Postal Cards and Newspaper Wrappers Used in the Bechuanalands and Botswana: Philatelic Exhibits (Philately of Southern Africa)

This is the story of postal stationery cards and newspaper wrappers used in the British frontier territories of Bechuanaland in southern Africa. The story is partially told in two philatelic exhibits:of postal history and postal stationery:The Postal Stationery Cards of the Bechuanalands, andThe Newspaper Wrappers of British BechuanalandThis book, however, is far more than two stamp exhibits: it is a treatise on the postal history and political history of these entities as reflected in these postal stationery items issued by a succession of governments.The story covers just over 100 years starting in 1886 with the introduction of postal cards in the crown colony of British Bechuanaland, continuing in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and finally ending in 1997 in present-day Botswana.The first postal stationery in British Bechuanaland was issued only a year after the annexation by the British of southern Bechuanaland. The stationery consisted of postcards, wrappers, and registration envelopes produced by overprinting Cape of Good Hope stationery. It is 1886 when the story begins; Even though the colony only existed for ten years, postal authorities managed to overprint more than 35 individual and collectible postal stationery items.Of these, 12 were postcards. The reason for this is two-fold. First, it reflects a competition between the Cape Colony and the Colonial Office in London to establish their influence on the newborn colony. Second, the expanding but small population made it difficult to forecast stationery needs.The northern part of Bechuanaland was proclaimed a British protectorate in 1885. Three years later a postal service was organized northward from British Bechuanaland through the protectorate to Mashonaland. It took several more years, until 1892, before postal stationery was widely introduced in the protectorate in the form of un-overprinted British Bechuanaland stationery.In 1893, responsibility for the postal services of both territories was transferred to the Cape Colony. Two years later British Bechuanaland was annexed to the Cape Colony, and therefore, ceased to exist as a stationery issuing entity. The remaining stock of stationery was used in the Protectorate until exhausted.It took about five years before new issues were required and ordered from London. The very small need for stationery in the Protectorate is illustrated by the population census that counted the total white population below 2,200 people, less than 1% of the total population, until well after World War II. This resulted in printings so small that it poses constant challenges to the collector. Bechuanaland Protectorate became independent in 1966 as the Republic of Botswana.Each main group of cards is comprehensively treated when material is available, from the points of view of production (trials, essays, proofs), printings (types, variants, and errors), specimen cancellations (UPU and others), distribution (specifically to a small village), usage (private, official, financial, preprinted forms), rates, and destinations (local, inland to southern Africa, northern territories, British community, and foreign).The postal card collection shown is the only of its kind existing worldwide.This book is also the story of newspaper wrappers used at the turn of the century in the British frontier territories of Bechuanaland in southern Africa. Newspaper wrappers were introduced in British Bechuanaland during January 1887 to pay the 1/2d local and 1d United Kingdom newspaper rates (per 4 oz). The wrappers were also available in Bechuanaland Protectorate where they could be used without additional postage from 1892.The exhibit showing these newspaper wrappers is unequaled anywhere else in the world. Read more