Podcast
History of South Africa podcast
Episodes — page 7
- Episode 177 - The Missionaries position on sex and British administrators refuse to learn
We’re plunging into the developments of the 1850s now and this is episode 177. In numerology the digits 1 and 7 are significant,1 represents new beginnings and leadership, while 7…
- Episode 176 - Cape Conservatives vs Radicals in 1850, a synopsis of souls and climate dystopia
This is the period of the utilitarian liberal, not of the democrat, it’s 1850 and in the Cape, a newly ninted constitution had been drafted by the attorney general, William Porter.…
- Episode 175 - A whip around the world in 1849 and a wide-angle view of Cape Society
This is episode 175 - and we’re back in the Cape circa 1849 and thereabouts. Before we dive into the latest incidents and events, let’s take a look at what was going on globall…
- Episode 174 - The 1848 British defeat of the Boers at the Battle of Boomplaats near Bloemfontein
This is episode 174. First off, a big thank you to all the folks who’ve supported me and for sharing so many personal stories of your ancestry. Particularly Jane who is a font…
- Episode 173 - Boer women fight off the Bapedi, Mpande interferes in Swazi business and Potgieter’s last trek
This is episode 173 and we’re in what was called the north eastern transvaal, modern day Mpumalanga and Limpopo. Last we heard how Hendrick Potgieter’s Voortrekkers had camped…
- Episode 172 - The Republic of Potchefstroom, Potgieter treks into Bapedi country and Mswati faces rebellion
This is episode 172 and we’re galloping back to cover the effect of the Boers 33 Articles, approved by the Volksraad on April 9th 1844, and thus installing the little Republic of P…
- Episode 171 - Zwangendaba’s exodus from Pongola to Lake Tanganyika and the story of the Ngoni
This is episode 171 and now its time to swing around southern Africa again, because as Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in Canterbury Tales in 1395, “Time and Tide wait for no man”. It’s…
- Episode 170 - Harry Smith returns as the conquering hero and humiliates Maqoma while translators muddle along
This is episode 170 and the sound you’re hearing is the cheering and the flaming hot emotion because Sir Harry Smith is back in town! The town is Cape Town — Sir Harry won’t han…
- Episode 169 - The Kat River Settlement seethes and the inglorious treachery of Sandile’s arrest
First off, a big thank you to those listeners who’ve been sending me emails, a great deal of useful information emerges from our discussions which always improves the quality of th…
- Episode 168 - Earl Grey and the irascible Sir Henry Pottinger leave their mark on South Africa
This is episode 168 and the world by the middle of the 19th Century was shifting gear, changing rapidly. Southern Africa was caught in the currents of world history and within a fe…
- Episode 167 - Maitland dithers, Stockenstrom sallies forth into the Transkei and biblical storms change everything
This is episode 167 and the British army is clumping along towards the Amathola fastnesses, the deep ravines and steep riverine environment not the most ideal for an army that drag…
- Episode 166 - Colonel Lindsay lashes a local lad, Fort Peddie attacked and the Battle of Gwangqa River
The Seventh Frontier war has burst into flame, and across the Ceded Territory and down into the land around Port Elizabeth amaXhosa warriors are on the warpath, the British have be…
- Episode 165 - Sandile ambushes a British column, Captain Bambrick’s skull and Somerset’s humiliation
This is episode 165 — and the atmosphere in Xhosaland was ablaze with indignation. A Mr Holliday had complained in Fort Beaufort that an imaDange man called Tsili had stolen his ax…
- Episode 164 - British sappers cross Block Drift into Xhosaland setting off a chain of events on the eve of war
This is episode 164. Remember when we left off we’d been hearing about the squad of Royal engineers who’d crossed into amaXhosa territory over the Tyhume River in January 1846.…
- Episode 163 - British engineers build forts and semaphores while disabled chief Mgolombane Sandile signs a treaty
This is episode 163, the year, 1845. New Cape Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland had shown he was a man of action — as a veteran of the Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon you’d expe…
- Episode 162 - The 1845 Battle of Swartkoppies, Divide and Rule and a Bloemfontein origin story
This is episode 162. First, some housekeeping. A huge thank you to all my supporters, the podcast just passed 1.3 million listens, so there’s a large number of folks out there…
- Episode 161 - Moshoeshoe signs a Treaty then collects gunpowder and horses
This is episode 161 — and what’s this I hear? The sound of wind whipping and howling through the mountain recesses, snow-capped mountains, where the rivers have torn deep ravines i…
- Episode 160 - A tour of Philippolis, an 1844 update, the Great Guano discovery and the Merino sheep miracle
This is episode 160 and we’re breathing the spicy smells of the semi-desert, and taking in the exotic and wonderous scenary of the Richtersveld, Namaqualand, and the stunning area…
- Episode 159 - Boer women as handmaidens to history and the swirling social dust storms in TransOrangia circa 1843
This is episode 159. If we take out a map of south Africa and reconsider the regions, it will become quite apparent that the main demarcation is geographical, geological, the m…
- Episode 158 - Venda kingdoms and the Lemba Yemeni enigma
This is episode 158 and we’re taking an epic regional tour into the along the Limpopo River to meet with the Venda and other groups of folks who hail from the province we now call…
