POPULARITY
This is episode 221, 1863, the midst of the Transvaal Civil War. As you heard in episode 220, this was the making of a new president and one who'd take the Trekker Republics into the 20th Century, albeit in the midst of the Anglo-Boer War. There had been a rapid and real effect — as the farmers took up arms against each other, the Transvaal's economy collapsed. This weakened the government's ability to back up its stated authority. By now the tiny independent States of Lydenburg and Utrecht had joined the Transvaal accepting the authority of the Transvaal. They had been outliers since the trekkers first arrived in those regions, fifteen years earlier. To recap - In 1859, Transvaal President, Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, was invited to stand for President in the Orange Free State, many burghers there now wanted to unify with the Transvaal. They were mainly worried about how to deal with King Moshoeshoe of the Basotho. The Transvaal constitution that he had just enacted made it illegal to hold office abroad, still Pretorius won the Transvaal election, then Volksraad attempted to side-step the constitutional problems by granting Pretorius half-a-year of leave. They hoped some kind of solution would be found — Pretorius left for Bloemfontein and appointed Johannes Hermanus Grobler to be acting president in his absence. Up stepped Stephanus Schoeman from the Marico region who unsuccessfully attempted to use force to supplant Johannes Grobler as acting president. Schoeman believed that the presidency should have been granted to him as the new Transvaal constitution stipulated that in the case of the president's dismissal or death, the presidency should be granted to the oldest member of the Executive Council. Schoeman was three years older than Grobler. Forward fast to 1863, Kruger had defeated Schoeman at a skirmish outside Potchefstroom. He had also managed to convince some of the supporters of rebel in the Heidelberg district to switch sides, and had ridden back to Pretoria with a local farmer of high standing, Jan Marais. There a council of war determined that rebels like Schoeman were taking advantage of a disagreement between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The two fledgling Boer Republics could not agree on where the boundary lay between them. Transvaal President Van Rensburg duly assigned Kruger the duty of riding to the Free State to settle the question of the border - and he left almost immediately, taking a group of burghers with him as security. Further West, the Marico district was a hotbed of rebel activity and the commandant there, Jan Viljoen, heard about Kruger's mission and organised a commando. On the way to Potch, a spy warned Kruger about what awaited. He changed course, and set off with a small detachment to confront Viljoen while Kruger's 2 IC, Veld kornet Sarel Eloff dashed forward to seize a nearby kopje - the all important high ground. Viljoen is so happened, was also on his way to the very same kopje. One of the aspects of this conflict which is interesting is how Kruger used his spies or messengers as he called them. They were feeding him information daily, information about what Schoeman and Viljoen were up to. The capacity to recon an enemy was one of the defining strengths of the Boer military system, and would be sharpened constantly over the coming century and a half. Folks, there are remarkable resonances in this apparently distant little civil war. When the Union of South Africa was achieved, Bloemfontein was nominated as the seat of the Supreme Court of the union. Cape Town and Pretoria shared power, parliament in Cape Town, Pretoria the seat of government. The Free State is slap bang in the middle — so they got the Supreme Court. These historical instances reflect a legal and political philosophy that, in the aftermath of internal conflict, prioritising national healing through amnesty can be more beneficial than widespread punitive actions.
This is episode 221, 1863, the midst of the Transvaal Civil War. As you heard in episode 220, this was the making of a new president and one who'd take the Trekker Republics into the 20th Century, albeit in the midst of the Anglo-Boer War. There had been a rapid and real effect — as the farmers took up arms against each other, the Transvaal's economy collapsed. This weakened the government's ability to back up its stated authority. By now the tiny independent States of Lydenburg and Utrecht had joined the Transvaal accepting the authority of the Transvaal. They had been outliers since the trekkers first arrived in those regions, fifteen years earlier. To recap - In 1859, Transvaal President, Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, was invited to stand for President in the Orange Free State, many burghers there now wanted to unify with the Transvaal. They were mainly worried about how to deal with King Moshoeshoe of the Basotho. The Transvaal constitution that he had just enacted made it illegal to hold office abroad, still Pretorius won the Transvaal election, then Volksraad attempted to side-step the constitutional problems by granting Pretorius half-a-year of leave. They hoped some kind of solution would be found — Pretorius left for Bloemfontein and appointed Johannes Hermanus Grobler to be acting president in his absence. Up stepped Stephanus Schoeman from the Marico region who unsuccessfully attempted to use force to supplant Johannes Grobler as acting president. Schoeman believed that the presidency should have been granted to him as the new Transvaal constitution stipulated that in the case of the president's dismissal or death, the presidency should be granted to the oldest member of the Executive Council. Schoeman was three years older than Grobler. Forward fast to 1863, Kruger had defeated Schoeman at a skirmish outside Potchefstroom. He had also managed to convince some of the supporters of rebel in the Heidelberg district to switch sides, and had ridden back to Pretoria with a local farmer of high standing, Jan Marais. There a council of war determined that rebels like Schoeman were taking advantage of a disagreement between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The two fledgling Boer Republics could not agree on where the boundary lay between them. Transvaal President Van Rensburg duly assigned Kruger the duty of riding to the Free State to settle the question of the border - and he left almost immediately, taking a group of burghers with him as security. Further West, the Marico district was a hotbed of rebel activity and the commandant there, Jan Viljoen, heard about Kruger's mission and organised a commando. On the way to Potch, a spy warned Kruger about what awaited. He changed course, and set off with a small detachment to confront Viljoen while Kruger's 2 IC, Veld kornet Sarel Eloff dashed forward to seize a nearby kopje - the all important high ground. Viljoen is so happened, was also on his way to the very same kopje. One of the aspects of this conflict which is interesting is how Kruger used his spies or messengers as he called them. They were feeding him information daily, information about what Schoeman and Viljoen were up to. The capacity to recon an enemy was one of the defining strengths of the Boer military system, and would be sharpened constantly over the coming century and a half. Folks, there are remarkable resonances in this apparently distant little civil war. When the Union of South Africa was achieved, Bloemfontein was nominated as the seat of the Supreme Court of the union. Cape Town and Pretoria shared power, parliament in Cape Town, Pretoria the seat of government. The Free State is slap bang in the middle — so they got the Supreme Court. These historical instances reflect a legal and political philosophy that, in the aftermath of internal conflict, prioritising national healing through amnesty can be more beneficial than widespread punitive actions.
South African organisations like AfriForum and Solidarity are crucial for preserving Afrikanderdom.Ernst Roets is the former deputy CEO of AfriForum and is now the Head of Policy at Solidarity. He chatted to me about Afrikaners and their history, heritage, traditions and why all of it matters and should be protected. As an aside, the Anglo-Boer War is one of the most significant wars in modern history.
The definitive account of Commando: A Boer Journal of the Anglo-Boer War, published word-for-word as Reitz first wrote it; edited and annotated by historian and Anglo-Boer War expert, Professor Fransjohan Pretorius. In 1899, Deneys Reitz, then aged seventeen, enlisted in the Boer army to fight the British. He had learnt to ride, shoot and swim almost as soon as he could walk. He made full use of these skills and the endurance he had acquired in the next three years of the war, during which he fought with the Boer commandos. He was involved in major actions, like the battle of Spioen Kop, and he interacted with prolific political and military figures of the time, such as President Paul Kruger, Boer generals Piet Joubert, Louis Botha, Koos de la Rey, Christiaan Beyers, Jan Smuts and British commander Lord Kitchener. He even met the young Winston Churchill as a prisoner-of-war in Pretoria. Reitz forged a strong personal and political friendship with General Jan Smuts after the war, built on reciprocal respect. Commando is more than a historical document; it is a literary masterpiece that transcends time. With prose that captures both the brutality and the beauty of war, Reitz weaves a narrative that resonates with authenticity and passion. As relevant today as when it was first penned, Commando has become a South African classic and stands as a testament to the indomitable human spirit in the face of adversity. In this episode of Pagecast, Professor Fransjohan Pretorius. is interviewed by CapeTalk Afternoon Drive Presenter, John Maytham. Enjoy
Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/lionsledbydonkeys Check out our merch store! https://llbdmerch.com/ Part 1/3 A bunch of racist, libertarian farmers who hate taxes revolt against the British. No, not that time, the other time. Sources: Laband, John. The first Anglo-Boer War 1880-1881 Pakenham, Thomas. The Boer War. Meredith, Martin. Diamonds, Gold, and War: The Making of South Africa Pretorius, Fransjohan. The Boer Wars. Palmer, Gough. The Besieged Towns of the First Boer War
The mid-nineteenth Century was like the calm before the storm with the discovery of diamonds a decade away, and then the wars between the Boers and Brits, and the Brits and amaZulu a glimmer in the imperial eye. Moshoeshoe was gaining power amongst the Basotho, and to the east, Mpande continued to dream of crushing the amaSwazi. But to the South on Christmas Day 1850, another frontier war in a long and bitter series between the Cape colony and the amaXhosa erupted in the wake of the witchcraft eradication processes enforced by Governor Harry Smith. I spent much of last episode explaining the religious and social ethos and differences between the empire and missionaries on one side, and the amaXhosa and their spiritual leaders on the other. Mlanjeni one of these spiritual leaders was the driver of this attempt by the amaXhosa to throw off the yoke of the empire. Andries Stockenstrom had been warning the British for some time that their tone-deaf and blunt attempts at destroying the power of the amaXhosa chiefs was not just chafing the people of British Kaffraria, but becoming dangerous. Smith had been compelled to maintain a heavy force of patrols in this territory to enforce the removals of the amaXhosa from land now allocated to English farmers and dislodge those who'd returned to places from which they'd already been driven. It was like the very definition of madness. The British authorities were repeating exactly what they'd done to the Xhosa before the Seventh Frontier War of 1846 and 1847. Since then they'd been very busy. The British had laid out an extensive series of roads and forts, centred on King Williams' Town which was the main pivot for this grid of power in and around the Amatola mountains. The town was about 22 kilometers south of the base of these picturesque peaks, on the banks of the Buffalo River which provided protection against assault from the high ground. It was the Boma Pass down to the Keiskamma River that troubled the British soldiers most, it also extended upwards into the Amatola mountains behind the Fort to a point known as Keiskamma Hoek — the source of the Keiskamma where another mission station called Uniondale was located. This is not to be confused with the town of Uniondale in the Karoo. After looking out from Keiskamma Hoek, taking in the scenic views, swept up in the wonder of the beauty of this region, you'd climb back on your intrepid pony and head back down the trail past Fort Cox and Burnshill, towards Fort White, and then onwards another 30 kilometers or so to Fort Hare. Many military historians have fixated on the British propensity to forget what they'd learned in previous wars, it was a kind of disease of the age, which would become a pandemic during the Anglo-Boer War, then a catastrophic forgetfulness by the First World War. The Khoekhoe were now extremely angry at the British authorities for messing around with the Kat River Settlement agreements, and the Boers had been embittered by Harry Smith's unilateral annexation of the TransOrangia region. This grew into a seething hatred when Smith had a young Boer called Thomas Dreyer executed. With so many Boers gone in the Great Trek, the British had to rely on the Khoekhoe and unfortunately for the people of the Kat River, the people now being called the coloured people, opprobrium and malice were heaped upon them. Who needs enemies when the British treated their friends like this?
