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.
Episodes
British Kaffraria — that volatile strip ...
By the time th...
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 — the 1860s — and following the path of the Griqua Great Trek into Nomansland.
First let’s get our heads around the cycles of drought and flood in southern...
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 episode of our series is following on from 1863, into 1864, where the movement of people became as demographic phenomenon — driven b...
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 ended, the American Civil War is still going gangbusters. In the last 12 months, momentous events have shaped world history. Abraham Lincoln signed the the Emancipation Proclamation in Jan...
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 and real effect — as the farmers took up arms against each other, the Transvaal’s economy collapsed. This weakened the government’s ability to back up its stated author...
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 1862, and there’s nothing like a war to trigger innovation — if you excuse the pun. Richard Jordan Gatling patented his terrifying Gatling gun featuring mult...
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 first cousin Prince Albert—did allow and even encourage cousin marriage, particularly among royalty and the upper classes to consoli...
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 by agriculture, it was before the discoveries of most of the valuable minerals that turned the region from a sleepy agrarian backwater into one of the most d...
Not to mention Chris whose significant support means I can host the series long term on iono.fm - and also a shout out, very modern that, a shout out, to Francois at iono.fm wh...
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.
There was an older son of Mpande, called Hamu, who was his first-born son by Nozibhuku, who in turn was the daughter of th...
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 deep growls, bring everything back to life. The air before this denizens of the blue sky pass by is sullen, the horizon hazed over, after the ...
It’s hardly ever a quiet day in sunny South Africa.
In the eyes of most folks of the south, the Windy City features as a minor point on the urban map and in popular consciousness. The people of the city however are...
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 their tune when it came to possible amalgamation with the Transvaal. They were now considering this a viable option.
Marthinus Pretorius had made...
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.
Whatever our belief system or our personal politics, what cannot be disputed is that the country and our ways are those of the warrior. This is an uncomforta...
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 12 members elected every four years by ballot.
By the way, this was not only a first for South Africa, but for Great Britain its...
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 terminology and the fact that South African History is a terminological nightmare.
Not my words, those of historian Clifton C...
Mpande had moved Cetshwayo and his uSuthu regiments away from their northern power zones and Mbuyazi and his iziGqoza to the south east in an abortive attempt at reducing Cetshwayo’s growing power.
There had been a mock hunt organised supposedly to sort out t...
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 effects, and a mingling of Christianity and traditional magic — an attempt at finding salvation.
It was not the first, nor the last millenar...
You heard last episode about the causes of the Xhosa Cattle Killing, now we’re going to deal w...
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