History of South Africa podcast
181 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 17 hours ago - ★★★★★ - 83 ratingsA series that seeks to tell the story of the South Africa in some depth. Presented by experienced broadcaster/podcaster Des Latham and updated weekly, the episodes will take a listener through the various epochs that have made up the story of South Africa.
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Episodes
Episode 179 - A messianic prophet emerges in 1850: Mlanjeni the Wardoctor
July 14, 2024 07:25 - 20 minutes - 9.71 MBThis is episode 179 and the prophet Mlanjeni is about to emerge. His story is one of the phenomenal tales of our land, he joined an already fairly long list of colonial era fighters who imbued their struggle against encroaching settlers with a combination of christian salvation ethos and a narrative full of amaXhosa ancient mystery and magic. If you recall last episode, Mlanjeni had been calling all local spiritual leaders to his home, where they were to pass between two poles that had been...
Episode 178 - A string of forts and Captain Maclean’s amaXhosa police recruits take revenge
July 07, 2024 07:53 - 22 minutes - 10.5 MBThe mid-nineteenth Century was like the calm before the storm with the discovery of diamonds a decade away, and then the wars between the Boers and Brits, and the Brits and amaZulu a glimmer in the imperial eye. Moshoeshoe was gaining power amongst the Basotho, and to the east, Mpande continued to dream of crushing the amaSwazi. But to the South on Christmas Day 1850, another frontier war in a long and bitter series between the Cape colony and the amaXhosa erupted in the wake of the witch...
Episode 177 - The Missionaries position on sex and British administrators refuse to learn
June 30, 2024 07:18 - 20 minutes - 9.39 MBWe’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 is often associated with spirituality and introspection. So it’s no mistake this this episode probes spirituality and introspection - and leadership. Not that I necessarily ascribe to the tenets of numerology, but its a useful way into a sensitive subject. By mid-19th Century, most of the game of the Cape, fro...
Episode 176 - Cape Conservatives vs Radicals in 1850, a synopsis of souls and climate dystopia
June 22, 2024 13:06 - 21 minutes - 9.96 MBThis 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. This was based on a nonracial qualified franchise - all adult males who had occupied property worth at least twenty five pounds for a year were eligible to vote. Porter had toiled on the draft of this document for the also newly minted Governor, Sir Harry Smith, who sent it to London. Porter later in 1850 had a...
Episode 175 - A whip around the world in 1849 and a wide-angle view of Cape Society
June 16, 2024 07:49 - 19 minutes - 9.25 MBThis 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 globally as everything is connected. In France, citizens are able to use postage stamps for the very first time, a series called Ceres, which is also a place in the Western Cape. The Austrian Army invades Hungary entering the countries two capitals, which back in 1849 were called Buda and Pest. Next door, Romanian paramili...
Episode 174 - The 1848 British defeat of the Boers at the Battle of Boomplaats near Bloemfontein
June 09, 2024 07:18 - 23 minutes - 10.9 MBThis 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 of knowledge about the Williams family, and John who’s been communicating about the Transkei. Please also sign up for the weekly newsletter by heading off to desmondlatham.blog - you can also email me from that site. When we left off episode 173, King Mswati the first was running out of patience with his elder bro...
Episode 173 - Boer women fight off the Bapedi, Mpande interferes in Swazi business and Potgieter’s last trek
June 01, 2024 17:19 - 25 minutes - 12 MBThis 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 at a new town they named Ohrigstad in 1845, after leaving the are around Potchefstroom. Potgieter wanted to move further away from the British, and he sought a new port to replace Durban which had been annexed by the English. The area around Ohrigstad had a major drawback, apart from the fact it was already populate...
Episode 172 - The Republic of Potchefstroom, Potgieter treks into Bapedi country and Mswati faces rebellion
May 26, 2024 07:14 - 19 minutes - 9.34 MBThis 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 Potchefstroom. Some of the articles and the fledgling laws and rules were going to crop up throughout the history of South Africa, all the way through to the time of apartheid, and even to the present. If you recall, the Natal Boers and the Vaal Boers had been in dispute — largely because of the difference of opi...
Episode 171 - Zwangendaba’s exodus from Pongola to Lake Tanganyika and the story of the Ngoni
May 19, 2024 07:29 - 20 minutes - 9.71 MBThis 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 from the Prologue to the first story called the Clerk’s Tale and the story is imbued with what modern academics call masculine authoritarianism. It’s about women’s power actually, and insubordination — the plot dealing with a woman called Griselda who rises the highest position of hegemonic power. She becomes the hono...