The mid-nineteenth Century was like the calm before the storm with the discovery of diamonds a decade away, and then the wars between the Boers and Brits, and the Brits and amaZulu a glimmer in the imperial eye. Moshoeshoe was gaining power amongst the Basotho, and to the east, Mpande continued to dream of crushing the amaSwazi. But to the South on Christmas Day 1850, another frontier war in a long and bitter series between the Cape colony and the amaXhosa erupted in the wake of the witchcraft eradication processes enforced by Governor Harry Smith. I spent much of last episode explaining the religious and social ethos and differences between the empire and missionaries on one side, and the amaXhosa and their spiritual leaders on the other. Mlanjeni one of these spiritual leaders was the driver of this attempt by the amaXhosa to throw off the yoke of the empire. Andries Stockenstrom had been warning the British for some time that their tone-deaf and blunt attempts at destroying the power of the amaXhosa chiefs was not just chafing the people of British Kaffraria, but becoming dangerous. Smith had been compelled to maintain a heavy force of patrols in this territory to enforce the removals of the amaXhosa from land now allocated to English farmers and dislodge those who'd returned to places from which they'd already been driven. It was like the very definition of madness. The British authorities were repeating exactly what they'd done to the Xhosa before the Seventh Frontier War of 1846 and 1847. Since then they'd been very busy. The British had laid out an extensive series of roads and forts, centred on King Williams' Town which was the main pivot for this grid of power in and around the Amatola mountains. The town was about 22 kilometers south of the base of these picturesque peaks, on the banks of the Buffalo River which provided protection against assault from the high ground. It was the Boma Pass down to the Keiskamma River that troubled the British soldiers most, it also extended upwards into the Amatola mountains behind the Fort to a point known as Keiskamma Hoek — the source of the Keiskamma where another mission station called Uniondale was located. This is not to be confused with the town of Uniondale in the Karoo. After looking out from Keiskamma Hoek, taking in the scenic views, swept up in the wonder of the beauty of this region, you'd climb back on your intrepid pony and head back down the trail past Fort Cox and Burnshill, towards Fort White, and then onwards another 30 kilometers or so to Fort Hare. Many military historians have fixated on the British propensity to forget what they'd learned in previous wars, it was a kind of disease of the age, which would become a pandemic during the Anglo-Boer War, then a catastrophic forgetfulness by the First World War. The Khoekhoe were now extremely angry at the British authorities for messing around with the Kat River Settlement agreements, and the Boers had been embittered by Harry Smith's unilateral annexation of the TransOrangia region. This grew into a seething hatred when Smith had a young Boer called Thomas Dreyer executed. With so many Boers gone in the Great Trek, the British had to rely on the Khoekhoe and unfortunately for the people of the Kat River, the people now being called the coloured people, opprobrium and malice were heaped upon them. Who needs enemies when the British treated their friends like this?
1895-95. In the latest Redcoat History Battlefield tour episode, we walk in the footsteps of Leander Starr Jameson and his troops as they try and enter Johannesburg and overthrow the Afrikaner government. It's a fascinating tale - with a number of interesting and hard to find sites that are well worth a visit. Please join the Patreon page for early access to content and no ads. https://www.patreon.com/RedcoatHistory
This episode is a long one - a full and in-depth look at the First Boer War aka the Transvaal Rebellion. It combines a number of my previous episodes into one comprehensive examination of the fighting. Here are my key sources: Majuba 1881: Ian Castle A Rain of Lead: Ian Bennet - https://amzn.to/3HbbtaZ With the Boers in the Transvaal and Orange Free State: C L Norris Newman - https://amzn.to/3Hcaszv The Transvaal Rebellion: John Laband - https://amzn.to/3NWnox0 The Transvaal War, 1880-81: Lady Bellairs - https://archive.org/details/transvaalwar00belliala/page/n5/mode/2up If you are interested in the Zulu War, then please sign up for my mailing list to receive my free book on the subject: https://redcoathistory.com/newsletter/ If you are very generous, you can also buy me a coffee and help support the channel via https://ko-fi.com/redcoathistory
Ten thousand Zulu warriors had appeared at GatsLaager, the headquarters of the Voortrekkers under the brow of the Drakensberg, sent by Dingana and led by Ndlela kaSompiti. In South African history and general memory there are major confrontations which are part of modern consciousness. These would be things like the Zulu defeat of the British at Isandlhwana, the Anglo Boer War, and in the 20th Century, the Border Wars, and the ANC and PAC struggles against Apartheid. However, this battle of Gatslaager — the laager that would be renamed Vegslaaier or fighting laager, is one of the most important that has been forgotten in the annals of time. So it was ten am and swarming down from the hills to the east of the Gatslaager were the experienced and mostly married warriors, the creme de la creme, the most feared. The laager was protected on the east side by the Bushman's River which was flooding, and if you glanced at a map, the laager was south west of where the town of Escourt is today. Ndlela then issued the command to halt, and the Amabutho stopped well out of range of the Voortrekkers Sannas on open ground to the north and west. He formed his troops up in their classic three tiers, the chest and two horns, taking his time. Inside the laager, Erasmus Smit the predikant and the Volk fell on their knees and prayed. “May he grant us the victory, if we have to fight … strengthen our hearts…” Seventy five Voortrekker men, and a handful of the more hardy women and boys, were now facing the full might of the Zulu army, an army of 10 000. It seemed a hopeless cause. But there were a few things in the Voortrekker's favour. The flooding Bushman's River for one. Another was the approaches had been setup so the Amabutho had no place to take cover as they assaulted the wagons. The Boers also had a canon. Meanwhile, Far far away to the north, Mzilikazi Khumalo of the amaNdebele had turned into a violent refugee after being defeated by a force of Boers, Griqua and Barolong in November 1837 at eGabeni. Mzilikazi himself had escaped the attackers by pure chance, he'd gone north in the face of threats by Bapedi-Balaka ruler, Mapela. It wasn't just the Boers and the Griqua, the Barolong, the Bakwena, and the baTlokwa who were raiding in the highveld and down in what now is modern day Botswana. The amaNdebele had a violent relationship with Batswana.
