A Boer Family In Captivity

Maggie Jooste was just 14 years old when she, her mother and five of her siblings were transported to a concentration camp during the Anglo Boer War (1899 to 1902). Her remarkable memoir of this period, written 60 years later but kept in the family, was recently published by her descendants, who include historian Graham Jooste, our regular contributor to this column.

- Graham Jooste

It was October 1899, shortly after the declaration of war. The inhabitants of Heidelberg, 50km south-east of Johannesburg, could hear the distant but frightening rumble of artillery from the direction of Greylingstad. The town’s population at this stage consisted mostly of women, children, the elderly and the infirm, and the sound was a grim reminder that their husbands, fathers and brothers were out trying to stem the tide of the advancing British.

Maggie Jooste, who would go on to recall her experiences of these events decades later, was the eldest daughter of Jacobus and Anna Jooste. The family lived in a large house on Heidelberg’s main road, close to Jacobus’s farrier and wagon-making business.

Jacobus and his 16-year-old son, Gert, were on commando, and the family members at home constantly prayed for their safekeeping. Little did everyone know that it was Anna and the children in Heidelberg who would soon face calamity.

As Maggie came out onto the front verandah of the house to call her two younger brothers in for lunch, she saw the advance column of khaki-clad riders trotting down the main road. More and more men arrived, until the church square opposite the Klipkerk was covered in tents. Soon after the arrival of the troops, the town’s inhabitants were ordered not to leave their homes.

PRISONERS

Two months later, a list of prisoners of war arrived. On it was Gert’s name; he had been captured along the Modder River at Paardeberg, along with thousands of General Piet Cronjé’s men, and had been sent to St Helena island.