Why They Fought: Black Cape Colonists and Imperial Wars, 1899-1918

Why did black Cape South Africans retain their optimistic faith in the British imperial project, despite its betrayal of their tenuous rights and interests? And, why did that attachment hold despite the bruising political consequences of the Anglo-Boer peace at the end of the South African War of 1899-1902, and their subsequent exclusion from the political community forged by the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910? This essay attempts to answer these questions. It shows that, amongst other reasons, such as feelings of Cape British patriotism, an important explanation was the fact that British power in the Cape colony was the simultaneous paradox of a liberal constitutionalism of ‘rights’ and a moderating protectionism against Boer trespass or bull-necked local white colonial rule. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]