Women and warfare at the start of the twentieth century: the racialization of the ‘enemy’ during the South African War (1899–1902).

The internment of Boer civilians in concentration camps by the British military authorities during the South African War of 1899–1902 was a highly controversial policy, not least because around 26,000 women and children were estimated to have died as a result of epidemics in the camps. Both supporters and opponents of the camps addressed the policy using gendered language rooted in ideas about British standards of ‘civilization’. Apologists defined the camps as one of the protective measures of the chivalrous British authorities, and downplayed the significance of the mortality rates by blaming infant deaths on the maternal shortcomings of Boer women. Opponents, however, stressed similarities between the British and Boer peoples, and invoked gendered language to attack what were held to be barbaric policies towards defenceless members of the community. At the heart of both discourses was a belief in British aspirations to embody an ideal ‘civilization’, underpinned by traditional gender ideologies. The association of this concept of ‘civilization’ with not merely cultural but racial difference led to the development of a racialized image of the enemy, rooted perhaps more strongly in perceptions of the female Boer civilian than of the male soldier. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]