Verset en volharding: die lewe van Rachel Isabella (Tibbie) Steyn gedurende die Anglo-Boereoorlog

Abstract

Resistance and perseverance: The life of Rachel Isabella (Tibbie) Steyn during the Anglo-Boer War
Rachel Isabella (Tibbie) Fraser was born in 1865 in Philippolis as daughter of the Rev. Colin McKenzie Fraser (Jr) and Isabella Paterson of Scotland, and granddaughter of a Scottish immigrant, the Rev. C.A. Fraser Tibbie was trained as a teacher in Bloemfontein at the “Dames-instituut” (Eunice) after which she married advocate Marthinus Theunis Steyn, a prominent Free Stater. When Theunis was elected State President of the Orange Free State in 1896, Tibbie distinguished herself as hostess of the Presidency.

Tibbie experienced the vicissitudes of the Anglo-Boer War, fleeing before the victorious British army from one northeastern Free State town to the other. She was captured at the end of July 1900 and was regarded at the “first woman in her position to be taken prisoner”. Tibbie was interned in Bloemfontein and became an example of the adamant resistance of the Afrikaner woman against British domination. She was elected as “one of the worst of a number of irreconcilable women " to be deported from South Africa. The order was, however, rescinded at the last moment, after Kitchener had failed to produce conclusive evidence of any misdemeanours. She tended to her husband during his serious illness in Europe and once back in South Africa, achieved honour in uplifting Afrikaners after the war.