History of South Africa podcast
Rásarupplýsingar
History of South Africa podcast
A 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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Episode 244 - Twitters' Transvaal Annexation, Rider Haggard’s Role and Railways
Episode 244 and Victorian popular fiction author H Rider Haggard features as one of the main characters of this tale. Rider Haggards’ creation called...
Episode 243 - Guns, Germans and Steal: The Pedi War of 1876
By 1876 the Sotho, Tswana, Venda, Pedi, the amaXhosa had all managed to secure for themselves a fairly easy access to firearms. The Griqualand Diamond...
Episode 242 - Merchant Traders, Natal plantations, African farmers and the Harrismith Sour Veld Land Swindler
Episode 242 is about putting ploughs into the ground, how the rural areas of much of the country was experiencing something of an agricultural revolut...
Episode 241 - Yankee Babies, Monstrous Cobwebs, the Devil’s Cauldron and Rhodes’ Steam Engine
Episode 241 and we’re back with the diamond miners and their Kaias and Cocopans. More about this in a minute.
A big thank...
Episode 240 - Carnarvon’s Confederation, a Pre-scramble for Africa Geopolitical Mashup & Free State Ships
This is episode 240 and our swivels to the north - a Great Apostle for Confederation and the pre-Scramble for Africa Geopolitical Omlette.
Episode 239 - The Central South African Powder Magazine and How Chief Langalibalele Ended up on Robben Island
When we left off last episode amaHlubi chief Langalibalele and a few hundred warriors had sought shelter inside Basotholand, crossing the Drakensberg...
Episode 238 - ‘Another Little War’ at Bushman’s River Pass and the British Blow up Bits of the Drakensberg
This is episode 238 and it’s going to be full of legal back and forth, all about the Langalibalele Rebellion, another little war as the London times c...
Episode 237 - Going Native, Coconuts, Hindu immigrants and Church and State in Natal
Although responsible government had come comparatively late for the Cape Colony, the transition in many ways was still too early. It had come twenty y...
Episode 236 - The Twelve Apostles, Rhodes buys Roodepoort, Sticky-Fingered Diamond Thieves and a New Pass System
The sound of mining —
And the sound of money —
All across Griqualand West, tent towns mushroome...
Episode 235 - Cetshwayo Glamped and Crowned, Shepstone Stalled, Masiphula Poisoned
This is episode 235, and it’s back to high drama circa 1873.
Before that just some news .. unbelievable as it may appear, Apple Podcasts...
Episode 234: Babbage’s Final Calculation, the Cape Charts Its Own Course, and the End of Mpande’s Reign
I have to say a big thank you to Adi and Janice who hosted me at their farm Kalmoesfontein this week as part of the Swartland Revolution events they’r...
Episode 233 - Stafford Parker’s Unique Digger’s Republic and Free State/FNB Links
This is an episode packed with odd resonances, echoes, large whiskers, many presidents and the origin of a modern bank.
No...
Episode 232 - Diamond Geology as an Art, Dinosaur Veldskoene and Waterboer’s Claim
This is episode 232 - Diamond Geology as an Art, Dinosaur Veldskoene and Waterboer’s claim
Just a quick note about that am...
Episode 231 - Protestants and Catholics Struggle for Moshoeshoe’s Soul in 1870
Moshoeshoe, the Basotho king who’d outwitted, outfought and outlived most of his enemies, was nearing his end. He had managed to ensure his chiefdom s...
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...
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.
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. <...
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 e...
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...
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 Ma...
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.
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 J...
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...
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...
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 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...
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.
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 mak...
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 rela...
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 ap...
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 Indi...
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...
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 ol...
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 b...
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 de...
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...
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,...
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...
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 ti...
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.