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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 wa…
3 years, 11 months ago
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 …
4 years ago
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 roc…
4 years ago
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…
4 years ago
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 us…
4 years ago
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 t…
4 years, 1 month ago
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 suc…
4 years, 1 month ago
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 l…
4 years, 1 month ago
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 Umh…
4 years, 1 month ago
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 go…
4 years, 1 month ago