Ten thousand Zulu warriors had appeared at GatsLaager, the headquarters of the Voortrekkers under the brow of the Drakensberg, sent by Dingana and led by Ndlela kaSompiti. In South African history and general memory there are major confrontations which are part of modern consciousness. These would be things like the Zulu defeat of the British at Isandlhwana, the Anglo Boer War, and in the 20th Century, the Border Wars, and the ANC and PAC struggles against Apartheid. However, this battle of Gatslaager — the laager that would be renamed Vegslaaier or fighting laager, is one of the most important that has been forgotten in the annals of time. So it was ten am and swarming down from the hills to the east of the Gatslaager were the experienced and mostly married warriors, the creme de la creme, the most feared. The laager was protected on the east side by the Bushman's River which was flooding, and if you glanced at a map, the laager was south west of where the town of Escourt is today. Ndlela then issued the command to halt, and the Amabutho stopped well out of range of the Voortrekkers Sannas on open ground to the north and west. He formed his troops up in their classic three tiers, the chest and two horns, taking his time. Inside the laager, Erasmus Smit the predikant and the Volk fell on their knees and prayed. “May he grant us the victory, if we have to fight … strengthen our hearts…” Seventy five Voortrekker men, and a handful of the more hardy women and boys, were now facing the full might of the Zulu army, an army of 10 000. It seemed a hopeless cause. But there were a few things in the Voortrekker's favour. The flooding Bushman's River for one. Another was the approaches had been setup so the Amabutho had no place to take cover as they assaulted the wagons. The Boers also had a canon. Meanwhile, Far far away to the north, Mzilikazi Khumalo of the amaNdebele had turned into a violent refugee after being defeated by a force of Boers, Griqua and Barolong in November 1837 at eGabeni. Mzilikazi himself had escaped the attackers by pure chance, he'd gone north in the face of threats by Bapedi-Balaka ruler, Mapela. It wasn't just the Boers and the Griqua, the Barolong, the Bakwena, and the baTlokwa who were raiding in the highveld and down in what now is modern day Botswana. The amaNdebele had a violent relationship with Batswana.
This episode, we welcome to the podcast biographer Sarah LeFanu whose wonderful book Something of Themselves: Kipling, Kingsley, Conan Doyle and the Anglo-Boer War was released in 2020. About Sarah LeFanu Sarah lives near Bristol in North Somerset and is a biographer whose subjects include the English writer and traveller Rose Macaulay; Samora Machel, the liberation leader and first president of Mozambique; and Marjorie Blandy, one of the early women who qualified as a doctor and who went to France in 1914 with the Women's Hospital Corps. More recently, Sarah added Conan Doyle to her growing list of subjects when he featured as one of three writers in Sarah's group biography, Something of Themselves: Kipling, Kingsley, Conan Doyle and the Anglo-Boer War, which was published in 2020 and the following year shortlisted for the prestigious Elizabeth Longford Prize for historical biography. She has recently completed an account of her research and writing of that book, which will be published in October this year - Talking to the Dead: Travels of a Biographer. https://sarahlefanu.wordpress.com/ Something of Themselves: Kipling, Kingsley, Conan Doyle and the Anglo-Boer War (Hurst Publishing, 2020) In early 1900, the paths of three British writers—Rudyard Kipling, Mary Kingsley and Arthur Conan Doyle—crossed in South Africa, during what has become known as Britain's last imperial war. Each of the three had pressing personal reasons to leave England behind, but they were also motivated by notions of duty, service, patriotism and, in Kipling's case, jingoism. Sarah LeFanu compellingly opens an unexplored chapter of these writers' lives, at a turning point for Britain and its imperial ambitions. Was the South African War, as Kipling claimed, a dress rehearsal for the Armageddon of World War One? Or did it instead foreshadow the anti-colonial guerrilla wars of the later twentieth century? Weaving a rich and varied narrative, LeFanu charts the writers' paths in the theatre of war, and explores how this crucial period shaped their cultural legacies, their shifting reputations, and their influence on colonial policy. (Source). You can buy the book here. Next time on Doings of Doyle Our return to Baker Street coincides with that of Sherlock Holmes in ‘The Adventure of the Empty House' (1903). You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Adventure_of_the_Empty_House Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ YouTube vide created by @headlinerapp.
This episode, we get wrapped up in Conan Doyle's Mummytastic horror classic, ‘Lot No 249' (1892). You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Lot_No._249 An audiobook version read by Greg Wagland can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5A89sKeMGM Read the show notes here: https://bit.ly/DOD41sn You can listen to the episode on your podcaster of choice or via our Youtube channel, www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Closed captions will be available two days after the video is uploaded. Next time on Doings of Doyle… We are joined by Sarah LeFanu to discuss her book Something of Themselves – Kipling, Kingsley, Conan Doyle and the Anglo-Boer War (2019). Acknowledgements Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal. Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com. Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
On 3 January 1896, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany sent a congratulatory telegram to Paul Kruger President of the Transvaal Republic. The Dutch settlers or “Boers” had just successfully fended off an attack by 600 British irregulars under the command of Leander Starr Jameson. The telegram caused alarm in Britain as Germany flexed its muscles on the world stage. More immediately it empowered Kruger and his allies as they attempted to remain independent and outside the vast British Empire. In this episode, I speak with South African historian Des Latham — host of The Anglo-Boer War Podcast — about the conflict that followed — The Second Boer War — and its aftermath. Des Latham is a South African historian and host of the Anglo-Boer War podcast. This episode is sponsored by World History Encyclopedia, one of top history websites on the internet. I love the fact that they're not a Wiki: Every article they publish is reviewed by their editorial team, not only for being accurate, but also for being interesting to read. The website is run as a non-profit organization, so you won't be bombarded by annoying ads and it's completely free. It's a great site; and don't just take my word for it they've been recommended by many academic institutions including Oxford University. Go check them out at WorldHistory.org or follow this link World History Encyclopedia
Neutral Rights and Obligations in the Anglo-Boer War
One of the most significant moments in, not just South African history, but world history is the Anglo-Boer War. Mark Weber is a historian who unpacks the conflict between the British and Boers; the brilliance of the Boer war tactics; the concentration camps; the roles of Cecil Rhodes, Paul Kruger and others; gold and diamonds; and more. It's a fascinating part of history and a testament to the creativity of the Boers. Please support my work
Road Trip's Podcast - Travel, Touring and Holidays in South Africa
We have a chat with Simon Green - "The Blockhouse Guy". Simon has authored two books on the blockhouses of the Anglo-Boer War - a very handy field guide, as well as a more in-depth analysis of the engineering behind these 9000+ structures the British Military left behind in South Africa.We have digitised the field guide - so if you are looking to visit a Blockhouse - the Road Trip app will get you there.The Road Trip SA app is available for downloadDo you want to visit and explore South Africa? Touch Africa Safaris
We have a chat with Simon Green - "The Blockhouse Guy". Simon has authored two books on the blockhouses of the Anglo-Boer War - a very handy field guide, as well as a more in-depth analysis of the engineering behind these 9000+ structures the British Military left behind in South Africa.We have digitised the field guide - so if you are looking to visit a Blockhouse - the Road Trip app will get you there.The Road Trip SA app is available for downloadDo you want to visit and explore South Africa? Touch Africa Safaris
It's the first days of January 1984 and Operation Askari has hit a few hiccups. Task Force Victor failed to take Cuvelai in the first Battle for the town at the end of December as you heard last episode and Combat Team one had been mauled. Both Combat Team 1 and 2 retreated two kilometers north west of the town then turned and headed south west where they bivouacked about 17 kilometers away from the Cuvelai, deciding what to do next. Some members of the Task Force began to talk about heading back to the border, and if their vehicles ran out of fuel, they openly spoke about abandoning them and walking to the cutline. At least one Captain involved in this discussion decided to ignore his NCOs comments according to veterans of the battle. The muddled manner in which the first attack on Cuvelai had been carried out was plain for all to see. Some later suggested the thick vegetation had created navigational challenges, which was true. No officer in his right mind at this point would have accepted a renewed attack along the same route – FAPLA was ready and waiting and this would have been a silly tactic. Unfortunately, this muddling was going to continue through into the Battle for Cuvelai part II. After regrouping, SADF headquarters had radio'd Task Force Victor commander Piet Greyling and told him to turn his men around and renew the assault. He had other ideas. Many of the troops had been mentally battered and some point blank refused. The SADF was an organization that in some ways reflected the style of warfare conducted by the Boers during the Anglo-Boer War. When ordered to press home a full frontal attack against a heavily armed enemy in an entrenched and well defended position, they refused, it's better to live to fight another day they said, like their ancestors. Just because the politicians were in a rush to show some kind of advantage over the Angolans, it didn't mean having to throw your life away they said. Greyling was in an invidious position. The intelligence he'd received concerning the first attack was substandard to put it mildly. Recces had not realized how many T54/55s tanks ha been sent to the border, and the South Africans had miscalculated when it came to attacking positions protected by the feared 23mm and 14.5mm anti-aircraft guns. At this point the SADF needed a scape goat so General Georg Meiring relieved Greyling of his command and sent him home. Commandant Ep Van Lill was sent to replace Greyling and Sector 10 commander and Operation Askari OC Brigadier Joep Joubert and General Georg Meiring who was Chief of SWA Territorial Force both briefed Van Lill before he flew in to join Task Force Victor. But he did have some good news, Combat Group Delta was going to detach from 61 Mechanised Battalion and join Task Force Victor.
