Former President of the South African Republic
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2 episodes with Paul Kruger
2 episodes with Paul Kruger
Welcome back to the history of South Africa podcast with me your host, Des Latham. This is episode 286 - Johannesburg is proclaimed but the flow of water and cash provs challenging. We'll start however, with the Orange Free State. Its president Johannes Brand was certainly carved from an original chunk of Boer marble — even the British empire recognized his magnificence, at least, Queen Victoria, who was knighted him. Brand was one of the main movers behind the first attempt at uniting the Boer Republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State but the open hostility by Paul Kruger and the Burghers of the Transvaal scuttled his plans. President Brand had been voted into office in 1872 and for the next 20 years, the Free State was characterised by relative tranquility and modest prosperity. After Britain formally annexed Basutoland and Griqualand West, the Free State experienced a few ructions, but there was little friction between the Afrikaaners and their English compatriots. Brand was steadfast in his belief that the Republics should remain neutral when it came to Great Britain, while Paul Kruger's Transvaal was openly hostile to London. The Free State leader was a warded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Victoria in 1882, turning Brand into Sir Johannes Brand. That rankled the still more. Kruger wanted utter independence, whereas Brand was willing to negotiate based on what was best for the Free State. A deeply religious man, Johannes Brand was extremely popular with the burghers of the Orange Free State, and his expression "alles zal recht komen als elkeen zijn plicht doet" (all will be well if everyone does his duty) is one of the most recognisable sayings of his presidency. Nor were there serious difficulties with black Free Staters, mainly because in the Free State, blacks had no rights and couldn't own land and avoided the territory. It wasn't like the Cape, where jobs abounded. In 1885, there were about an equal number of blacks and whites living in the Free State, with the independent Basutoland on the eastern border and territory around Thaba ‘Nchu prosperous under Basutho chief, Moroka the second. The Total population of the Free State in 1885 was 140 000 — smaller than most counties in England, which is amazing because the Free State was almost exactly the same size as the whole of England. Free State is 129 825 square kilometers, England is 130 279 square kilos. The Free State also lay directly between the Cape, which England controlled, and the Transvaal, which it thought of as a suzereignty. The reason for all this preamble is that railways were coming to South Africa, albeit slowly. In 1885, there were only 1 318 miles of track in operation and 1 213 of those were in the Cape, 115 miles in Natal. By contrast, 5 133 miles of track had been laid in Australia, and even New Zealand had longer lines - 1 486 miles. The new gold fields of the Witwatersrand were going to need railway lines urgently. By the end of July 1886 a crowd of 600 diggers had rushed to the district and had camped on two main farms, Turftontein and Doornfontein. Unlike the early rush to Kimberley, in this case there were no black diggers because of the discriminatory legislation prohibiting blacks from owning claims in the Transvaal. The South African Republic had passed a law in 1885 explicitly excluding blacks from buying or working their own claims or even dealing in precious stones and metals. They were practicing their race-based legislating for a much more refined version which would pop up in the 20th Century. But there was another reason which haunts Johannesburg to this day — there was very little water particularly during winter. Millions of litres were required to wash the ore and sieve the gold, no water, no mining. Providing water was going to cost a fortune, something beyond the cash flow of small operators.
Welcome back to the history of South Africa podcast with me your host, Des Latham. This is episode 286 - Johannesburg is proclaimed but the flow of water and cash provs challenging. We'll start however, with the Orange Free State. Its president Johannes Brand was certainly carved from an original chunk of Boer marble — even the British empire recognized his magnificence, at least, Queen Victoria, who was knighted him. Brand was one of the main movers behind the first attempt at uniting the Boer Republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State but the open hostility by Paul Kruger and the Burghers of the Transvaal scuttled his plans. President Brand had been voted into office in 1872 and for the next 20 years, the Free State was characterised by relative tranquility and modest prosperity. After Britain formally annexed Basutoland and Griqualand West, the Free State experienced a few ructions, but there was little friction between the Afrikaaners and their English compatriots. Brand was steadfast in his belief that the Republics should remain neutral when it came to Great Britain, while Paul Kruger's Transvaal was openly hostile to London. The Free State leader was a warded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Victoria in 1882, turning Brand into Sir Johannes Brand. That rankled the still more. Kruger wanted utter independence, whereas Brand was willing to negotiate based on what was best for the Free State. A deeply religious man, Johannes Brand was extremely popular with the burghers of the Orange Free State, and his expression "alles zal recht komen als elkeen zijn plicht doet" (all will be well if everyone does his duty) is one of the most recognisable sayings of his presidency. Nor were there serious difficulties with black Free Staters, mainly because in the Free State, blacks had no rights and couldn't own land and avoided the territory. It wasn't like the Cape, where jobs abounded. In 1885, there were about an equal number of blacks and whites living in the Free State, with the independent Basutoland on the eastern border and territory around Thaba ‘Nchu prosperous under Basutho chief, Moroka the second. The Total population of the Free State in 1885 was 140 000 — smaller than most counties in England, which is amazing because the Free State was almost exactly the same size as the whole of England. Free State is 129 825 square kilometers, England is 130 279 square kilos. The Free State also lay directly between the Cape, which England controlled, and the Transvaal, which it thought of as a suzereignty. The reason for all this preamble is that railways were coming to South Africa, albeit slowly. In 1885, there were only 1 318 miles of track in operation and 1 213 of those were in the Cape, 115 miles in Natal. By contrast, 5 133 miles of track had been laid in Australia, and even New Zealand had longer lines - 1 486 miles. The new gold fields of the Witwatersrand were going to need railway lines urgently. By the end of July 1886 a crowd of 600 diggers had rushed to the district and had camped on two main farms, Turftontein and Doornfontein. Unlike the early rush to Kimberley, in this case there were no black diggers because of the discriminatory legislation prohibiting blacks from owning claims in the Transvaal. The South African Republic had passed a law in 1885 explicitly excluding blacks from buying or working their own claims or even dealing in precious stones and metals. They were practicing their race-based legislating for a much more refined version which would pop up in the 20th Century. But there was another reason which haunts Johannesburg to this day — there was very little water particularly during winter. Millions of litres were required to wash the ore and sieve the gold, no water, no mining. Providing water was going to cost a fortune, something beyond the cash flow of small operators.
