possible. A mini-airline called Bechuanaland Air Safaris, it was financed by Bechuanaland’s government and a local millionaire businessman. Set up to support the needs of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), this air bridge enabled close surveillance of potential security issues within Bechuanaland by the SIS, whilst simultaneously assisting organisations that would one day gain political power. This made it a key intelligence target for South Africa’s security establishment, who penetrated this operation. Through surveillance and informants, notably Captain Herbert Bartaune, the company director and operator of Bechuanaland Air Safaris, they interdicted the activities of key personnel involved in liberation struggle operations. This paper examines this air bridge, some of its key personnel, surveillance operations by the South African Police, counter-intelligence actions by the British authorities connected to supporting this pipeline and its use by prominent leaders, including Joe Matthews, Nelson Mandela, Michael Dingake and Patrick Duncan.
Australia's contribution to the 1899-1902 Anglo Boer War remains a significant milestone ... more Australia's contribution to the 1899-1902 Anglo Boer War remains a significant milestone in our military and national history. Over 16,000 Australian troops were engaged and another 7,000 fought in other colonial and irregular units. As many as 1,000 Australians may have lost their lives. Among them was Lt Colonel Charles Edward Ernest Umphelby, Australia's most senior officer killed in South Africa, who died on 12 March 1900, two days after he was wounded during the Driefontein battle in the former Orange Free State Republic. My research seeks to trace Umphelby's movements in South Africa, from December 1899 until his death, and also to identify the funerary and heritage artifacts associated with his burial, namely two separate markers erected on his grave by Australians during the war, and a third and final marker erected after hostilities ended and which marks his grave today.
Australia's contribution to the 1899-1902 Anglo Boer War remains a significant milestone in o... more Australia's contribution to the 1899-1902 Anglo Boer War remains a significant milestone in our military and national history. Over 16,000 Australian troops were engaged and another 7,000 fought in other colonial and irregular units. As many as 1,000 Australians may have lost their lives. Among them was Lt Colonel Charles Edward Ernest Umphelby, Australia's most senior officer killed in South Africa, who died on 12 March 1900, two days after he was wounded during the Driefontein battle in the former Orange Free State Republic.
120-year Commemoration of the Anglo Boer (South African) War International conference. War Museum of the Boer Republics, Bloemfontein. Paper titled: Black concentration camps, Kimberley and Dry Harts, 1900-1902. 10 October 2019. As Chairperson of Council for the Museum, Benneyworth opened the con..., 2019
Paper titled: Scandinavia’s Magersfontein Dead-Their Final Resting Place? Heritage Lodge, Conference Centre and Spa. North West Province, 19 October, 2019
On 11 October 1899, the South African War commenced between the British Empire and the South Afri... more On 11 October 1899, the South African War commenced between the British Empire and the South African Republic and Orange Free State Republic. This conflict saw the targeting of civilians by all sides throughout the conflict and a harbinger of 20 th century "Total War", when civilians and their resources were harnessed to support military objectives. Set against the prior use of concentration camps in Cuba and the Philippines, the war was followed by a genocidal campaign undertaken by Imperial Germany against the Herero people in German South West Africa in 1906. Although civilian internment in South Africa was not genocidal by design and purpose, it caused a high loss of life and lasting bitterness amongst Boer descendants. Black concentration camps, however, were far more lethal to their internees and designed along a completely different model. Their role was to coerce labour while supporting the British war effort in defeating the Republican forces. Through a work or starve policy, combined with withholding food, medical support and shelter, many perished from systemic neglect. Yet the memory of this experience of the black concentration camps has entered historical discourse only recently, in the last three decades. The area of study, examined by this article, is those black concentration camps established during 1901 to 1902, at Klip River Station, Witkop, Meyerton and Vereeniging, in the former South African Republic (ZAR). Contemporary tangible evidence of these camps remains fleeting. However, this article identifies where these camps existed and how they were integrated into the British military's counter-guerrilla warfare strategy. This in turn enables further research into these camps that may conclusively establish their historic locations.
