History of South Africa podcast

By: Desmond Latham
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  • Summary

  • A series that seeks to tell the story of the South Africa in some depth. Presented by experienced broadcaster/podcaster Des Latham and updated weekly, the episodes will take a listener through the various epochs that have made up the story of South Africa.
    Desmond Latham
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World Social Sciences Travel Writing & Commentary
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Episodes
  • Episode 190 - The Birkenhead Drill 'Women and Children First’ tragedy and amaXhosa messages moving at the speed of light

    Episode 190 - The Birkenhead Drill 'Women and Children First’ tragedy and amaXhosa messages moving at the speed of light
    Sep 29 2024
    Episode 190 is about the ocean, and a staggering event.

    The sinking of the HMS Birkenhead off Gansbaai, south of Cape Town - and event which led to the famous phrase women and children first in maritime lore.

    All of course also linked to the fierce 8th Frontier War of South Africa because there were hundreds of troops on board this ship when it went down - it is believed 445 drowned or were killed by sharks. The chronicle of what happened is riveting.

    The terrifying ordeal for the survivors of this ship became part of the mid-nineteenth century Victorian consciousness. The sinking of the Birkenhead also remains one of the greatest maritime disasters off South Africa's coast. But the fact that every one of the women and children aboard survived the wreck owing to the gallantry and discipline of the men on board has been immortalised in maritime lore.

    The soldiers of the British Army regiments, and the sailors and marines under Captain Robert Salmond, jeopardised their own chances of survival by putting the 'women and children first’.

    It stems from the ongoing 8th Frontier War I’ve been covering now for a couple of episodes.

    The British fighting the amaxhosa were in need of reinforcements, particularly the 74th highland Regiment which had already borne the brunt of the fighting along the Amatola ridges and valleys. Mount Misery had caused hundreds of casualties.

    In many ways, The Birkenhead was also a symbol of the age of innovation, she was one of the first iron-hulled ships ever built for the Royal Navy and was converted into a troop ship. As she was being laid down the Navy switched it’s main propulsion to propellor from paddle wheels, so the vessel ended up converted from frigate to troop carrier.

    The Birkenhead was among the early attempts to marry sail and steam and rigged as a brigantine with two masts, a third being added later. She was powered by two 564 horsepower steam engines from Forrester & Co that drove a pair the 6-metre paddle wheels. .

    As part of her conversion to a troopship in 1851, a forecastle and poop deck were added to increase her accommodation, and a third mast was added, to change her sail plan to a barquentine.

    Although she never served as a warship, she was faster and more comfortable than any of the wooden sail-driven troopships of the time, making the trip from the Cape in 37 days in October 1850.

    However, it was a journey HMS Birkenhead would make for the last time in January 1852. Under command of Captain Robert Salmond, it steamed to Portsmith in the first week of January to pick up troops from ten different regiments, including the 2nd and the 74th. On the 5th January she sailed across the Irish Sea to Queenstown and picked up officers wives and children.
    All told there were 479 soldiers on board and more than 50 women and children, as well as a crew of 125. That was a total of 693 people stuffed into an iron hull less than 64 metres long and just over eleven metres wide - about the width of a tennis court.
    Even though she was thought of as well built, the early iron used in shipbuilding was quite brittle and tore easily compared to iron of later ships.
    Upon arrival at Simons Bay, most of the civilians disembarked, leaving only seven women and 13 children on board. Fuel, food and nine horses and forage were loaded along with more passengers, then HMS Birkenhead set sail again at 18h00 on the 25th February, heading for Algoa Bay and East London.

    Captain Salmond made a few hasty calculations and sailed close to the the coast heading south east towards Cape Agulhas. Time was of the essence, but two factors transpired against the ship. One was the compasses were registering small errors making navigation tricky, and the other was a strong south-east current was sweeping into Walker Bay and carrying the ship closer to shore than the crew realised.
    The were heading towards Danger Point, and the rocks.
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    22 mins
  • Episode 189 - Karl Marx at the Great Exhibition, Eyre's Great Cattle Patrol and Smith gets the boot

    Episode 189 - Karl Marx at the Great Exhibition, Eyre's Great Cattle Patrol and Smith gets the boot
    Sep 22 2024
    1851 it is, and the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15 October 1851.

    It was the first in a series of World's Fairs, exhibitions of culture and industry that became popular in the 19th century.

    Famous people of the time attended the Great Exhibition, including Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Michael Faraday, Samuel Colt, writers like Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, George Eliot, Alfred Tennyson, and William Makepeace Thackeray.

    Schweppes was the official sponsor. The Great Exhibition was a celebration of modern industrial technology and design - mainly for the British who were trying to show how through tech, the world would be a better place - leading the nations in innovations so to speak.

    Six million people, equivalent to a third of the entire population of Britain at the time, visited the Great Exhibition, averaging over 42 000 visitors a day, sometimes topping 100 000. Thomas Cook managed the travel arrangements for the Exhibition, and made the equivalent of 33.2 million pounds in today’s cash - or 186 000 pounds back in 1851, and promptly used the money to found the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Science Museum, as well as the Natural History Museum.