Welcome back to the History of South Africa podcast with me your host, Des Latham. Episode 283 and it's 1885. And boy! Do we have a plethora of happenings to report. This is a year before the discovery of gold in the Transvaal, and global events are full of war, innovation, ethnic carnage, economic ups and downs, world firsts, medicine, and a dose of snot and trauma. The year 1885 opened with a strange and ironic trial by fire across England, balancing state-sanctioned progress against lawless destruction. In January, Irish rebels shattered the peace by detonating dynamite inside Westminster Hall and the Tower of London, raining literal fire and brimstone upon the ancient symbols of British authority. Amidst this chaotic violence, a far more orderly kind of incineration took place. That same year, the widowed painter Jeanette Pickersgill of London, a lady "well known in literary and scientific circles," became the first person to be legally cremated in England by the Cremation Society at Woking, Surrey. It was a classic Victorian paradox: while the state scrambled to suppress the lawless Irish bombs threatening to burn the old order down, it was simultaneously finalizing the bureaucratic regulations on how its most respectable citizens could legally burn themselves to ashes. In Southern Africa, 1885 saw two major geopolitical moves - In March the United Kingdom Established the Bechuanaland Protectorate - modern day Botswana. The second event was the incorporation of the tiny Boer republic of Stellaland into Bechuanaland. It was all part of a grand plan partly initiated by Transvaal president Paul Kruger. He had sailed to London in 1884 and met Secretary of State of the Colonies Lord Derby where the two struck a deal. Derby would drop the British claim to suzerainty over the Transvaal and reduce the Transvaal's debt, and reduce the powers of the British representative in Pretoria, in exchange Kruger agreed to decrease tariffs on imported goods and to drop claims to Stellaland and Goshen, thus opening up Cecil John Rhodes' important North Road. The agreement promised a rare season of peace and stability for the fractured region. Yet, its true survival rested entirely on whether both sides would honor the principles they had so recently espoused. They did not. Or to be more accurate, Pro-Boer and Pro-Imperial activists did not. Transvaal commandos rode into Zululand and into Bechuanaland, cocking a snook at their own leadership. On the British side, all manner of colonials looked askance at the Kruger/Derby Deal. One was missionary and humanitarian, Reverend John Mackenzie, a prominent member of the London Missionary Society. He had spent most of his adult life proselytizing amongst the Tswana people at Kuruman and Shoshong. Mackenzie was the Boer's arch enemy, denouncing incursions from the pulpit in South Africa, then back in the UK when he was on leave in 1882 and 1883. The Road to the North worried him because of how dominant the Transvaal Boers were in this region.As King Leopold of Belgium, the French, Bismarck of Germany and others met to finalise who got what in Africa, the British Foreign Office suddenly woke up. They were concerned about the Transvaal and German South West Africa. The British Government did a volte-farce, and sent a powerful army up the North Road. Four thousand regular troops, including the famous Inniskilling Dragoons cavalry regiment from Ulster in Northern Ireland, along with three observation balloons, all headed towards Stellaland from Kimberley.
Welcome back to the History of South Africa podcast with me your host, Des Latham. Episode 283 and it's 1885. And boy! Do we have a plethora of happenings to report. This is a year before the discovery of gold in the Transvaal, and global events are full of war, innovation, ethnic carnage, economic ups and downs, world firsts, medicine, and a dose of snot and trauma. The year 1885 opened with a strange and ironic trial by fire across England, balancing state-sanctioned progress against lawless destruction. In January, Irish rebels shattered the peace by detonating dynamite inside Westminster Hall and the Tower of London, raining literal fire and brimstone upon the ancient symbols of British authority. Amidst this chaotic violence, a far more orderly kind of incineration took place. That same year, the widowed painter Jeanette Pickersgill of London, a lady "well known in literary and scientific circles," became the first person to be legally cremated in England by the Cremation Society at Woking, Surrey. It was a classic Victorian paradox: while the state scrambled to suppress the lawless Irish bombs threatening to burn the old order down, it was simultaneously finalizing the bureaucratic regulations on how its most respectable citizens could legally burn themselves to ashes. In Southern Africa, 1885 saw two major geopolitical moves - In March the United Kingdom Established the Bechuanaland Protectorate - modern day Botswana. The second event was the incorporation of the tiny Boer republic of Stellaland into Bechuanaland. It was all part of a grand plan partly initiated by Transvaal president Paul Kruger. He had sailed to London in 1884 and met Secretary of State of the Colonies Lord Derby where the two struck a deal. Derby would drop the British claim to suzerainty over the Transvaal and reduce the Transvaal's debt, and reduce the powers of the British representative in Pretoria, in exchange Kruger agreed to decrease tariffs on imported goods and to drop claims to Stellaland and Goshen, thus opening up Cecil John Rhodes' important North Road. The agreement promised a rare season of peace and stability for the fractured region. Yet, its true survival rested entirely on whether both sides would honor the principles they had so recently espoused. They did not. Or to be more accurate, Pro-Boer and Pro-Imperial activists did not. Transvaal commandos rode into Zululand and into Bechuanaland, cocking a snook at their own leadership. On the British side, all manner of colonials looked askance at the Kruger/Derby Deal. One was missionary and humanitarian, Reverend John Mackenzie, a prominent member of the London Missionary Society. He had spent most of his adult life proselytizing amongst the Tswana people at Kuruman and Shoshong. Mackenzie was the Boer's arch enemy, denouncing incursions from the pulpit in South Africa, then back in the UK when he was on leave in 1882 and 1883. The Road to the North worried him because of how dominant the Transvaal Boers were in this region.As King Leopold of Belgium, the French, Bismarck of Germany and others met to finalise who got what in Africa, the British Foreign Office suddenly woke up. They were concerned about the Transvaal and German South West Africa. The British Government did a volte-farce, and sent a powerful army up the North Road. Four thousand regular troops, including the famous Inniskilling Dragoons cavalry regiment from Ulster in Northern Ireland, along with three observation balloons, all headed towards Stellaland from Kimberley.
In 1882, the German mathematician Ferdinand von Lindemann proved that π was transcendental: it cannot be reduced to a tidy equation, never captured inside the comfortable boundaries expected by mathematicians. For centuries mathematicians tried to “square the circle” — creating a perfect square with the same area as a circle using only classical tools. In 1882, they finally got their answer: impossible. π's transcendence meant the problem itself can never be solved. π sits at the centre of order — wheels, planets, architecture, engineering — but does not obey the rules mathematicians thought would contain it. The more closely pi is examined, the more it slips beyond simple description. But pi also has beauty in it's patterns. π — roughly 3.14 etc etc — is the hidden constant inside every circle: divide the distance around any circle by the distance across it, and written out as a decimal, it goes on forever without ever stopping and without ever falling into a repeating pattern. Southern Africa in the early 1880s had the appearance of something similar. The neat assumptions of empire borders that could be drawn, peoples classified, and territories administered into obedience — were beginning to collide with a far messier reality. The aftermath of the First Anglo-Boer War had humbled imperial confidence, African polities remained powerful actors, and the mineral revolution was creating forces no colonial administrator fully controlled. Like π, South Africa was proving resistant to simple formulas. Emerging at this time was the Afrikaner Bond, led by Jan Hendrick Hofmeyr, his Boeren Beschermings Vereeniging, Farmers Protection Society, had merged with the Bond. Hofmeyr's main aim was to merge the diverse Afrikaner cultural movements from behind the scenes, thus his nickname, The Mole. Cape Prime Minister John Gordon Sprigg was sparring with political humanists, particularly Saul Solomon who owned the Cape Argus. As a liberal member of parliament, he was an articulate defender of African rights, called a friend of the natives and worse by some settlers. He was enticed to sell his paper to the editor at the time, what he didn't know, was that Cecil John Rhodes was secretly backing the sale - no Rhodes owned the Argus. It was in that moment that the Cape lost its important outsider voice, and Rhodes gained a news outlet. The main story the paper was covering after the first Anglo-Boer war was the instability in Basotholand. The Argus and other liberals had taken up the Basotho cause against the land-hungry settlers of the Orange Free State. Shoring up his personal wealth and power, Rhodes was simultaneously using his growing influence in the Cape to protect its northern territories. This was a natural progression, north of Kimberley lay the Vaal River, and the Molopo River. Between the two lay not only the Boers of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, but the Tswana people. South of the Molopo there were the Thlaping, the Rolong, north of the Molopo the Ngwato chiefdom, ruled by Khama as well as the Kwena under chief Sechele, the Ngwaketse ruled by Gaseitsiwe and soon, his son, Bathoen. The Tswana were tussling with colonial expansion, and navigating the difficult politics of the frontier, keeping the Boer settlers at arm's length. Along the edge of these chief's territory there lay the Great North Road, on the eastern side of the Tswana lands. Transvaal President Paul Kruger was behind efforts to cut off the Road to the North, something the British authorities suspected but couldn't prove. For Cecil Rhodes and British ambitions, these two micro-republics were a geopolitical nightmare. If the Transvaal annexed Stellaland and Goshen which was Paul Kruger's ultimate goal, the Boers would completely block Cape Colony access to the interior of Africa. Rhodes had taken to calling the Great north Road the Suez Canal of South Africa.
