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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 163
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1979; Abacus, 1992); Plaatje, Sol T., Mafeking Diary (Cambridge,
Meridon, 1990);
Plaatje, Sol T., Native Life in South Africa (London, 1916); Willan, Brian, “The Siege of Mafeking”,
in The South African War,ed. Peter Warwick (Harlow, Longman, 1980).
Mafikeng
The black African town adjacent to the white settlement of Mafeking. Both towns were besieged in
what became known as the siege of Mafeking, 1899–1900. The modern town on the site is called
Mafikeng.
Magaliesberg Mountains
The Magaliesbergs run west from Pretoria in the western South African Republic (Transvaal). At the
western end the hills are cut by Olifant’s Nek, south of the town of Rustenburg. To the south of the
range, between Johannesburg and Mafeking, stands the Witwatersrand range of hills. The topography
of the region was expertly exploited by the Boers during the guerrilla phase of the war, especially by
Assistant Commandant-general Koos De la Rey and by Chief-commandant Christiaan De Wet.
In August 1900 De Wet was north of the range and, having met President Steyn, intended to
return to the Orange Free State to continue the guerrilla war in his home territory. Olifant’s Nek, the
pass by which he had come north, was far to the west and Commando Nek, on the road to Pretoria,
was occupied by the British. On 18 August, as his force rode towards Wolhuterskop, nine miles
(15km) south-west of Brits, they saw the English at a distance and, when two miles away from the
kop, ran into English scouts. They were boxed in against the mountains. De Wet made enquiries of a
black African rousted out of his hut and learned that the mountains had been crossed nearby in the
distant past. They clambered up, leading their horses, slipping on the bare rock, but finally attained
the watershed and were down the other side before dark. A Queensland officer with the British
afterwards claimed to have used this path on the day the British entered Pretoria when carrying
despatches for General French: “. . .I on more than one occasion reported that a regiment could easily
cross there in single file, and with very little delay”.
See also:
Nooitgedacht, Battle of; Olifant’s Nek.
Reference:
De Wet, Christiaan, Three Years War (London, Archibald Constable, 1902); Wallace, R. L., The
Australians at the Boer War (Canberra, The Australian War Memorial and the Australian
Government Publishing Service, 1976).
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