To fully reconcile The Boer War is to fully understand the ‘Black’ Concentration Camps by Peter Dickens (The Observation Post),
… South Africans took a more direct role in the war. On 16 May 1902, Chief Sikobobo waBaqulusi, and a Zulu impi … turned to the local Black African population and used over 16 000 of them as armed guards and to patrol the adjacent … meagre at best and had to be purchased, for ‘Natives’ over 12 years of age: Daily: 1½ lbs either mealies, K/corn, …