Anglo-Boer War Museum

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Women's Monument, Anglo-Boer War Museum

© The Photographic Collection of the Anglo-Boer War Museum Bloemfontein.

South Africa began the 20th century in a state of war. The Boers had established 2 independent republics - the Orange Free State and the South African Republic, and they were engaged in a war with the British, who controlled the Cape. This clash of British imperialism and Afrikaner nationalism, lasting from 1899-1902, engaged all population groups in the country.

While museums exist at many of the war battlefields, it is at Bloemfontein's Anglo-Boer War Museum that the full story is told. Over and above the dioramas, exhibits and the art collection housed at the War Museum in Bloemfontein, the establishment strives to give the visitor insight into and understanding of the circumstances and background which led to the tragic war. It then traces the development of events from start to finish, offering a glimpse into aspects the war became notorious for, such as concentration and prisoner-of-war camps. 

The use of concentration camps, in which thousands of women and children were interned in poor conditions, resulted in many casualties.  Those who lost their lives are commemorated by the Women's Memorial on the same site, fronted by a sculpture by the renowned South African Anton van Wouw.

The Anglo-Boer War Museum introduces the visitor to interesting role players, such as Emily Hobhouse, the British activist who alerted her countrymen to the mistreatment of Afrikaner women and children and Mahatma Ghandi, the secretary of the Natal Indian Congress who motivated the use of Indian volunteers as stretcher bearers for the British.

The war ended in 1902 with the surrender of the Boers and the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging at Melrose House in Pretoria.