The Transvaal Rebellion: The First Boer War, 1880-1881 (review)

Students of military history are well aware of the Boer War, a.k.a. the Anglo-Boer War, a.k.a. the South African War of 1899–1902. When a First Boer War of 1880–1881 is mentioned, there is some confusion. John Laband's book on the latter war has now been published to enlighten the confused.

Laband, who specializes in war and society studies, is Professor of History at Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada. He was previously Professor of History at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. He is ideally suited to have written this book. Runner-up in competition for the coveted Sunday Times Alan Paton Award, he has published extensively on the history of the Zulu kingdom, particularly the wars of the 1870s and 1880s and knows intimately the terrain and the primary sources of this period in South African history. What is more, he reads Afrikaans and Dutch. This is what was so sorely lacking in the last attempt in English to cover this war—J. H. Lehmann's The First Boer War (London, 1972).

Indeed, Laband's research is wide-ranging, thorough, and impressive. All the important British archival and secondary sources are there. The same can be said of the South African English sources, including Bridget Theron-Bushell's recent (2002) unpublished thesis at the University of South Africa on Owen Lanyon's office in South Africa, 1875–1881. Laband also made good use of the archival sources on the Boer side, and the most important Afrikaans secondary source on the military events of the war, viz. J. E. H. Grobler's unpublished thesis of 1981 at the University of Pretoria. However, there are two omissions. Although Laband consulted M. C. van Zyl's short article on the Afrikaner protests before the war, he does not refer to Van Zyl's magnum opus on this topic, entitled Die Protesbeweging van die Transvaalse Afrikaners 1877–1880 (Pretoria, 1979). Also absent is J. H. Breytenbach and J. Ploeger's Majuba Gedenkboek (Roodepoort, 1980).

In 240 pages spanning eleven chapters the reader is treated to great craftsmanship in a book that strikes a wonderful balance between military and social issues. This is another new dimension to the topic, and it has been expertly done. In fact, while description and analysis of military operations are obviously integral to this study, Laband has not lost sight of the complexity of the interaction between purely military concerns and the social, ideological, economic and political issues which combined to drive forward the Transvaal crisis, to shape how it was played out in armed confrontation, and to determine its closure.

The stage is set with a lucid analysis of the clash of military cultures, followed by great chapters on the situation in the Transvaal before the outbreak of the war, the Boer and British military systems, the military events of the war and their interaction with social factors, peace, and the significance of the war as a preamble to the Boer War of 1899–1902. In a very balanced way, Laband also recognizes the position of Africans, what their response to the rebellion was, and how they were appalled at the retrocession—when the British government handed back the Transvaal to the Boers.

In a word-thrifty book, containing clear arguments, excellent analyses, and admirable objectivity and balance, John Laband has presented us with a marvelous account worth reading and worth buying, to illustrate to all students of the discipline how history on war and society should be written.