Episode 170 - Harry Smith returns as the conquering hero and humiliates Maqoma while translators muddle along
May 12, 2024 07:56 - 25 minutes - 11.7 MBThis 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 hang around there for too long, he as you know from the previous episode, has returned to South Africa to take up his new position as Governor of the Cape. Sir Harry was the former civil commissioner of the de-annexed Province of Queen Adelaide in the Eastern Cape and in June 1840 he’d left Cape Town to take up a post ...
Episode 169 - The Kat River Settlement seethes and the inglorious treachery of Sandile’s arrest
May 04, 2024 14:56 - 23 minutes - 10.8 MBFirst 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 this podcast, specifically thanks to John for sending me your book and to Doctor Nkosi for the contact in eSwatini. When we left off in episode 168, pressure was being exerted on the Kat River Settlement by the new Governor, Sir Henry Pottinger. A quick revisit. The Kat River Settlement came into being in I829 aft...
Episode 168 - Earl Grey and the irascible Sir Henry Pottinger leave their mark on South Africa
April 28, 2024 07:12 - 23 minutes - 11 MBThis 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 few years with the discovery of Diamonds, was going to be very much in the current of world economics. Not that the Cape had not been crucial since the days of the Dutch East India Company, the VOR. As you heard last episode, the British government has fallen, Robert Peel had resigned on 19 June 1846, in the wake o...
Episode 167 - Maitland dithers, Stockenstrom sallies forth into the Transkei and biblical storms change everything
April 21, 2024 07:41 - 22 minutes - 10.5 MBThis 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 dragged everything around on wagons. Leading this army were officers steeped in the traditions of empire, and marching under their command were men from across Great Britain and beyond. They were poor, some with debts to pay back home, many were recruited from the haunts of dissipation and inebriation as historian Noe...
Episode 166 - Colonel Lindsay lashes a local lad, Fort Peddie attacked and the Battle of Gwangqa River
April 14, 2024 07:06 - 20 minutes - 9.77 MBThe 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 been forced into the defensive. If you remember, Sir Peregrine Maitland declared war on the amaXhosa chief Mgolombane Sandile Ngqika on 1st April 1846 — but the eastern Xhosa, the Gcaleka under Sarhili, had remained out of the latest war - at least for now. The amaXhosa have notched up two major victories against ...
Episode 165 - Sandile ambushes a British column, Captain Bambrick’s skull and Somerset’s humiliation
April 05, 2024 17:40 - 19 minutes - 9.03 MBThis 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 axe, and if you recall last episode, Tsili had been arrested then freed while under military escort by Tola a headman who lived nearby. Tola had hacked off a prisoners hand to free Tsili from his shackles, the prisoner was thrown into a nearby river and died. The British demanded Tstili and Tola be handed over but i...
Episode 164 - British sappers cross Block Drift into Xhosaland setting off a chain of events on the eve of war
March 31, 2024 07:23 - 21 minutes - 10.1 MBThis 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. They were led by Lieutenant J Stokes — this small team of five were surveying land for the site of the new fort. Little did they know that their crossing of Block Drift into Ngqika country was a small initial skirmish that was going to lead to war. Some say war was coming anyway, however their blatant trespass defin...
Episode 163 - British engineers build forts and semaphores while disabled chief Mgolombane Sandile signs a treaty
March 24, 2024 07:27 - 23 minutes - 10.8 MBThis 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 expect that, particularly as he fought at Waterloo. This new man of action governor had some doubts about a few things here in sunny South Africa. He doubted the effectiveness of Andries Stockenstrom’s Eastern Cape Ceded territory system for a start. He would sort that he thought with the introduction of a new syste...
Episode 162 - The 1845 Battle of Swartkoppies, Divide and Rule and a Bloemfontein origin story
March 16, 2024 10:35 - 23 minutes - 11 MBThis 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 who’ve found this series useful. I’m so delighted that our crazy tale here on the southern tip of Africa has resonated with so many people. The response has utterly stunned me, thinking when I started that being so battered by headwinds as we are at the moment, cynicism would sink the show. But it’s the opposite. ...
Episode 161 - Moshoeshoe signs a Treaty then collects gunpowder and horses
March 10, 2024 07:08 - 21 minutes - 10.2 MBThis 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 in the geography, terraphysics scraping rocks, rushing waters plunging from the escarpment into the eastern cape and free state, foaming and roiling. It must be the home of the BaSotho. Many South Africans make the fatal mistake of thinking that Lesotho is such a small place, reliant on its big neighbour, it is ba...
