TOPIC:

I have recently been notified of a new book called Amongst the Boers.



Among the many little-known stories of the Anglo-Boer War is that of Ingvar Schrøder-Nielsen, a young Norwegian land-surveyor, who lived among the Boers and described their ways with humour and empathy. He befriended a number of Boer families and writes with great sympathy about their often tragic plight.

Appalled by the destruction of farms by the British forces and the incarceration of civilians in the infamous concentration camps, he joined the Boer forces. His descriptions of the military tactics, improvisations and onerous circumstances of the Boer fighters, and graphic details of epic battles such as those of Vlakfontein and Moedwil, vividly bring to life the people enmeshed in these conflicts.

Nielsen was captured and taken to a British camp where he witnessed the tragic execution of his comrade Piet Schuil, a young Hollander who had been sentenced to death on trumped-up charges. Nielsen’s poignant and moving account of his friend’s last hours is probably the only available record of this tragedy. Less sombre, even entertaining, are his descriptions of life in the prisoner- of -war camps on the Bermuda Islands, where Nielsen, himself having been threatened with execution, was to remain until his release in July 1902, when he returned to Norway.

ISBN 978-0-620-52802-3. 224p., illustrations, map. Translated from Norwegian by Jalmar & Ione Rudner. Price R180 plus postage.

Order from: Africana Publishers & Booksellers, 5G Indian Road, Kenilworth 7708, RSA. Tel. 021 -761 8030; 083 415 7678; [email protected].

David, thanks for bringing this book to our attention.

Cheers,

Mark

It's an interesting book, but be a bit cautious due to it was published in 1925 a lot of years after the war ended. Schrøder-Nielsen hide his original diary before he was captured in September 1901. He never got his diary back, so he read the book years after he experienced the war and imprisonment on Bermuda. He also changed his motives for fighting on the Boer side in the book compared to his explanations during interrogations in October and November 1901 (Documents in National Archives Repository Pretoria).