LEAVING A MARK: SOUTH AFRICAN WAR-PERIOD (1899-1902) REFUGE GRAFFITI AT TELPERION SHELTER IN WESTERN MPUMALANGA, SOUTH AFRICA.

The South African War is unambiguously associated with men. Their conflicts, politics and war-time activities are well known and dominate research trends. More recently, however, there has been a shift in focus to specifically deal with black and white women and children, exposing their lifeways during the conflict period. Telperion Shelter in western Mpumalanga Province affords us an archaeological insight into a South African War refuge camp. The site was occupied by both Boer women and children, who were imprisoned in the Balmoral and Middelburg concentration camps in 1902, and by black Africans of whom little is known. Either while living in Telperion or after the war, it appears that both groups inscribed the shelter's wall, writing their names and producing depictions of life as a refugee. Through these records it is possible to develop a historiography of Telperion's war-time use and consider the antagonistic, defiant, and rebellious nature of veld-life seen through the site's 'graffiti'. The art further functions as an identity marker and artefact of memorialisation. These testimonies are unlike those written in diary entries and provide us with an unusual narrative about the difficulties faced by the women and children who took to the veld to avoid capture by the British and to assist Boer commandos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]