“Capture the children”: Writing Children into the South African War, 1899-1902

Abstract

Little has been written on children during the South African War (1899-1902), despite the fact that children, and particularly Boer children incarcerated in the concentration camps, have been central to the ways in which the war has been remembered. This article focuses mainly on children’s lives in the concentration camps. This is partly as a result of the sources available on the camps, but also because it is these children who remain so important to efforts to commemorate the conflict. The article argues that the emphasis on children’s suffering—best exemplified by the use of the photograph of emaciated Lizzie van Zyl to illustrate histories of the South African War—provides only a partial understanding of children’s lives of the camps. Children worked, played, and were educated in the camps.