In 1882, the German mathematician Ferdinand von Lindemann proved that π was transcendental: it cannot be reduced to a tidy equation, never captured inside the comfortable boundaries expected by mathematicians. For centuries mathematicians tried to “square the circle” — creating a perfect square with the same area as a circle using only classical tools. In 1882, they finally got their answer: impossible. π's transcendence meant the problem itself can never be solved. π sits at the centre of order — wheels, planets, architecture, engineering — but does not obey the rules mathematicians thought would contain it. The more closely pi is examined, the more it slips beyond simple description. But pi also has beauty in it's patterns. π — roughly 3.14 etc etc — is the hidden constant inside every circle: divide the distance around any circle by the distance across it, and written out as a decimal, it goes on forever without ever stopping and without ever falling into a repeating pattern. Southern Africa in the early 1880s had the appearance of something similar. The neat assumptions of empire borders that could be drawn, peoples classified, and territories administered into obedience — were beginning to collide with a far messier reality. The aftermath of the First Anglo-Boer War had humbled imperial confidence, African polities remained powerful actors, and the mineral revolution was creating forces no colonial administrator fully controlled. Like π, South Africa was proving resistant to simple formulas. Emerging at this time was the Afrikaner Bond, led by Jan Hendrick Hofmeyr, his Boeren Beschermings Vereeniging, Farmers Protection Society, had merged with the Bond. Hofmeyr's main aim was to merge the diverse Afrikaner cultural movements from behind the scenes, thus his nickname, The Mole. Cape Prime Minister John Gordon Sprigg was sparring with political humanists, particularly Saul Solomon who owned the Cape Argus. As a liberal member of parliament, he was an articulate defender of African rights, called a friend of the natives and worse by some settlers. He was enticed to sell his paper to the editor at the time, what he didn't know, was that Cecil John Rhodes was secretly backing the sale - no Rhodes owned the Argus. It was in that moment that the Cape lost its important outsider voice, and Rhodes gained a news outlet. The main story the paper was covering after the first Anglo-Boer war was the instability in Basotholand. The Argus and other liberals had taken up the Basotho cause against the land-hungry settlers of the Orange Free State. Shoring up his personal wealth and power, Rhodes was simultaneously using his growing influence in the Cape to protect its northern territories. This was a natural progression, north of Kimberley lay the Vaal River, and the Molopo River. Between the two lay not only the Boers of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, but the Tswana people. South of the Molopo there were the Thlaping, the Rolong, north of the Molopo the Ngwato chiefdom, ruled by Khama as well as the Kwena under chief Sechele, the Ngwaketse ruled by Gaseitsiwe and soon, his son, Bathoen. The Tswana were tussling with colonial expansion, and navigating the difficult politics of the frontier, keeping the Boer settlers at arm's length. Along the edge of these chief's territory there lay the Great North Road, on the eastern side of the Tswana lands. Transvaal President Paul Kruger was behind efforts to cut off the Road to the North, something the British authorities suspected but couldn't prove. For Cecil Rhodes and British ambitions, these two micro-republics were a geopolitical nightmare. If the Transvaal annexed Stellaland and Goshen which was Paul Kruger's ultimate goal, the Boers would completely block Cape Colony access to the interior of Africa. Rhodes had taken to calling the Great north Road the Suez Canal of South Africa.
The approach by the English political parties of the time to the young Boer Republics was confused, and even contradictory. William Gladstone, a liberal, had succeeded in ousting the Tory's under Benjamin Disraeli in his famous Midlothian Campaign of 1879 and 1880. In 1880 Gladstone formed his second ministry and almost immediately, the promises he'd made about foreswearing foreign wars were broken. There is a direct link between what was going on in South Africa and in Ireland. These two territories, so far apart geographically, featured as joint threats in the English mind of the time. The most direct link is Gladstone himself. He had criticized the annexation of the Transvaal during his Midlothian Campaign, but once in power, he hesitated to reverse British policy, fearing a domino effect where weakness in Pretoria would lead to revolution in Dublin. By 1880, the Irish Nationalists began to see the Boers not just as fellow farmers, but as fellow victims of British coercion. This Irish link flourished throughout the 19th and part of the 20th Century with Irish Nationalists fighting both for the Boers during the Second Anglo-Boer War. The shift in Irish nationalist alignment was driven by a move from anti-imperial solidarity to human rights internationalism. Initially, the Irish supported the Boers as fellow "peasant-republicans" fighting the British Empire, but as the 20th century progressed, the Irish Republican movement increasingly identified with the ANC, viewing the struggle against Apartheid as a mirror to their own fight against institutionalized discrimination in Northern Ireland. By the height of the Cold War, the Irish Republican Army's Marxist-leaning leadership saw the Afrikaner government as a pro-Western, colonialist proxy, leading them to provide tactical advice and training to Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) to help dismantle the very state they had once ideologically championed. But at first, they were close allies in both spirit and in their political expression. The South African crisis which led to the first Boer War of 1880 and 1881, occurred because the British government claimed to be the paramount authority and trustee of South Africa, and the Boers rejected this claim. Earlier, in 1878, Paul Kruger and Piet Joubert had sailed to London with a petition signed by over 6,500 Boers demanding the reversal of the Transvaal annexation. Sir Michael Hicks Beach had just taken over as Colonial Secretary from the more diplomatic and polite Lord Carnarvon. Hicks-Beach was nicknamed Black Michael, referring to his famously long, dark beard, his tall, thin, imposing frame, and his legendary dark temper. He was known for being abrasive, combative, and having very little patience for those who didn't respect British authority. To the English, it seemed that South Africa was on the verge of becoming another Ireland, the inveterate hostility of whose people might only be held down at tremendous cost by main force. Gladstone and his cabinet grappled with one main question. In both territories, Transvaal and Ireland, should a nationalist reaction be met with coercion, or concession?
