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PODCAST

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.

history places & travel

All Episodes

21:41

Episode 58 – A dilemma of principle as religious...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2022/03/20

For on 18th May 1803, ten days after Janssens had reached Algoa Bay on his long journey overland to the frontier from Cape Town, Malta in the Mediterranean became a flashpoint. This little island was the first step on a Mediterranean passage from Europe to India as far as both Napoleon and the British were concerned. Under the Treaty of Amiens, Britain undertook to hand Malta back to the Knights of St John, who had ruled it before Napoleon and the British began fighting over it. But then the

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19:26

Episode 57 – The Batavian Republic takes over the...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2022/03/13

Last episode we dealt with the arrival of the new representatives of the Batavian Republic who’d come to take over the Cape Colony from the British. While the British received commissioner-General Jacob Abraham Uitenhage de Mist who was a brilliant organizer and administrator, things did not go well at first. de Mist was to install a new administration then hand over to a new governor called Lieutenant-General Jan Wilhelm Janssens once the new executive and judicial machinery were in place. So

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19:44

Episode 56 – The burghers suffer their worst setback...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2022/03/06

Last episode we heard about Doctor Somerville’s expedition to Dithakong which was interesting but a failure in terms of its main aim. That was to secure cattle – he came back with only around 160 or so when the Cape needed a few hundred at least. Also on the move was the London Missionary Society’s Johannes Theodorus van der Kemp – remember him? He had arrived in Graaff-Reinet in May 1801 joined by James Read replacing poor Edmonds who had a nervous breakdown while at Ngqika’s Great Place

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19:25

Episode 55 – Somerville's 1802 description of the...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2022/02/27

Welcome back to the History of South Africa podcast, with me your host Des Latham - this episode 55. We’ll follow Doctor William Somerville on his way home from the expedition you heard about last episode and there’s a lot of action. First we’ll spend time with the Scots doctor as he spent time at Dithakong, that Great Tswana city of the Tlhaping. They had entered Griqua country By November 21st and made their way towards Dithakong cautiously. First they sent a guide ahead “…the inform the

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20:45

Episode 54 – Doctor William Somerville’s...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2022/02/20

World events has once again conspired to interrupt the flow of events in southern Africa by the early 1800s. The British were going to withdraw from the Cape of Good Hope and their move began far away in Ireland. As part of the price for Irish agreement to parliamentary union with Britain in 1800, Prime Minister William Pitt had promised to liberate Roman Catholics from the restrictions of their civil liberties imposed since the 16th Century . Three hundred years of English yoke through

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19:56

Episode 53 – The surge in centralized chiefdoms circa...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2022/02/13

This episode we return to the eastern coastal region of what would become Zululand – but first we’ll cover the trekboers quick getaway in the Zuurveld. It’s crazy town time at Ngqika’s Great Place after Ndlambe his uncle makes off westwards and the Khoe in the area decide it’s time to fight the trekboers once more. By the end of 1800 Coenraad de Buys had convinced all trekboers and the missionary Van Der Kemp it was time to leave the amaXhosa king’s /Great Place before he killed them all. Ngqika’s

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24:22

Episode 52 – Christmas 1799 brings a fortuitous...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2022/02/06

We’re heading into a new and most momentous century – the 1800s. When we left off last episode, Ngqika was still trying to decide what to do about the missionaries camping near his Great Place – somewhere east of King Williamstown and south of Hogsback today. The British had managed to stabilize the Eastern Cape at the end of 1799 but this was a false peace as you’re going to hear. Coenraad de Buys the giant Trekboer was still living with Ngqika and muttering sweet horribles into his ear about

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23:23

Episode 51 – The Third Frontier War ends and...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2022/01/29

So this war was set off by the blunt British instrument called Packenham Vandeleur as we heard in Episode 50. The Zuurveld farmers were now in a defenceless state since their supply of powder and lead had been stopped by the British who were trying to stymie the Graaff-Reinet trekboer rebels. Some Khoe and Bastaard were also fighting with the amaXhosa who had been confronted by Vandeleur on the Sunday’s River. To use a more modern and yet English phrase, everything had gone pear shaped. By now 29

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22:04

Episode 50 – Brigadier General Vandeleur fires...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2022/01/23

This is episode 50 and the British have mobilized the dragoons to end a trekboer uprising in Graaff-Reinet. That will spark what is known as the Third Frontier War. But first we'll have a quick look at a powerful party that arrived in 1799 that was going to change everything on the frontier. The Missionaries. The idea started earlier, on November 4th 1794, when a small group gathered in Baker’s Coffee House, Change Alley, London. The outcome of this gathering was the London Missionary Society

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20:00

Episode 49 – The Khoe War of 1799, Gerrit Owies is...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2022/01/16

This is episode 49 and Khoe and Oorlam Afrikaaner uprising of 1799. Keep in mind at this point in South African history, Afrikaaners are the mixed race band of former Khoe, mixed race, slaves and Namaqua living in the northern Hantam and at times, raiding Namaqualand. When we left off last episode things were sliding towards war as the settlers of the Hantam and the Khoe were thrown into chaos. This episode we’ll hear also pick up the story further east in the Zuurveld where Coenraad de Buys who’d

