Podcast
History of South Africa podcast
Episodes — page 2
- Episode 276 — Okavango Khwebe Wind and a Dorsland Trekker Angolan Odyssey
Die Dorsland — the Thirstland — is part of the Kalahari that has an interesting history when it comes to pastoralists. The San didn’t call it the Thirstland, for them it wasn’t a b…
- Episode 275 — Pilgrims Rest, French Bob’s Gold and Barberton’s Champagne Foot Baths
Thousands of miners were streaming into the Transvaal by the third quarter of the 19th Century, a horde of avuncular independent-minded treasure hunters. In volume Two of the Cambr…
- Episode 274 - The Pretoria Convention ends the First Anglo-Boer War, Suzerainty Unresolved
The hill of Doves — in isiZulu amaJuba means the place of many doves or pigeons. It became a place of violence and blood, and yet the catastrophic defeat of the British at Majuba w…
- Episode 273 - The Mountain of Destiny: Majuba and the Birth of a Nation
It is not a stretch to say that the defeat by the British at Majuba was also the political birth of the Afrikaner people. While the Great Trek provided the origin story, Majuba pro…
- Episode 272 - The Boers wring Major General Colley’s Column at Laing’s Nek
Weather, some say, is fickle. Of course nature is just nature but when you’re on high ground, the mountains, and the weather moves in, the temperature drops in minutes and wind shi…
- Episode 271 - Basutoland Gun War, Gold Coast and Ottoman Empire
The British had instigated a war in the Transvaal which fired off in early 1881, but they had already ignited another flashpoint - in Basutoland. This was a fascinating conflict, a…
- Episode 270 - Kruger vs Black Michael and Courageous Women at the Battle of Bronkhorstspruit
The approach by the English political parties of the time to the young Boer Republics was confused, and even contradictory. William Gladstone, a liberal, had succeeded in ousting t…
- Episode 269 - Bapedi Chief Sekhukhune’s Cruel Fate and the Afrikaner Paradox
The Bapedi have a rich and textured history, as with most of South Africa’s past, where religion and tradition are entwined to create a consciousness of life that is attractive to…
- Episode 268 - The Theodolite and the Hardepad: Thomas Bain’s Silent Mountain Pass Artisans
There is something magical about mountain passes, weaving through majesty, each corner beckoning a driver like a formidable and compelling saga, muffled in mist or bright in the su…
- Episode 267 - Betrayal at the End: Mnyamana, Cetshwayo’s Dutchman, and the Crushing of the Zulu Kingdom
Cornelius Vijn had made a few bad decisions in his life as we all do at some point. Born in Holland in 1856, he made his way to Natal in 1874 where he rapidly learned both English…
- Episode 266: The Wakkerstroom Boer-Zulu Alliance and the death of Prince Napoleon
As the British tried to wrap up their war against the Zulu in South Africa, further afield the happy sound of a baby being born could be heard in Germany. Not just any baby. Alb…
- Episode 265 – John Dunn’s MI5 Connection, Gingindlovu, and the Relief of Eshowe
The last quarter of the 19th Century was in some ways, like the first quarter of the 21st Century - full of tone-deaf business barons gambling building vast riches — financing poli…
- Episode 264 - The Forgotten Battle of Khambula (1879): The Turning Point of the Anglo-Zulu War
The twenty thousand strong Zulu army was camped near Nseka Mountain south of the British camp at Khambula hill — north west of modern day Vryheid. After defeating Lieutenant Colone…
- Episode 263 - How Black Voters Helped Elect Cecil Rhodes: Kimberley and the Cape Franchise, 1879
The battles are coming thick and fast because this is the end of the seventh decade of the 19th Century - the British have just been defeated at the Battle of Hlobane mountain on t…
- Episode 262 - The Battle of Hlobane – Cowardice, Confusion and the Reckoning at Devil’s Pass
By mid-March 1879, Cetshwayo kaMpande made another attempt to open talks with Chelmsford, sending his indunas to negotiate for peace — but the British had no appetite for compromis…
- Episode 261 - Zulu War: Ntombe River Massacre & Prince Hamu’s Defection
Colonel Rowland’s number five column had been sent to guard the roads and garrison the Boer towns in the north eastern Transvaal — part to police the Zulu across the border, but al…
- Episode 260 - Touring South Africa pre-1880, the Tangled Tale of Woolworths and Disraeli Gears
We’re touring the sub-continent today, choose your mode of transport — Cape Cart, ox-wagon, horse, mule, on foot? Before the arrival of steam locomotion, roads in South Africa were…
- -DELETED- Episode 260 - Touring South Africa pre-1880, How Woolworths started and Rowlands Folly
We’re touring the sub-continent today, choose your mode of transport — Cape Cart, ox-wagon, horse, mule, on foot? Before the arrival of steam locomotion, roads in South Africa were…
- Episode 259 - After Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift: Ghost Armies and a Unique Truce During a Savage War
It’s the 23rd January 1879, one of the most momentous days in South African history has passed, and the ripple effect will be felt across the world. For missionary Otto Witt it…
- Episode 258 - Rorke’s Drift, Part Two: Dabulamanzi’s Gamble and Chard’s Night of Horrors
Episode 258 Rorke’s Drift part two. It’s important to listen to Episode 257 because that sets everything up for this episode - there’s too much to repeat particularly in the layout…
