TOPIC:

Brett,

I'm sure you are correct. It is good that books are published in Afrikaans bout the Boer War but it must limit the readership somewhat. It would be useful to read alternative perspectives and they would offer this. That said, I read this morning on a webpage that the British supposedly added razor blades to the food in concentration camps!

Best wishes
David

David

At least the concentration camp cooks were considerate enough to add readily visible contaminants (razor blades) to the food. There are other food contaminations recorded in South African mythology that were cunningly concealed.

In 1948, the local Indians and Zulus in Natal were involved in a serious tiff. Amongst other accusations was one that claimed Indian merchants had added ground glass to the mealie meal sold in their shops. Indian merchants still sell this product, evidently without the ground glass, which is a staple food of the Zulus in rural areas.

A few years later in the late 1950's, a Durban food company developed a breakfast cereal with additives that was cheap, nutritious and easily prepared ('just add water'). In a trial, this food was given to the rural inhabitants of the Valley of 1000 Hills near Durban. The word soon spread that this generous donation actually contained something that would render the consumer infertile, thus starting the Zulus on the road to extinction. This rumour did nothing to limit the subsequent sales of the product and it has become one of the most popular breakfast foods in South Africa.

With the benefit of hindsight, it seems that the ground glass did no lasting harm, while the breakfast food may actually contain both an aphrodisiac and a fertility drug, because the population of the Valley of 1000 Hills (and elsewhere) has increased at an alarming pace.

Regards
Brett

Brett

You come up with an amusing take on these stories, you have just made my nightshift that much easier to handle

Urban legends and Africa myths .....

And I always thought one of the main reasons regards the 1948 riots was about the Indians who kept short changing the picanins when they went to do shopping! A friend of ours got caught up in this fracas and witnessed an Indian man killed next to him with a blow to the head with a brick, somewhere up in the Grey Street area.All the Europeans were ignored by the impi, they were targeting the Indian shop owners.

Regards
Brian

On a more serious light I see that there was a camp in "PINETOWN" This is a first for me although I suspect it could be the one that was situated in Queensburgh? This is actually about 10 km from Pinetown, close to the MOTHS Flame Lilly old age home!

I know of the other 3 in Durban.

Regards
Brian

Brian,

The Pinetown Concentration Camp operated from April 1902 until January 1903. Boers were transported from Pietersburg in the Northern Transvaal in open cattle trucks, first to the Colenso camp then to the tented camp in Pinetown. There were several deaths in the Pinetown camp but the site was completely obliterated by farming activity. It is now part of the Falcon Park Industrial Estate and the original site is about half way from my work to your home between Otto Volek Rd and Escom Road.

Cheers
Adrian

Adrian

Thanks for that info, first I have ever heard of that...where did you pull that info from? It however makes sense as that area is not far from Sarnia Station that was also a stopping point for Fairydene Hospital during the war.It had another name during the war.

There is no mention of the Queensburgh camp I wonder why?

Regards
Brian