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Episode 98 – Nandi dies, Zulu diplomats in the Cape & Shaka raids the amaMpondo
With the defeat of the Ndwandwe Shaka had moved to KwaDukuza near the Mvoti River, about 80km from Port Natal – a day and a half’s journey – or two i…
3 years, 7 months ago
Episode 97 – Shaka shifts South, Mzilikazi raids West and Fynn becomes Zulu
We kick off this episode with Henry Francis Fynn, the trader who’d made his home in Port Natal and was part of a group of Englishmen who’d fought wit…
3 years, 7 months ago
Episode 96 – A “bipolar” Shaka hunts down and exterminates Sikhunyane’s Ndwandwe
We’re dealing with the period 1826 to 1828 and southern Africa was a rich patchwork of expanding trekboers, Shaka setting up his empire in Zululand, …
3 years, 7 months ago
Episode 95 – Sunset for Somerset and Maqoma eyes guns and horses in 1825
We’re going to join one of the biweekly market gatherings held at Fort Willshire in 1825 where amaXhosa, English settlers, trekboers and khoekhoe met…
3 years, 8 months ago
Episode 94 – White and black ants in Botswana and Eastern Cape secession
Port Natal and Delagoa Bay are far away from Cape Town and appeared even further in the early 1820s. The Cape Governor was inevitably more concerned …
3 years, 8 months ago
Episode 93 –Shaka survives an assassination attempt and Farewell gets Port Natal
Shaka met Henry Francis Fynn and Lieutenant Francis George Farewell in August 1824 and the traders were seeking his permission to live and work at Po…
3 years, 8 months ago
Episode 92 – The monsters from the sea and a Robben Island convict advises Shaka
As years go, 1824 was one for the history books. Not that the others weren’t, but 1824 is a one of those seminal 12 months in southern Africa history…
3 years, 8 months ago
Episode 91 – An early history of Port Natal and its treacherous sand bar
It’s the steamy coast of south east Africa 1824, Port Natal to be exact.
It’s now called eThekweni from the Zulu word for port itheku, although som…
3 years, 8 months ago
Episode 90 – Slaves, Somerset and the SA Commercial Advertiser
This is episode 90 and it is 1823. The small coastal harbour town of Port Elizabeth had been founded but it still had no proper jetties, no lighthous…
3 years, 9 months ago
Episode 89 – Shaka’s mojo and the debate about the Mfecane
This is episode 89 and it’s the first years of the 1820s and we are still in Zululand. By now Shaka began concentrating his power in the area around …
3 years, 9 months ago