History of South Africa podcast

Episode 78 – 10 000 Xhosa warriors led by Makhanda aka Nxele attack Grahamstown

Trouble was not so much brewing as fermenting on the eastern Cape frontier as we heard last episode. The British were aware that Ndlambe and his wardoctor, Nxele, had gathered troops ready to invade the Albany region, the Zuurveld, and Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Wilshire, or Tiger Tom as he was…

6 Aug 2022 23 min

Episode 77 – The strange tale of Dr (Ms) James Barry and Makhanda’s War begins

The period between 1816 and 1819 saw the level of conflict rise significantly across southern Africa – not only were the Zulu beginning their ascent to power in the east, but in the frontier district of the Cape, war was afoot. The seer, the man we’ve tracked for a few…

30 Jul 2022 21 min

Episode 76 – The vicious battle of Amalinde and the messianic force of Makhanda

Things were beginning to move along the eastern Cape frontier, through the region known previously as the Zuurveld, the Albany district, with its rocky rivers and ravines, thorny bush covered recesses, rolling grasslands and magnificent mountains. The Great House of the amaGcaleka had sorted out its differences, these were the…

24 Jul 2022 25 min

Episode 75 – Lord Charles Somerset reinforces the Fish River then meets the amaXhoseni and misreads Ngqika

It had taken twenty years from the initial British landing on the Cape for the occupation to become permanent. So by August 1814, following the first abdication of Napoleon, the Netherlands regained independence with the Prince Orange re-installed as sovereign. The British duly restored some of his colonies to him…

17 Jul 2022 22 min

Episode 74 – The horror story that is Slagter’s Nek of 1816 and its role in Afrikaner nationalism

It’s the second decade of the 19th Century - the trekboers as you heard last episode were alarmed by the British decision to drop loan farms – and using the quit-rent system to reinforce land ownership. Governor Somerset had arrived to take over the management of this new system, and…

9 Jul 2022 21 min

Episode 73 – Shaka overwhelmes the Qwabe and the British upend the trekboer Loan Farm tradition

So, in 1817, Shaka had been forced to flee his home as Zwide’s Ndwandwe attacked repeatedly – and he found himself south of the Thukela. He needed to forge a stronger relationship with the people to the north, and in particular the Qwabe who were found south of Umhlatuzi river,…

3 Jul 2022 24 min

Episode 72 – Shaka flees south over the Thukela River as Zwide’s Ndwandwe expand their raiding

By the 1810s, Zwide had built a powerful centralized kingdom and reinforced this power using his extensive family. He also formed feared amabutho such as the amaPhela, the abaHlakabezi, and isiKwitshi and the amaNkaiya. Most of these were around before Shaka became king of the Zulus, and the Ndwandwe were…

26 Jun 2022 18 min

Episode 71 – Calendars, the lunar month and the Zulu “houses of the sun”

This is episode 71 and Shaka has just been installed as the Zulu regent in 1812. There is even debate about this as the year – some say it was more like 1816. However, I believe historian Dan Wylie’s earlier date is probably the right one – by the way…

19 Jun 2022 20 min

Episode 70 – Senzangakhona dies and Shaka takes over as chief of the AmaZulu

This is episode 70 and we’re walking with Shaka. He spent the bulk of his early and teenage years in Zulu country, that area to the north of the Umhlatuzi, between the Langeni and the white Mfolozi rivers. Towards the end of his youth things became increasingly difficult for him,…

12 Jun 2022 23 min

Episode 69 – Senzangakhona’s “Jerusalem of the Zulus”, his beautiful wife Bhibhi and a bit of Delagoa Bay

This is episode 69 and we’re hunting the origins of Shaka. Throughout the area north of the Thukela River the main medium of exchange in terms of goods was no longer cattle by 1810 – it was beads. These glass objects manufactured in Europe had flowed through southern Africa starting…

5 Jun 2022 22 min

Episode 68 – Stockenström’s anguish, Dingiswayo and the beginning of the era of blood, power and iron

