A White Man's War — Graham Watkins

An historical novel set during a landmark confrontation that dramatically changed the art of war. The story is inspired by a letter from the Boer commander General Piet Cronje;

Sir

It is understood that you have armed Bastards, Fingoes and Baralongs against us - in this you have committed an enormous act of wickedness...reconsider the matter, even if it cost you the loss of Mafeking... disarm your blacks and thereby act the part of a white man in a white man's war.

Signed

General Cronje 29th October 1899

General Cronje's orders are clear; take Mafeking and drive the British out of Africa but Colonel Baden-Powell, Mafeking's commanding officer, is no ordinary soldier and his defence of the town will be no ordinary fight. Themba Jabulani is a victim of a white man's war. A war where there are strange rules. A war where innocents will be sacrificed and heroes will be made. Jabulani is one of the innocents, struggling to survive with his wife Ntombi and young child. Cronje's letter signals the start of a siege that will last seven months. A strange gentleman's siege punctuated by truces, cricket matches and ferocious fighting.

A White Man's War is a story of a siege, regarded by some as a great adventure but by others as a human tragedy. Baden-Powell would learn from Mafeking and go on to found the Boy Scouts, the greatest youth movement the world had ever seen, while others, less fortunate like Themba Jabulani, would suffer a very different fate.