It's the first days of January 1984 and Operation Askari has hit a few hiccups. Task Force Victor failed to take Cuvelai in the first Battle for the town at the end of December as you heard last episode and Combat Team one had been mauled. Both Combat Team 1 and 2 retreated two kilometers north west of the town then turned and headed south west where they bivouacked about 17 kilometers away from the Cuvelai, deciding what to do next. Some members of the Task Force began to talk about heading back to the border, and if their vehicles ran out of fuel, they openly spoke about abandoning them and walking to the cutline. At least one Captain involved in this discussion decided to ignore his NCOs comments according to veterans of the battle. The muddled manner in which the first attack on Cuvelai had been carried out was plain for all to see. Some later suggested the thick vegetation had created navigational challenges, which was true. No officer in his right mind at this point would have accepted a renewed attack along the same route – FAPLA was ready and waiting and this would have been a silly tactic. Unfortunately, this muddling was going to continue through into the Battle for Cuvelai part II. After regrouping, SADF headquarters had radio'd Task Force Victor commander Piet Greyling and told him to turn his men around and renew the assault. He had other ideas. Many of the troops had been mentally battered and some point blank refused. The SADF was an organization that in some ways reflected the style of warfare conducted by the Boers during the Anglo-Boer War. When ordered to press home a full frontal attack against a heavily armed enemy in an entrenched and well defended position, they refused, it's better to live to fight another day they said, like their ancestors. Just because the politicians were in a rush to show some kind of advantage over the Angolans, it didn't mean having to throw your life away they said. Greyling was in an invidious position. The intelligence he'd received concerning the first attack was substandard to put it mildly. Recces had not realized how many T54/55s tanks ha been sent to the border, and the South Africans had miscalculated when it came to attacking positions protected by the feared 23mm and 14.5mm anti-aircraft guns. At this point the SADF needed a scape goat so General Georg Meiring relieved Greyling of his command and sent him home. Commandant Ep Van Lill was sent to replace Greyling and Sector 10 commander and Operation Askari OC Brigadier Joep Joubert and General Georg Meiring who was Chief of SWA Territorial Force both briefed Van Lill before he flew in to join Task Force Victor. But he did have some good news, Combat Group Delta was going to detach from 61 Mechanised Battalion and join Task Force Victor.
Evert Kleynhans, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Military History at the Faculty of Military Science of Stellenbosch University, is in conversation with author of A Russian on Commando: The Boer War Experiences of Yevgeny Avgustus, Boris Gorelik and Prof Fransjohan Pretorius, an emeritus professor from the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies at University of Pretoria. About the book: In January 1900, galvanised by the daring of the Boers in taking on imperial Britain, the young Russian officer Yevgeny Avgustus set off for the Transvaal to fight in the Anglo-Boer War. Like most of the foreign volunteers who flocked to the Boer cause, he ended up on the Natal front. Avgustus and his companions joined the Krugersdorp Commando, and their experiences in the field are portrayed in vivid detail. The central part of this gripping account covers the Battle of the Tugela Heights in February 1900 and the Boers' subsequent retreat. The immediacy of Avgustus's writing captures his trepidation and excitement as he approaches the battlefield for the first time, as well as his experience of life on commando. The keen eye of this foreign volunteer brings to life a turning point in South African history. Avgustus is a gifted writer, and his narrative offers both acute observation and thoughtful introspection. A gripping portrayal of human frailty and courage in the face of mortal danger, A Russian on Commando highlights both the strange attraction and the absurdities of war.
Evert Kleynhans, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Military History at the Faculty of Military Science of Stellenbosch University, is in conversation with author of A Russian on Commando: The Boer War Experiences of Yevgeny Avgustus, Boris Gorelik and Prof Fransjohan Pretorius, an emeritus professor from the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies at University of Pretoria. About the book: In January 1900, galvanised by the daring of the Boers in taking on imperial Britain, the young Russian officer Yevgeny Avgustus set off for the Transvaal to fight in the Anglo-Boer War. Like most of the foreign volunteers who flocked to the Boer cause, he ended up on the Natal front. Avgustus and his companions joined the Krugersdorp Commando, and their experiences in the field are portrayed in vivid detail. The central part of this gripping account covers the Battle of the Tugela Heights in February 1900 and the Boers' subsequent retreat. The immediacy of Avgustus's writing captures his trepidation and excitement as he approaches the battlefield for the first time, as well as his experience of life on commando. The keen eye of this foreign volunteer brings to life a turning point in South African history. Avgustus is a gifted writer, and his narrative offers both acute observation and thoughtful introspection. A gripping portrayal of human frailty and courage in the face of mortal danger, A Russian on Commando highlights both the strange attraction and the absurdities of war.
Road Trip's Podcast - Travel, Touring and Holidays in South Africa
The N6 heads straight South from Bloemfontein and skirts the Southern border of Lesotho. Little towns like Reddersburg, Smithfield, Aliwal North and Jamestown all have some history of the conflicts with the Basotho, as well as many stories of Voortrekkers and Anglo Boer War characters. A little further south and once through Queenstown you are in "Settler Country" - but these were German settlers - not British. The Road Trip SA app is available for downloadDo you want to explore South Africa? Touch Africa Safaris
The N6 heads straight South from Bloemfontein and skirts the Southern border of Lesotho. Little towns like Reddersburg, Smithfield, Aliwal North and Jamestown all have some history of the conflicts with the Basotho, as well as many stories of Voortrekkers and Anglo Boer War characters. A little further south and once through Queenstown you are in "Settler Country" - but these were German settlers - not British. The Road Trip SA app is available for downloadDo you want to explore South Africa? Touch Africa Safaris
Hobhouse's work in South Africa continued after the second Anglo-Boer War was over, and her work as a humanitarian and peace activist continued during and after World War I. Research: "Boer War." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, edited by William A. Darity, Jr., 2nd ed., vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2008, pp. 348-350. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3045300221/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=de8396d3. Accessed 17 June 2022. "Emily Hobhouse." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 38, Gale, 2018. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631010793/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=3ffba52e. Accessed 17 June 2022. Brits, Elsabé. “Emily Hobhouse: Beloved Traitor.” Tafelberg. 2016. Brown, Heloise. “Feminist Responses to the Anglo-Boer War.” From “The Truest Form of Patriotism: Pacifist Feminism in Britain, 1870-1902.” https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/9781526137890/9781526137890.00015.xml Donaldson, Peter. "The Boer War and British society: Peter Donaldson examines how the British people reacted to the various stages of the South African war of 1899-1902." History Review, no. 67, Sept. 2010, pp. 32+. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A237304031/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=27ca4148. Accessed 17 June 2022. Gill, Rebecca and Cornelis Muller. “The Limits of Agency: Emily Hobhouse's international activism and the politics of suffering.” The Journal of South African and American Studies Volume 19, 2018. Hobhouse, Emily. “Dust-Women.” The Economic Journal. Vol. 10, no. 39, Sept. 1900. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2957231 Hobhouse, Emily. “To the Committee of the Distress Fund for South African Women and Children. Report.” 1901. https://digital.lib.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.2/2530 Krebs, Paula M. "Narratives of suffering and national identity in Boer War South Africa." Nineteenth-Century Prose, vol. 32, no. 2, fall 2005, pp. 154+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A208109719/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=15c90c3c. Accessed 17 June 2022. Nash, David. "THE BOER WAR AND ITS HUMANITARIAN CRITICS." History Today, vol. 49, no. 6, June 1999, p. 42. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A54913073/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=5d18555b. Accessed 17 June 2022. Pretorius, Fransjohan. “Concentration camps in the South African War? Here are the real facts.” The Conversation. 2/18/2019. https://theconversation.com/concentration-camps-in-the-south-african-war-here-are-the-real-facts-112006 Sultan, Mena. “Emily Hobhouse and the Boer War.” The Guardian. 3/3/2019. https://www.theguardian.com/gnmeducationcentre/from-the-archive-blog/2019/jun/03/emily-hobhouse-and-the-boer-war Tan BRY. “Dissolving the colour line: L. T. Hobhouse on race and liberal empire.” European Journal of Political Theory. May 2022. doi:10.1177/14748851221093451 Van Heyningen, Elizabeth. “Costly Mythologies: The Concentration Camps of the South African War in Afrikaner Historiography.” Journal of Southern African Studies , Sep., 2008. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40283165 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hobhouse was a pacifist and humanitarian all her life. Part one covers her work exposing terrible conditions at the concentration camps that Britain established in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War. Research: "Boer War." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, edited by William A. Darity, Jr., 2nd ed., vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2008, pp. 348-350. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3045300221/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=de8396d3. Accessed 17 June 2022. "Emily Hobhouse." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 38, Gale, 2018. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631010793/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=3ffba52e. Accessed 17 June 2022. Brits, Elsabé. “Emily Hobhouse: Beloved Traitor.” Tafelberg. 2016. Brown, Heloise. “Feminist Responses to the Anglo-Boer War.” From “The Truest Form of Patriotism: Pacifist Feminism in Britain, 1870-1902.” https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/9781526137890/9781526137890.00015.xml Donaldson, Peter. "The Boer War and British society: Peter Donaldson examines how the British people reacted to the various stages of the South African war of 1899-1902." History Review, no. 67, Sept. 2010, pp. 32+. