Podcast
History of South Africa podcast
Episodes — page 9
- Episode 130 - Piet Uys’ 1820 Settler Bible and the Qadi cut poles
This 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 larg…
- EPISODE 129 - Lindley blesses the Boers, a sweep of 1837 and Stockenström’s bitter end
We are trundling along late in 1837, and as you heard last week, Dingane was dabbling in cross border raids, or at least, cross Drakensburg raids, and had dealt Mzilikazi a penulti…
- EPISODE 128 - Dingane smells blood and Retief leads the United Laagers
This is episode 128 and the bell is tolling for Mzilikazi Khumalo of the amaNdebele. We’ll also hear about the introduction of Maize by hunter-traders, and the relationship between…
- Episode 127 - Predikant blues and Piet Retief’s manifesto
When I started this series off a couple of years ago, it was a dive into the deep end — although it was the sixth podcast series I’d launched — this was the biggest gamble. But…
- Episode 126 - A Voortrekker commando takes revenge and the sedulous Susanna Smit
The Voortrekkers had survived the trauma of the Battle of Vegkop, they had narrowly survived and as they huddled together in Thaga ‘Nchu a form of unity was required. These differe…
- Episode 125 - The Battle of Vegkop pits the Voortrekkers against the amaNdebele
Last episode, we heard how the battle of Kopjeskraal near Parys had ended, where Mzilikazi’s second in command Kaliphi and his force of 500 men had been repulsed in a close fought…
- Episode 124 - The difference between Trekboers and Voortrekkers and the battle of Kopjeskraal
Last episode we ended with Hendrick Potgieter and Sarel Cilliers riding to try and find a route to Delagoa Bay, and meeting up with Louis Trichardt. If you remember, Potgieter…
- Episode 123 - The Voortrekkers as Israelites and Mzilikazi is about to become Pharaoh
Just a quick thank you to the folks at East coast Radio, Diane and DW, for promoting this podcast with listeners to that station, I’m honoured to have cracked the nod and been sele…
- Episode 122 - Lord Glenelg moulds a troublous history
Let’s take another look at the push factors driving the Voortrekkers away from their frontier farms. Most had lived on the margins of society for generations, part of the first gro…
- Episode 121 - Lang Hans Janse Van Rensburg’s fatal ivory obsession and the peho slippery snake
Moshoeshoe’s elder sons were now at a site that was to be named Moriah, 24 miles south of Maseru, chosen by the two French missionaries Arbousset and Casalis for its beauty - and t…
- Episode 120 - Ploughs in the Platberg, the BaSotho, the MaBuru, MaNyesemane and the BaKhothu
We join Moshoeshoe just before the arrival of the trekkers, as he sought to build his political power once the Ngwane and other roving bands had been defeated. Mzilikazi was attack…
- Episode 119 - The saga of Moshoeshoe, how his grandfather was eaten, and mystical advisor Tsapi
The story of south Africa is incomplete without scrutinising the kingdom of Lesotho, not only because geographic location means the mountains are part of our tale, but also because…
- Episode 118 - Voortrekkers cross the Orange River carrying ancestral blood from the orient
Hark! What sound breaks the inscrutable silence of the immense African veld? Dozens of wagons, which would become hundreds. Trundling along at about 5 miles a day, the Voor…
- Episode 117 - The Sixth Frontier War ends in a draw and Trekboers like Louis Trichardt seek the promised land
There was a great exodus of some people, the movement of the people into the interior of South Africa - a moment that was going to reverberate all the way to the present. The Gr…
- Episode 116 - A murder most foul and the British wilt as the guerrilla war weakens resolve
April 1835 is passing swiftly, and still no sign of the 75 000 head of cattle demanded by the British of the amaXhosa - Hintsa remains a hostage of Benjamin D’Urban, although it wa…
- Episode 115 - Hintsa becomes a hostage and the Mfengu become British
It's early 1835 and Cape Governor Benjamin D’urban an his 2000 men were winding their way through the AMatola mountains, searching for Maqoma and Thyali’s warriors. The going was t…
- Episode 114 - The British clamber up the slopes of the Amatolas chasing Xhosa ghosts and the mysterious Mfengu
We’re going to hear about a man called John Ayliff - a man who has gone down in the annals of South African history about as mixed as a box of smarties. His mission station at…
- Episode 113 - Guerrilla warfare throws up a challenge while Jannie Hostage and Ou Blouberg plan their escape
It’s early 1835 and globally, quite a few fascinating things are going on. For one, America’s National Debt was Zero dollars - for the first and last time in it’s history. It’s pre…
- Episode 112 - Hand-to-hand fighting along the Great Fish River
The Sixth frontier war was ablaze and now Harry Smith was in Grahamstown rearranging the military furniture. He wasn’t there for long. As a man of action he was determined to cha…
- Episode 111 - Harry Smith arrives in panic-stricken Grahamstown in January 1835 and stiffens settler spines
ON December 21st 1834 at least ten thousand warriors under Maqoma and Thyali swept all before them as they raided deep into the Cape colony, across a wide front. Fort Beaufort…
