Mafficking
The term Mafficking denoted celebrations with different connotations in public places in British cities after the liberation of the garrison in Mafeking during the Boer War . Later, the verb to maffick found its way into everyday English as a name for loud partying for a large number of people .
background
During the Boer War, the town of Mafeking in the Transvaal was besieged by Boer armies for 217 days. Despite being clearly outnumbered, the British troops were able to hold and defend the city against the Boers for a long time through clever tactics. The British suffered several lossy defeats, for example in the days known as "black week" at the end of 1899. On May 18, 1900, Mafeking was finally liberated. After the news of the liberation of British soldiers in the United Kingdom, celebrations spontaneously formed in the streets and squares of the cities. The celebrations were basically spontaneous and initially not an expression of any particular colonialist chauvinism, but of joy at the liberation of British soldiers. The street celebrations soon had a political component, symbols of the British Empire were sold, for example a small Union Jack for a penny . However, the celebrations quickly developed into attacks on people suspected of sympathy with the Boers. Soon there were riots against supposedly dissenters, the destruction of shop windows and similar phenomena, which were often associated with excessive alcohol consumption.
For a long time it was assumed that the riots were carried out by members of the working class . These ideas were already shaped by contemporary observers. However, since Richard Price's research, this assumption has been refuted. Rather, it could be shown that the actors in the riot were members of the middle classes and, above all, students.
Mafficking was henceforth seen by some authors, the most famous of whom was probably John Atkinson Hobson , as a sign of moral and social decline. The phenomenon should not be confused with that of jingoism , which, in contrast to mafficking, already contained the nationalistic and chauvinistic element. The general election of 1900, which therefore went down in history under the name of the khaki election, was influenced by the moods of Mafficking and Jingoism .
proof
- ↑ Dictionary entry
- ↑ cf. Richard Price, An Imperial War and the Working Class, London 1972, passim, esp. Pp. 133ff.
- ^ Labor Leader , June 9, 1900
- ↑ s. Gareth Stedman Jones : Languages of Class: studies in working class history, 1832–1982 , Cambridge 1982, p. 180ff.
- ↑ cf. John A. Hobson, The Psychology of Jingoism, London 1901