History of South Africa podcast

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 brimbstone, and some technology, social change, significant moments. The construction of the the Port Nolloth-O'okiep railway line…

6 Jul 18 min

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 Basotho War of 1865-1868. The 1850s and 1860s marked a period of profound demographic disruption for…

29 Jun 21 min

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 receiving the Paypal payment. We have communicated over the years so this is just to say, thank…

22 Jun 24 min

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 — and with it, fortunes will rise, empires will stir, and the southern tip of Africa will be…

15 Jun 26 min

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 with cruel insistence between 1868 and 1869. Livelihoods withered, landscapes turned brittle. And yet, amid the dust…

8 Jun 26 min

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 of the amaMpondo had ceded the territory to the British, ostensibly so that Theopholis Shepstone could plant the refugees of the Zulu…

1 Jun 19 min

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 Southern Africa’s climate, beginning in the early 19th century, before turning to the decade under review…

25 May 22 min

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