Podcast
History of South Africa podcast
Episodes — page 4
- Episode 230 - From Knysna’s Burning Forests to Tolstoy’s War and Peace: The World in 1869
This is episode 230, From Knysna’s Burning Forests to Tolstoy’s War and Peace: The World in 1869. Globally, the end of the sixth decade of the 19th Century was full of fire and…
- Episode 229 - Moshoeshoe and the Red Dust: How War and Famine Led to British Rule in Lesotho
Episode 229 - Moshoeshoe and the Red Dust, How War and famine led to British rule in Lesotho - we’re speeding up on the trek along history’s trail. First, a word about the Boer…
- Episode 228 - From Skepticism to Stampede: The Diamond Rush Awakens
A quick shout out, this being the modern equivalent of a tip of the hat to Richard, who has made a significant donation to help me host this series. I was flabbergasted when rece…
- Episode 227 - Diamonds, War, and Destiny: Moshoeshoe, the Boers, and the Stone That Changed South Africa
Episode 227 — a turning point not just in our nation’s past, but in the arc of 19th-century global history. For soon, the earth will yield its glittering secret — the diamond —…
- Episode 226 – The Estate Agent of the Transvaal: Paul Kruger, Mokgatle, the amaMfengu Crossing, and the Battle for Land
The years between 1865 and 1870 would bring a tangle of new challenges for the people of the south. Drought gripped the land with merciless fingers in 1865 and 1866, only to return…
- Episode 225 - Between Diamonds and Desolation: The Griqua's Journey to East Griqualand
This is episode 225, and the Griqua have trekked from Philippolis near modern day Kimberley, to the Maluti Mountains, a place called Nomansland. In March 1861 Faku Ka-Ngqungqushe o…
- Episode 224 - El Niño’s and Al Nina’s and the Griqua Great Trek to Nomansland
This is episode 224 — the sound in the background is the weather - the other sound is the creaking of wagons as another great trek begins. We’re going to trace the arc of South…
- Episode 223 - The Calliper and the Lens: Gustav Fritsch in the Southern Light (1863–1865)
This is episode 223, the calliper and the lens Gustav Fritsch in the southern Light. A very quick thank you to Professor Johan Fourie at Stellenbosch Department of Economics wh…
- Episode 222 - Global events 1863, Namaqualand Copper and Gunny Sack Shacks
This is episode 222 - Zooming out to peer at 1863, and a bit of Namaqualand Copper and Gunny Bags. We’ve just entered the period of 1863 to 1865. It’s also time to take a quick…
- Episode 221 - Free State Judges, the Transvaal Civil War and the Architecture of Deliberation
This is episode 221, 1863, the midst of the Transvaal Civil War. As you heard in episode 220, this was the making of a new president and one who’d take the Trekker Republics in…
- Episode 220 - The Transvaal Civil War of 1862-1864 and Paul Kruger’s Dopping Doppers
All manner of things are going on — thanks to those folks out there who’ve been sending me notes and support, much appreciated. Episode 220 deals with the start of the Transvaa…
- Episode 219 - The Snarled Chronicle of John Orr, Wodehouse Blues and Mercantile Matters
This is episode 219 — a new Governor has sailed into Table Bay. Sir Philip Edmond Wodehouse, born in 1811, eldest child of Edmond Wodehouse who married his first cousin Lucy, da…
- Episode 218 - Lifestyle Update 1861 and an Ode to Landscape Motion Intensity and Physiology
We’re doing a little different thing today, having wondered our way through a few thousand years its time to reflect on a few things. How did people go about their day to day l…
- Episode 217 - Lovedale, amaXhosa Chiefs Languish on Robben Island and the American Civil War
A quick thank you to all those who’ve been donating towards the upkeep of this series, particularly Chereen and Gerhard, your continued support is making a difference. And Adi the…
- Episode 216 - Mpande and Cetshwayo’s Shakespearean Drama Continues, it’s all King Lear, Richard III and Macbeth
It’s episode 216 and we are lurching back to the north east, to Zululand. The heat is building up, and the conflicted relationship between King Mpande kaSenzanghakhona and his…
- Episode 215 – Ostriches Trump Elephants in 1860 and John Dunn: Musket Trader Extraordinaire
Episode 215 has a rather grandiose title but let us stop for a second and take stock. This southern land, swept by thunderstorms that appear as if by magic, and lash the landscap…
- Episode 214 - Booming Port Elizabeth, Cunning Cape Town, Indentured Indians and Quarrelling Republics
This is episode 214 and we’re going to probe the fascinating and these days, hidden history of Port Elizabeth or Gqeberha, a bit about indentured Indians arriving in South Africa,…
- Episode 213 - Grey Mediates, Boshof Fulminates and Moshoeshoe Vacillates before the Treaty of Aliwal North
This is episode 213, and Sir George Grey, the Cape Governor was peering intensely at the Boer Republics to the north. The Free Staters under Boshof had failed in their mission…
- Episode 212 - The Basotho-Boer War of 1858 leads to a Burgher Backfire
Episode 212 it is - we’re cruising into 1858 but wait! The sounds of gunfire! Yes, it’s that old South African tune, war, set to the music of the guns. Our society is st…
- Episode 211 - “Native” Hut Taxes, Blackbirding and other Revelations of 1857
Episode 211 - the year is 1857 heading into 1858. Lots the talk about! The original frontier republics and wildlands were being transformed - turning into governed territtories.…
