200 days, not out

WRITTEN BY

Rohit Yelnare |Comps 3rd Year

Anirudh Peri |MSc Chem 2nd Year

ILLUSTRATED BY

Abhinav Pandey

Mechanical 3rd Year

It’s Sunday in the village of Mafeking, and even before the sun had reached its apex, a crowd had gathered to watch the local teams play cricket. Although it seemed like an ordinary day, if observed closely, one would notice a whole lot was amiss in this small village. The armed men patrolling and the constant vigilance of the residents would leave one wondering. But mind you, this isn’t the present-day Mahikeng but the Mafeking of the early 1900s. This small village, located in what is now The Republic of South Africa, was engulfed in a war back then.

A few months before, when the winds of war had just begun to blow, few officials recognised the signs and even fewer prepared for what was to come. Among these people was Colonel Robert Baden-Powell. As tensions rose, the British feared a war with the Boers (Dutch farmers that settled in Africa). Having failed to persuade the government for additional troops, the British Army Chief tasked Colonel Robert Baden-Powell to raise Rhodesian regiments. With a mere 1500 soldiers, Baden-Powel realized that the only way to fight the Boers and their unorganized warfare was a defensive battle. Holed up in the small village of Mafeking, the Colonel aims to draw the enemy’s attention away from their intended target, the Natal province. He succeeds, but now he faces the brunt of the Boer offensive.

Heavily outnumbered, the British resorted to trickery of the smallest proportions to keep the enemy at bay. Day in and day out, the soldiers could be seen laying out barbed wire and setting up land mines as they fortified their position, almost as if to mock the Boer effort to take the village. What the Boers did not know was that the Brits did not have landmines or barbed wire. With barely any provisions to work with, the only thing they could do was make the enemy believe they were well defended. To the enemy, it seemed like any attack would be a march to their death.

man and spread thin across the perimeter. Unable to defend themselves, they constructed small fortlike encampments at regular intervals. Although the idea doesn’t seem so novel to us, it was one of the first recorded instances of such a defense, one that would see a lot of use in the next world war. Even through all the hiding, cross-dressing, and fakes, the colonel always had a bolder move planned.

Baden-Powell’s most daring move was when he deliberately wrote to his dead friend in Transvaal, informing him of the impending arrival of relief British troops. As anticipated, the letter was intercepted by the Boers. A single letter got the Boers to divert an additional 1200 troops to guard the village.

The British held out for a whopping 217 days before being relieved by reinforcements. The Siege of Mafeking turned out to be futile for the Boers, a drain of personnel, resources and time with nothing to show for it. The staunch resistance that the Brits showed, underscored British valor and marked a turn of the tide in the war, as the British went on to rapidly increase their control in the continent. A story to be told for ages to come, of gallant heroes, of daring soldiers led by the shrewd Colonel fighting for the queen.

The Victory was inordinately celebrated even back home, in the mainland. Maffick, a new word was created, which means to celebrate extravagantly and publicly, in tribute to this day. It set off hysterical Empire-wide celebrations, out of proportion for its significance, described as ‘Mafeking’.

One might ponder whether this was sagacious on Colonel Baden-Powell’s part, or did he just get lucky? Strategically speaking, the village had no saving grace. It stood alone, on the path between Kimberly and Bulawayo. Neither close to reinforcement nor defended by a huge force, any confrontation should’ve had an obvious conclusion. But they held out and were eventually rescued. Of course, the Colonel came out a valiant hero praised for his cunning use of deception. But with over 8000 troops going towards Kimberly, within attacking distance of the village, did the Boers ever spare any effort to Mafeking? The over-glorified nature of the siege suggests so.

Before the siege, the Colonel recruited over 300 African natives to augment his forces. Nicknamed “The Black Watch,” these natives were always at the forefront of any action the forces saw, and sustained the most casualties. The apparent bigotry was the root cause for the war, as the white men fought against one another with the blacks as collateral.

The siege in question is an example of what biased documentation can imply. Most records on the siege follow a British perspective, making it seem a victory against insurmountable odds. Yet where is the Boer perspective, the other side of this 200-day siege? Is it because it was a shameful defeat or rather, the truth buried under years of glorifying the Colonel’s decisive victory.

Accounts have revealed that the garrison of Mafeking didn’t really protect the residents of the hamlet as they were bombed upon, shot at, and slaughtered in the crossfire. Cronje, the commander of the Boer forces, went so far as to demand their surrender so as not to drag the natives into the war, yet he was ignored. In years to come, the stance of the colonialists was revealed as their blatant disregard for the lives of their non-white subjects was brought to light. With all this known to us, we can say that most historical evidence during the Second Boer War remains questionable. We may never know the truth, but we do know the lies.