Emily’s 1903 journey - paintings worth a thousand words

A year after the end of the Anglo-Boer War, Emily Hobhouse returned to South Africa on an epic journey, to witness the aftermath of the destruction of the conflict and effect of the scorched earth policy.

One her travels, she made 12 watercolour paintings, while in the veld of the landscapes and farms she visited. Today, these unique art pieces can be found in the collection of the War Museum in Bloemfontein, South African, and are a fascinating testimony of what she saw.

At ten o’clock on the morning of 12 June 1903, Emily, and two men, Enslin and Jacob, departed with a Cape Cart and two mules from Bloemfontein on their journey through the scorched earth of the Free State, and later of the Transvaal.

Once again Emily wanted to see for herself what the true effects of the war were – and what practical measures could be taken to ameliorate them. She intended on taking “a speedy trip into the country districts”, but in the post-war conditions, there were virtually no carts, horses or mules available. Moreover, she failed to realise that the vastness of the country made a “speedy trip” impossible.

Eventually her journey lasted nearly five months, with stops in Cape Town and Pretoria. Did you know that Emily slept many nights in the open veld, under the stars with families who lost everything due to the scorched earth policy?

She meticulously wrote down all her experiences, with colourful descriptions of the people.

One of the first stops were at Strijker’s Farm near Bloemfontein

By eight o’clock the next morning Emily was ready to leave, but the mules had escaped and were evading capture. It was only by eleven o’clock that Jacob and Enslin managed to get them harnessed. Emily used the time to make another watercolour painting, this time of a farm on the side of the Modder River.

Along the way they stopped at the Oswegans’ farm. The family was in such dire straits that they did not even have coffee. There were no cows, and the hens were so starved that they no longer laid eggs. Emily ate some of her own provisions.

By five that afternoon they camped on the Strijker farm where the children took a keen interest in her; by this time she was famous. “It is very difficult to write with a row of Boer children watching me,” she scribed. 

The people were very hospitable and offered a place to sleep at her disposal, while the entire family – six children and all – “squeezed themselves I don’t know where”.

Early the next morning she was woken by the family’s devotions; Dutch prayers and hymns resounded from the “dining room”.

An icy wind bit through Emily’s cloak as they rode off. Yet, after a mere two days in the sun and open air, she already felt like a “piece of dried biltong”.  Remember to try this typical South African delicacy  - biltong - when visiting the Story of Emily.

Days later and after visiting more farms and towns Emily and her travel companions were back in Bloemfontein, after a stop at Bultfontein.

A painting made by Emily Hobhouse at Bultfontein. Did you know she travelled for months in South African after the Anglo-Boer War. This painting can be found in the collection at the War Museum, Bloemfontein.

After a few days’ rest, she took the train to Koppies on 1 July 1903. On its arrival at the station just before three o’clock the next morning, two of General Christiaan de Wet’s sons were waiting for her. She was very glad about the warm sheepskin to keep out the Free-State cold.

Emily was shocked to see how thin General De Wet had become since the time she had hosted him in her flat in London. He still rode his white horse, Fleur, which had carried him faithfully throughout the war. All he had left after the war was his gun and Fleur. After the family’s house had been burnt by the English, the ruins were blown up with dynamite.  Emily wrote: “Like all the other burghers, De Wet is laughing. If he did not, he says, he should die. It makes him great fun.”

The English and their soldiers were the constant targets of the gallows humour of De Wet’s wife, Cornelia. Her anger was still raw after she had lost everything except her sewing machine and gone through hell in the Vredefort camp. 

A watercolour painting Emily made of General Christiaan de Wet’s farm Roodepoort in the district of Koppies on 1 July 1903. On the back she wrote that she stayed in the new, empty building that had been erected after the farmhouse was first burnt and then blown up with dynamite. This painting can be found in the collection at the War Museum, Bloemfontein.

After visiting many more farms and towns in the Orange Free state, Emily headed to Pretoria. During this time she realised that there was great distress and hunger, because of the war. A plan started to develop in Emily’s mind…

Now, she headed further into the Transvaal; the Boer Republic that she was not allowed to enter during the war, on the orders of Lord Herbert Kitcher.

On her arrival in Middelburg, Emily wanted nothing more than to relax on the stoep, exactly like guests at the Story of Emily are invited to do in the War Rooms. She had grown fond of this typical South African custom, but there was no rest for her; the parsonage where she was staying was bustling with people, all perched on straight-backed chairs and all hoping to speak to her.

Emily headed for the concentration camp cemetery as the sun was setting. Row upon row of children’s graves lay before her. Most of them had died during “that fatal July” of 1901 after her meeting with St. John Brodrick, minister of war.  Each child’s name had been “written on a bit of paper and put in a glass bottle” that now stood on the grave.

The concentration camp graveyard in Middelburg, which Emily Hobhouse visited and painted after the war in 1903. This painting can be found in the collection at the War Museum, Bloemfontein.

The long journey was “trying, tedious and painful but I hope useful”, she wrote to her Aunt Mary. In this country where only sunshine and goodwill were left, her heart sank at night when she had to face the cold and the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements. And then in the morning she had to be on the road again, enduring the “jolt of the wagon” on dusty tracks. 

The neuritis (inflammation of a nerve) in her arm was becoming acute. Moreover, she went hungry. “The Boers partly by custom, party largely now by necessity, eat so much less than we do, that I am underfed, and though I carry some food with me I am ashamed to have to confess I must supplement their meals. At night I chew a little biltong and crack up some bread which has dried in the air beyond cutting with a knife.”

Everywhere Emily went, people wanted to shake hands with her, “even the tiniest mortal”. It led to her referring to South Africa as “this handshaking country”. Even babies who had just learned to walk would come up to one and solemnly put out their “wee hands”, which might not be clean. “I find it wise to keep my gloves on till I am well ensconced in a house.”

Later Emily travelled with the “predikant” (church minister) to Roos Senekal where “nacht-maal” (a communion service) was held. While it was less dry here, there was neither a goat nor a sheep to be seen. The four mules that pulled the ramshackle wagon struggled to get up a hill, and Emily decided to get off and walk for a while.

That night they slept at the house of the Haupt family who had been ordered by “His Highness the Predikant” to house her. Emily wanted to sleep outside on her bedroll, but this caused great consternation. Mrs Haupt insisted that she sleep in the stable, together with all their other visitors, as the house had been burnt down.

“I have no longer a large house and large rooms, but I still have a large heart and I cannot bear you to sleep outside,” Mrs Haupt told her.

Emily did not sleep a wink in the crowded stable. Before sunrise, she set off to a nearby koppie to do a painting of the farmstead. On her return she found that everyone was up; they were raising the roof with their praying and singing, thanking the Heavenly Father for food, clothes and a roof over their heads. 

A watercolour painting Emily made of the farm Enkeldoorn between Roos Senekal and Witpoort in the Transvaal. She slept in a stable on this farm in the winter of 1903. This painting can be found in the collection at the War Museum, Bloemfontein.

There were many more trails and turbulations on this long journey, and she ventured as far as Pietersburg in the north of the country. The more than five months of travelling on hundreds of miles of bumpy dust roads had exhausted Emily to the limit. She felt that she could not stand the sun, wind and dust a day longer.

She returned to England in December, but not without helping again. Ensuring that widows and orphans received the repatriation money that was promised to them and with her planting and ploughing plan ready for implementation. She had raised £10,000 in a few months and the future looked promising.

There was hope again.

Two years later she would be back.