    Inventor Frederick Bakewell demonstrated a precurser to something that we know as a Fax Machine. The New Zealand exhibit was well liked, featuring Maori crafts such as flax baskets, carved wooden objects, eel traps, mats, fish hooks and the scourge of the British army in Kiwiland, their hand clubs.

    A couple of conservative politicians let it be known they were not happy about the Exhibition, saying visitors would turn into a revolutionary mob. Considering that Karl Marx was part of the visitors - perhaps not unsurprisingly.

    But did Karl Marx use the services of Thomas Cook?

    Not exactly a question destined for a dissertation.

    This Exhibition went on to become a symbol of the Victorian Era.

    Meanwhile … a serious War in one of its colonies, the Cape was more than disquietening - it appeared this war was more a Victorian error. AS in mistake.

    amaNgqika chief Maqoma was causing Harry Smith sleepness nights, and Colonel Fordyce and his colleagues were fighting for their lives along the Amathola mountains.

    The Waterkloof ridges — in a place to the west of Fort Beaufort — was where the Khoekhoe and coloured marksmen made their greatest impact. The ex-Cape Mounted Rifles members amongst the rebels had other uses. They understood the British bugle calls, having been trained by the British, further exasperating men like Henry Somerset and Colonel Fordyce.

    The amaXhosa and Khoekhoe rebels were also much more organised than in previous wars against the invaders. They targeted the Messengers reading updates from British commanders intended for Grahamstown and been reading the reports, and some of the rebels were actually being supplied directly from Grahamstown itself.
    Then Henry seemed to receive an injection of spine - of determination. On November 6th 1851 he massed two large columns, one under Colonel Fordyce, and the other led by Colonel Michel. Unbeknownest to him, this was to be Fordyce’s last mission.

    Michel’s column had to advance up the Waterkloof aka Mount Misery, while Fordyce’s column would wait above, on the summit. Michel would drive the rebels up the mountain, Fordyce would trap them and voila! Victory.

    It didn’t quite work that way.
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    21 mins
  • Episode 188 - Hymns echo in the Waterkloof ravines as Khoekhoe snipers take aim at British officers

    Episode 188 - Hymns echo in the Waterkloof ravines as Khoekhoe snipers take aim at British officers
    Sep 15 2024
    We’re into an extremely tough time in our past, 1851, and about to hear about the struggle for control of an area of the Amatolas that the Boers had named Waterkloof - better known by local amaXhosa as Mtontsi. It was a case of jungle warfare as you’re going to hear.

    The area of operation was only 40 square kilometers and yet it remained out of Britains control for most of the 8th Frontier War.

    If you have an old steam driven hard copy map of the area, or can fire up your trusty digital device of choice, go to Google maps and focus on the area between the Kat and Koenap Rivers, to the west of the town of kwaMaqoma which used to be known as Fort Beaufort. Just to add a bit of post-modern spice here, nearby Cookhouse wind Farm is one of the largest in South Africa on the high ridge east of the Great Fish River.

    The Waterkloof itself is a deep, narrow valley, six kilometres long, bounded by the Kroomie Heights to the south and to the north by a second series of majestic ridges falling away to a rolling plateau. Running roughly south-east and open at its western side, it comes to a head in a high, grassy tableland fringed with bushes and gigantic trees. To the east, this tableland falls away into another deep, heavily-forested gorge, known as Fuller's Hoek.

    It was in this gorge, in a gigantic overhanging cave of a type that proliferates in the area, that amaNqika chief Maqoma had his headquarters.

    The plateau is linked to the Kroomie by a narrow ridge and where this joins the plateau is a 'horseshoe-shaped flat', approximately a square kilometre in area and fringed by towering forests. In due course it would be named 'Mount Misery' by the British troops who fought in or near there.

    In the mountain fastnesses above, there are two reserves today - Mpofu and Fort Fordyce. Here you’ll still find the Chacma baboon, black wildebeest on the escarpment, blue duiker, mountain reedbuck. If you’re lucky you’ll spot the Cape Parrot, and eagles, while the playful Knysna Loeries abound. The Caracal is the largest predator there these days, but in the past leopards would stalk here - eating a snack of rock dassie.
    By February 1851 the bitterness of the 8th Frontier War was becoming more evident with descriptions of British troops being captured and tortured to death by the amaXhosa. Settlers and regular troops marched through the Thyumie valley in February in revenge, burning everything and carrying a flag which had the word “Extermination” emblazoned for all the see.

    Governor Sir Harry Smith had advocated extermination of the amaXhosa and the Khoekhoe in letters and conversations - he was panikcing besieged in King Williams Town and chaos was the order of the day - the governor was lashing out. No quarter was being given by either side - man against man.
    Somerset was stung into action. On 7th September he sent a large patrol into the Waterkloof, 600 men from the 74th Highland Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Fordyce.

    The man who was to give both his name and his life to these mountains.
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    24 mins

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Profile Image for Rosie J

Gripping History expertly narrated

Excellent history lesson from beginning to end, wry commentary on a subject that I as a Brit knew very little about. Its a really worthwhile listen, great stuff !

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