From Victim to Victor: A Woman’s Journey of Trauma and Agency in Francois Smith’s The Camp Whore

Tamia Dicks

doi:10.25159/2663-6565/16479

Authors

Tamia Dicks University of the Free State https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3526-6581

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6565/16479

Keywords:

trauma, rape, agency, Anglo-Boer War, gender, feminism

Abstract

This article analyses Francois Smith’s novel of the Anglo-Boer War, titled Kamphoer in Afrikaans and translated into English as The Camp Whore. Smith’s novel draws on, but diverges from, Nico Moolman’s The Boer Whore, as Smith explores Susan Nell’s personal life through a novelistic approach and explores how the confrontation with one of her rapists may have played out. This article examines the interplay of war, sexual assault, and female agency. I argue that although Susan encounters feelings of pain and violation during her experiences, she transitions from being a victim and marginalised character to being empowered. Susan gains empowerment through her education, her profession as a psychiatric nurse, getting revenge on her perpetrator, and narrating her experience, thus taking back control over her life.

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