Mahikeng and the Siege of Mafeking

Where A British Garrison Held Out For 217 Days From October 1899, A Siege That Made Robert Baden Powell A National Hero And Produced The Cadet Corps He Later Built The Scout Movement On And Where The Town'S Black Residents Were Put On Shorter Rations And Died In Far Greater Numbers Than The Garrison, Which The Heroic Version Of The Story Leaves Out · Mahikeng, North West

For 217 days from October 1899 a small British garrison held this town against a Boer force, and the relief of Mafeking in May 1900 set off celebrations in London on a scale that put a new verb into English. The commander, Robert Baden-Powell, became a national hero, and the cadet corps of boys he used as messengers and lookouts during the siege became the model for the Scout movement he founded eight years later - which means the largest youth organisation in the world traces its origin to this dusty North West town. There is another half to the story and it is not optional. Mafeking's black residents, mostly Barolong, were put on substantially shorter rations than the white garrison, and they died of starvation in far greater numbers. The heroic version leaves that out. This row does not, and the museum here is better on it than you would expect of a small municipal collection in a town that nobody stops in.

In the North West near the Botswana border, 290 km west of Johannesburg, Mahikeng, North West, South Africa

MAHIKENG IS A WORKING PROVINCIAL CAPITAL rather than a heritage site, and the siege is spread across it in pieces. The Mafikeng Museum in the old town hall keeps daylight weekday hours with shorter Saturdays and HAS HAD PERIODS OF CLOSURE AND UNCERTAIN FUNDING, so telephone before driving out - it is the single thing most worth seeing and the thing most likely to be shut. The siege cemetery and the memorials are open ground. THE SIEGE SITES THEMSELVES ARE SCATTERED AND POORLY SIGNPOSTED, which is the main practical problem here and the argument for a local guide. The town has fuel, supermarkets, banks and adequate beds. It is 290 km west of Johannesburg on the N4, 25 km from the Botswana border at Ramatlabama, and MALARIA-FREE.

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