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A237304031/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=27ca4148. Accessed 17 June 2022. Gill, Rebecca and Cornelis Muller. “The Limits of Agency: Emily Hobhouse's international activism and the politics of suffering.” The Journal of South African and American Studies Volume 19, 2018. Hobhouse, Emily. “Dust-Women.” The Economic Journal. Vol. 10, no. 39, Sept. 1900. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2957231 Hobhouse, Emily. “To the Committee of the Distress Fund for South African Women and Children. Report.” 1901. https://digital.lib.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.2/2530 Krebs, Paula M. "Narratives of suffering and national identity in Boer War South Africa." Nineteenth-Century Prose, vol. 32, no. 2, fall 2005, pp. 154+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A208109719/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=15c90c3c. Accessed 17 June 2022. Nash, David. "THE BOER WAR AND ITS HUMANITARIAN CRITICS." History Today, vol. 49, no. 6, June 1999, p. 42. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A54913073/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=5d18555b. Accessed 17 June 2022. Pretorius, Fransjohan. “Concentration camps in the South African War? Here are the real facts.” The Conversation. 2/18/2019. https://theconversation.com/concentration-camps-in-the-south-african-war-here-are-the-real-facts-112006 Sultan, Mena. “Emily Hobhouse and the Boer War.” The Guardian. 3/3/2019. https://www.theguardian.com/gnmeducationcentre/from-the-archive-blog/2019/jun/03/emily-hobhouse-and-the-boer-war Tan BRY. “Dissolving the colour line: L. T. Hobhouse on race and liberal empire.” European Journal of Political Theory. May 2022. doi:10.1177/14748851221093451 Van Heyningen, Elizabeth. “Costly Mythologies: The Concentration Camps of the South African War in Afrikaner Historiography.” Journal of Southern African Studies , Sep., 2008. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40283165 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
If you're new to the show, you'd probably like it best if you started listening to this sprawling story at episode 1.1 or 1.3 ... depending how you like consuming your stories. Whether you're new to the show or not, there is some very time-sensitive information below about my family and time-sensitive information about the show probably being off the air soon. Mahatma Gandhi is best known for his work in India. But while the Gandhi film by Richard Attenborough does focus on some of Gandhi's time in South Africa, it leaves out a remarkable incident. In this mini-episode of the Forgotten Wars Podcast....hear about this incident that occurred shortly after the Anglo-Boer War. Finally, my 2nd child is days away from being born as of this air date :) As a result, I'll need to focus more exclusively on endeavors that more certainly will earn this high school world history teacher and his growing family some money. Therefore, this will probably be the last episode of the Forgotten Wars Podcast unless some generous donors step in to at least take on the monthly fees it takes to even keep this show's sole season on the air. And it will certainly take in the tens of thousands of dollars to make it worth it for me to sink another nearly 3,000 hours into producing another season about another forgotten war. If you want to make sure to keep this show going and want your name in the credits, check out the links below. Regardless ... God bless you for reading even this far :) 1) More sources from today's episode available at https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/blog/ 2) Choose how you'd like to keep the show going at https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/donate/
Today I am joined by legendary author John Laband to find out all about Major General Sir George Pomeroy Colley - the British commander who lost the 1st Anglo-Boer War of 1880-81. John has written a number of books on this fascinating conflict. The links are below inc a discount code from Helion books: The Battle of Majuba - https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/the-battle-of-majuba-hill-the-transvaal-campaign-1880-1881.php?sid=fa741aea78a7a5f46bb2482c1ebc41cc The code is : MAJUBA20 and this will give a discount of 20% against RRP from 12 May to 30 June (please note code only valid on print editions, not digital versions) Please sign up for my mailing list over at www.redcoathistory.com
A clash of culture and military doctrine - why did the Boers win the 1st Anglo-Boer War of 1880-81? John has written a number of books on this fascinating conflict. The links are below inc a discount code from Helion books: The Battle of Majuba - https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/the-battle-of-majuba-hill-the-transvaal-campaign-1880-1881.php?sid=fa741aea78a7a5f46bb2482c1ebc41cc The code is : MAJUBA20 and this will give a discount of 20% against RRP from 12 May to 30 June (please note code only valid on print editions, not digital versions) Please sign up for my mailing list over at www.redcoathistory.com
Road Trip's Podcast - Travel, Touring and Holidays in South Africa
The founders of the South African Air Force, traitors and rebels, battlefields and graves, heroes and villains, churches and statues - this road encompasses them all. There's even a memorial to the animals of the 2nd Anglo-Boer War. The Road Trip SA app is available for downloadDo you want to explore South Africa? Touch Africa Safaris
The founders of the South African Air Force, traitors and rebels, battlefields and graves, heroes and villains, churches and statues - this road encompasses them all. There's even a memorial to the animals of the 2nd Anglo-Boer War. The Road Trip SA app is available for downloadDo you want to explore South Africa? Touch Africa Safaris
This is the first in a new short series examining the 1st Anglo-Boer War aka the Transvaal rebellion. In today's video we walk the Battlefield of Bronkhorstspruit and I am joined by historian John Laband. John has written a number of books on this fascinating conflict. The links are below inc a discount code from Helion books: The Battle of Majuba - https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/the-battle-of-majuba-hill-the-transvaal-campaign-1880-1881.php?sid=fa741aea78a7a5f46bb2482c1ebc41cc The code is : MAJUBA20 and this will give a discount of 20% against RRP from 12 May to 30 June (please note code only valid on print editions, not digital versions) The Transvaal rebellion - https://amzn.to/3HK99FI If you are interested in the Zulu War, then please sign up for my mailing list to receive my free book on the subject: www.redcoathistory.com If you are very generous, you can also buy me a coffee and help support the channel via: https://ko-fi.com/redcoathistory
If you're new to the show, you'd probably like it best if you started listening to this sprawling story at episode 1.1 or 1.3 ... depending how you like consuming your stories. If you're not new to the show, read on :) Most Irishmen in southern Africa were fighting on the British side. In this mini-episode of the Forgotten Wars Podcast....learn about a unique group of Irishmen who fought on the Boer side during the Anglo-Boer War. 1) More sources from today's episode available at https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/blog/ 2) Choose how you'd like to keep the show going at https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/donate/
If you're new to the show, you'd probably like it best if you started listening to this sprawling story at episode 1.1 or 1.3 ... depending how you like consuming your stories. If you're not new to the show, read on :) In this mini-episode of the Forgotten Wars Podcast....learn about how heliographs helped & hurt those who relied on them ... before, during, & after the Anglo-Boer War. 1) More sources from today's episode available at https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/blog/ 2) Choose how you'd like to keep the show going at https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/donate/
If you're new to the show, you'd probably like it best if you started listening to this sprawling story at episode 1.1 or 1.3 ... depending how you like consuming your stories. If you're not new to the show, read on :) In this mini-episode of the Forgotten Wars Podcast....learn about the crucial role that horses played in the Anglo-Boer War. 1) More sources from today's episode available at https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/blog/ 2) Choose how you'd like to keep the show going at https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/donate/
If you're new to the show, you'd probably like it best if you started listening to this sprawling story at episode 1.1 or 1.3 ... depending how you like consuming your stories. If you're not new to the show, read on :) In this mini-episode of the Forgotten Wars Podcast....Learn how balloons were wielded as weapons before and during the Anglo-Boer War. 1) More sources from today's episode available at https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/blog/ 2) Choose how you'd like to keep the show going at https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/donate/
The N3 of 589km connects Johannesburg and Durban - respectively South Africa's largest and third largest cities, and probably our busiest highway. Leaving the busy Witwatersrand behind you, the first town is Heidelberg - once proudly a capital city, then miles of flat maize-covered farmland. Some fascinating Anglo-Boer War history reveals itself around Balfour - "Hendsoppers & Joiners" - still a legacy of the war that rankles today. The town of Cassel that never was, petrified trees in Harrismith and then we enter the area called "The Natal Battlefields".We have a brief look at "The Midlands Meander" - the ideal getaway for a weekend, and we almost get to Howick.All the spots mentioned in this podcast are listed on the Road Trip SA app.Do you want to explore South Africa? Touch Africa SafarisThis is a recording of a weekly radio show - Radio EcoHealth
Road Trip's Podcast - Travel, Touring and Holidays in South Africa
The N3 of 589km connects Johannesburg and Durban - respectively South Africa's largest and third largest cities, and probably our busiest highway. Leaving the busy Witwatersrand behind you, the first town is Heidelberg - once proudly a capital city, then miles of flat maize-covered farmland. Some fascinating Anglo-Boer War history reveals itself around Balfour - "Hendsoppers & Joiners" - still a legacy of the war that rankles today. The town of Cassel that never was, petrified trees in Harrismith and then we enter the area called "The Natal Battlefields".We have a brief look at "The Midlands Meander" - the ideal getaway for a weekend, and we almost get to Howick.All the spots mentioned in this podcast are listed on the Road Trip SA app.Do you want to explore South Africa? Touch Africa SafarisThis is a recording of a weekly radio show - Radio EcoHealth
Road Trip's Podcast - Travel, Touring and Holidays in South Africa
"Die ver verlate vlaktes" - the beautiful and evocative line from the National Anthem of South Africa describes "The far and desolate plains" stretching from the Karoo to the areas around Bloemfontein. This area abounds with the history of the Voortrekkers, broken British promises, and the ghosts of the many Anglo-Boer War concentration camps dotted throughout the towns. Beautiful statues, creative monuments and quite a few hidden gems await the person who is prepared to explore this area.The Road Trip SA app is available for downloadDo you want to visit and explore South Africa? Touch Africa SafarisThis is a recording of a radio show - Radio Ecohealth
