ABSTRACT
The Elizabeth Mafeking Affair occurred during a crucial moment of political reordering in South African society when gender and racial oppression were legitimated simultaneously. This chapter demonstrates that the most valuable lesson the National Party learned in its battle with Mafeking was that in order to secure Apartheid there could be no mercy on native women. Media coverage from South Africa during the early weeks of Mafeking’s banning introduce her children as unwitting casualties in the government’s attack on their mother, and the experiences of Mafeking’s children in the wake of her banning provide first-hand insight into the lives of exile’s invisible victims. Combining sources from oral histories and government documents to newspapers and organizational records provides as comprehensive as possible a look at the professional life of a fascinating woman who was one of the first long-term victims of the Apartheid state.