We heard last episode how the fourth Frontier War of 1811/12 had been a short sharp affair and the anger bubbling away amongst amaXhosa leadership about the brutal emptying of the Albany district, so recently called the Zuurveld. We need to close a chapter here for a while to return…

29 May 2022 21 min

Episode 67 – Wardoctor Nxele begins to see visions as he synthesises amaXhosa religion with Christianity

Graham’s war in the Eastern Cape had sent the amaXhosa hurrying eastwards over the Great Fish River, with Ndlambe settling near where East London is today. Not surprisingly, however, the 1812 explusions caused an increase in cattle raiding rather than more stability because the power of the chiefs had been…

22 May 2022 20 min

Episode 66 – The Fourth Frontier war bursts into flame, Chungwa is shot and Stockenstrom is assegai'd

This is episode 66 – it’s late 1811 and Sir John Cradock has just dispatched Lieutenant Colonel John Graham into the eastern Cape frontier to rid the Zuurveld of the amaXhosa. Cradock suffered from none of his predecessors inhibition against taking military action. This did not reflect a change of…

15 May 2022 23 min

Episode 65 – Graham launches his terror campaign in the Zuurveld and Chungwa of the Gqunukhwebe is in his sights

This is episode 65 and we’ll spend time with the amaXhosa, and hear about Lieutenant Colonel John Graham. I mentioned last episode that he was going to introduce what he would call a proper degree of terror in the Zuurveld where the British adopted an ethnic cleansing campaign in 1811…

8 May 2022 19 min

Episode 64 – The amaXhosa “strolling” days are numbered as Lieutenant-General Sir John Cradock arrives

This is episode 64 and we’ve rejoined Lieutenant colonel Richard Collins and Governor Caledon in Cape Town. If you remember last episode we heard about Collins’ military intelligence gathering trip to the eastern Frontier.He’d returned with two main ideas about what to do about the amaXhosa still living in the…

1 May 2022 20 min

Episode 63 – Shaka’s isicoco regulation, a “she” rebellion and Lieutenant Colonel Collins collects intel

Last episode we spent some time back in Zululand hearing about the amaMthethwa, the amaNdwandwe, the amaHlubi, the amaQwabe and that tiny little chiefdom called the amaZulu. They were largely irrelevant in the history of South Africa at the time, until Zwide’s amaNdwandwe began pushing southwards into Mthethwa territory. Then…

24 Apr 2022 25 min

Episode 62 – Dingiswayo and Shaka of the amaMthethwa, Ndlambe and Ngqika of the amaRharhabe

We’re hustling towards the year 1807. If you remember last episode, we heard that the young Shaka had grown up in amaZulu chief Senzangakona’s house – the Zulu chief – but by 1802 he’d fled. By the early 1800s only about 2000 people were part of the AmaZulu and they…

17 Apr 2022 21 min

Episode 61 – British Governor Lord Caledon launches the pass law system in the Cape in 1808

This is episode 61 and the English are back in Cape Town. This was a momentous moment for southern Africa. Gone was the VOC and its chaos, in its place a world superpower had arrived and it was going to exploit the region in various ways over the next century…

8 Apr 2022 20 min

Episode 60 – The Battle of Blaauberg in 1806 and an American landdrost takes control of the Eastern Cape

Its January 1806 and the British have dispatched a fleet of 61 vessels to Cape Town under the charge of Commodore Home Popham to seize the port. As you’ve heard that was after the war between England and France reignited in 1805 after a the briefest of lulls. On the…

3 Apr 2022 18 min

Episode 59 – Senzangakhona and his son Shaka, Janssens has a plan and American sailors ogle the eastern Cape

The Batavians trying to setup a formal long-term administration that was rooted inside the Cape rather than in Europe. Unfortunately, their tenure was to be short. International events were conspiring to upset this plan – with the renewal of the war between the English and the French – old enemies…

27 Mar 2022 22 min