"Die ver verlate vlaktes" - the beautiful and evocative line from the National Anthem of South Africa describes "The far and desolate plains" stretching from the Karoo to the areas around Bloemfontein. This area abounds with the history of the Voortrekkers, broken British promises, and the ghosts of the many Anglo-Boer War concentration camps dotted throughout the towns. Beautiful statues, creative monuments and quite a few hidden gems await the person who is prepared to explore this area.The Road Trip SA app is available for downloadDo you want to visit and explore South Africa? Touch Africa SafarisThis is a recording of a radio show - Radio Ecohealth
Have you ever wondered who the man in the WW1 recruiting poster is and why he was so important? Today author Anne Samson joins me on the Redcoat History Show to explain his fascinating life that included command at the Battle of Omdurman and also during the 2nd Anglo-Boer War. Viewers of the show will also get a 20% discount on her book - Kitchener: The man not the myth - stay tuned to get your discount code. If you are interested in the Zulu War, then please sign up for my mailing list to receive my free book on the subject: www.redcoathistory.com If you are very generous, you can also buy me a coffee and help support the channel via https://ko-fi.com/redcoathistory
South Africa, despite abolishing apartheid in the 1990s, still stays very fraught with racial tension, making the United States' experience of 2020 pale in comparison. A series of settlements and wars from over a hundred years ago and over hundreds of years still ripple South Africa today with their effects. But South Africa didn't become what it is today by accident, though Europeans did settle it by accident ... at least at first.Over the 18th & 19th centuries, white settlements expanded quite intentionally across southern Africa... but quite chaotically too. Those European settlers weren't the only ones expanding in southern Africa. The Zulu tribe rapidly expanded and "adopted" other tribal members who they didn't annihilate. These clashes often didn't follow racial lines, and nor were they always over resources. Most of these clashes remain forgotten by most of the world. And even the so-called Boer War remains extremely misunderstood. Today's guest Michael Buster hosts the Forgotten Wars Podcast, a more than 40-chapter podcast with the first season focusing on these clashes over control of southern Africa with the bulk of the season focusing on Anglo-Boer Wars, fought in the 1880s and early 1900s.Some have mischaracterized the Anglo-Boer War as the British Empire's Vietnam War, while others have drawn parallels between it and US invasion of Iraq in 2003, or just another war over natural resources (in this case gold and diamonds). But the ripple effects and implications of this regional war go way beyond the boundaries of South Africa.We discuss:- How the British botched abolition in the Cape Colony and sowed the seeds for many future wars. We contrast this approach with the approach Abraham Lincoln took to abolition in slave state(s) that stayed in the Union.- How did this war helped "make" Winston Churchill? His time as a POW led to to lucrative book sales that helped him fund his first campaign and win a seat in the House of Commons- Whether the British really invented concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War- How to win a war fought thousands of miles from your motherland.
By Andy Milroy An audio podcast episode has been added to this article. Early conditioning can be very important. Wally Hayward came from a very tough background. His father, Wallace George Hayward, the son of a coal agent, had been born in Peckham in London, England in 1880, and emigrated to South Africa sometime between 1901 and 1906, in his early twenties. It looks probable he actually arrived soon after 1904 when the sand bar which had restricted Durban Harbour to bigger ships was dredged and deepened. This allowed the weekly Union Castle passenger ships from Southampton to enter the port. Bearing in mind Wallace's later employment, and absence from Union Castle passenger lists, it is possible that he served as a barman on one of these passenger ships, departing the ship at Durban. On ultrarunninghistory.com, each article/episode takes about 30 hours of effort to research, write, script, edit, publish and publicize. Each month more there are more than 100,000 downloads of these history stories. Help is needed to continue this effort. Please consider becoming a patreon member of ultrarunning history. You can become part of the effort to preserve and document this history by signing up to contribute a few dollars each month. Visit https://ultrarunninghistory.com/member Durban, South Africa After arriving in Durban he met Cornelia Gerhardina Jacoba Kritzinger. Cornelia was the youngest of eight children of an Afrikaner farmer, Louis Kritzinger and his wife Rachel. The Kritzinger family had a 3000 acre farm in Zululand, then part of the British province of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). The three sons worked on the farm with their father and the women had a whole raft of household tasks to complete - baking and preserving, making and repairing clothes, sewing, knitting and cooking. The sisters took in turn to tackle each of these tasks. Cornelia Hayward Cornelia was born in 1878 but by her mid-twenties she seems to have rebelled against this demanding regime and left the farm for the city life of Durban. Perhaps the demands and deprivation of the Second Boer War had been the final straw. Cornelia got a job as a cook in a children's home and some time in 1906/07 she met the younger Wallace Hayward. He had become a barman in a Durban hotel and the couple later lived in one of the hotel rooms. On the 10 July 1908 Wallace "Wally" Henry was born, named after his father and his grandfather, Henry Hayward. Two years later a sister Agnes was born, then two years after that a brother Horace and finally a sister Gertrude. The names chosen show a great deal about the dynamics between the couple. Basically the children were named after Wallace's siblings. None of Cornelia's family had a child named after them. This was in the aftermath of the Anglo-Boer War which had made such a horrendous impact on the Afrikaans. Wallace's dominance in the naming of the children, may have been a response of a victor over the vanquished, but seems at the very least, insensitive. Johannesburg When Wally was eighteen months old, the family moved to Johannesburg. Without skills, his father found it difficult to get work, and once again wound up as a barman in a hotel. Already a heavy smoker, he began drinking heavily. The Haywards had come to Johannesburg at the prompting of one of Cornelia's sisters. The Kritzingers had been involved in the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). Originally from Germany, three Kritzinger brothers came to South Africa in 1820 and two of them married Dutch women. A descendant, Pieter Hendrik Kritzinger, was a Boer general and guerrilla fighter during the Second Boer War. Around 1914, when Wally was six, his father got a job working in a mine, eventually becoming a mine captain at the East Rand Propriety Mines, mining gold at Boksburg, a settlement not far from Johannesburg. Wallace Hayward In 1916 Wallace enlisted in the South African Overseas Expeditionary Force (as the South African ...
A general is captured at Tweebosch, a "glorious" charge at Rooiwal, and peace negotiations are taken up again. 1) To read the article about the British Women's Emigration Association before it goes behind a paywall, go to this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/blog/ 2) Learn more about the day, the year that blacks finally got the vote in South Africa: https://apnews.com/article/114b08c396d444f7b1de900b481ea059 3) Send me your share screen shots and your show questions using this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/contact/ 4) Support the show here: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/donate/ OR here: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/merch/ 5) Visit our Patreon page to vote on a bonus episode topic: https://www.patreon.com/forgottenwars 6) Learn more about South Africa's history after the Anglo-Boer War in these episodes from the Africa Past & Present Podcast. Episode 87: http://afripod.aodl.org/2014/12/afripod-87/ Episode 102: http://afripod.aodl.org/2016/06/afripod-102/ Episode 112: http://afripod.aodl.org/page/2/ Episode 117: http://afripod.aodl.org/2018/05/afripod-117/
An epic clash at Vlakfontein, a comical scene at Groenkop, & some dark scenes elsewhere in this episode. Notes: 1) Be a reason that there is a Q&A episode by using this link to send me questions related to the history we've covered: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/contact/ 2) Be the first to help the show go on and become a permanent part of an episode by supporting us on Patreon using this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/donate/
Jan Smuts and company take another shot at invading the Cape Colony while Louis Botha takes another crack at Natal. Will they yield the same fruit? Notes: 1) Be a reason that there is a Q&A episode by using this link to send me questions related to the history we've covered: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/contact/ 2) Be the first to help the show go on and become a permanent part of an episode by supporting us on Patreon using this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/donate/
Bergendal, Churchill's book tour, guerrilla warfare, De Wet's 4-pronged invasion, Botha and Kitchener's peace talks, and blockhouses ... all that in this episode. 1) Learn more dates and districts for Churchill's elections using this article: https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/reference/churchills-elections/ 2) Be a reason that there is a Q&A episode by using this link to send me questions related to the history we've covered: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/contact/ 3) As of July 8, 2021, the show has yet to earn its first dollar of gross income. Be the first to help the show go on here: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/donate/ OR here: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/merch/
Finally ... the story of Boer & black concentration camps in southern Africa during the South African War of 1899-1902. 1. If you want a Q&A episode, send questions you have about the Boer Wars or these concentration camps to me using the following link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/contact/. The more quality questions I get, the more likely I'll produce a Q&A episode. 2. A thorough article about the history behind a deeply troubling photo from a concentration camp, a photo used by many as click bait: https://journals.co.za/doi/10.10520/AJA02590190_616 3. Want to try Master Class or support the show in some other way, go to this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/donate/ 4. If you want to learn more about concentration camps during that moment in history across the world, you may appreciate this article ... one of several I used to prepare for this episode: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26266238. You will need a free Jstor account to access this article.
