History of South Africa podcast

• Episode 213 - Grey Mediates, Boshof Fulminates and Moshoeshoe Vacillates before the Treaty of Aliwal North

  This is episode 213, and Sir George Grey, the Cape Governor was peering intensely at the Boer Republics to the north. The Free Staters under Boshof had failed in their mission to drive Moshoeshoe out of the disputed territory south of the Caledon River and many of the burghers changed their tune when it came to possible amalgamation with the Transvaal. They were now considering this a viable option. Marthinus Pretorius had made good progress north of the Vaal, despite the boers of Lydenburg opposing his overtures for a single large and powerful Boer state. The fragmentary nature of the Voortrekker’s states was hard to overcome. But it was heartening for those Boers who wanted unification to hear that the Zoutpansbergers were prepared to listen to arguments for cohesion. One of the most strident and convincing voices that emerged was that of Paul Kruger. He was acting on behalf of Pretorius and the Zoutpansbergers accepted the Grondwet of the Transvaal, the constitution, which the Rustenburgers had adopted. The northern republics were moving towards some sort of union, by 1858 the tiny Boer Republic of Utrecht in northern Natal had thrown in their lot with tye Lydenburgers. Grey regarded these moves as ominous. The British empire had experienced a serious jolt when the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1857, and now he’d heard the reports of the Boer expedition to Moshoeshoe’s Thaba Bosiu which had ended in defeat. He’d have to send reinforcements to India, and deal with instability on the frontier at the same time. The Bathlaping people had also taken advantage of the Boer assault on the south eastern edge of the free State into Basotho territory by doing some invading of their own - into the Free State from the West. The San and Korana had also broken loose and Boshof’s commandos were going to be very busy as they rode around the Free State, trying to subdue these raiders. The Boers had recognized that beneath the monarchial authority and prestige of Moshoeshoe lay a weakness in the political structure - chiefs were patriarchs in their own domain and bound to this hiearchy primarily as the guarantor of their local status. But that status was tied directly to access to land and the acquisition of wealth through cattle or other livestock. One of the strategic shifts in the Volksraad was to reach Moshoeshoe’s political supporters by offering them autonomous territories. These black statelets would then be part of a broader Boer state, supposedly free from settler and other Basotho raids and harassment. The mark of this land use was through a collective, a group living on the land in a specific geographic space who provided territorial power for any chief agreeing to join the Boers. AS you’re going to hear in future episodes — Moshoeshoe’s second son Molapo would seek an independent state aligned with the Boers. Mopeli Mokachane, Moshoeshoe’s half-brother, was another enticed away from the Basotho polity by the late 1860s. By late May 1858, the Transvaal sent a commando to assist the Free State in dealing with these raiders, defeating the Bathlaping and imposing crushing reparations on the people for having sheltered some of these rebels. The defeat by the Basotho, however, proved to most Free Staters that they could not survive alone, and they turned on their president, Boshof. He’d written to Sir George Grey and asked for help in dealing with the Basotho king, an act which stuck in most burgher’s craws — asking the very people who’d indirectly driven them out of the Cape for help. It was a stunning act of weakness they thought. Grey concluded once and for all that the division of the white South African communities into seperate polities had destroyed their capacity to deal with African chiefs. But he opposed the idea of Boer states leading this unification. Even more alarming was the news that the two main Boer Republics might unite. In his eyes, this would threaten the stability still further.

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• Episode 212 - The Basotho-Boer War of 1858 leads to a Burgher Backfire

  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 sling shots. Globally, 1858 is full of momentous events and incidents. It was the year in which Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace present their papers on evolution by natural selection in London. In India, a peace treaty ends the Indian Rebellion and later in the year the British parliament passes the Government of India Act. This transfers the territories of the British East India Company and their administration to the Direct Rule of the British Crown. The great stink in London led parliament to a bill to create modern sewerage system after the dreadful odours wafting about the British capital during the summer. Another young girl dreams up appiritions in the mode of Nongqawuse who dreamed up the cattle Killings - this time its Bernadette Soubirous who claims she saw several appritions appeared before her in the southern French town of Lourdes. Without going into too many gory details, around Ash Wednesday a woman appeared before her inside a grotto and after three appearances over time, began to talk. By October, the government had shut down the grotto there were so many people pitching up to take part in what was called a miracle. A miracle only she could see. Strange how these stories in this period repeated themselves. Back in Africa, David Livingstones six-year long second Zambezi expedition arrived on the Indian Ocean coast. Which is an important moment because inland, the tension between the Boers of the Free State and King Moshoeshoe of Basutoland had been exacerbated. A drought was reported in the region in 1858 which exacerbated everything. The Volksraad met in February 1858. They were faced with a request for help to deal with Posholi signed by a field-cornet and sixty five other burghers in the disputed area.Later in February 1858 Smithfield Landdrost Jacobus Sauer sent more news from the badlands - Posholi was, in his words, parading through Smithfield district with warriors and when accosted, said he was on a hunting expedition. When the Commando eventually gathered, there were one thousand armed and mounted Boers. Which was exactly ten percent the size of the Basotho force of ten thousand, all mounted with at least five hundred firearms. Back at the Thaba Bosiu ranch, Moshoeshoe was a sea of calm. It was now war and the king along with the territorial chiefs and councillors, put their plans into motion. They’d faced this kind of attack before, the British had raided them in 1852 if you recall. That had ended in disaster for the empire, so Moshoeshoe was not rattled by the latest assault on his independence.

