LONG-DISTANCE RUNNERS

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33065, 4 November 1972, Page 12

LONG-DISTANCE RUNNERS

(By

KENNETH ANTHONY)

With stamps like this, Botswana pays tribute to the runners who, often in conditions of considerable hardship and danger, provided the first postal service in this region of southern Africa. The service commenced in August, 1888, and the route extended from Mafeking in

the south — the same place that was later to become famous for its part in the South African War — for some 500 miles northwards to Gubulawayo, which is now known as Bulawayo and is in Rhodesia. To illustrate this remarkable post, Botswana’s new set of four stamps demonstrates the long distances covered by the runners in a most ingenious way. Each stamp of the set shows part of a map of the territory, the bold line down the stamp indicating the runner’s route. Then when the four stamps are arranged in a vertical row, in order of face value, the whole route is revealed. The 3c stamp, which covers the northern end of the service, also illustrates the first postmark of Gubulawayo; similarly, the 20c value, which takes care of the southern end, includes a drawing of the contemporary postmark in use at Mafeking. In between are the 7c

stamp; which depicts two of the runners in their colourful native costumes, and the 4c stamp illustrated here, which reproduces one of the earliest stamps to be used in this part of the world. Botswana, of course, is the country which was formerly shown in the atlases as Bechuanaland. And the fact that the old stamp of 1888 is overprinted with the word “Protectorate” is a reminder that there were at one time two Bechuanalands. British Bechuanaland was the area in the south which in 1895 was incorporated into the Cape of Good Hope, and is now part of the South African republic. The Bechuanaland Protectorate was the country lying further north, which is now the independent nation of Botswana. So in more ways than one these unusual stamps reflect the tremendous changes that have taken place in Africa within the last 90 years.