Episode 160 - A tour of Philippolis, an 1844 update, the Great Guano discovery and the Merino sheep miracle
March 03, 2024 06:51 - 23 minutes - 10.9 MBThis 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 around south westn Free State in the 840s. Last episode we heard about the period 1840-1843 in the southern Caledon River valley, and how the Voortrekkers like Jan Mocke were flowing into land that Moshoeshoe of the BaSotho believed was his. That was setting up a classic situation where land was the core of the en...
Episode 159 - Boer women as handmaidens to history and the swirling social dust storms in TransOrangia circa 1843
February 25, 2024 07:41 - 22 minutes - 10.6 MBThis 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 main points of reference are the rivers and the mountains, the desert and semi-desert, the good soils and the bad. Take a look at a map of the region to the south west of the Drakensberg, for its this area way down to the Orange River and extending towards the Kalahari and the Richtersveld that we’re going to focus o...
Episode 158 - Venda kingdoms and the Lemba Yemeni enigma
February 17, 2024 11:11 - 19 minutes - 9.22 MBThis 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 Limpopo. Thanks to listener Mushe for the suggestion. By the mid-fifteenth century Shona-speaking immigrants from Zimbabwe settled across the Limpopo River and interacted with the local Sotho inhabitants. As a result of this interaction, Shona and Sotho led to what is now regarded as a common Venda identity by t...
Episode 157 - Dick King and Ndongeni Ka Xoki’s epic ride leads another d’Urban to Durban
February 11, 2024 07:24 - 23 minutes - 10.9 MBThis is episode 157 - where Dick King and Ndongeni ka Xoki ride to out of Durban carrying a dispatch from besieged British commander, Captain Smith, surrounded by Boers, in real danger. On the 24th May 1842 King and ka Xoki snuck out of the Port Natal region heading to Grahamstown in the south. That was a thousand kilometre journey which was going to take 10 days. Averaging 100 kilometres a day on a horse was some feat. Ndongeni Ndongeni Ka Xoki had already given King his Zulu nickname -M...
Episode 156 - The Battle of Congella leaves 34 British soldiers dead on a moonlit Durban beach
February 04, 2024 07:32 - 21 minutes - 9.98 MBWhen we left off last episode, Captain Thomas Smith and two companies of the 27th Inniskilling Regiment, an 18 pounder that had just arrived by ship, two six pounder field guns, a small section of the Royal Artillery, a hand full of Royal Engineers, Sappers and miners, along with a company of Cape Mountain Rifles had formed their laager at level area to then north of Durban CBD today - where the Old Fort can be seen. Just a note - the 27th Inniskilling were an Irish infantry regiment of the...
Episode 155 - The Eastern Cape economy surges and the Americans visit Port Natal as tension rises
January 27, 2024 09:39 - 21 minutes - 10.2 MBWelcome back to the History of South Africa podcast with me your host, Des Latham - it’s episode 155 and the Cape economy is growing in leaps and bounds. The years between 1840 and 1843 were a fascinating mix of economic development and military endeavour. We will be returning to the arrival in Port Natal aka Durban of Captain Smith and his 263 men and unfortunately, there’s going to be fisticuffs, bullets, death and traitorous acts. But it is true that the most significant development ...
Episode 154 - The Swellekamp grifter and Captain Smith marches from the Umgazi River to Port Natal
January 21, 2024 08:26 - 24 minutes - 11.5 MBThis is episode 154 and the amaBhaca people under chief Ncapayi have just raided the Boers along the upper Bushman’s river and near their new town of Weenen. Joining the Bhaca were the San raiders you heard about in episode 152. The area around the Umzimvubu River had been unstable ever since the amaBhaca fled to the region during Shaka’s time, and the amaBhaca now lived west of the amaPondo who were ruled by chief Faku ka Ngqungqushe. It’s important to note that both the amaMpondo and the a...
Episode 153 - Dr Livingstone disembarks and Pretorius and Potgieter bury the hatchet
January 14, 2024 06:37 - 19 minutes - 9.16 MB1840 was a leap year, and in November David Livingstone had left Britain for Africa. His story of exploration and commitment is extraordinary. While he would go on to become better known for his attempts at finding the source of the Nile River in east Africa, it was his formative phase of life at mission stations in southern Africa that we’re interested in. Born on 19 March 1813 in Blantyre, Scotland, he was the second of seven children and employed at the age of ten in the towns’ cotton mi...