The approach by the English political parties of the time to the young Boer Republics was confused, and even contradictory. William Gladstone, a liberal, had succeeded in ousting the Tory's under Benjamin Disraeli in his famous Midlothian Campaign of 1879 and 1880. In 1880 Gladstone formed his second ministry and almost immediately, the promises he'd made about foreswearing foreign wars were broken. There is a direct link between what was going on in South Africa and in Ireland. These two territories, so far apart geographically, featured as joint threats in the English mind of the time. The most direct link is Gladstone himself. He had criticized the annexation of the Transvaal during his Midlothian Campaign, but once in power, he hesitated to reverse British policy, fearing a domino effect where weakness in Pretoria would lead to revolution in Dublin. By 1880, the Irish Nationalists began to see the Boers not just as fellow farmers, but as fellow victims of British coercion. This Irish link flourished throughout the 19th and part of the 20th Century with Irish Nationalists fighting both for the Boers during the Second Anglo-Boer War. The shift in Irish nationalist alignment was driven by a move from anti-imperial solidarity to human rights internationalism. Initially, the Irish supported the Boers as fellow "peasant-republicans" fighting the British Empire, but as the 20th century progressed, the Irish Republican movement increasingly identified with the ANC, viewing the struggle against Apartheid as a mirror to their own fight against institutionalized discrimination in Northern Ireland. By the height of the Cold War, the Irish Republican Army's Marxist-leaning leadership saw the Afrikaner government as a pro-Western, colonialist proxy, leading them to provide tactical advice and training to Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) to help dismantle the very state they had once ideologically championed. But at first, they were close allies in both spirit and in their political expression. The South African crisis which led to the first Boer War of 1880 and 1881, occurred because the British government claimed to be the paramount authority and trustee of South Africa, and the Boers rejected this claim. Earlier, in 1878, Paul Kruger and Piet Joubert had sailed to London with a petition signed by over 6,500 Boers demanding the reversal of the Transvaal annexation. Sir Michael Hicks Beach had just taken over as Colonial Secretary from the more diplomatic and polite Lord Carnarvon. Hicks-Beach was nicknamed Black Michael, referring to his famously long, dark beard, his tall, thin, imposing frame, and his legendary dark temper. He was known for being abrasive, combative, and having very little patience for those who didn't respect British authority. To the English, it seemed that South Africa was on the verge of becoming another Ireland, the inveterate hostility of whose people might only be held down at tremendous cost by main force. Gladstone and his cabinet grappled with one main question. In both territories, Transvaal and Ireland, should a nationalist reaction be met with coercion, or concession?
Send us a textDr Leander Starr Jameson was the leader of what was nominally a mercenary raid into the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek of President Paul Kruger. Funded by Cecil john Rhodes when he was Premier of the Cape Colony, it was his play to annex the Republiek and take over the richest gold-field in the world for the British Empire. Rhodes had convinced himself that the sentiment in the gold-mining town of Johannesburg was such, that should an armed raid manage to get within the city boundaries, there would be a popular uprising in support of the overthrow of the rather inefficient and corrupt government. He totally misread the determination of Kruger to keep the ZAR independent of any British influence.Use our app to trace the story - a really cool day trip in JohannesburgSupport the showThe Road Trip SA app is available for download.Do you want to visit and explore South Africa? Touch Africa Safaris
Road Trip's Podcast - Travel, Touring and Holidays in South Africa
Send us a textDr Leander Starr Jameson was the leader of what was nominally a mercenary raid into the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek of President Paul Kruger. Funded by Cecil john Rhodes when he was Premier of the Cape Colony, it was his play to annex the Republiek and take over the richest gold-field in the world for the British Empire. Rhodes had convinced himself that the sentiment in the gold-mining town of Johannesburg was such, that should an armed raid manage to get within the city boundaries, there would be a popular uprising in support of the overthrow of the rather inefficient and corrupt government. He totally misread the determination of Kruger to keep the ZAR independent of any British influence.Use our app to trace the story - a really cool day trip in JohannesburgSupport the showThe Road Trip SA app is available for download.Do you want to visit and explore South Africa? Touch Africa Safaris
What's the deal with the strong nuclear force? Neil deGrasse Tyson answers the burning questions Chuck Nice, Gary O'Reilly, and the StarTalk Team have been saving all year about gravity as a force, cosmic rays, free will, emergence, and how physicists decide which equations to apply. NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://startalkmedia.com/show/our-burning-questions-free-will-emergence/Thanks to our Patrons Hubert Górecki, Michele and David, Antonio, Luigi, Normie, Ronald Stephens, Jessica Shawley, Michelle Harris, Angel Cuevas Hernandez, S MB, Tony Pryor, Mike LaHaye, Samuel Ahn, Kenderick Frison, Lori Harting, David Aldrich, allen chen, Mark McDuff, daketchek, Nathan Boorom, Steven G., Emilio Lopez Hatt, Leslie Lantz, Ken Gelwix, Nick4547, James G Avdoulos, Astitva, Dana Lewis, T, Claire Davis, Richard S, Glen Brown, Sierra Tornabeni, Sue Peters, Stefano Ete, Shawn Sellers, Adriane Underwood, jason jones, Charles, Infuriated Jurijcorn, Que the music, Jeremy Hunter, Sampson, Bhushan Nene, Paul Kruger, Sean Wyatt, Carlos Pelayo, Joey Mack Newell, Alex Iakovidis, Cookiehart, W Hollifield, Dave Martin, Hd4122, Shon Bucklin, Tony Taveras, aeonoku, Shawn Browning, ben dewrance, Black____Monday, J Hardman, Erik Krasguidotti, Thegayestmanalive, YBenali, Richard Green, Brian Charbonneau, Syronn Terry, Bruce Griffith, Amir, Tom Pritchett, Guido Vermeulen, Povvy, Sigurbjorn B. Larusson, David Paul, Kristof De Maeseneer, Scott Strum, Roni Riabtseb, Monopolyworld, Naeem C, Jayson Cowan, Steph Dean, Q, Shawn Piers, travis amiot, Scott Blaylock, Paul, Griffin O'Hara, Starlah Mutiny, Cristi Giangu, Joe Boon, Jase, Crimson, Johnny_Kash, Craig Otto, Andrew McTaggart, Mark Pflug, David Hosmer, Robert Carreon, and Trina Orloff for supporting us this week. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of StarTalk Radio ad-free and a whole week early.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Are our parts replaceable? Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice, & Gary O'Reilly sit down with bestselling author Mary Roach, who discusses her newest book, Replaceable You, and the quest to grow organs, build parts, and engineer the human body.NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://startalkmedia.com/show/replaceable-you-with-mary-roach/Thanks to our Patrons Hubert Górecki, Michele and David, Antonio, Luigi, Normie, Ronald Stephens, Jessica Shawley, Michelle Harris, Angel Cueva Hernandez, S MB, Tony Pryor, Mike LaHaye, Samuel Ahn, Kendrick Frison, Lori Harting, David Aldrich, allen chen, Mark McDuff, daketchek, Nathan Boorom, Steven G., Emilio Lopez Hatt, Leslie Lantz, Ken Gelwix, Nick4547, James G Avdoulos, Astitva, Dana Lewis, T, Claire Davis, Richard S, Glen Brown, Sierra Tornabeni, Sue Peters, Stefano Ete, Shawn Sellers, Adriane Underwood, jason jones, Charles, Infuriated Jurijcorn, Que the music, Jeremy Hunter, Sampson, Bhushan Nene, Paul Kruger, Sean Wyatt, Carlos Pelayo, Joey Mack Newell, Alex lakovidis, Cookiehart, W Hollifield, Davi Martin, Hd4122, Shon Bucklin, Tony Taveras, aeonoku, Shawn Browning, ben dewrance, Black____Monday, J Hardman, Erik Krasguidotti, Thegayestmanalive, YBenali, Richard Green, Brian Charbonneau, Syronn Terry, Bruce Griffith, Amir, Tom Pritchett, Guido Vermeulen, Povvy, Sigurbjorn B. Larusson, David Paul, Kristoff De Maeseneer, Scott Strum, Roni Riabtseb, Monopolyworld, Naeem C, Jayson Cowan, and Steph Dean for supporting us this week. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of StarTalk Radio ad-free and a whole week early.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
A crackling fire, three spaniels at our feet, and a conversation that takes us from frosty Scottish mornings to the heat and dust of the South African veld. We sit down with professional hunter and outfitter Sarah Ripley Forsyth to talk about what conservation really looks like when you're paying the bills, protecting herds, and living with predators. Sarah runs a historic lodge and game farm on land once owned by Paul Kruger, where history, habitat, and hard choices intersect every single day.We dig into how South Africa's professional hunter system works, what it takes to guide international clients across multiple provinces, and why dangerous game requires far more than a short course. Sarah opens her books on breeding programs for sable, eland, wildebeest, impala, and blessbuck, and she doesn't shy away from the messy bits: predator losses, poaching with dogs, and fences that never stop everything. If you think zebra are harmless, brace yourself.Then we follow the money. Leopard permits have been frozen since 2021 even as encounters rise. Rhinos demand 24/7 security that few can afford without legal horn revenue. Elephant overpopulation in certain reserves is flattening trees, stripping browse, and pushing grazers to the brink—one park saw a reported hundred elephants starve in a year. Sarah argues for ethical, regulated hunting as the only model that consistently funds habitat, enforcement, and long-term wildlife recovery on private land. It's not the easy story, but it's the one that keeps animals on the landscape.We round things out with practical guidance: how to book a safari, travel with firearms, set a realistic species list, and match terrain to your fitness and goals. Whether you hunt 1,400 acres or 18,000 hectares, the bush decides; a good outfitter adapts with you. Come for the animals and the history, stay for the truth about conservation that glossy campaigns won't tell you.If this conversation challenged you—or clarified things—share it with a friend, subscribe for more field-first stories, and leave a review with the one insight that changed your mind.You can find Sarah on Instagram at this link https://www.instagram.com/sarahripleyforsyth/?hl=enThe Kedar Heritage Lodge at this link https://kedar.co.za/Support the showInstagram https://www.instagram.com/the_outdoor_gibbon/
Kruger national park in South Africa is one of the most well known nature reserves in the world. But the legacy of Paul Kruger, who the park is named after, is complicated. He founded the park to protect South Africa's wildlife, but he is also considered to be a relic of the country's racist past and considered by some as an architect of apartheid. Khanyisile Ngcobo is a reporter for BBC Africa and she tells us more about the name change debate. Luiz Fernando Toledo BBC News Brazil tells the story of the successful conservation of the giant Amazon fish, the pirarucu. Its skin can be turned into leather, which is used to make high end fashion items. The fishermen who catch them do so in exchange for policing illegal fishing, which has pulled the fish numbers back from the brink of extinction. But despite their role in conservation, and providing the leather, these fishermen don't share in the economic benefits of this fish. Have you ever thought about the history of toothbrushes or dental hygiene? Tejas Vaidya of BBC Gujarati went to meet an Indian man who owns the world's largest toothbrush collection.This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Caroline Ferguson, Rebecca Moore and Alice Gioia.This is an EcoAudio certified production. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)
A new MP3 sermon from Frontline Fellowship is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Paul Kruger - Voortrekker, Commando and Conservationist Subtitle: Reformation Society Speaker: Peter Hammond Broadcaster: Frontline Fellowship Event: Teaching Date: 10/15/2025 Length: 45 min.
Lobby group AfriForum and the Orania Movement have strongly condemned the vandalism of Afrikaner monuments in Pretoria. The damage targeted a gun barrel and a boot on two Boer warrior statues flanking the Paul Kruger statue in Church Square. This follows the EFF's recent push to remove colonial and apartheid-era statues nationwide. The party has also proposed renaming Kruger National Park in a motion tabled in the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature. AfriForum and the Orania Movement call the EFF's actions an attack on Afrikaner heritage and their right to exist in South Africa. For more we're joined by Joost Strydom, Head of the Orania Movement
AfriForum het die aanval op die Paul Kruger-standbeeld op Kerkplein in Pretoria veroordeel, waar dele van twee Boere-krygerstandbeelde en die veiligheidsheining beskadig is. Die voorval volg 'n week nadat die EFF die verwydering van Afrikanermonumente in die parlement versoek het. Ernst van Zyl van AfriForum sê die organisasie sal strenger sekuriteit en herstelwerk eis en belowe om die Afrikaner-erfenis te verdedig:
AfriForum sê hy sal die EFF se plan beveg om Afrikanerstandbeelde en -monumente te verwyder en te vernietig. Dit volg nadat die EFF-hoofsweep, Nontando Nolutshungu, 'n mosie in die Parlement ter tafel gelê het waarin gevra word vir die verwydering van figure soos Louis Botha, Paul Kruger, Jan van Riebeeck en selfs die Voortrekkermonument. Ernst van Zyl van AfriForum sê die stap bedreig die Afrikaner-identiteit en is deel van die EFF se sloopkultuur:
Bereits im 19. Jahrhundert waren bestimmte Wildtierbestände in Afrika nahezu ausgerottet, weshalb die Idee von Schutzgebieten auftauchte. Im Jahre 1898 richtete die Republik Transvaal, die später zu einem Teil von Südafrika wurde, unter dem Präsidenten Paul Kruger auf einem Gebiet von ca. 2500 Quadratkilometern ein Wildtierreservat ein, das von Rangern geschützt wurde. Zudem keimte die Idee auf, diese Gebiete für Besucher*innen zugänglich zu machen. 1926 wurde die Fläche ausgeweitet und in den Kruger Nationalpark umbenannt, der im Jahre 1935 bereits von 26.000 Interessierten befahren wurde. Ein Jahr vor dieser Gründung berichtet der Wandsbeker Bote in seiner Ausgabe vom 27. Juni von der Geschichte der Idee und den Plänen der Zukunft. Für uns hat sich Frank Riede auf Safari begeben.