Objects-based learning as applied to Heritage studies, South African Museums Association Bulletin, December, 2019
Heritage Studies as a discipline at Sol Plaatje University, Kimberley, South Africa, commenced in... more Heritage Studies as a discipline at Sol Plaatje University, Kimberley, South Africa, commenced in 2015, with the introduction of a one-year Higher Certificate in Heritage Studies. Other programmes followed, including the three-year undergraduate BA degree, with Heritage Studies as a major elective in 2016. Postgraduate programmes in Heritage Studies continue to commence in 2020. These are built on the foundation of the Higher Certificate in Heritage Studies, in itself a post-matriculation tertiary qualification, and the experiences and lessons learnt in teaching and developing a decolonised curriculum. Through the reciprocal processes of teaching and learning experienced during the Higher Certificate in Heritage Studies, it was found that museums and spaces of public culture provide tools within the available heritage landscape with which to teach and engage. Working with students at the beginning of their tertiary experience, using a current methodology better informs the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. This paper outlines a teaching and learning experience while building the heritage programme at Sol Plaatje University. A case study testing this, encouraging decoloniality in object and museum literacy, was undertaken at a national art museum.
Abstract The road and rail pipelines operated by the liberation movements in Bechuanaland (Botswa... more Abstract The road and rail pipelines operated by the liberation movements in Bechuanaland (Botswana) were known as the ‘road to freedom’. An aerial pipeline enabled high value South African political refugees and freedom fighters to move through the Protectorate as fast as possible. A mini-airline called Bechuanaland Air Safaris, it was financed by Bechuanaland’s government and a local millionaire businessman. Set up to support the needs of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), this air bridge enabled close surveillance of potential security issues within Bechuanaland by the SIS, whilst simultaneously assisting organisations that would one day gain political power. This made it a key intelligence target for South Africa’s security establishment, who penetrated this operation. Through surveillance and informants, notably Captain Herbert Bartaune, the company director and operator of Bechuanaland Air Safaris, they interdicted the activities of key personnel involved in liberation struggle operations. This paper examines this air bridge, some of its key personnel, surveillance operations by the South African Police, counter-intelligence actions by the British authorities connected to supporting this pipeline and its use by prominent leaders, including Joe Matthews, Nelson Mandela, Michael Dingake and Patrick Duncan.
Australia's contribution to the 1899-1902 Anglo Boer War remains a significant milestone ... more Australia's contribution to the 1899-1902 Anglo Boer War remains a significant milestone in our military and national history. Over 16,000 Australian troops were engaged and another 7,000 fought in other colonial and irregular units. As many as 1,000 Australians may have lost their lives. Among them was Lt Colonel Charles Edward Ernest Umphelby, Australia's most senior officer killed in South Africa, who died on 12 March 1900, two days after he was wounded during the Driefontein battle in the former Orange Free State Republic. My research seeks to trace Umphelby's movements in South Africa, from December 1899 until his death, and also to identify the funerary and heritage artifacts associated with his burial, namely two separate markers erected on his grave by Australians during the war, and a third and final marker erected after hostilities ended and which marks his grave today.
Australia's contribution to the 1899-1902 Anglo Boer War remains a significant milestone in o... more Australia's contribution to the 1899-1902 Anglo Boer War remains a significant milestone in our military and national history. Over 16,000 Australian troops were engaged and another 7,000 fought in other colonial and irregular units. As many as 1,000 Australians may have lost their lives. Among them was Lt Colonel Charles Edward Ernest Umphelby, Australia's most senior officer killed in South Africa, who died on 12 March 1900, two days after he was wounded during the Driefontein battle in the former Orange Free State Republic.
Cet ouvrage apporte une lecture croisée de l'actualité et de l'histoire des camps de réfugiés, en... more Cet ouvrage apporte une lecture croisée de l'actualité et de l'histoire des camps de réfugiés, en s'intéressant aux initiatives institutionnelles et aux luttes associatives qui président à la création et à la fermeture de ces lieux, à leur disparition ou à leur conservation une fois le temps de l'urgence passé, à leurs traces matérielles et aux mémoires qui en émergent. L'après-camp interroge l'histoire des camps de réfugiés, leur présent, mais aussi leur devenir.
"WORK OR STARVE: Black concentration camps & forced labour camps in South Africa, 1901-1902.” is ... more "WORK OR STARVE: Black concentration camps & forced labour camps in South Africa, 1901-1902.” is a unique study of the internment of approximately 150 000 black civilians during the South African War and supported by nearly 30 years of research. The suffering and trauma experienced by African women and children in concentration camps and forced labour camps is highlighted and supported with archaeological evidence, from excavations of such camps in South Africa. The death toll inside these camps officially stands at about 24 000 women and children. Yet it is only recently understood that the British forces did not keep accurate records of black fatalities, and this publication demonstrates that black civilian fatalities can be much higher, than is widely accepted.
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