Episode 152 - The amaTola San raiders of the Drakensberg: Horses, plant meds and the Chacma Baboon
January 07, 2024 07:45 - 26 minutes - 12.2 MBThis is episode 152, we’re going to dig into a story that is not often told — the amaTola San raiders of the Drakensberg. They emerged by the end of the third decade of the 19th Century as a result of a mish-mash of forces at play on the veld. And what a remarkable story this is so hold onto your horses! Literally as it would appear. What has been re-discovered recently is the identification of a plethora of mounted frontier raiding groups and how these had impacted the interior of Southe...
Episode 151 - The polymath Sir John Herschel, his free school system and other 1840 interconnections
December 31, 2023 07:05 - 22 minutes - 10.4 MBEpisode 151 and we’re into the 1840s - and its time to analyse some issues. One is education, the other, roads. Given our crisis in education these days, its perhaps another of our historical ironies that state funded schooling was offered by 1839 and 1840 in the Cape, something that was unparalleled at the time except for Prussia and a handful of New England states in America. No-where else in the world at the time could state funded free education be found. Yes, you heard that right, S...
Episode 150 - Dingana assassinated near Ghost Mountain and the cultural appropriation tale of the toyi-toyi
December 24, 2023 07:29 - 22 minutes - 10.7 MBFor those who’ve lasted the journey thus far, thank you for listening. The number of downloads is approaching 1 and a quarter million, which by itself is quite a shock. Adding to the selfserving histrionics, Episode one of this series has just made to Spotify’s fourth most listened to podcast in South Africa for 2023. More gasps of disbelief. When I began this enterprise in February 2021 it was a giant leap into a possible abyss, a leap into the unknown, and possibly a foray into catastrop...
Episode 149 - Mpande defeats Dingana at the Battle of amaQongqo and Bhibhi the beautiful is killed
December 17, 2023 07:49 - 24 minutes - 11.3 MBThis is episode 149 and Mpande kaSenzangakhona and the Boers are going after Dingana. We’re entering the 1840s where momentous events would continue to shape South Africa’s future. After Shaka’s death in 1828 his half-brother and murderer, Dingana, was supposed to usher in stability. Instead, Dingana embroiled the AmaZulu in one war after another, trying to defeat Mzilikazi of the amaNdebele, fightign the baTlokwa, the amaSwazi, the Boers, and now, his own Royal line. By ordering Mpande...
Episode 148 - The AmaZulu routed by amaSwazi Widow Bird warriors and Mpande’s exodus
December 07, 2023 13:06 - 24 minutes - 11.5 MBThis is episode 148 and there’re negotiations afoot between Dingana and the Voortrekkers, at the behest of Captain Henry Jervis who led the small detachment of British troops based at Port Natal. Their role was to stabilise the Natal region after a year of extreme violence, the Voortrekkers and the AmaZulu king Dingana were fighting tooth and nail. Jervis as you heard was one of the characters in our history that crop up here and there and are able to act as neutral arbitrators between di...
Episode 147 - Coloured enters the lexicon in 1838 as Captain Jervis reports his coal find
December 03, 2023 08:54 - 27 minutes - 12.7 MBCape Town was burgeoning — and trade was starting to pick up. There was also a paradox, the real effects of the emancipation of slaves back in 1834 was only really felt in 1838 because it was in that year the 38 000 slaves were finally allowed to leave their masters. The abolition of slavery led to the creation of several private commercial banks, which then offered cheap credit to wage-labour employers. The British parliament allocated £20 million as compensation for those who had previous...
Episode 146 - The Battle of oPathe where Bhongoza and Hans Dons earn oral history stripes
November 26, 2023 06:39 - 23 minutes - 10.8 MBAndries Pretorius had won a major encounter with the Zulu army, which was now in full retreat and the way to emGungungundlovu was wide open. A day after the Battle on the 17th December 1838, Commandant General Pretorius had two Zulu captives brought before him. According to Voortrekker records, he gave them a piece of white calico with his name written on it in black ink, and told them to take it to Dingana. They should inform the king that the trekkers were approaching and that he should sue...
Episode 145 - The seminal Battle on the Ncome known as Blood River
November 18, 2023 18:14 - 26 minutes - 12.2 MBThis is episode 145 - we’re joining the AmaZulu and the Voortrekkers at the apocalyptic clash on the River Ncome, which was soon renamed Blood River. This battle has seared its way into South African consciousness — it is so symbolic that its reference frames modern politics. Just when someone comes along and pooh poohs Blood River’s importance, events conspire against them. And so, to the matter at hand. We join the two forces preparing for battle on the evening of 15th December 1838, t...