The years between 1865 and 1870 would bring a tangle of new challenges for the people of the south. Drought gripped the land with merciless fingers in 1865 and 1866, only to return with cruel insistence between 1868 and 1869. Livelihoods withered, landscapes turned brittle. And yet, amid the dust and desolation, there was a glint of promise on the horizon, a hint of glitter in the forecast. British Kaffraria — that volatile strip of land east of the Kei — had been the stage for repeated wars between the British Empire and the amaXhosa. By 1866, the inevitable had come to pass: the territory was formally annexed to the Cape. This was not a popular move in the Cape Parliament. Most members balked at the idea, not out of principle, but pocket — British Kaffraria was a drain on the Treasury, propped up entirely by funds from London. The Cape, in its self-conscious autonomy, wanted no part in the bill. But Attorney General William Porter reminded his fellow parliamentarians that their indignation was selective. The Cape itself, he said, could not “talk big and look big” when its own house was being kept warm with British money. Independence in name meant little, he warned, if the machinery of government still ticked by the grace of Empire coin. But before the ink was dry on the annexation, another, more immediate matter took precedence — the fate of the amaMfengu, along with the amaNgqika and amaGqunukhwebe. The structures of amaXhosa political authority had already been dismantled within British Kaffraria. Now, as the imperial tide rolled further inland, it was the amaMfengu who found themselves repositioned — this time as subjects to be moved, their loyalty rewarded not with land, but with a fresh dislocation. Soon, the area around Butterworth became an amaMfengu stronghold. Many local amaXhosa were absorbed into their ambit — politically subdued or socially assimilated. For the British, this migration had a twofold effect. It removed thousands of Black residents from British Kaffraria, freeing up land under Crown control. And it advanced a broader goal: clearing the way for the Cape Parliament to annex the territory, albeit reluctantly and under pressure from Westminster. Just to flick the future switch for a moment — Back to the Future, in 2003, a constellation of dignitaries descended on Phokeng for the coronation of Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi of the Bafokeng. That's near Rustenberg just for clarity. Among them were Nelson Mandela, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, First Lady Zanele Mbeki, and the Queen Mother of Lesotho. A drought pressed down on the land in 2003, dry and unforgiving, but the dusty heat did little to mute the occasion's quiet grandeur. For a small nation to command such presence — to draw the gaze of the region's most prominent figures — spoke to something more than mere ceremonial gravity. It hinted at a deeper, long-cultivated influence. This is the story of how the Bafokeng came to be recognised as one of South Africa's most quietly successful peoples — not by avoiding the tides of history, but by learning, early on, how to navigate them. From their dealings with the Boers and Paul Kruger, to their survival under apartheid's grip, the Bafokeng carved a path few expected — and fewer still understood. There's an almost whispered history here, a counterpoint to the dominant narrative of dispossession and defeat. The Bafokeng lived on land of consequence long before that significance was measured in ounces of platinum. It wasn't until the metal was prised from the earth beneath their feet that the rest of the country — and eventually, the world — began to pay attention. But the roots of their agency run deeper, older. They reach back to a time when Paul Kruger was still cobbling together unity among the Voortrekkers, long before his epic confrontations with the British had begun.
The years between 1865 and 1870 would bring a tangle of new challenges for the people of the south. Drought gripped the land with merciless fingers in 1865 and 1866, only to return with cruel insistence between 1868 and 1869. Livelihoods withered, landscapes turned brittle. And yet, amid the dust and desolation, there was a glint of promise on the horizon, a hint of glitter in the forecast. British Kaffraria — that volatile strip of land east of the Kei — had been the stage for repeated wars between the British Empire and the amaXhosa. By 1866, the inevitable had come to pass: the territory was formally annexed to the Cape. This was not a popular move in the Cape Parliament. Most members balked at the idea, not out of principle, but pocket — British Kaffraria was a drain on the Treasury, propped up entirely by funds from London. The Cape, in its self-conscious autonomy, wanted no part in the bill. But Attorney General William Porter reminded his fellow parliamentarians that their indignation was selective. The Cape itself, he said, could not “talk big and look big” when its own house was being kept warm with British money. Independence in name meant little, he warned, if the machinery of government still ticked by the grace of Empire coin. But before the ink was dry on the annexation, another, more immediate matter took precedence — the fate of the amaMfengu, along with the amaNgqika and amaGqunukhwebe. The structures of amaXhosa political authority had already been dismantled within British Kaffraria. Now, as the imperial tide rolled further inland, it was the amaMfengu who found themselves repositioned — this time as subjects to be moved, their loyalty rewarded not with land, but with a fresh dislocation. Soon, the area around Butterworth became an amaMfengu stronghold. Many local amaXhosa were absorbed into their ambit — politically subdued or socially assimilated. For the British, this migration had a twofold effect. It removed thousands of Black residents from British Kaffraria, freeing up land under Crown control. And it advanced a broader goal: clearing the way for the Cape Parliament to annex the territory, albeit reluctantly and under pressure from Westminster. Just to flick the future switch for a moment — Back to the Future, in 2003, a constellation of dignitaries descended on Phokeng for the coronation of Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi of the Bafokeng. That's near Rustenberg just for clarity. Among them were Nelson Mandela, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, First Lady Zanele Mbeki, and the Queen Mother of Lesotho. A drought pressed down on the land in 2003, dry and unforgiving, but the dusty heat did little to mute the occasion's quiet grandeur. For a small nation to command such presence — to draw the gaze of the region's most prominent figures — spoke to something more than mere ceremonial gravity. It hinted at a deeper, long-cultivated influence. This is the story of how the Bafokeng came to be recognised as one of South Africa's most quietly successful peoples — not by avoiding the tides of history, but by learning, early on, how to navigate them. From their dealings with the Boers and Paul Kruger, to their survival under apartheid's grip, the Bafokeng carved a path few expected — and fewer still understood. There's an almost whispered history here, a counterpoint to the dominant narrative of dispossession and defeat. The Bafokeng lived on land of consequence long before that significance was measured in ounces of platinum. It wasn't until the metal was prised from the earth beneath their feet that the rest of the country — and eventually, the world — began to pay attention. But the roots of their agency run deeper, older. They reach back to a time when Paul Kruger was still cobbling together unity among the Voortrekkers, long before his epic confrontations with the British had begun.
