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1900 - 1910 When Britain won the Boer War in 1902 the extraordinary period of adventure, rampant greed, war and colourful characters came to an end. There was now a need for a different sort of person, still pioneers, but "suitable" pioneers. Suitable in the British eyes meant subservient to their administration and embodying the late Victorian values of liberal Christianity and racism. Mixed marriages or sex across the colour line was were swept under the carpet. Uniforms were worn and there were meetings to form policy. Swaziland even fell into a particular regional type: a protected state, along with Bechuanaland (Botswana) and Basutuland (Lesotho). The official and comparatively bland period of Swaziland's history had begun. There was no question who had won the struggle between the blacks and the whites and also between the English and the Afrikaans. But the losers did not give up - both the Swazis and the Boers sat back whilst they hatched their own plans for the fullness of time. The Swazi plan was to regain the land, the minerals and the politics. The Boer plan was to win back political control. Both groups achieved their aims - the Swazis regained independance in 1968 and the Boers formed the now defunct Apartheid movement in the Republic of South Africa. |