Anglo-Boer War Battlefields

The Anglo-Boer War began in 1899 with the British retaliation against President Paul Kruger’s refusal to grant political rights to the mainly English outsiders in the gold- and diamond-rich Transvaal. In 1902, after three years of bitter fighting, the British claimed victory, having destroyed Boer farms and sent their occupants to concentration camps where 20,000 people perished. Today, various museums and memorial sites remember those bloody events. The main museum is the Anglo-Boer War Museum in Bloemfontein (website: www.anglo-boer.co.za), which displays artwork and artefacts and provides an insight into the horrors of the concentration camps. Talana Museum (website: www.talana.ca.za), is located at Talana Hill, near Dundee, the site of the first battle of the Anglo-Boer War on October 20 1899; it is now an eight-hectare (20-acre) heritage park with a cemetery dedicated to those who fought and lost their lives there, and also features displays on local bush traditions.