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• Episode 211 - “Native” Hut Taxes, Blackbirding and other Revelations of 1857

  Episode 211 - the year is 1857 heading into 1858. Lots the talk about! The original frontier republics and wildlands were being transformed - turning into governed territtories. In 1856 Natal was created a Crown Colony by Royal Charter, Legislation there was entrusted to a council of four officials and 12 members elected every four years by ballot. By the way, this was not only a first for South Africa, but for Great Britain itself. An experiment in election power, although the Crown retained considerable powers of veto. A civil list of those who could vote was more than modest, although the low franchise meant most were eligible to vote. Most English and Dutch, that is. What really angered the elected members was that five thousand pounds for administration was earmarked by the Crown for the benefit of black Natalians. Still, the New and unique Natal Legislative Council sat for the first time in March 1857 and its first job was to authorise the new Crown colonies stamps. By 1857 there were eight, three colonial and five republican, that is of the Cape Colony, British Kaffraria and Natal, on the other hand, the Orange Free State, Utrecht Republiek, Lydenburg, the Zoutpansberg and Pretorius’ South African Republic. This was what really clever historians call Balkanisation. Little entrepots, squabbling states, spread out across the southern African landscape, sometimes working together, often competing. Natal was a kind of detached district of the Cape until it was declared a Crown Colony, an inconvenient way to run a territory. IN Natal, most of the Boers had gone, except for the northern parts. IN their place came other Europeans, like the Germans. A few had taken to market gardening around Durban, while Joseph Byrne and other speculators had launched various schemes for British Immigrants. As you know by now if you’ve listened to the series, quite of few of the new arrivals left almost immediately. Living in Natal is not for the squeamish, even today. Still, the villages of Pinetown, Verulam and Richmond owe their existence to these English immigrants, and so too those of Ladysmith. By 1857 there were only 8000 whites in Natal, 150 000 blacks and what they lacked in size, they made up for by being vigorous, a plethora of religious sects existed, each had its own education system, associations sprang up, and the Natal Bank opens its doors. Soon there were six newspapers in Natal including the Witness in Pietermaritzburg and the Mercury in Durban. There was almost zero industry — and both coffee and cotton had failed. The first sugar cane was imported from Mauritius and seemed to offer more, but the problem was labour. But for many years hence, the main export from Natal was ivory. And as we know, they were being shot out of existence at break kneck speed. If we glance at Southern Africa as a whole in 1857 we would notice that government had become more elaborate and less subordinated to the Cape Authorities. Local Justice was in the hands of local magistrates. Lieutenant Governors changed with bewildering rapidity, but their powers were growing as these little states began to emerge, blinking like undersized infants, into the African sunshine. Federation instead of Balkanisation was in the air at least in the mind of Cape Governor Sir George Grey. The boers were of course not thinking of anything of the sort, let alone Federation. After the wars, the settlers in the Cape were dead set against reserves, the Theopolus Shepstone plan, these drained off labour, and said the nervous English immigrants, it was dangerous to mass blacks in the heart of the Colony. The effect of the Battle of Ndondokusuka didn’t help Shepstone. Thousands of amaZulu refugees of the Civil War across the Thukela led to Natal’s Immigrant rules. Further inland, the policy of the Republiks was even more blunt.

