Mafikeng (D 8)

Name: Mafikeng

Mafikeng (previously Mafeking), "The City of Goodwill",[1] is the capital of the North-West Province of South Africa. Located on South Africa's border with Botswana, it is 1,400 km (870 mi) northeast of Cape Town and 260 km (160 mi) west of Johannesburg. In 2007, Mafikeng was reported to have a population of 250,000.

Mafikeng was originally headquarters of the Barolong people. The town was founded in the 1880s by British mercenaries granted land by a Barolong chief. The settlement was named Mafikeng, a Setswana name meaning "place of stones". Later British settlers spelled the name Mafeking. It was from Pitsani Pothlugo (or Potlogo), 24 miles (39 km) north of Mafeking, that the Jameson Raid started, on December 29, 1895.

On the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899, the town was besieged. The Siege of Mafeking lasted 217 days from October 1899 to May 1900, and turned Robert Baden-Powell into a national hero. In September 1904, Lord Roberts unveiled an obelisk at Mafeking bearing the names of those who fell in defence of the town. In all, 212 people were killed during the siege, with more than 600 wounded. Boer losses were significantly higher.

Mafikeng served as capital of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, even though it was outside the protectorate's borders, from 1894 until 1965, when Gaborone was made the capital of what was to become Botswana.

Mafeking briefly served as capital of the pre-independence Bantustan of Bophuthatswana in the 1970s before the adjoining town of Mmabatho was established as capital. In 1980[citation needed] the spelling Mafikeng was restored and following the end of apartheid in 1994, Mafikeng and Mmabatho were merged and made capital of the new North-West Province.
(Wikipedia)

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