Now what, you may wonder, does Olivier de Kersauson, a famous contemporary French yachtsman, have to do with the last Boer Commando? Well, here's the story. For Christmas I was given a book (with accompanying DVD) written by Olivier de Kersauson, a book about the oceans he has seen. One of his stops was in Cape Town and he mentions in passing that he has great affection for South Africa as he had a great uncle, Robert de Kersauson who ended his life in South Africa as a viticulteur (wine producer).

I then discovered on Internet that Robert de Kersauson had volunteered as a young man to fight alongside the Boers against the hated English, largely because of the Fashoda incident. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about that:

"The Fashoda Incident (1898) was the climax of imperial territorial disputes between the United Kingdom and France in Eastern Africa. It brought the United Kingdom and France to the verge of war, but ended in a diplomatic victory for the UK. It is held to have given rise to the 'Fashoda syndrome' in French foreign policy (assertion of French influence in areas which may be becoming susceptible to British influence)."

Robert de Kersauson was sworn in as a volunteer burgher by President Kruger himself and kept extensive diaries of the Boer war, published by Editions de Rocher under the title 'Le dernier commando Boer'.  I have written to the publishers asking whether or not there is an English translation available to share with you, but have had no news for the moment.

The book is a fascinating account of guerilla warfare by intrepid Boer marksmen against long, sometimes unmotivated columns of English soldiers who once they started shooting, carried on shelling kopjies even though the Boers had long since left.

De Kersauson has absolutely no sympathy with indigenous peoples the English mobilized to do their fighting for them, regarding them as uncivilized savages. On the other hand he holds the Boers in high regard as god-fearing and very moral citizens, unlike the treacherous English. Obviously he never suffered a whipping with a sjambok at the hands of one of the Boer farmers he was proud to claim as a brother in arms.

Here's a reference to a book in Afrikaans by de Kersauson, though I have no idea whether it's still in print. : De Pennendreff, Robert de Kersauson Ek en die Vierkleur. Johannesburg, Afrikaanse Pers-Boekhandel, 1960. First edition. Cloth. Dust jacket. Diary kept by a French volunteer who fought with Maritz & Smuts during the Anglo-Boer War. Afrikaans text. Pp. (iii),141, plates, portraits, facsimiles.

De Kersauson gives a very interesting account of his campaign with General Maritz and General Smuts in the Cape, which was about to lead to an invasion of Cape Town itself, when peace was declared with the treaty of Vereeniging on the 31^st May 1902 (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Vereeniging).  He also describes the despair of the burghers when the two Boer republics were dissolved and incorporated as English colonies. No doubt that the bitterness of the Boers who suffered at the hands of the English surfaced later when they came to power and set up their hateful apartheid regime.

Book reference: Le Dernier Commando Boer by Robert de Kersauson, Editions du Rocher, 1989

Since posting this, the blog has received a very moving comment by Joe Rabi about General Maritz, whom Robert de Kersauson served under. The wounds of this war, as of all wars, are still affecting us.