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Prisoners of WarMany Penkops were captured by the British and sent to POW camps across the sea in places like India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), St Helena Island and the BermudasHere they were generally treated as enemy POWs, without regard to their youth.A group of Penkop POWs together with their teacher on Darrell's Island in the BermudasIn the Bermudas the Penkops were separated from the men and sent to Darrell's island, where they were subjected to an experiment in being trained to be loyal future British subjects. They were forced to undergo schooling in English, a language most of them did not understand, and they were forbidden to sing Boer patriotic songs. |
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![]() The oldest and youngest POWs in the Bermudas, photographed together before all the boys were removed to Darrell's Island against their will |
Penkop resistance ...The fiercely independent and high-spirited young Boers refused to knuckle under, however. They refused to speak English and they defiantly sang their National Anthems each night. For these and other "crimes" they were severely and repeatedly flogged, as this extract from a punishment register shows:
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... and Punishment' They were then taken, as the expression was, "to sleep with the English" . This meant that they were made to lie down on their backs on the ground with one army blanket beneath and one on top. Their outstretched legs were tied by the feet to pegs hammered into the ground, while their arms were stretched out above their heads, with their hands manacled and also tied to a peg in the ground. In this excruciating position they had to spend the night before receiving their punishment the following morning.The punishment consisted of a whipping which was administered in this manner: The boy would be stripped and held over a barrel. One Tommy would hold his ankles, while another would clasp his hands together behind the boy's head and push it downwards. Then the sergeant would deliver the prescribed number of lashes across the boy's bare back.'(Translated extract from Penkoppe van die Tweede Vryheidsoorlog [Penkops of the Second War for Independence] 1899 - 1902 by Pets Marais)Penkops undergoing punishment on Darrell's Island |
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