Boer War Concentration Camps
British camps and scorched earth in South Africa
In the South African War Britain pioneered large-scale civilian concentration camps and scorched-earth clearances against Boer populations, while Black Africans died in separate, worse-provisioned camps. Imperial victory rested on mass civilian internment.
Damage
British scorched-earth and camps killed Boer civilians and Black South Africans at scale.
Lives lost
Tens of thousands dead in concentration camps
Record Points
- Tens of thousands of Boer civilians, mostly women and children, died of disease and neglect in British camps.
- Black African camps received even less food and medical care, with mortality often higher.
- Farm burnings and livestock slaughter destroyed the rural base of guerrilla resistance.
- Emily Hobhouse's reports forced partial reforms without ending the camp strategy.
- The template of colonial internment traveled into later British and European counterinsurgencies.
Perpetrator(s)
Victims
BoersBlack South Africans