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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

21:18

Episode 254 - Skop, Skiet and Donner on the Day of...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/12/21

The morning of January 22, 1879, dawned with a deceptive, stillness across Zululand masking the fact that over 45,000 men were in motion across a 200 kilometer front, each group operating in a vacuum of information that would, by sunset, shatter the British Victorian ego.At the coast, Colonel Charles Pearson’s Column No. 1 represented the textbook invasion. His force was a heavy, industrial machine led by the 3rd Foot regiment, the Buffs, along with the 99th Regiment, and the Naval Brigade dragging

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21:31

Episode 253 - The order of Battle Before Isandlwana...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/12/13

Episode 253 - The order of Battle for Isandlwana and Nyezane as ‘ukuni’ Wood Heads North Three separate British columns are inside Zululand and things are hotting up — and not just because of the steamy summer temperatures. In the last few episodes I’ve concentrated on General Chelmsford’ and Colonel Glynn’s operations in the centre, second Column, as they made their way over the Mzinyathi River across from Rorke’s Drift - the centre of the British Invasion of Zululand. This episode we’ll wrap

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18:53

Episode 252 — Chelmsford’s Fatal Confidence: The Day...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/12/07

This is episode 252, it is January 19th 1879, and we’re standing alongside Lord Chelmsford at the British camp based at Rorke’s Drift — and nearby is Henry Francis Fynn Junior. Chelmsford had grown frustrated by the rain which had slowed the crossing of the Mzinyathi at Rorke’s Drift. He had also been frustrated by Henry Francis Fynn Junior who had been negotiating with Zulu chiefs without his permission. Fynn’s father, Henry Francis senior was the first English trader in Natal, and had spent time

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25:18

Episode 250 - Nqutu's Rocky Mountains: British...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/11/23

First a quick note which the marketing weasel ordered me to announce. This week I received an email from Apple which read: "We’re thrilled to share some incredible news: History of South Africa podcast has been selected by our editors as one of Apple Podcasts' Best Shows of 2025! Congratulations on this fantastic achievement and for creating one of the most compelling shows of the year. We’re so excited to spotlight your work.” So to all the listeners and my supporters, for all your wonderful

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20:33

Episode 248 - The Eagle and Four Hawks: The Making of...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/11/09

Sir Bartle Frere’s ultimatum to Cetshwayo kaMpande of 11 January 1879 was about to expire. Last episode I explained the reasons behind Frere’s fevered decision, egged on as he was by Sir Theophilus Shepstone whose shadow looms large over the history of Natal - and South Africa. Cetshwayo’s diplomacy had relied on the British supporting him against the claims of the Boers to his territory to the north west, already volatile by Mpande’s reign, now it was going to set off one of the most unique wars

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19:12

Episode 246 - Black Bricks, Armed Maids, and the...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/10/26

The year is1878 - and Cape Governor Sir Sir Bartle Frere is throwing the empire’s weight around South Africa. Let’s put ourselves in his shoes because some historians say he had a formidable Machiavellian personality, full of fatal overconfidence, too used to having his own way and to ignoring the magnitude of obstacles confronting him. One of those perceived obstacles was Zulu king, Cetshwayo kaMpande. Crowned in 1873 after the death of his father, Mpande kaSenzangakhona, Cetshwayo presided over

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20:35

Episode 245 - Sir Bartle Frere’s Excellent Adventure:...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/10/19

Sir Bartle Frere had sailed into South Africa in March 1877 - lauded as a great British administrator in India. He arrived just in time to witness Sir Theophilus Shepstone seize, sorry, annex the Transvaal under the noses of the incredulous and in equal amounts, contemptuous Boers. Frere was another of Carnarvon’s boys, determined to enforce confederation onto south Africa. He was regarded as one of the most effective English civil servants in India, keeping the vital province of Sind quiet during

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17:24

Episode 244 - Twitters' Transvaal Annexation, Rider...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/10/12

Episode 244 and Victorian popular fiction author H Rider Haggard features as one of the main characters of this tale. Rider Haggards’ creation called Allan Quartermain appeared in 18 novels - the first in what has become known as is the Lost World genre. George Lucas and Philip Kaufman copied the Allan Quartermain template for Indiana Jones character - as well as the basic storylines for movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark. While King Solomon’s Mines is Rider Haggard’s most popular work, Allan

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23:55

Episode 243 - Guns, Germans and Steal: The Pedi War...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/10/05

