Podcast
History of South Africa podcast
Episodes — page 11
- Episode 90 – Slaves, Somerset and the SA Commercial Advertiser
This is episode 90 and it is 1823. The small coastal harbour town of Port Elizabeth had been founded but it still had no proper jetties, no lighthouse, nor a breakwater. Passengers…
- Episode 89 – Shaka’s mojo and the debate about the Mfecane
This is episode 89 and it’s the first years of the 1820s and we are still in Zululand. By now Shaka began concentrating his power in the area around Mahlabatini, to Qulusini, which…
- Episode 88 – Somerset’s printing press paranoia and Shaka’s Inkatha power
This is episode 88 it’s the period of 1821/1822 heading into a decade of disaster, drought, despondence and disorder. As we heard last episode, the 1820 Settlers were suffering t…
- Episode 87 – San poison, the world in 1821 and an MP “hectic spectacle"
This is episode 87 and it’s time to talk a bit about the terrifying power of San poison and then a quick revisit to the frontier of 1822 which of course is exactly two hundred year…
- Episode 86– Somerset vs Donkin and dueling missions
This is episode 86 and we left off with things heating up along the Orange River after hearing about the arrival of the 1820 Settlers and back in Cape Town, there were more moves a…
- Episode 85– Honey birds, leopards, gardens of cattle and a bloody ochre harvest
This is episode 85 and as we’ve heard, the English settlers have just arrived in the Albany district – the year is 1820. It had taken three months and now all 5000 new settlers w…
- Episode 84 – The 1820 Settlers ramble among Algoa Bay shrubbery
Between December 1819 and the first quarter of 1820, 21 ships left England and Ireland bound for the Cape carrying five thousand men, women and children. The ships docked at Cape…
- Episode 83 – The amakhosikazi sipper of Cobra venom and the 1820 Settlers
This is episode 83 and Ndwandwe chief Zwide is on the run, being hunted down by Shaka after the defeat on the Mhlathuze. Zwide was sitting at his mother’s umuzi called eziKwitshi…
- Episode 82 – Shaka outfoxes Zwide at the Mhlathuze River
This is episode 82 and we’re picking up the story from where we left off last Episode the Ndwandwe were chasing the AmaZulu down the Mhlathuze Valley, just north of the modern town…
- Episode 81 – Shaka orders ladders, Dingiswayo dies and Mzilikazi emerges
This is episode 81 and we’re following the story of the AmaZulu, the Qwabe, the Mkhize, the Ndwandwe and the Mthethwa circa 1819. By this time, the Mkhize and the Qwabe along w…
- Episode 80 – Sambela the Mkhize psychopath and the Zulu cadet system evolves
Last episode we heard how the Xhosa wardoctor had failed in his attempt at chasing the colonials out of his territory – the Albany region, and now return to significant events in t…
- Episode 79 – The Wardoctor is defeated and Willshire does a deal with Hintsa
This is episode 79. Nxele the Wardoctor and 10 000 warriors failed in their attempt at overrunning Grahamstown – now they’re on the run. Three of Ndlambe’s sons were among those…
- Episode 78 – 10 000 Xhosa warriors led by Makhanda aka Nxele attack Grahamstown
Trouble was not so much brewing as fermenting on the eastern Cape frontier as we heard last episode. The British were aware that Ndlambe and his wardoctor, Nxele, had gathered…
- Episode 77 – The strange tale of Dr (Ms) James Barry and Makhanda’s War begins
The period between 1816 and 1819 saw the level of conflict rise significantly across southern Africa – not only were the Zulu beginning their ascent to power in the east, but in th…
- Episode 76 – The vicious battle of Amalinde and the messianic force of Makhanda
Things were beginning to move along the eastern Cape frontier, through the region known previously as the Zuurveld, the Albany district, with its rocky rivers and ravines, thorny b…
- Episode 75 – Lord Charles Somerset reinforces the Fish River then meets the amaXhoseni and misreads Ngqika
It had taken twenty years from the initial British landing on the Cape for the occupation to become permanent. So by August 1814, following the first abdication of Napoleon, the Ne…
- Episode 74 – The horror story that is Slagter’s Nek of 1816 and its role in Afrikaner nationalism
It’s the second decade of the 19th Century - the trekboers as you heard last episode were alarmed by the British decision to drop loan farms – and using the quit-rent system to rei…
- Episode 73 – Shaka overwhelmes the Qwabe and the British upend the trekboer Loan Farm tradition
So, in 1817, Shaka had been forced to flee his home as Zwide’s Ndwandwe attacked repeatedly – and he found himself south of the Thukela. He needed to forge a stronger relationshi…
- Episode 72 – Shaka flees south over the Thukela River as Zwide’s Ndwandwe expand their raiding
By the 1810s, Zwide had built a powerful centralized kingdom and reinforced this power using his extensive family. He also formed feared amabutho such as the amaPhela, the abaHlaka…
- Episode 71 – Calendars, the lunar month and the Zulu “houses of the sun”
This is episode 71 and Shaka has just been installed as the Zulu regent in 1812. There is even debate about this as the year – some say it was more like 1816. However, I believe…