Episode 144 - Mpande evades Dingane’s assassination plot, the British seize Durban and Pretorius plans a covenant
November 11, 2023 12:58 - 26 minutes - 12.3 MBThis is episode 144 and a momentous event is about to take place. One that will shape Boer Zulu relations for centuries to come. The Battle of Blood River - or Ncome River - is etched in the consciousness of South Africans. While the gory details are not contested, its historical significance has been seized on by different political factions since the 16th December 1838. The day itself is a public holiday which we now call the Day of Reconciliation. Before that it was known as Dingane’s D...
Episode 143 - The World in 1838, New Veld Tech and Plough Enhancements
November 05, 2023 07:28 - 20 minutes - 9.73 MBThis is episode 143 and we’re back in Cape Town, it’s late 1838, our new British Governor Sir George Napier is in the hot seat and he’s already regretting taking up the position. He was trying to make Andries Stockenstrom’s eastern Cape Treaty System a success and this was not an easy task. Napier’s main pressure however was financial. Before he left Britain, the Colonial office had made it clear that they would not accept another war in the Eastern Cape. IT had cost the government dearly...
Episode 142 - Moshoeshoe the beard-shearer and the complex theological soup of the BaSotho
October 29, 2023 07:33 - 23 minutes - 10.8 MBThis is episode 142. It would be remiss of me not to say Congratulations Bokke on a gritty win over the All Blacks to become world champions for a record fourth time. With that said, picture the scene. We are standing on the western slopes of the Drakensberg, looking out across the Caledon Valley. The rivers we see here flow westward, into the Atlantic Ocean. Far to the south east lie the villages of the amaThembu on the slopes of the mountains that are now part of the Transkei. This is a f...
Episode 141 — An ode to the Orange River and San spoor blows in the wind
October 21, 2023 17:40 - 26 minutes - 12.2 MBWelcome back to the History of South Africa podcast with me your host, Des Latham. This is episode 141. First a little admin - a big thank you to for tuning in. This series has passed one million listens, the response has been staggering. When I began planning the history of South Africa podcast three years ago, it was literally a step into the deep end of audio production. Nothing can truly prepare you for such an enterprise — and this is a solo job. It’s me, the hundreds of books coll...
Episode 140 - High Noon at Gatslaager & Mzilikazi barges into the Batswana
October 15, 2023 06:32 - 18 minutes - 8.83 MBTen thousand Zulu warriors had appeared at GatsLaager, the headquarters of the Voortrekkers under the brow of the Drakensberg, sent by Dingana and led by Ndlela kaSompiti. In South African history and general memory there are major confrontations which are part of modern consciousness. These would be things like the Zulu defeat of the British at Isandlhwana, the Anglo Boer War, and in the 20th Century, the Border Wars, and the ANC and PAC struggles against Apartheid. However, this battle ...
Episode 139 - The Battle of Thukela/Dlokweni, Durban is sacked and the Republiek Natalia proclaimed
October 07, 2023 16:58 - 23 minutes - 11.1 MBThis is episode 139 and the Grand Army of Natal has marched over the Thukela River to attack the imizi of Ndondakusuka. And if you’re following, you’ll know that a large Zulu army is camped to the north of Ndondakusuka, led by Mpande Senzangakhona. We’re getting straight down to business, its the 17th April 1838 and after crossing the mighty Thukela, the Grand Army surrounded Ndondakusuka. This first engagement was short and sharp. Virtually all the inhabitants, mainly women and childre...
Episode 138 - The yin and yang of Stretch and Bowker and the Grand Army of Natal marches again
September 30, 2023 22:57 - 23 minutes - 11.1 MBThe world was undergoing some other major changes — including the climate. Explosive volcanic eruptions late in the 1790s had led to vast quantities of dust being thrown in the stratosphere and this had a short term effect on temperatures around the world. Nowhere on earth was safe — in southern Africa for example it had exacerbated droughts for most of the first three decades of the 19th Century. The fact that the Voortrekkers were being rained on in 1838 was something of a return to norma...