Did concentration camps really emerge for the first time during the South African War of 1899-1902? This second part of your 3-part answer focuses on camps that emerged in the Philippines and ... what scorched earth wrought in southern Africa. Notes: 1. If I get enough of your questions about the show, you could hear an episode where I answer listener questions. Send me questions you have using this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/contact/ 2. Grow yourself and support the show using this Master Class link: https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=797461&u=2673298&m=62509&urllink=&afftrack=
Bonus episode from the podcast 'Forgotten Wars'.You're getting dropped right into the middle of the South African War of 1899-1902 (Anglo-Boer War) to hear the story of one of its forgotten heroes with a dark, dark success story. A major character from this story goes on to found the first Boy Scouts organization.Forgotten Wars can be found on all podcasting platforms, with more information on their website. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
As British forces close in on Pretoria, the Boers argue about surrendering or fighting on. Which side will take more prisoners? Which side will triumph at Diamond Hill? What proclamations will ripple for decades? Notes: 1) My brother laughed out loud when he saw me finally get this going.... my Instagram page. If you want to be amused by an amateur, follow me using this link: https://www.instagram.com/forgottenwarspodcast/ 2) If you have questions about battles and people mentioned in this episode, contact me using this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/contact/ Your question could be featured in a future episode of the show :) 3) Try Fiverr & help the show: https://track.fiverr.com/visit/?bta=231913&nci=9380
By Davy Crockett You can read, listen, or watch The Comrades Marathon (about 55 miles), held in South Africa, is the world's largest and oldest ultramarathon race that is still held today with fields that have topped 23,000 runners. The year 2021, marked the 100th anniversary of Comrades Marathon “The Ultimate Human Race.” Because the pandemic cancelled the race for the second year, the anniversary was celebrated on May 24, 2021, with a 2.2 km “1921 Tribute Run.” The field of 34 invited runners included twenty-one former winners from South Africa dating back to 1976. Also included were some runners who had completed more than forty editions of Comrades. In total thirty-four runners participated, matching the size of the field in 1921. Comrades today is one of the most paramount ultrarunning events on the international calendar. It has a rich 100-year history packed with amazing accomplishments by more than 400,000 finishers through the years. How did it start and what kept it going for a century? This episode will cover the first two years of the race in 1921 and 1922. Please help support this podcast. I can offer a 25% discount on Ultrarunning Magazine subscriptions and renewals. Some proceeds help fund this website. Visit https://ultrarunninghistory.com/mag Subscribe or renew today with this link. Vic Clapham Vic Clapham (1886-1962) was a train engineer from Durban, South Africa and became the founder of the Comrades Marathon. He was born in London and went to South Africa with his parents when he was 13 years old in 1899 while the Anglo-Boer War was taking place between the British Empire and two Boer states who were fighting against British rule. Diamonds and gold had been discovered in those states. As a boy during the war, Clapham enrolled as an ambulance man in the Cardock Town Guard. Thousands died on both side of the conflict, especially women and children Boers. As a youth, Clapham attended Wynberg Boy's High School, one of the best academic schools in Cape Town, and second oldest in South Africa. He would often walk about eight kilometers to school each day from his home. Usually he was given a three-penny “tickey” each day to pay for a train ride home so he could help in his father's grocery store. Once he spent the money on sweets and instead walked back home. That resulted in a beating from his grandmother, and he never repeated that offence. He married Nellie in 1912 and they eventually had six sons. World War I broke out in 1914 when Clapham was age 28. As South Africa entered the bloody conflict, Clapham signed up with the 8th South African Infantry and was sent to German East Africa, now Tanzania. During his service he went on a 1,700-mile march in East Africa. He came down with blackwater fever, dysentery, malaria, and was close to death because of the diseases. In 1917 when he was mostly recovered, he travelled home by wagon and on a hospital ship where he was deemed medically unfit. Once home he worked for the local government railway as a fireman. The Idea for Comrades Marathon Returning British soldiers formed the “League of Comrades of the Great War” to represent the rights of veterans of the war. Clapham was interested in establishing a memorial to the suffering and deaths of his comrades during the war. Instead of creating a statue, he wanted a living memorial that would grow and embody the spirit of fortitude, endurance and bravery that typified his fallen comrades. He produced an idea to organize an event on foot from his hometown in Pietermarizburg to the coastal city of Durban, a distance of about 56 miles. Clapham was inspired by the London to Brighton walking races that were held before World War I (see episode 58) and wanted to create a similar race in South Africa. It was reported, “He felt that if infantrymen, drafted into the armed forces from sedentary jobs, could endure forced marches over great distances,
Blacks were more than victims and unskilled laborers in this war. Learn enough today to see through the glass more clearly. SHOW NOTES: 1. Yes ... you did hear baby Evan losing his mind at about the 14 minute mark :) 2. You can share the show on your preferred social media platform using a text like this: “ Want to know more South African history than 95% of the world? This focuses on white South Africa's origins story, maybe the first Afrikaner hero, and the wars that followed European settlement of southern Africa. Listen to episode 1.3 of the Forgotten Wars Podcast, one of the opening chapters to a story that culminates with the South African War of 1899-1902 (Anglo-Boer War). Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1-3-brits-slaves-voortrekkers-and-a-penis/id1535351938?i=1000494291055 “ 3. Grow yourself and support the show using this Master Class link: https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=797461&u=2673298&m=62509&urllink=&afftrack= 4. If you’d to play free poker with me online, contact me using this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/contact/ 5. As of June 2nd, 2021, this show has been operating in the red for nearly a year. Help the show go on. Choose one of many ways to get more and support the show using this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/donate/
After Ladysmith, after Kimberley, and after Paardeberg, as the dominos continue to fall, both a hero and monster emerge in Mafeking.
Finally ... the door is open for Christiaan De Wet to wage guerrilla warfare as the British close in on Pretoria. Does the door slam in his face, or does he throw it wide open? The Battle of Korn Spruit (aka Sanna's Post) will tell you. 1) If you’d to play free poker with me online, contact me using this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/contact/ 2) Grow yourself and support the show using this Master Class link: https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=797461&u=2673298&m=62509&urllink=&afftrack= 3) As of May 26th, 2021, this show has been operating in the red for nearly a year. This is normal for many podcasts, BUT most podcasts don't last long. Help the show go on. Choose one of many ways to get more and support the show using this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/donate/ 4) I alluded back to episode 1.18's telling of the Jameson Raid; here is the link in case you wanted to circle back on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-1-18-drifts-crisis-jameson-raid-in-this-installment/id1535351938?i=1000506044631
The Boers are reeling and on the run. The British are on a roll to ... Bloemfontein. How costly will marching into Bloemfontein be? Notes: 1) Learn more about Russian support and undermining of the Boers war effort before the article goes behind a paywall: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/blog/ 2) Grow yourself and support the show using this Master Class link: https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=797461&u=2673298&m=62509&urllink=&afftrack= 3) If you’d to play free poker with me online, contact me using this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/contact/ 4) As of May 20, 2021, this show has been operating in the red for nearly a year. This is normal for many podcasts, BUT most podcasts don't last long. Help the show go on. Choose one of many ways to get more and support the show using this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/donate/
Piet Cronje lets himself get circled by Lord Kitchener & Lord Roberts. Cecil Rhodes flexes his obnoxious muscle at Kimberley. Thousands of men and animals will face starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion. This isn’t going to end well. Notes- Try Fiverr & help the show: https://track.fiverr.com/visit/?bta=231913&nci=9380 Read my article “Where Are All the Horses?” before it goes behind a paywall at this link: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/blog/ Indian Mutiny/Sepoy Mutiny of 1857-1858 video from Simple History- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rKrYVjgWQg Episode 1.13 on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1-13-the-rebellion-is-over-what-about-machine-guns/id1535351938?i=1000499411345 Episode 1.13 on Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9KM09KV0xIeQ/episode/YzdjNWRjOTctMDkxMS00NWU4LTg5OGYtMmY3ZjZlMmEwYmUz?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahgKEwjoi8mrmaTwAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQjAE
General Buller & company are hoping this time ... and the next time will be different when they try to break the noose around Ladysmith's neck. Notes- 1) Buy a Forgotten Wars mask: https://forgottenwarspodcast.com/merch/ 2) Try Fiverr & help the show: https://track.fiverr.com/visit/?bta=231913&nci=9380 3) Learn more about typhoid fever: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/typhoid-fever/symptoms-causes/syc-20378661 4) Learn more about dysentery: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/171193
In early 1900, Rudyard Kipling, Mary Kingsley and Arthur Conan Doyle crossed paths in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War. Motivated in various ways by notions of duty, service, patriotism and jingoism, they were each shaped by the theatre of war. Sarah LeFanu joined Dan Snow to explore the cultural legacies, controversial reputations and influence on colonial policy of these three British writers. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Welcome to our Roundtable Discussion on the Anglo-Boer War! Two historians chat about Ryan Clarke's talk and learn more about the war. These discussions take place after our weekly zoom talks, so do check out the talk on this subject here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgAtHl6ixoA To find out more about our weekly talks, please go to https://www.historyindoors.co.uk/ for more information!