All manner of things are going on — thanks to those folks out there who've been sending me notes and support, much appreciated. Episode 220 deals with the start of the Transvaal Civil War, and quite a bit about Paul Kruger's early life. The American civil war was raging in 1862, and there's nothing like a war to trigger innovation — if you excuse the pun. Richard Jordan Gatling patented his terrifying Gatling gun featuring multiple rotating barrels driven by a hand crank, allowing operators to unleash a relentless hailstorm of bullets—up to several hundred rounds per minute. Its distinctive mechanical whirr echoed across battlefields, marking a chilling shift toward modern, industrialized warfare. While undoubtedly efficient, the Gatling gun also embodied a grim reality: the age when technology would reshape combat forever had arrived. Just in time to cause more chaos in the already bloody American Civil War. What is less known these days is that there was another Civil War involving descendants of Europeans, and this was going on in South Africa. The AmaZulu had just wrapped up their own recent Civil War as you've heard. All manner of brutal and uncivil conduct marked this period in South African history, as neighbour turned against neighbour and the bonds of society frayed. The Boer Republics had been riven by conflict since the days of the Voortrekkers, but in 1862 perhaps inspired in part by the American civil War, the Boer Republics went from squabbling to skirmishing. There's no proof that the carnage of the United States directly influenced South Africa, but there is proof that the Boers knew about it. Later, during the apartheid period of National Party Rule, this Transvaal Civil War was deposited in historical file 13, almost expunged, because it contradicted the prevailing political ideology where it was all the whites against all the blacks. Anything that detracted from this nationalist agenda was taboo. The modern architects of African nationalism, too, often reshape the past to suit their narratives, discarding inconvenient histories into their own version of "file 13."Compared to the carnage in America, where an estimated 750 000 people died, the South African version was far less bloody. A few dozen dead and wounded. A handful of skirmishes was the real effect, which took place in what is now Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West Province - but at the same time as the American Civil War which ran from 1861 to 1865. The Transvaal Civil War started in 1862 and ended in 1864. While less gory, it was emblematic of the frontier streak embedded in the first generation descendants of the Voortrekkers. According to the constitution of the Republic, the Hervormde Church was the state church. Its members alone were entitled to exercise any influence in public affairs. Whoever was not a member of the Hervormde Church was not a fully-qualified burgher. Paul Kruger belonged to the Christelljk-Gereformeerde Kerk founded recently, in 1859, by Dr. Postma, at Rustenburg. This church became known in South Africa as the Dopper, or partly Canting Church. The derivation of the word Dopper is not completely clear, but it was believed to have come from the word dop, a damper or extinguisher for putting out Candles.
All manner of things are going on — thanks to those folks out there who've been sending me notes and support, much appreciated. Episode 220 deals with the start of the Transvaal Civil War, and quite a bit about Paul Kruger's early life. The American civil war was raging in 1862, and there's nothing like a war to trigger innovation — if you excuse the pun. Richard Jordan Gatling patented his terrifying Gatling gun featuring multiple rotating barrels driven by a hand crank, allowing operators to unleash a relentless hailstorm of bullets—up to several hundred rounds per minute. Its distinctive mechanical whirr echoed across battlefields, marking a chilling shift toward modern, industrialized warfare. While undoubtedly efficient, the Gatling gun also embodied a grim reality: the age when technology would reshape combat forever had arrived. Just in time to cause more chaos in the already bloody American Civil War. What is less known these days is that there was another Civil War involving descendants of Europeans, and this was going on in South Africa. The AmaZulu had just wrapped up their own recent Civil War as you've heard. All manner of brutal and uncivil conduct marked this period in South African history, as neighbour turned against neighbour and the bonds of society frayed. The Boer Republics had been riven by conflict since the days of the Voortrekkers, but in 1862 perhaps inspired in part by the American civil War, the Boer Republics went from squabbling to skirmishing. There's no proof that the carnage of the United States directly influenced South Africa, but there is proof that the Boers knew about it. Later, during the apartheid period of National Party Rule, this Transvaal Civil War was deposited in historical file 13, almost expunged, because it contradicted the prevailing political ideology where it was all the whites against all the blacks. Anything that detracted from this nationalist agenda was taboo. The modern architects of African nationalism, too, often reshape the past to suit their narratives, discarding inconvenient histories into their own version of "file 13."Compared to the carnage in America, where an estimated 750 000 people died, the South African version was far less bloody. A few dozen dead and wounded. A handful of skirmishes was the real effect, which took place in what is now Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West Province - but at the same time as the American Civil War which ran from 1861 to 1865. The Transvaal Civil War started in 1862 and ended in 1864. While less gory, it was emblematic of the frontier streak embedded in the first generation descendants of the Voortrekkers. According to the constitution of the Republic, the Hervormde Church was the state church. Its members alone were entitled to exercise any influence in public affairs. Whoever was not a member of the Hervormde Church was not a fully-qualified burgher. Paul Kruger belonged to the Christelljk-Gereformeerde Kerk founded recently, in 1859, by Dr. Postma, at Rustenburg. This church became known in South Africa as the Dopper, or partly Canting Church. The derivation of the word Dopper is not completely clear, but it was believed to have come from the word dop, a damper or extinguisher for putting out Candles.
On today's episode, we dive back into the Boer Wars, focusing on the tumultuous events leading up to the conflict and the complex relationships between the British Empire and the Afrikaner settlers. We explore the origins of Afrikaner identity, the economic implications of the gold discovery in the Transvaal, and the pivotal figures like Paul Kruger and Cecil Rhodes who shaped this era. As tensions rise, we discuss the disastrous Jameson Raid and its repercussions on British-Boer relations, culminating in the declaration of war that would set the stage for one of the first modern conflicts. Join us as we unpack these historical intricacies and their lasting impact on South Africa. Links to our other stuff on the interwebs: https://www.youtube.com/@BroHistory https://brohistory.substack.com/ #323 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This is episode 213, and Sir George Grey, the Cape Governor was peering intensely at the Boer Republics to the north. The Free Staters under Boshof had failed in their mission to drive Moshoeshoe out of the disputed territory south of the Caledon River and many of the burghers changed their tune when it came to possible amalgamation with the Transvaal. They were now considering this a viable option. Marthinus Pretorius had made good progress north of the Vaal, despite the boers of Lydenburg opposing his overtures for a single large and powerful Boer state. The fragmentary nature of the Voortrekker's states was hard to overcome. But it was heartening for those Boers who wanted unification to hear that the Zoutpansbergers were prepared to listen to arguments for cohesion. One of the most strident and convincing voices that emerged was that of Paul Kruger. He was acting on behalf of Pretorius and the Zoutpansbergers accepted the Grondwet of the Transvaal, the constitution, which the Rustenburgers had adopted. The northern republics were moving towards some sort of union, by 1858 the tiny Boer Republic of Utrecht in northern Natal had thrown in their lot with tye Lydenburgers. Grey regarded these moves as ominous. The British empire had experienced a serious jolt when the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1857, and now he'd heard the reports of the Boer expedition to Moshoeshoe's Thaba Bosiu which had ended in defeat. He'd have to send reinforcements to India, and deal with instability on the frontier at the same time. The Bathlaping people had also taken advantage of the Boer assault on the south eastern edge of the free State into Basotho territory by doing some invading of their own - into the Free State from the West. The San and Korana had also broken loose and Boshof's commandos were going to be very busy as they rode around the Free State, trying to subdue these raiders. The Boers had recognized that beneath the monarchial authority and prestige of Moshoeshoe lay a weakness in the political structure - chiefs were patriarchs in their own domain and bound to this hiearchy primarily as the guarantor of their local status. But that status was tied directly to access to land and the acquisition of wealth through cattle or other livestock. One of the strategic shifts in the Volksraad was to reach Moshoeshoe's political supporters by offering them autonomous territories. These black statelets would then be part of a broader Boer state, supposedly free from settler and other Basotho raids and harassment. The mark of this land use was through a collective, a group living on the land in a specific geographic space who provided territorial power for any chief agreeing to join the Boers. AS you're going to hear in future episodes — Moshoeshoe's second son Molapo would seek an independent state aligned with the Boers. Mopeli Mokachane, Moshoeshoe's half-brother, was another enticed away from the Basotho polity by the late 1860s. By late May 1858, the Transvaal sent a commando to assist the Free State in dealing with these raiders, defeating the Bathlaping and imposing crushing reparations on the people for having sheltered some of these rebels. The defeat by the Basotho, however, proved to most Free Staters that they could not survive alone, and they turned on their president, Boshof. He'd written to Sir George Grey and asked for help in dealing with the Basotho king, an act which stuck in most burgher's craws — asking the very people who'd indirectly driven them out of the Cape for help. It was a stunning act of weakness they thought. Grey concluded once and for all that the division of the white South African communities into seperate polities had destroyed their capacity to deal with African chiefs. But he opposed the idea of Boer states leading this unification. Even more alarming was the news that the two main Boer Republics might unite. In his eyes, this would threaten the stability still further.
