A Canadian Girl in South Africa

Canadian woman writes of teaching in concentration camps following the South African War in 1902.

As the South African War reached its grueling end in 1902, colonial interests at the highest levels of the British Empire hand-picked teachers from across the Commonwealth to teach the thousands of Boer children living in concentration camps. Highly educated, hard working, and often opinionated, E. Maud Graham joined the Canadian contingent of forty teachers. Her eyewitness account reveals the complexity of relations and tensions at a controversial period in the histories of both Britain and South Africa. Graham presents a lively historical travel memoir, and the editors have provided rich political and historical context to her narrative in the Introduction and generous annotations. This is a rare primary source for experts in Colonial Studies, Women’s Studies, and Canadian, South African, and British Imperial History. Readers with an interest in the South African War will be intrigued by Graham’s observations on South African society at the end of the Victorian era.

ContentsAcknowledgements vIIIntroduction xICHA PTER I | The Call to South Africa 13CHA PTER II | London 23CHA PTER III | Southampton to Cape Town 37CHA PTER Iv | On the Karoo 47CHA PTER v | Norval’s Pont Camp 55CHA PTER v I | Johannesburg and Pretoria 75CHA PTER v II | End of the Camp Life 83CHA PTER v III | Fauresmith 97CHA PTER Ix | Kroonstad 129CHA PTER x | The Kafirs and the Labor Question 135CHA PTER x I | Repatriation and Compensation 145CHA PTER x II | Paupers and Government Relief Works 155CHA PTER x III | Education and Church Schools 163CHA PTER xiv | The Farming Question 173CHA PTER xv | Homewards 181Bibliography 191Index 203