True Believers: ignorant, or stupid?
I was recently sent this: I have often thought that the True Believers in the Boer War myths are just ignorant, but – at least by this definition – they are actually stupid.
The most bigoted True Believer of them all?
With the sad death of HM Queen Elizabeth II, a few deeply pathetic individuals have crawled out of the woodwork to make cruel and ill-informed comments, bizarrely delighting in the death of a 96-year-old lady. Arguably the most deranged and...
“I don’t deny the factual content, but… err… err…”
I was recently made aware that one of the more entertaining online True Believers / Defenders of the Myth has publicly conceded he cannot challenge the facts I present, the quality of my research, or the historical veracity of my writing: You...
Forgotten Revolutionary
I recently stumbled across an article in the (God-awful) Guardian from a few years ago, which offered the ’10 best revolutionaries’ in history...
Poor old Prof Pretorius embarrasses himself again
It is only human to feel a pang of sympathy for the increasingly beleaguered Prof Pretorius[i], as he desperately tries to defend the indefensible. It cannot be easy to go in to bat for Kruger’s Transvaal – an extremist quasi-theocracy so...
Elandslaagte photos
Anyone bothering to read about the Battle of Elandslaagte will see that it is an almost perfect case-study which rebuts many of the lingering Apartheid-era myths which still surround the Boer War – and which are still much-loved by certain...
‘Plagiarism’ and other piffle…
Though I have no interest in social media, I am sometimes made aware of the rubbish spouted by True Believers on various Boer War Facebook pages. Increasingly desperate to defend their much-cherished National Party myths, these fanatics are often...
More reasons to avoid Wiki
Alas, few of those holding strong opinions on history bother to actually read anything about it… and those that do seem to rely on Wikipedia, rather than books. The following article in today’s Telegraph should (but won’t) give...
Kalkheuwel
This plaque is the sort of thing one sees dotted about in South Africa, and which subtly maintain the Boer War myths: Unfortunately, this description of the action at Kalkheuwel is rather poorly-written and inaccurate, meaning that a visitor will...
False Equivalence
I recently stumbled across this article: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-24-african-support-of-russian-invasion-extraordinary-after-the-continents-colonial-past/ I don’t disagree with his overall point – ie. that it is disgraceful...
The ‘Lost Cause’ of the Confederacy, and the Myths of the Boer War
The parallels between the Confederate ‘Lost Cause’ movement of the American Civil War, and the myths that – even today – surround the Boer War are remarkable. For those who are unaware, the Lost Cause of the Confederacy is not based on historical...
“the longest, hardest, guerrilla war ever…”
There is a passionately-held belief among a certain section of South Africans that the Boers were amazing guerrilla fighters, and that they ran rings round the ‘blundering Brits’, leading them a merry dance in one of the longest, most hard-fought...