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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.

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All Episodes

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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21:44

Episode 38 – The First Frontier War of 1781 and why...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/10/31

This is episode 38 and we’re focusing on the first war between the isiXhosa and the settlers which took place in 1781. Rharhabe had proposed an alliance between himself and the Colony – in return for Boer assistance against the imiDange clan who he had represented as rebels. Rharhabe framed the conversation as offering “friendship and peace upon a permanent footing” which spoke the settler language. Local strongman Adriaan van Jaarsveld had responded positively, but then Rharhabe missed another

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20:12

Episode 37 – How the amaXhosa waged war and Governor...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/10/24

This is episode 37 and we’re continuing the saga of late 18th Century Xhosa kingdoms. By late in the 18th Century, the Zuurveld was home to small groups of San, some khoekhoe chieftans, several Xhosa chiefdoms and the trekboers. They were mixing up together in a fairly confined territory and jostled each other increasingly angrily to secure the summer and winter grazing. While the San weren’t particularly interested in the grazing as they did not keep livestock, the pressure on the land was

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23:17

Episode 36 – The French and British fight over the...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/10/17

This is episode 36 and its time to return to Xhosaland. Before we do that, let’s step back a little and consider the effect of action beyond Africa that was having an influence on the continent, particularly the southern reaches. Adam Smith may have been somewhat bemused, as American historian Noel Mostert writes in his book frontiers, to find that the very year in which his masterwork was published saw the start of a struggle on the seas that rested on his own declared twin pillars of global

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21:12

Episode 35 – The Mthethwa and Ndwandwe flex their...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/10/10

This is episode 35 and we’re going to focus on the forerunners of the Zulu – the Mthethwa and Ndwandwe, the Qwabe and how they emerged in the region between the Tugela and Pongola rivers in northern KwaZulu Natal or what became known as Zululand. By the first few centuries AD the migrations of farmers moving into the area between the Drakensburg, the Mzimkhulu river south of modern Durban and up to Pondoland took place. There had been a steady growth of farmers here until the first phase of the

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19:01

Episode 34 – Trading and raiding, American whalers...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/10/03

This is episode 34 and we’re going to take a close look at what was going on in the region bounded by the Orange River, the Kalahari Desert and the Indian Ocean. This is where the Zulu emerged but the story is not the simple tale most of us know about Shaka. As with other areas we’ve investigated, the popular narrative over time is not always an accurate reflection of real history. This will become very apparent particularly as we unearth facts about the period between 1760 and 1800. It’s fairly

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19:32

Episode 33 – By 1771 Cape Town has a name and...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/09/26

This is episode 33 and we’re focusing on the Cape after spending last episode partly in Xhosaland. By 1771 the inn on the sea – the town in Table Bay – was being referred to as Cape Town for the first time by travellers. It appears there was not even a formal process, just the town at the foot of the mountain emerged over the preceding 120 years and by 1772 there were approximately 7000 people living there. Four thousand whites including 1700 sailors, and 2000 free blacks and slaves. Part of

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23:15

Episode 32 – An intermingling on the frontiers begins...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/09/19

This is episode 32 and we’re swinging back to the Cape frontier through the last few decades of the 18th Century. I am going to thoroughly probe this period because so many crucial things were unfolding across southern Africa such as the development of new centralized powerful kingdoms in the East, the acceleration of land occupation by the trekboers and the first real clashes between the isiXhosa and settlers. That is far too much to chew on in just one episode I’m sure you’ll agree. First we

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19:35

Episode 31 – Trade increases between Delagoa Bay and...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/09/10

This is episode 31 and we’ll now take a broader look at what was going on across southern Africa after a few episodes peering closely at the northern Cape. We’ll also take a closer look at how the Cape government was expanding. Sleeping giants were to awaken by the last quarter of the 18th Century, with the emergence and expansion of a number of increasingly centralized chiefdoms in the region between the northern and central Drakensberg and the Indian Ocean. A similar process was taking place at

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18:36

Episode 30 – Shipwrecked women and their Xhosa clan,...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/09/05

This is episode 30 and we’re covering the mid-18th Century, including tales of shipwrecked sailors, the art of making amasi and dealing with the amatakati or witches. We’ve heard much about the developments in the north of the Cape, the bokkeveld and the Roodezand up to 1740. Now we’ll swing our gaze to observe what was going on at the same time in the Eastern Cape frontier. It’s vaguely defined at least at this time as the area lying east of the Gamtoos River. This is important because its here

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19:22

Episode 29 – Murder, massacre and pacification of the...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/08/29

This is episode 29 and we’re dealing with the pacification of the Khoisan in 1739. The Bushman War of that year had broken out as we’ve heard over repeated incursions into Khoi territory by settlers who’d abused the hospitality of Captain Gal of the Great Namaqua – then shot him and eight of his family for good measure before driving off most of his cattle. This was the last straw for Khoi who rose up and began burning Dutch farms along the Olifant’s River. Not to be confused with the Olifants

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18:27

Episode 28 – The Bushman War of 1739 and the role of...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/08/22

This is episode 28, the Bushman War of 1739. Last episode we heard about the growing number of clashes reported in the run up to this full-scale war that did not last long – but extended in a great arc from the Piketberg in the north-west to the valley of the Langeberg in the south-east. It was the most extensive war between the settlers and the Khoisan since Van Riebeeck had arrived in 1652. Settlers were chased out of almost 60 cattle stations and farms, and more importantly, the stated aim of

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17:33

Episode 27 – The slaughtering in the Sandveld and the...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/08/15

This is episode 27 and we’re dealing with the period in the first half of 1700 – give or take a decade. Last episode we heard how the TrekBoer economy had developed and a new farmer had emerged on the landscape called the Boer. The descendents of Dutch and French immigrants were beginning to expand their footprint across southern Africa and of course the repercussions were enormous. Remember last episode we heard the minister of the Church at Drakenstein Petrus van Arkel who had written an

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16:28

Episode 26 – The Boers begin expanding across the...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/08/08

As we heard last episode, the direction of trekker expansion was largely a function of the nature of the terrain, along with the availability of water and the quality of pasture. What was to take place through the 18th century was a steady growth of loan farms that extended northwards along rivers and eastwards between mountain ranges, or following the coastal lowlands. The main areas settled before 1720 included the country north of the Berg River around the Piketberg, and to the east of the

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17:48

Episode 25 – The Xhosa social system and the TrekBoer...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/08/01

This is episode 25 and we’re following the early history of the Xhosa. They were about to come into direct contact with the Dutch expanding from the Cape Peninsular. Remember last episode we heard about the growing bizarre behaviour by Gcaleka who was one of Phalo’s sons – and his propensity to believe himself a diviner. That was after he escaped drowning in the musical sounding Ngxingxolo River. Phalo died in 1775 – but Gcaleka who became chief died only three years later. I was going to cover

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18:18

Episode 24 – The foundation of the Xhosa Kingdom,...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2021/07/25

This is episode 24, the Foundation of the Xhosa Kingdom, the heroes Tshawe and Phalo. I’ve made use of a number of books and documents in the series so far, but Jeff Perez’s House of Phalo is probably my favourite source material mainly because he lectured me at Rhodes University in the mid-1980s. His book on the Xhosa is still the go-to research document and I’m leaning quite heavily on the work for this episode. Let’s take ourselves back to Xhosa pre-history, that time in early oral tradition

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