The Last Commando: The story of the Transvaal Boers

by Brian H. Jones

Cruel, backward, isolationist, and fanatically religious—or independent, resourceful, principled, and courageous? This book is about the Boers of the Transvaal; it is about how they were formed, their relentless territorial expansion at the expense of indigenous groups in both the Cape Colony and the Transvaal, their struggle for distinctiveness and independence against Imperial and African pressures, the state that they carved out for themselves, and their abject defeat in the Anglo-Boer War. It is also about how the experiences and world view of the Transvaal Boers shaped the myth and laid the platform for ‘Boerdom resurgent’ (or the Afrikaner ascent) in apartheid South Africa.

214 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 6, 2015

About the author

Together with his adorable wife, Marie (author of Dangerous Journey), and their laid-back cat, Shaka, Brian lives in a country town in Australia between Sydney and Canberra. Having survived being born and raised in South Africa, Brian then lived and worked in Canada, Namibia, Pakistan, and Australia. Thanks to flashes of optimism on days when the sun is shining as well as Marie's ongoing influence, Brian believes that life holds more than political prevarication, financial failures, moral mendacity and spiritual spuriousness. Sometimes he even thinks that writing is one of life's more elevated activities. And then, sometimes, he doesn't..!