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20:00

Episode 48 – Petrus Pienaar shot dead on his Hantam...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2022/01/09

This is episode 48 and we’re following the sagas of the Visagies and others in the Hantam, that rough and ready part of the northern Cape. This chaotic land had spawned another by the name of Petrus Pienaar of the Afrikaaners. Regarded as one of the most influential men of the frontier, Pienaar emerged as the spokesman of the Hantammers. He was closely linked to the Afrikaaner Oorlams from at least the 1780s and was capable of incredible feats of physical endurance even by the standards of the day

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24:53

Episode 47 – Tales of the Hantam including the bandit...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2022/01/02

This is episode 47 and we are concentrating on a mysterious and contradicted part of southern Africa, the Hantam. We’re also going to meet a German sailor who’d deserted and ran away to the Orange River in the 1780s by the name of Jan Bloem. He worked as an overseer, a Knecht, at Sandfontein farm owned by Petrus Pienaar. Groups of white hunters were also now resident in the area to the south of the Orange by this stage and we’ve already heard about how the Kora, the Griqua and the Oorlams had

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20:05

Episode 46 – We meet the Afrikaaner Oorlams of...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/12/26

This is episode 46 and it’s about Namaqualand, the Oorlam Afrikaaners and the Griquas But first a note about the British occupation. We know that they arrived in 1795, defeated the Dutch forces and then attempted to take control of events on the frontiers. As the Dutch had found, this was not an easy undertaking. The new Governor Sir George Yonge had replaced the acting Governor Macartney and Yonge was a stiff formal Englishman. But he was also a man of ideas and experimented with farming, and

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19:17

Episode 45 – The ancient people of the Orange River...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/12/19

This is episode 45 and it’s time to turn our attention to Namaqualand. This is an area which is not spoken of very often, the wild northern frontier where bandits rode oxen and escaped slaves, white ex-soldiers and black clans joined forces – or fought each other. The brigands and Badlands here are exotic to say the least as you’re going to hear. Folks fixate on the tales from the eastern Cape frontier for good reason that’s true. And yet, much of the rich history of southern Africa encompasses

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19:46

Episode 44 – Trekboer Coenraad de Buys marries...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/12/12

This is episode 44 and we continue to travel about the Zuurveld and beyond with Englishman John Barrow. Remember he’d arrived in Graaff-Reinet with landdrost FR Bressler and their entry into the mud and daub village marked the restoration of Cape control after an interval of two and a half years. That was late 1797. Because they were accompanied by a small group of Dragoon light cavalry, the message was clear. Authority is back. But the trekboers and particularly the giant Coenraad de Buys were

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17:38

Episode 43 – Lady Anne throws dinner parties as John...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/12/05

This is episode 43 and we’re dealing with the arrival of the English at the Cape. As you know, the Peninsular had become more important in the eyes of the English as they fought a lengthy war against France at the end of the 18th Century – a war that was to continue through until Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in 1815. The British would occupy the Cape twice of course and when they arrived in 1795 the region was convulsed by disorder on the frontiers. The Khoekhoe rose up twice in conjunction

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20:36

Episode 42 – Lady Anne Barnard, Earl Macartney and...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/11/25

This is episode 42 and the English have just seized the Cape. Remember at the time they were in a world war with the French and revolutionary fervour had swept the world with its populist refrain, its’ berets of southern France and Liberte Equalite Fraternite narrative. This had swept the globe – all the way to Graaff-Reinet in the upper Zuurveld on the Cape frontier where the trekboers were motivated to throw off the corrupt yoke of the VOC – and then in turn, the new English rule. As we

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23:28

Episode 41 – The English take Cape Town, Americans...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/11/21

This is episode 41 and we’re dealing with two main things – firstly the shift in power amongst the Xhosa at the end of the 18th Century, then the arrival of the English in South Africa. Remember we’ve been focusing on the Zuurveld as the trekboers and the amaXhosa both expanded their interest in the region. The fate of these contending parties would remain undecided for twenty years and for the amXhosa, it was their fractured politics that weakened them precisely at the moment their greatest

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22:14

Episode 40 – The Second Frontier War and the...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/11/14

This is episode 40 and we’re dealing with the Second Frontier War. The Zuurveld Boers were indignant at the reluctance of the distant government of the Cape to come to their aid as the amaGqunukhwebe swept onto their farms. Remember Xhosa king Ndlambe was trying to bring them to heel and had ordered the amaGqunukhwebe and Langa’s amaMbalu to move westwards across the Fish River. Instead the amaGqunukhwebe headed in the opposite direction to get away from the Xhosa kings warriors. Graaff-Reinet’s

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21:41

Episode 39 – Rebel Coenraad de Buys, lover of Xhosa...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/11/07

This is episode 39 and we’re going to meet one of the country’s most incredible characters who’s activities on the frontier in the late 1700s were to be forgotten. Coenraad de Buys was probably one of the most African of all trekboers as you’re going to hear and the saga of his life was written out of text books long before apartheid. That was because he married Khoe and Xhosa women and lived amongst both people quite comfortably. At the same time he was still a trekboer as you’ll hear. He was

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