{"footnote":"\u003Cp\u003E  Umr Singh constantly parrots the official line that the Anglo-Boer war was \u0026lsquo;a white man\u0026rsquo;s war\u0026rsquo;, with the local blacks \u0026ndash; and Umr Singh himself \u0026ndash; excluded from combat because of the colour of their  skin. Hence the title, and various developments of the story\u0026rsquo;s plot. The fact is that throughout the war both sides used large numbers of blacks as spies, scouts, porters and personal servants;  and, more to the point here, the British also put significant units of armed blacks into the field. This the Boers never dared to do, lest the guns they distributed be turned against them.\u003C\/p\u003E\n","audio":[],"video":[]}