History of South Africa podcast

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 who invited me to be part of a workshop about improving the visibility of economic history. What an amazing experience. This…

18 May 23 min

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 tour of 1863 as is our usual way. While the Transvaal Civil War has…

11 May 24 min

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 into the 20th Century, albeit in the midst of the Anglo-Boer War. There had been a rapid…

4 May 17 min

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 Transvaal Civil War, and quite a bit about Paul Kruger’s early life. The American civil war was raging in…

27 Apr 22 min

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, daughter of Philip Wodehouse, uncle Philip to Sir Philip Edmond. How very Victorian. Queen Victoria herself, who married her…

20 Apr 18 min

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 lives, and what was life really like by the mid-19th Century South Africa? This period was dominated…

13 Apr 18 min

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 winemaker, dankie meneer, and Seyi who’s trying to get Paypal sorted, thanks! Not to mention Chris whose significant support means…

4 Apr 19 min

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 son, Cetshwayo kaMpande, is growing more complex by the minute. But this being Zululand, that wasn’t the only competition in town…

30 Mar 22 min

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 landscape, rumble across the stubby veld, slinging lightning like a million volt silver sjambok, shaking rocks with their…

22 Mar 25 min

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, and a spot of Boer Republic rebellion. It’s hardly ever a quiet day in sunny South Africa. In the eyes…

15 Mar 24 min

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 to drive Moshoeshoe out of the disputed territory south of the Caledon River and many of the burghers changed…

8 Mar 21 min

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 steeped in action, movement, confrontation. This is not a place for the insipid, the weak, the fearful…

1 Mar 23 min

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. In 1856 Natal was created a Crown Colony by Royal Charter, Legislation there was entrusted to a council of four officials and…

22 Feb 22 min

Episode 210 - Social Bandits on the Borderlands and other hybrid tales of Nomansland

This is episode 210 - Barbarians on the Borderlands - the 1857 Basotho Free State conundrum Last episode we plumbed the depths of the amaZulu civil War battle of Ndondakusuka, this episode we’re skirting Moshoeshoe’s Basotho mountains with the BaPhuthi people. Before we kick off, just a quick note about…

15 Feb 20 min

Episode 209 - Cetshwayo attacks Mbuyazi at the Battle of Ndondakusuka where the Crocodiles Feast

IF you recall a few episodes back, 204 to be exact, we were introduced to the conflict between the sons of Mpande kaSenzangakhona, Cetshwayo kaMpande and Mbuyazi kaMpande. Mpande had moved Cetshwayo and his uSuthu regiments away from their northern power zones and Mbuyazi and his iziGqoza to the south…

8 Feb 21 min

Episode 208 - Believers vs Unbelievers, Ancestor Veneration and the Stupifying Logic of Global Millenarianism

Episode 208 it is .. where the steely grip of starvation takes hold of the amaXhosa nation by December 1856. Self-induced, a response to years of colonial expansion, incroaching land grabs, loss of power of the chiefs and ancient custom, the immediate terror of the 8th Frontier War and its…

2 Feb 25 min

Episode 207 - A Moon of Wonders and Dangers, Supernatural Horsemen and HMS Geyser Turns Tail

We’re in the midst of 1856. This is the year lung sickness took hold of the country, and it’s effect was to push some people of the land over the edge. Nongqawuse living in Gxarha had prophesized about salvation which was at hand. The former Anglican now born-again Xhosa Mhlakaza…

26 Jan 24 min

Episode 206 - Nongqawuse’s Bush of Ghosts, Mhlakaza’s Anglican Episode and Sarhili Goes to Gxarha

his is episode 206 - all fire and brimbstone, a horror show. The squeamish should gird their loins, prepare the poultices, polish your monocles and tighten your bootstraps, grab your smelling salts Roll up your sleeves and fetch the brandy, brace for impact. It’s an episode that will begin a…

19 Jan 21 min

Episode 205 - A Crimean/Russian Struggle Thread, Two Disabled Free Staters and a Surveyor Surge

Episode 205 of the series covers the A Russian Struggle Thread, Two Disabled Men in the Free State and a Surge in Surveyors. Sprinkled with tales of Hoffman. That would be Johannes Hoffman commonly known as Sias Hoffman, the first president of the Orange Free State who signed the Bloemfontein…

12 Jan 23 min

Episode 204 - Planet Earth 1855, the Regal Cetshwayo kaMpande and Natal Land Realities

Episode 204 - A quick whip around the globe in 1855 and Cetshwayo kaMpande makes his Regal Entrance. First up, a quick thank you to Adi Badenhorst at AA Badenhorst family wines in the Swartland of the Cape — your gift was extraorindarily generous and well received. I am truly…

5 Jan 19 min