Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2019 April 10

= April 10 =

Koffiefontein, South Africa
Please Google Maps it. As you come into Koffiefontein on the R704 when you reach the first but of greenery non your left is a steam engine and just past this is a horse. Questions: A. How and why is there a healthy horse left to run free? B. There is a picture of El Duce and my research says there is another next to it of Hitler; Who, what, when why and how? Question B is of the most importance to me please. Thanks in advance.


 * A.The horses (there are actually two) are visible at https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.4080024,25.0076506,3a,61.3y,267.28h,79.35t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1swJFDp0DUXGTYjSmFxR9-kQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656. I don't think anybody here is going to be able to tell you why they were out there over eight years ago.  Maybe they escaped from their paddock.
 * B. Our article on Koffiefontein mentions murals painted by Italian POWs during WWII.
 * Please sign posts here and on Talk pages by adding four tildes to the end ( ~ ) Rojomoke (talk) 06:23, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

African 'Old Town'
Hi Ref Desk. About 20 years ago I recall watching the news and it was reporting on an African Conflict and it showed fighting in the streets with AK 47's. The street was very green with large trees and beautiful architecture, though crumbling and full of bullet holes it had a Victorian era feel to the architecture, perhaps with a German feel. I have for many years been trying to find such a city on Google maps and would be eager for any references to African cities with a colonial past, including appropriate architecture, and an 'old town' sector of the city. I suspect this will be somewhere central and fairly jungle-ised. Thanks in advance 81.131.40.58 (talk) 14:01, 10 April 2019 (UTC) Me
 * That's a pretty broad question; there were dozens of European settlements all across the African continent, many of which would have imported European-style architecture. Without more context besides "African city with decaying European-style buildings" I'm not sure we could even begin to narrow it down.  -- Jayron 32 14:37, 10 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Picture Regent Street London but with lots of trees and no glass in the windows, people running around wit AK47's and RPG's. There was conflict in the late 90's. Pretty sure it was a Christian Country and that they did not speak English. Sub-Saharan Africa but not in Southern Africa.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.131.40.58 (talk) 15:04, 10 April 2019 (UTC)
 * My first thought was Kinshasa, which dates back to Victorian times and would certainly have seen fighting in the streets in the late 1990s. But I have no idea how closely it matches your description. --Viennese Waltz 15:17, 10 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks Viennese, but there does not appear to be much of the architecture required. Thanks  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.131.40.58 (talk) 15:50, 10 April 2019 (UTC)
 * As I said "Regent Street London but with lots of trees and no glass in the windows, people running around wit AK47's and RPG's" describes MANY African cities' original colonial cores during the 20th century. Your descriptions do not provide much of a defining characteristic, I'm afraid.  During the 19th century, many European powers built for themselves administrative capitals all over Sub-Saharan Africa and being the 19th century, they built 19th century style buildings in those cities.  In the 20th century, many of those African countries became independent, and there were various independence wars and internal civil wars in many of those countries, and across many of those cities.  I can pull random large coastal cities from across Sub-Saharan Africa, and find Victorian-era architecture.  Architecture of Africa discusses this a little bit.  I would like to be able to pick out some exemplars, but places as diverse as Kinshasa, Maputo, Windhoek, Zanzibar City, and many more all contain exemplars of the kind of architecture you are describing.  -- Jayron 32 16:34, 10 April 2019 (UTC)
 * List of conflicts in Africa may help. Alansplodge (talk) 13:00, 12 April 2019 (UTC)