Professor Gerald Horne holds the Moores Professorship of History and African American Studies. His research has addressed issues of racism in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights, international relations and war. He has also written extensively about the film industry. Dr. Horne received his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and his B.A. from Princeton University. He is the author of more than thirty books and one hundred scholarly articles and reviews. His current research includes an examination of U.S.-Southern African relations since the so-called “Anglo-Boer War” at the end of the 19th century and an analysis of the Political Economy of the music called “Jazz” from the late 19th century to the present. Latest Book "The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century": https://nyupress.org/9781583678725/the-dawning-of-the-apocalypse/
This week I'm focusing on America and Americans who fought in the war. What made Americans travel half way around the world to fight for both the Boers and the English? The initial answer is obvious - given the Boer's attempts at forging independence from the British Empire, something the Americans had done one hundred and 30 years before. “I have been absorbed in interest in the Boer War,” wrote Theodore Roosevelt to his friend Cecil Spring Rice in 1899. “The Boers are belated Cromwellians, with many fine traits. They deeply and earnestly believe in their cause, and they attract the sympathy which always goes to the small nation. … But it would be for the advantage of mankind to have English spoken south of the Zambesi just as in New York; and as I told one of my fellow Knickerbockers the other day, as we let the Uhlanders of old in here, I do not see why the same rule is not good enough in the Transvaal.” He was not alone. Most Americans took a keen interest in this remote conflict, many espoused the same belief in what they earnestly believed was the British civilising influence in Southern Africa. Two years later later, though the former Senator and now president Roosevelt wrote: “I am not an Anglomaniac any more than I am an Anglophobe … but I am keenly alive to the friendly countenance England gave us in 1898. … I have been uncomfortable about the Boer War, and notably in reference to certain details of the way it was brought on; but I have far too lively a knowledge of our national shortcomings to wish to say anything publicly that would hamper or excite feeling against a friendly nation for which I have a hearty admiration and respect.” That contradiction was played out across the USA. Leading newspapers sent their correspondents to the front; the war was debated in Congress and discussed in Cabinet meetings; private organisations sprang up to help one side or the other; a surprising number of Americans actually made their way to South Africa and joined the fight; and toy stores stocked up on two new games, one called “Boer and Briton” and the other “The War in South Africa”. In addition, the United States sold the British tens of thousands of tons of preserved meat, hay, and oats as well as horses, mules and oxen. Boers and their friends in America tried to prevent such sales, and the Chicago branch of the American Transvaal League and the Boer Legislative Committee of Philadelphia lodged formal protests with Washington. Although publishing legend and businessman William Randolph Hearst thought Britain should win—because as he put it “civilization and progress demand it”—most American publishers and their newspapers were pro-Boer. For Example, the man who gave us the Pulitzer prize, Joseph Pulitzer's New York World sided with the Boers and favoured American mediation. It even worked up a petition to the President urging this which was signed by 19 bishops and archbishops, 104 out of 442 members of Congress, 89 college presidents, 13 mayors of important cities, and many distinguished judges, editors, and businessmen.
This week its all about Russians and with good reason. ‘I am wholly preoccupied with the war between England and the Transvaal,' Tsar Nicholas wrote to his sister at the outbreak of the Boer War in October 1899. ‘Every day I read the news in the British newspapers from the first to the last line . . . I cannot conceal my joy at . . . yesterday's news that during General White's sally two full British battalions and a mountain battery were captured by the Boers!' He was beside himself with glee. Yet a few years after writing this, Russia would be fighting as an ally with Britain against the Germans on the Eastern Front during the First World War. But that was 13 years later. At this moment, Tsar Nicholas was the enemy. The British and Russians had fought head to head during the Crimean War forty years before, and the Royal squabbles and empire building on both sides had alienated one from the other. Some of this week's episode is drawn from the book “The Russians and the Anglo-Boer War” by Apollon Davidson and Irina Filatova published in 1998. I've also used historian RW Johnson's comments at times too. The characters involved .. as usual .. are unforgettable. We've met people from all over the world who've had a hand to play in this war, and the Russians were some of the most colourful. By the way, its largely thanks to Sol who lives in Russia for prompting this episode. I hope you're not too cold right now! But back to the episode… In 1899 the Tsar was particularly interested in the Boer War and Britain's hold on South Africa because the route to India lay via the Cape, and Russia had its own designs on India. Even Leon Tolstoy had a view about the Anglo-Boer war, and he supported the Boers.
On 12th December 1900, and in the United States, Winston Churchill was about to deliver a lecture about his experiences as a war reporter in South Africa, covering the Anglo-Boer War. Exactly a year earlier to the day on 12th December 1899, he'd escaped from a Boer prison in Pretoria, now he was standing in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria in New York. It was the haunt of the rich and famous. And for once, Churchill was nervous because he was being introduced by the great author, Mark Twain who was staunchly opposed to imperialism and at 65 with his shock of unruly white hair, Twain generally spoke his mind without fear or favour. Churchill was aware this could be a difficult evening. He had sailed from Britain after winning a seat in parliament for Oldham in the khaki election in October 1900, and now sought to grow his influence further afield by going on the American lecture circuit. He also needed cash to fund his political career. The show came with slides and what was known at that time as a magic lantern, an early form of slide projector, which projected images on a screen while Churchill spoke. He could do the lecture in his sleep, his oratory skills already sharpened. Churchill had presented this lecture 29 times before in every large British City, starting immediately after the elections on 30 October in St James' Hall in London. Evening after evening except Sundays he addressed large halls full of an adoring public. Churchill had made a tidy sum out of the British lecture circuit because at that time, Members of Parliament received no remuneration. So he knew that he needed a war chest for politics, and what better way than to talk about a war with a multimedia show thrown in? Back in South Africa, the so-called bandits were about to deal General Clements another blow in the Magaliesberg Mountain range which lies west of Pretoria and Johannesburg. Remember last week Jan Smuts and Koos de la Rey had ambushed a large relief convoy and either seized or destroyed 118 wagons on the road to Rustenburg through the mountains. As I said, that was merely a precursor to a much more violent confrontation on the 9th December at a place called Nooitgedacht. loosely translated, it means Never Daylight. The success of the ambush had whetted Smuts and de la Rey's appetite for bigger game. General Clements was that bigger game. He was a bull-necked Englishman who had done well in recent weeks in corraling the Boers and protecting the main routes out of Pretoria to the West. Towns like Rustenberg and Mafikeng lay along that route, and it was important to keep the road open to Bechuanaland, modern day Botswana. But one mistake changed all that. Smuts wrote later that General Clements had selected a terrible spot to bivouac his troops. “I do not think” Smuts said “it was possible to have selected a more fatal spot for a camp and one which gave better scope for Boer dash and ingenuity in storming the position..” There were shear walls one one side of a thousand feet, rearing over Nooitgedacht to the north and commanding the entire valley. Nooitgedacht, roughly translated, means NEVER DAY which gives you an idea about just how nestled this valley was - and how prone it oculd be to attack if you failed to control the high ground. Clements had two reasons to choose this site and neither had anything to do with defence. First, he need to place a signalling station on the summit of the large mountain in order to send messages to Rustenberg 35 kilometers away in the shimmering plain to the north west. The second reason was more prosaic - there was a magnificent mountain stream at Nooitgedacht which plunged down a series of waterfalls. This meant clean and clear water for this men as they camped.
In Part 2 of Redlining & White Noise, we speak with Dr. Gerald Horne about America's history of enslaving human beings from Africa. Gerald Horne is an African-American historian who currently holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. Dr. Horne is the author of more than thirty books and one hundred scholarly articles and reviews. His current research includes an examination of U.S.-Southern African relations since the so-called “Anglo-Boer War” at the end of the 19th century and an analysis of the Political Economy of the music called “Jazz” from the late 19th century to the present. Gerald Horne's latest book, discussed in this episode, is "The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in 17th Century North America and the Carribean." It can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Apocalypse-Settler-Colonialism-Supremacy-Capitalism-ebook/dp/B075XSKT86/ref=la_B001HCVSVK_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532103999&sr=1-2
The Anglo-Boer war which began in 1899 and ended in 1902 was the culmination of more than 250 years of Boer expansion into Africa and conflict with blacks as well as a century of conflict with the British Empire. Some of the most famous names of the 20th Century were involved including Mahatma Gandhi as a stretcher bearer and Winston Churchill as a war correspondent. It was a war that the British expected to wrap up in a few months but ended up costing tens of thousands of lives over three years. It started with lofty ideals and ended with the British throwing Boer women and children into concentration camps where they died in their hundreds.
Breaker Morant is an Australian movie released in 1980 that tells the true story of three Australian soldiers of the Bushveldt Carbineers on trial for war crimes near the end of the 1899-1902 Anglo-Boer War in South Africa. Join CJ as he discusses: A brief background on the Boer War A brief synopsis of Breaker Morant […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices