Against The Tide
A Story of Women in War
by
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Against the Tide shows women in war, a heroism of another kind, one without medals. This history from diaries and letters written during the second Anglo-Boer War shows the fortitude and stamina of Dutch women and girls in their life struggle against impossible odds hoping to save their nation from foreign invaders. Poignant descriptions of suffering as they watched their children dying in British concentration camps give depth and meaning to a part of war that is seldom described. The fact that the British government established concentration camps fifty years before those of Germany to incarcerate innocent civilians will surprise many. Contrary to expectations such inhumane treatment spurred the women on to more defiance and hatred of their oppressors. Having lost everything, they encouraged their men to keep fighting for their country. The clandestine espionage carried out under the nose of the enemy by townswomen of Pretoria details courage of another sort. And from England came another brave women who defied her government in a risky attempt to help the suffering captive women and children. From the embers of this tragedy and subsequent drought in the aftermath the men and women forged a new language and a new Afrikaaner nation.
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About the Book
Women in the Second Anglo-Boer War demonstrated great heroism. Theirs is a remarkable history derived from diaries and letters written during their incarceration in concentration camps. Against the Tide illustrates the fortitude of the brave Dutch women and children in their struggle against impossible circumstances in the attempt to save their country from the stronger forces of the British usurper.
Not many today are aware that the British government established concentration camps to imprison innocent civilians nearly forty years before Germany did so. Their intention was to cause a quick surrender by such intimidation. However, the imprisoned Dutch women watching their children dying in these camps, developed a deep animosity toward their aggressors, and contrary to expectations, it only spurred the women on to more defiance that then strengthened the men’s resolve to keep fighting.
Among the few British sympathizers, Emily Hobhouse, a tenacious, justice-seeking English woman, spearheaded a major public awareness of the untenable conditions in the camps. She defied her own government in a risky plan to help ease the suffering of the captive women and children in South Africa.
The Boer women demonstrated many acts of bravery including daring espionage and actually fighting alongside their men against overwhelming enemy forces. And after the war was lost, they played an active role, in forging a new language and a new Afrikaner nation from the embers of that tragedy.
About the Author
Prize-winning South African author, Jane Meiring (1920-2005) was a prolific writer from early childhood. She later worked in broadcasting, wrote successful radio plays, children’s books, short stories, novels, biographies and histories. Her Sundays River Valley remains an important historical reference in the government’s Parliamentary Library in Cape Town.