Emily Hobhouse (1860-1926)
Emily Hobhouse was a British welfare campaigner. She is primarily remembered for exposing the conditions in concentration camps, which was built to incarcerate South African women and children during the Second Boer War.
During the first five months of 1901 she visited many of the camps in the Orange Free State and Northern Cape and was appalled by the conditions. She reported to the British government that she found 2 000 women and children in shocking circumstances in the British concentration camp at Bloemfontein. The British government was unsympathetic to the plight of the prisoners and the dire circumstances continued. It was estimated that more than 27 000 people in White camps and more than 18 000 inhabitants of Black camps had died in captivity during the war. She set up the South African Women and Children Distress Fund to feed, clothe and shelter women and children. Due to limited time and resources, she did not visit the camps for Blacks, although she urged the Guild of Loyal Women to do so. Her indictment of conditions in the camps caused her to be severely criticised in Britain. On her second arrival in Table Bay in October 1901, she was denied further access to the camps and deported under martial law.
Emily Hobhouse addresses public meetings in Britain on the concentration camps
These campaigns were aimed at raising awareness about the conditions in the camps and at the same time to rally the support of the British government for the improvement of conditions at the camps. The camps came as a result of the Scorched Earth policy that Lord Kitchener introduced in March 1901. Lord Kitchener used this policy to remove families from their homes and placed them in the concentration camps that were created by the British army for the purposes of the war. Although, Kitchener executed the Scorched Earth Policy to his satisfaction, he did not plan on the well-being of the people he put in these camps.
Anglo Boer War Museum, statement:
"Conditions in the camps were less than ideal. Tents were overcrowded. Reduced scale army rations were provided. In fact, there were two scales. Meat was not included in the rations issued to women and children whose menfolk were still fighting. There were little or no vegetables, no fresh milk for the babies and children, 3/4 lb. of either mealie meal, rice or potatoes, 1 lb. of meat twice weekly, I oz. of coffee daily, sugar 2 oz. daily, and salt 0,5 oz. daily (this was for adults and children who had family members on commando). Children who were under six years of age received 0,5 lb. of meal daily, 1/2 meat twice weekly, 1/4 tin of milk daily, 1 oz. sugar daily and 1/2 oz. of salt daily. This very poor diet led to the rapid spread of diseases such as whooping cough, measles, typhoid fever, diphtheria, diarrhea and dysentery, especially amongst the children."
The Fawcett Commission:
These are some of the reasons that prompted Emily Hobhouse to go around Britain and appeal for the conditions in the camps to be improved. To strengthen her case, Emily Hobhouse wrote a report to the Committee of the Distress Fund in which she detailed the conditions in the camps. From this report, a Fawcett Commission was set up to investigate Hobhouse's report. After five months of investigation, the Commission confirmed Hobhouse's report and forced Kitchener to improve the conditions. In the following year, diseases such as measles, whooping cough decreased.
White men's war:
In recent years, many accounts confirmed the participation of Black people in what was known as the 'White Men's War'. The role that Black people played has had conflicting accounts. Some state that both the Boers and the British army first agreed that Black people should be used as noncombatants. However, according to the Boers, an estimated 150 000 Black people were armed by the British Army and used to track down the Boer Commandos. The result of their participation led to the name Anglo-Boer War being dropped in preference of the name South African War. The name was later changed to the latter, as most historians and the general public felt that it was historically correct in a sense that the former excluded any participation by the Black people whereas the latter proves otherwise.
Hobhouse's death:
She died in London, June 1926, at the age of 66, alone and penniless. There were no mourners at her cremation, no clergymen. It was the undertaker who placed her mortal remains in a casket that was shipped back to South Africa where four months' later thousands gathered to pay tribute to this tireless campaigner for human rights.