The Gaborone Village Fort

Its presumed purpose was to protect the fledgling settlement and to achieve control over the ford across the river and the key roads, which splayed outwards from it.  In the event, the Fort had a short and inglorious existence. 

In 1899 the South African War broke out, and with the  Boers about to over-run both the new settlement and the railway station, the Fort was precipitously abandoned without a shot being fired.  Ellenberger provided a first hand account.