Boer War with British 'Buffalo Soldiers' against Boer commandos

OK, during the 2nd Boer War (1899-1902), the British forces in Sth Afr did arm some loyal blacks- which was considered anathema to the Boers- but WI the british & colonial forces had done so on a more systeamtic basis- say by actually forming & training black volunteers in light horse regts similar to the US Army's 9th & 10th Cav ? WI say the Natal Native Contingent had been retained instead of being OTL disbanded on the grounds of British fears that these black troops would go over to the Boers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natal_Native_Contingent) ? Or WI the British govt had allowed the deployment onf non-white colonial troops from other African colonies or India to fight the Boers too ? What would've been the impact of such direct black/non-white participation in the Boer War against the Afrikaners ? Could a strong black armed contribution to the conflict have potentially cemented a better status for black South Africans afterwards, instead of the gradual development of apartheid ?
 
OK, during the 2nd Boer War (1899-1902), the British forces in Sth Afr did arm some loyal blacks- which was considered anathema to the Boers- but WI the british & colonial forces had done so on a more systeamtic basis- say by actually forming & training black volunteers in light horse regts similar to the US Army's 9th & 10th Cav ? WI say the Natal Native Contingent had been retained instead of being OTL disbanded on the grounds of British fears that these black troops would go over to the Boers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natal_Native_Contingent) ? Or WI the British govt had allowed the deployment onf non-white colonial troops from other African colonies or India to fight the Boers too ? What would've been the impact of such direct black/non-white participation in the Boer War against the Afrikaners ? Could a strong black armed contribution to the conflict have potentially cemented a better status for black South Africans afterwards, instead of the gradual development of apartheid ?

Why would the blacks go over to the Boers? It's been a while since I studied the Boer War, but I thought that the Boers treated Africans like utter shit. Maybe I'm confusing history with the Draka althist.:p

In any case, I doubt the status of Africans would have been much different. Once South Africa gets independence, the Boers would most likely remember fighting against the Africans and treat them even worse.
 
mate, I agree with you there on the Boer perspective on 'kaffirs'- but regrettably the Brits had such racist perspectives towards blacks too- 1 other unpublicised aspect of the Boer War is that, during the concentration camp period, British critics virtually never made much of the plight of the 107,000 Africans also incarcerated in these camps, compared to the outrage re the mass imprisonment of Boer Women & children in unsanitary conditions...
 
Why would the blacks go over to the Boers? It's been a while since I studied the Boer War, but I thought that the Boers treated Africans like utter shit. Maybe I'm confusing history with the Draka althist.:p

In any case, I doubt the status of Africans would have been much different. Once South Africa gets independence, the Boers would most likely remember fighting against the Africans and treat them even worse.

I thnk he's suggesting the British use colored troops against the Boers. Still, I think that'd require an ASB-ish change in racial concepts. By and large, no European powers used the peoples in their African (especially) or colonial possession to their fullest extent in wars.

Part of that can be explained by logistical difficulties, but a lot of it just has to do with prevailing attitudes. As they say, even if you didnt spend a dime training them, a colored troop would have stopped a bullet meant for a 'white man'. But even that incintive wasn't enough.
 
I thnk he's suggesting the British use colored troops against the Boers.

I know. I was referring to this:

WI say the Natal Native Contingent had been retained instead of being OTL disbanded on the grounds of British fears that these black troops would go over to the Boers

I don't see why the British would be worried about the blacks going over to the Boers.
 
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