ENGUSH
INAFRICA

a journal of critical enquiry
into all aspects of African
writing in English and the
use of the English language
in Africa, as well as other
languages and literatures
of
Africa.

published in March and Sept-
ember each year by Institute
for
the Study of English in
Africa.
containing

articles by

,

~ndre Brink
Tim Couzens
Nadine Gordimer
Stephen Gray
Wopko Jensma
Bernth Lindfors
Ezekiel Mphahlele
John Povey
Richard Rive
Martin Tucker

and many others

Photo with actnowle41ements
museum

to tbe Britisb

Send contributions

to:

de Villiers
En21ish in Africa

Andre
Editor,
Rhodes University
Grahamstown
6140 South Africa

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rates: R4.50 per year

back numbers
1974) still available

except

R2.25 single issue
postage
for

I, 1 (March

free

15

REVIEWS OF BREAKER MORANT
"The guerrilla war was fast brutalising both adversaries.
The worst scandals
on the British side concerned colonial irregulars - Australians, Canadians
and South Africans - whose official contingents, ironically, had won a repu-
The most notorious case
tation for gallantry in so many set-piece battles.
involved a special anti-commando unit, raised by Australians to fight in the
wild northern Transvaal, and called the Bush Veldt Carbineers.
Six of its
officers (five Australians, one Englishman) were court-martial led for multiple
murder.
in August 1901, 12 Boers, earlier taken
prisoner, had been shot by the Carbineers on the orders of their officers.
as a reprisal, shooting prisoners was now accepted
The Australians' defence:
Two of the Australian officers, Lieutenants 'Breaker' Morant and
practice.
Hand~ock, were executed in February 1902, on the orders of Kitchener.
The
affair caused an outcry in Australia.
There arose a misconception (still
current) that foreign political pressures had induced Kitchener to make scape-
In fact Kitchener
goats of Morant and Handcock.
s mot ives were cruder:
evi-
dence of his own army's indiscipline drove him wild with frustration."
(Thomas Pakenham, The Boer War.
Johannesburg, Jonathan Ball Publishers, in
association with Weidenfe1d and Nicolson, London, 1979, pp. 538-9)

The facts were admitted:

I

* * *

"When they speak of heroes, of villains ,.• of men who look for action, who
choose between honour and revenge they tell the story of •.• Breaker Morant.
The official Australian entry at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival •.• winner of
10 Australian film awards •.• and acclaimed as Australia's Most Important,
Powerful and Forceful Motion Picture Ever
"
(The Courier Mail, Brisbane. 12 September 1980)

* '" '"

ROYAL GALA CHARITY PREMIER in the presence of HIS ROYAL

"BREAKER MORANT.
HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES ... To Aid the 50S-Stars Organisation for Spas-
tics and the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council."
(Advertisement suppl ied
by the Australia House Film Society at the Australian High Commission, Lon-
don, September 1980.)

" '" a muscular picture that I think will prove much to the liking of South
African audiences, and in Zimbabwe .•. Nearly 20 countries have snapped up
the chance to screen the picture '"
including ... Mozambique and Angola."
(Dirk de Villiers, The Star, 12 July 1980)

* * *

* * *

"A spy-story that has become legendary ... needs revision.
Early in February
a mean creature named Colyn offered himself as a recruit to Commandant Bouwer's
commando, betrayed his comrades for English gold and brought some of them to
The
their deaths.
The Boers caught Co1yn and brought him before Smuts.
but he deserved
wretched creature wept and howled and begged for i,islife
But Deneys
death and he suffered it '.' So far this often-told story is true.
Reitz and other writers have over-dramatised the part that Smuts played in it.
They have put into his mouth some implacable words, "Vat ham weg en skiet ham
dood" ••• If Smuts did say something like this, he said it not as a man pre-
suming to inflict death upon a fellow man by this own arbitrary will. but as
the president of a duly constituted military court.
The records of the court
were written out at length in a school exercise book which is pres~rved among
Smuts's papers.
They include depositions under oath of the witnesses and of
the prisoner, all duly signed and countersigned, and sentence of the court
delivered in due form by its president.
The procedure was scrupulously cor-
'-ectand the verdict was just."
(W K Hancock.
Press, pp. 141-142)

1962: Smuts: The Sanguine Years 1870-1919.

Cambridge University

16