History of South Africa podcast

Episode 87 – San poison, the world in 1821 and an MP “hectic spectacle"

This is episode 87 and it’s time to talk a bit about the terrifying power of San poison and then a quick revisit to the frontier of 1822 which of course is exactly two hundred years ago. As part of the picture of the past, at times when there’s a…

8 Oct 2022 20 min

Episode 86– Somerset vs Donkin and dueling missions

This is episode 86 and we left off with things heating up along the Orange River after hearing about the arrival of the 1820 Settlers and back in Cape Town, there were more moves afoot. Governor Lord Charles Somerset was still on long-leave, on sabbatical if you like, leaving Sir…

1 Oct 2022 20 min

Episode 85– Honey birds, leopards, gardens of cattle and a bloody ochre harvest

This is episode 85 and as we’ve heard, the English settlers have just arrived in the Albany district – the year is 1820. It had taken three months and now all 5000 new settlers were ensconced on their land. For these settlers, it was an epic of pathetic naiveté and…

24 Sep 2022 23 min

Episode 84 – The 1820 Settlers ramble among Algoa Bay shrubbery

Between December 1819 and the first quarter of 1820, 21 ships left England and Ireland bound for the Cape carrying five thousand men, women and children. The ships docked at Cape Town after weeks at sea to take on food and water, and for officials to come aboard. Settlers were…

17 Sep 2022 24 min

Episode 83 – The amakhosikazi sipper of Cobra venom and the 1820 Settlers

This is episode 83 and Ndwandwe chief Zwide is on the run, being hunted down by Shaka after the defeat on the Mhlathuze. Zwide was sitting at his mother’s umuzi called eziKwitshini during the battle, awaiting word. And when it came it was not what he was expecting. As you…

10 Sep 2022 24 min

Episode 82 – Shaka outfoxes Zwide at the Mhlathuze River

This is episode 82 and we’re picking up the story from where we left off last Episode the Ndwandwe were chasing the AmaZulu down the Mhlathuze Valley, just north of the modern town of Eshowe, just south of Melmoth. And for those geopolitical folks, that’s just down the drag from…

3 Sep 2022 21 min

Episode 81 – Shaka orders ladders, Dingiswayo dies and Mzilikazi emerges

This is episode 81 and we’re following the story of the AmaZulu, the Qwabe, the Mkhize, the Ndwandwe and the Mthethwa circa 1819. By this time, the Mkhize and the Qwabe along with many other smaller groups and clans had been pushed southwards by the aggression of the Ndwandwe, and…

27 Aug 2022 22 min

Episode 80 – Sambela the Mkhize psychopath and the Zulu cadet system evolves

Last episode we heard how the Xhosa wardoctor had failed in his attempt at chasing the colonials out of his territory – the Albany region, and now return to significant events in the north east – Zululand. By 1819 Shaka and Dingiswayo were holding sway in an area from the…

20 Aug 2022 20 min

Episode 79 – The Wardoctor is defeated and Willshire does a deal with Hintsa

This is episode 79. Nxele the Wardoctor and 10 000 warriors failed in their attempt at overrunning Grahamstown – now they’re on the run. Three of Ndlambe’s sons were among those killed during the battle, and some of Ngqika’s people had also fought alongside their compatriots despite the chief supposedly…

14 Aug 2022 21 min

Episode 78 – 10 000 Xhosa warriors led by Makhanda aka Nxele attack Grahamstown

Trouble was not so much brewing as fermenting on the eastern Cape frontier as we heard last episode. The British were aware that Ndlambe and his wardoctor, Nxele, had gathered troops ready to invade the Albany region, the Zuurveld, and Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Wilshire, or Tiger Tom as he was…

6 Aug 2022 23 min

Episode 77 – The strange tale of Dr (Ms) James Barry and Makhanda’s War begins

The period between 1816 and 1819 saw the level of conflict rise significantly across southern Africa – not only were the Zulu beginning their ascent to power in the east, but in the frontier district of the Cape, war was afoot. The seer, the man we’ve tracked for a few…

30 Jul 2022 21 min

Episode 76 – The vicious battle of Amalinde and the messianic force of Makhanda

Things were beginning to move along the eastern Cape frontier, through the region known previously as the Zuurveld, the Albany district, with its rocky rivers and ravines, thorny bush covered recesses, rolling grasslands and magnificent mountains. The Great House of the amaGcaleka had sorted out its differences, these were the…

24 Jul 2022 25 min

Episode 75 – Lord Charles Somerset reinforces the Fish River then meets the amaXhoseni and misreads Ngqika

It had taken twenty years from the initial British landing on the Cape for the occupation to become permanent. So by August 1814, following the first abdication of Napoleon, the Netherlands regained independence with the Prince Orange re-installed as sovereign. The British duly restored some of his colonies to him…

17 Jul 2022 22 min

Episode 74 – The horror story that is Slagter’s Nek of 1816 and its role in Afrikaner nationalism

It’s the second decade of the 19th Century - the trekboers as you heard last episode were alarmed by the British decision to drop loan farms – and using the quit-rent system to reinforce land ownership. Governor Somerset had arrived to take over the management of this new system, and…

9 Jul 2022 21 min

Episode 73 – Shaka overwhelmes the Qwabe and the British upend the trekboer Loan Farm tradition

So, in 1817, Shaka had been forced to flee his home as Zwide’s Ndwandwe attacked repeatedly – and he found himself south of the Thukela. He needed to forge a stronger relationship with the people to the north, and in particular the Qwabe who were found south of Umhlatuzi river,…

3 Jul 2022 24 min

Episode 72 – Shaka flees south over the Thukela River as Zwide’s Ndwandwe expand their raiding

By the 1810s, Zwide had built a powerful centralized kingdom and reinforced this power using his extensive family. He also formed feared amabutho such as the amaPhela, the abaHlakabezi, and isiKwitshi and the amaNkaiya. Most of these were around before Shaka became king of the Zulus, and the Ndwandwe were…

26 Jun 2022 18 min

Episode 71 – Calendars, the lunar month and the Zulu “houses of the sun”

This is episode 71 and Shaka has just been installed as the Zulu regent in 1812. There is even debate about this as the year – some say it was more like 1816. However, I believe historian Dan Wylie’s earlier date is probably the right one – by the way…

19 Jun 2022 20 min

Episode 70 – Senzangakhona dies and Shaka takes over as chief of the AmaZulu

This is episode 70 and we’re walking with Shaka. He spent the bulk of his early and teenage years in Zulu country, that area to the north of the Umhlatuzi, between the Langeni and the white Mfolozi rivers. Towards the end of his youth things became increasingly difficult for him,…

12 Jun 2022 23 min

Episode 69 – Senzangakhona’s “Jerusalem of the Zulus”, his beautiful wife Bhibhi and a bit of Delagoa Bay

This is episode 69 and we’re hunting the origins of Shaka. Throughout the area north of the Thukela River the main medium of exchange in terms of goods was no longer cattle by 1810 – it was beads. These glass objects manufactured in Europe had flowed through southern Africa starting…

5 Jun 2022 22 min

Episode 68 – Stockenström’s anguish, Dingiswayo and the beginning of the era of blood, power and iron

We heard last episode how the fourth Frontier War of 1811/12 had been a short sharp affair and the anger bubbling away amongst amaXhosa leadership about the brutal emptying of the Albany district, so recently called the Zuurveld. We need to close a chapter here for a while to return…

29 May 2022 21 min