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Episode 168 - Earl Grey and the irascible Sir Henry Pottinger leave their mark on South Africa
This is episode 168 and the world by the middle of the 19th Century was shifting gear, changing rapidly. Southern Africa was caught in the currents o…
2 years, 3 months ago
Episode 167 - Maitland dithers, Stockenstrom sallies forth into the Transkei and biblical storms change everything
This is episode 167 and the British army is clumping along towards the Amathola fastnesses, the deep ravines and steep riverine environment not the m…
2 years, 3 months ago
Episode 166 - Colonel Lindsay lashes a local lad, Fort Peddie attacked and the Battle of Gwangqa River
The Seventh Frontier war has burst into flame, and across the Ceded Territory and down into the land around Port Elizabeth amaXhosa warriors are on t…
2 years, 3 months ago
Episode 165 - Sandile ambushes a British column, Captain Bambrick’s skull and Somerset’s humiliation
This is episode 165 — and the atmosphere in Xhosaland was ablaze with indignation. A Mr Holliday had complained in Fort Beaufort that an imaDange man…
2 years, 3 months ago
Episode 164 - British sappers cross Block Drift into Xhosaland setting off a chain of events on the eve of war
This is episode 164. Remember when we left off we’d been hearing about the squad of Royal engineers who’d crossed into amaXhosa territory over the Ty…
2 years, 4 months ago
Episode 163 - British engineers build forts and semaphores while disabled chief Mgolombane Sandile signs a treaty
This is episode 163, the year, 1845. New Cape Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland had shown he was a man of action — as a veteran of the Peninsular Campa…
2 years, 4 months ago
Episode 162 - The 1845 Battle of Swartkoppies, Divide and Rule and a Bloemfontein origin story
This is episode 162.
First, some housekeeping. A huge thank you to all my supporters, the podcast just passed 1.3 million listens, so there’s a lar…
2 years, 4 months ago
Episode 161 - Moshoeshoe signs a Treaty then collects gunpowder and horses
This is episode 161 — and what’s this I hear? The sound of wind whipping and howling through the mountain recesses, snow-capped mountains, where the …
2 years, 4 months ago
Episode 160 - A tour of Philippolis, an 1844 update, the Great Guano discovery and the Merino sheep miracle
This is episode 160 and we’re breathing the spicy smells of the semi-desert, and taking in the exotic and wonderous scenary of the Richtersveld, Nama…
2 years, 5 months ago
Episode 159 - Boer women as handmaidens to history and the swirling social dust storms in TransOrangia circa 1843
This is episode 159.
If we take out a map of south Africa and reconsider the regions, it will become quite apparent that the main demarcation is ge…
2 years, 5 months ago