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 fields ignited what could be called a small arms race on the veld. There was supposedly an arms embargo on blacks instituted by the British government two decades before, but this was frequently broken. In the Cape colony and Griqualand west diamond fields, the trade in firearms depended on two technicalities. Importers of these weapons had to deposit

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22:07

Episode 242 - Merchant Traders, Natal plantations,...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/09/28

Episode 242 is about putting ploughs into the ground, how the rural areas of much of the country was experiencing something of an agricultural revolution. It’s rather a fascinating tale, because there are tremendous contradictions in what we’re going to talk about this episode. As usual, there we will need to combine a global story with our local story —without doing so would be to stunt our awareness of the strands and tendrils that spread and connect. By the 1850s, Great Britain was manipulating

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19:59

Episode 241 - Yankee Babies, Monstrous Cobwebs, the...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/09/21

Episode 241 and we’re back with the diamond miners and their Kaias and Cocopans. More about this in a minute. A big thank you to Donald Paterson who’s great-great-great grandfather founded Standard Bank, he’s sent a couple of pictures I’m going to use in my next newsletter. And to Rob Bernstein who’s producing a photo-book and who’s asked me to write an epilogue, thanks for the coffee chat and the opportunity. Last we heard about plans for South African Confederation, this episode ties up with

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25:28

Episode 240 - Carnarvon’s Confederation, a...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/09/14

This is episode 240 and our swivels to the north - a Great Apostle for Confederation and the pre-Scramble for Africa Geopolitical Omlette. Part of this story is a continuation of the Langalibalele Affair in Natal which had created the perception that the authorities there were unable to cope. This provided an opportunity for Colonial office back in England to consider radical moves like forcing through a Confederation of South African colonies. Throughout the 1870s, Lord Carnarvon the British

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21:13

Episode 239 - The Central South African Powder...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/09/07

When we left off last episode amaHlubi chief Langalibalele and a few hundred warriors had sought shelter inside Basotholand, crossing the Drakensberg Mountains through Bushmans Pass in November 1873. When the British tried to send columns to corner him, one of the columns had been stopped by amaHlubi at the pass where five of the British troops had been killed, three young Natal Carbineers, a Basotho tracker and a translator. This event had shocked the settlers of Natal, and in response by

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18:27

Episode 230 - From Knysna’s Burning Forests to...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/07/06

This is episode 230, From Knysna’s Burning Forests to Tolstoy’s War and Peace: The World in 1869.Globally, the end of the sixth decade of the 19th Century was full of fire and brimbstone, and some technology, social change, significant moments. The construction of the the Port Nolloth-O'okiep railway line is one notable tech development, but on the down side, the Southern Cape experienced a devastating fire that began in early February in the Meiringspoort area of the Swartberg Mountains,

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26:45

Episode 227 - Diamonds, War, and Destiny: Moshoeshoe,...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/06/15

Episode 227 — a turning point not just in our nation’s past, but in the arc of 19th-century global history.For soon, the earth will yield its glittering secret — the diamond — and with it, fortunes will rise, empires will stir, and the southern tip of Africa will be irrevocably transformed. But before we reach that seismic revelation, we journey first into the twilight of a king’s life — to the basalt crown of Thaba Bosiu, where Moshoeshoe, the great architect of Basotho unity, faced the gravest

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26:19

Episode 226 – The Estate Agent of the Transvaal: Paul...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/06/08

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 1865 and 1866, only to return with cruel insistence between 1868 and 1869. Livelihoods withered, landscapes turned brittle. And yet, amid the dust and desolation, there was a glint of promise on the horizon, a hint of glitter in the forecast.British Kaffraria — that volatile strip of land east of the Kei — had been the stage for repeated wars

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22:53

Episode 224 - El Niño’s and Al Nina’s and the Griqua...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/05/25

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. 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 Africa. The pernicious climate. As Professor Mike Meadows of

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22:24

Episode 220 - The Transvaal Civil War of 1862-1864...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/04/27

All manner of things are going on — thanks to those folks out there who’ve been sending me notes and support, much appreciated. 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 multiple rotating barrels driven by a hand crank, allowing operators to

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24:43

Episode 214 - Booming Port Elizabeth, Cunning Cape...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/03/15

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 Indians arriving in South Africa, and a spot of Boer Republic rebellion. 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 fiercly patriotic, and fiercely independent. Always smaller than

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23:15

Episode 212 - The Basotho-Boer War of 1858 leads to a...

History of South Africa podcast ·

2025/03/01

Episode 212 it is - we’re cruising into 1858 but wait! 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 uncomfortable truth for metropolitans who are more used to single latte’s than

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