Episode 137 - The Vlugkommando of April 1838 and a hard rain continues to fall
September 23, 2023 23:33 - 24 minutes - 11.6 MBIt’s been a harrowing few months in southern Africa back in 1838. All manner of change has rolled in across the veld, there are worlds colliding, roiling, like thunderclouds, seething and churning. And almost allegorical, because lightning from real storms had already killed Boer horses and Zulu warriors in separate incidents as they fought each other. When the settlers in the Cape heard about Piet Retief’s fate followed shortly afterwards by news of the massacres of hundreds of Voortrekker...
Episode 136 - The place of weeping earns its name and the“Grand Army of Natal” marches off
September 17, 2023 00:39 - 27 minutes - 12.7 MBThis is episode 136 — the Zulu army has fallen on the Voortrekkers along the Bloukrans and Bushman’s rivers, close to where Escourt and Ladysmith are to be found today, but right now it’s February 17th 1838. The tributaries of these rivers were renamed Groot and Klein Moordspruit because of the bloody events of that time. By the morning of the 17th most of the families camped along these streams and rivers were dead. Within a few hours the right horn and the centre sections of the army ha...
Episode 135 - The Zulu army overruns the Voortrekkers along the Bloukrans and Bushman’s River
September 09, 2023 06:30 - 27 minutes - 13.1 MBAs you heard, Piet Retief and 100 Boers and Khoesan agterryes had been killed by Dingana on the 6th February 1838. Missionary Owen watched the killings through his telescope until he couldn’t take it any more and collapsed in shock. The Zulu king was not done, he’d ordered his amabutho warriors to seek and destroy the Voortrekkers who’d camped along the rivers below the Drakensberg where they’d arrived in large numbers expecting Retief’s negotiations to have ended well. Retief had thought...
Episode 134 - Lightning kills 12 Boer horses then the wizards die
September 03, 2023 07:37 - 31 minutes - 14.9 MBThis is episode 134 - and its going to be a massacre. It is also crucial as you’ve heard that we dig deep into the events because today there’s a huge debate about what I’m going to explain next, what documents still exist about what happened, and who owns what when it comes to land in South Africa. Specifically, land in KwaZulu Natal. What exactly did Dingane agree to sell to Piet Retief? Why did he agree to do this when he had told the missionaries and his own people that he wouldn’t ...
Episode 133 - Umkhandlu long thumb nails and tales of ill-gotten grain
August 26, 2023 17:32 - 26 minutes - 12.5 MBIt’s a hot day in northern Zululand, in the Mfolozi River valley, where Dingane’s capital emGungungudlovu was situated. When Piet Retief first met the Zulu king, he failed the grasp the extent to which this man’s authority was was based in what historian John Laband calls a combination of mystical ritual and naked power politics. That Dingane was a despot is clear but what was less understood was that his people allowed him to be so — that he could only make major decisions about politica...
Episode 132 - Piet Retief rides into Natal and land is on the agenda
August 20, 2023 10:13 - 23 minutes - 11.2 MBJust a quick thank you to AJL, as well as Jacque and Nkosinathi for your kind comments and emails - this series is nothing without my wonderful audience. Gangans — which is Khoesan for thank you. Voortrekker leader Piet Retief knew that he had to negotiate for any land in Natal with the Zulu king Dingane. So with that in mind, he left his family on the top of the escarpment as you heard at the end of last episode, taking four of the wagons and a small party of 15 men over the side of the ...
Episode 131 - Sharpened horns at the battle of eGabeni and the story of the Liebenberg girls
August 13, 2023 07:53 - 25 minutes - 12.1 MBMzilikazi Khumalo was trying to piece together his shattered amaNdebele after the attack on Mosega in early 1837 by the Boers and their allies the Griqua and Rolong. Then in midyear, he’d been attacked again by Dingana’s impis — he’d managed to survive that invasion but things were looking very bad as he hunkered down in his imizi of eGabeni in the Marico area of what is now north west province. Across southern Africa, movers and shakers were moving and shaking. By now, Durban was a bus...
Episode 130 - Piet Uys’ 1820 Settler Bible and the Qadi cut poles
August 06, 2023 07:25 - 18 minutes - 8.65 MBThis is episode 130 and the Voortrekkers are moving inexorably towards Natal, where the Zulu king Dingana awaits. At about the same time and as you’ll hear next episode, a large Voortrekker commando of more than 360 Boers, Griqua and the Rolong warriors were going to gather with the intent of finishing off Mzilikazi Khumalo. The amaNdebele king had arrived back at Mosega in the Klein Marico valley, and had also just fended off an impi sent by Dingana. By now, the number of trekkers arrivi...