Description
Britain, South Africa and the East Africa Campaign, 1914-1918: The Union comes of age is a paperback reprint of the hardcover edition published by IB Tauris in 2006.
Contains original material on an under-researched period in British and South African history. An unusual approach – writing colonial history from the perspective of all the countries involved, this work sheds new light on greater historical processes of British and German rivalry in Africa and the development of an independent South Africa. The East African campaign has held little place in national memory – for Britain, it has been a ‘romantic’ side-show whilst for South Africa, a reminder of its failure to unite the two dominant white races and acquire the port of Delagoa Bay in Portuguese East Africa. Using new material gained from original research, Anne Samson reassesses the importance of the campaign to the young South African dominion in attempting to prove its coming of age and pursue its imperial desires. “Britain, South Africa and the East African Campaign” is a comprehensive study from multiple perspectives of the key players that will illuminate this under-researched period in colonial history.
AnneS –
I love the way you have described Rhodesia’s involvement in the sending of 1st Rhodesian Contingent to assist the British in German South West Africa and 2nd Rhodesian Contingent being eventually sent to Europe. The facts around the British South Africa Company Police not having a charter to call their armed men an army but, instead, a police force to suit acceptable protocols is interesting. Having been schooled in Rhodesia I have never known the details around the establishment of Botha’s South Africa Party and the emergence of Hertzog’s National Party. Also the transition from Dutch to Afrikaans and the deep feelings amongst the General Steyn’s (and Beyers) Boers towards fighting against the Germans in South West Africa.
I commend you for your amazing research and your putting the history of it all together. I have just ‘come up for air’ but look forward to spending much of the rest of today (Sunday) finishing the book. Truly. This has been the best account of the situation in South Africa during the period in focus that I have ever read!
Duncan Boyd-Moss (by email June 2024)