Boer Boy: Memoirs of an Anglo-Boer War Youth
by Chris Schoeman
(Zebra Press, R220)
Boer Boy is the story of the Du Preez family of Wonderkop in the Winburg district during the Anglo-Boer War.
After serving briefly on commando, Philip du Preez took the oath of neutrality and lived quietly on his farm. The British military undertook to protect surrendered burghers against the efforts of their compatriots to get them to return to their commandoes.
Unable to implement this policy effectively, the British started rounding up the men and sending them away as prisoners of war and killing animals and destroying crops to deny sustenance to the Boers still in the field.
In September 1901 the Du Preez family decided to flee before the British army. Their wagon joined 30 to 40 others and they trekked about the district evading the British columns.
When troops converged on the women’s laager, Philip du Preez with his 10-year-old son, Charles, left his wife and the younger children to hide in a cave.
In January 1902 they were captured and deported to India. Meanwhile Philip’s wife, Charlotte, was captured and interned in the Winburg concentration camp.
Shortly after the war, Charles and his mother recorded their experiences.
Charles’s account was subsequently supplemented by a tape-recorded interview conducted with him in the 1960s.
Chris Schoeman has skilfully merged these three sources as well as material from other contemporary documents to provide a coherent account of the vicissitudes of a family experiencing such varied aspects of the war.
The Du Preez narratives are refreshing and free from stereotyping. Thus some soldiers are courteous, others are rude; some are clean, others filthy.
There are many poignant moments, for example when the family members return to their ruined farmhouse and find weeds as tall as a man and dogs that have become wild animals.
Particularly moving is their decision to seek the help of a neighbour who had collaborated with the British during the war, and the ready response from him and his family. Thus people were reconciled by their need of one another.
When a passage is translated, it may be helpful to append the original word or phrase if it is felt that something was lost in translation. However, it makes no sense to push this principle to the extremes of: “It was quite pleasant (‘nogal lekker’)” or “Come my child ‘Kom my kind)”. Apart from this irritant, the text reads smoothly and engagingly.
The story of the Du Preez family is contextualised by means of some introductory material on their genealogy, the Winburg district and the build-up to the war. As part of this background, the book is well illustrated with photographs from private and museum collections.
The focus of individuality can be the genealogist’s gift to the body of literature dealing with historical matters. No doubt, many more family documents are awaiting similar exploitation by skilled historians of the calibre of Chris Schoeman.
lBoer Boy is also available in an Afrikaans version, titled Boerseun.