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• Episode 210 - Social Bandits on the Borderlands and other hybrid tales of Nomansland

  This is episode 210 - Barbarians on the Borderlands - the 1857 Basotho Free State conundrum Last episode we plumbed the depths of the amaZulu civil War battle of Ndondakusuka, this episode we’re skirting Moshoeshoe’s Basotho mountains with the BaPhuthi people. Before we kick off, just a quick note about terminology and the fact that South African History is a terminological nightmare. Not my words, those of historian Clifton Crais. As we all know, living on this mercurial landscape, with our mercurial brothers and sisters, shape-shifting appears to be our national sport. Names and places are changed at the drop of a politicians ribbon. As Crais noted, its called Historical Ethnonyms. Historical ethnonyms are names that different groups of people have been called over time, often by outsiders. These names can change due to politics, cultural shifts, or language evolution, and some may become outdated or offensive. So its with that carefully crafted bit of age-restriction warning that we’ll plunge into the fizzy waters of what Barbarians mean. In a nutshell, Barbarian means ” the “raw,” the “primitive.” On closer inspection those terms mean ungoverned, not-yet-incorporatedoughtful folks, there’s no understanding that people can voluntarily go over to the barbarians. I mean, think about the Vikings for a start. And one persons Barbarian is another person’s Warrior tribe. So why the explanation? Today’s episode deals with the Baphuthi, about whom many smart thinkers have deployed historical ethnonyms. Post enlightenment bigwigs, those Johnny coke-bottles geniuses, liked to define things. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, bless his powdered nut, case in point. His stages of man starts with the savage, who is a hunter, moves towards barbarian, who is a herdsman to the civilised man, a tiller of the soil. A farmer. By the mid-19th Century classifying colonial subjects by these criteria determined how they’d be treated. IT is important for our story to understand that there was a geographical element to the ethnic classification. When authorities summed up the situation at any time, representations of the type of environment were crucial. Historian Laura Mitchell has written about this phenomenon, its a rejection of the simplification of settler meets native or coloniser meets subject narrative. More about how the social bandits seize the day on the bad lands, the border lands. The BaPhuthi people are part of our story about social bandits - particularly by the mid-19th Century. They gathered in the eastern part of the Eastern Cape, on the border with what was to become Basotholand, Moshoeshoe’s land. They were diverse in origin, these BaPhuthi, comprised of Basotho who did not support Moshoeshoe, San, and a hodge-podge of Nguni speaking societies. The ancient ways of the San mingled through this group, based along the Maloti-Drakensberg and they did not regard the landscape as marginal.

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• Episode 209 - Cetshwayo attacks Mbuyazi at the Battle of Ndondakusuka where the Crocodiles Feast

  IF you recall a few episodes back, 204 to be exact, we were introduced to the conflict between the sons of Mpande kaSenzangakhona, Cetshwayo kaMpande and Mbuyazi kaMpande. Mpande had moved Cetshwayo and his uSuthu regiments away from their northern power zones and Mbuyazi and his iziGqoza to the south east in an abortive attempt at reducing Cetshwayo’s growing power. There had been a mock hunt organised supposedly to sort out the differences between the two, but the iziGqoza had melted away when they realised how many more warriors had pitched up to fight with Cetshwayo. It was in November 1856 that Mpande had made the move, and upon arrival in the north, Mbuyazi began throwing his weight around, provocatively clearing nearby homesteads and ordering the local clans to pay him tribute. Eating up the opponents as it was called. Many of the cattle he began to expropriate technically belonged to Cetshwayo. Maphitha, who as advising Cetshwayo, suggested it was time to sort things out finish and klaar. “…You will never be king if you do not act at once..” He told Cetshwayo in late November. Where Dingana and Shaka had held total control over their cattle, Mpande had begun to lose his grasp over the amaZulu nation. Senior chiefs Masiphula and Mnyamana joined forces with Cetshwayo’s brothers Ndabuko and Silwana, along with half brothers Dabulamazi, Shingana, Ziwedu and Hamu and marched to Cetshwayo’ Great Place at oNdini. Cetshwayo plotted his next moves. He had the luxury of a bigger army thought to number between 15 000 and 20 000 men. The odds were in his favour, but Mbuyazi was the nominated successor to Cetshwayo and obligated to fight for his honour. Cetshwayo formed up his uSuthu regiments, and proceeded to march south. By now, Mbuyazi had turned to the white traders for help. He gathered up his people, men, women and children, as well as all his cattle and other livestock, near iSangqu — and near a mission station run by Norwegian missionary, Hans Schreuder. I have mentioned him before, six feet tall, powerful, and with a very short fuse. He did not take too kindly to Mbuyazi arriving lock stock and barrel at his mission station, with Cetshwayo imminent arrival at iSangqu which is near the town of Ntumeni. Schreuder was relieved when Mbuyazi continued south with his plan to cross the Thukela River. But it was early summer and the rains had begun. The mightly Thukela was already flooding, it’s yellow and orange waters leaping in giant swirling rapids, in places five metres deep. All of the hullabaloo had reached the ears of one of the most important characters of the mid-19th Century South Africa. John Dunn. His tale and those of his significant descendants will weave through our story from here on and for good reason. As a British trader, he had decided that the ways of the amaZulu were more to his liking.

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