This is episode 213, and Sir George Grey, the Cape Governor was peering intensely at the Boer Republics to the north. The Free Staters under Boshof had failed in their mission to drive Moshoeshoe out of the disputed territory south of the Caledon River and many of the burghers changed their tune when it came to possible amalgamation with the Transvaal. They were now considering this a viable option. Marthinus Pretorius had made good progress north of the Vaal, despite the boers of Lydenburg opposing his overtures for a single large and powerful Boer state. The fragmentary nature of the Voortrekker's states was hard to overcome. But it was heartening for those Boers who wanted unification to hear that the Zoutpansbergers were prepared to listen to arguments for cohesion. One of the most strident and convincing voices that emerged was that of Paul Kruger. He was acting on behalf of Pretorius and the Zoutpansbergers accepted the Grondwet of the Transvaal, the constitution, which the Rustenburgers had adopted. The northern republics were moving towards some sort of union, by 1858 the tiny Boer Republic of Utrecht in northern Natal had thrown in their lot with tye Lydenburgers. Grey regarded these moves as ominous. The British empire had experienced a serious jolt when the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1857, and now he'd heard the reports of the Boer expedition to Moshoeshoe's Thaba Bosiu which had ended in defeat. He'd have to send reinforcements to India, and deal with instability on the frontier at the same time. The Bathlaping people had also taken advantage of the Boer assault on the south eastern edge of the free State into Basotho territory by doing some invading of their own - into the Free State from the West. The San and Korana had also broken loose and Boshof's commandos were going to be very busy as they rode around the Free State, trying to subdue these raiders. The Boers had recognized that beneath the monarchial authority and prestige of Moshoeshoe lay a weakness in the political structure - chiefs were patriarchs in their own domain and bound to this hiearchy primarily as the guarantor of their local status. But that status was tied directly to access to land and the acquisition of wealth through cattle or other livestock. One of the strategic shifts in the Volksraad was to reach Moshoeshoe's political supporters by offering them autonomous territories. These black statelets would then be part of a broader Boer state, supposedly free from settler and other Basotho raids and harassment. The mark of this land use was through a collective, a group living on the land in a specific geographic space who provided territorial power for any chief agreeing to join the Boers. AS you're going to hear in future episodes — Moshoeshoe's second son Molapo would seek an independent state aligned with the Boers. Mopeli Mokachane, Moshoeshoe's half-brother, was another enticed away from the Basotho polity by the late 1860s. By late May 1858, the Transvaal sent a commando to assist the Free State in dealing with these raiders, defeating the Bathlaping and imposing crushing reparations on the people for having sheltered some of these rebels. The defeat by the Basotho, however, proved to most Free Staters that they could not survive alone, and they turned on their president, Boshof. He'd written to Sir George Grey and asked for help in dealing with the Basotho king, an act which stuck in most burgher's craws — asking the very people who'd indirectly driven them out of the Cape for help. It was a stunning act of weakness they thought. Grey concluded once and for all that the division of the white South African communities into seperate polities had destroyed their capacity to deal with African chiefs. But he opposed the idea of Boer states leading this unification. Even more alarming was the news that the two main Boer Republics might unite. In his eyes, this would threaten the stability still further.
In 1899, the British went to war with the Boer Republics. This was when the British Empire was close to its blazing zenith and unquestionably the ranking world power. Any war against the somewhat backward Boers on a remote border of the empire in southern Africa would surely be quick and decisive. It did not turn out that way. As Rudyard Kipling put it, the Boers gave the British “no end of a lesson.” Thomas Pakenham tells the story in “The Boer War.”
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
A new MP3 sermon from Frontline Fellowship is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Paul Kruger Voortrekker & Conservationist Subtitle: South African History Speaker: Peter Hammond Broadcaster: Frontline Fellowship Event: Teaching Date: 8/16/2024 Length: 42 min.
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Josh travels to South Africa in search of former President Paul Kruger's missing gold cache. He evades dangerous poachers and meets the Shangaan tribe en route to the treasure that may be hiding in the African wilderness. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Just a quick thank you to the folks at East coast Radio, Diane and DW, for promoting this podcast with listeners to that station, I'm honoured to have cracked the nod and been selected to be part of their ECR podcast platform. Also a big thank you to all the listeners who've reviewed this podcast on iTunes and elsewhere, it's pushed the series into the top 20 or so at least according to Apple, and there've been close to 800 000 listens. With that slightly self-serving service announcement, back to the real world of the third decade in the 19th Century. Last episode we heard how Harry Smith was busy ridiculing the amaXhosa culture and religion, and planning to destroy their chiefs in order to ensure they would be pliable to the British government's needs in the coming years. We'll get back to Colonel Smith in future episodes. Moshoeshoe's kingdom had taken shape, and to his north, the kingdom of the BaTlokwa, who were led by Sekhonyela, the son of MaNthatisi. While she had been regal, stately, and charming, he was equally tall, but was surly and aggressive where she had been tactful. He was a capable war leader however, and Moshoeshoe had never managed to defeat him - in fact he had forced the BaSotho leader to hand over Thaba Bosiu to him in 1824. In the continuous war between Moshoeshoe and Sekhonyela, the greatest treasure was the Caledon River Valley - a land of water, pasturage, and defensive buttes and other landscape strongholds. The Batlokwa ruled the upper valley, the north, and by 1835 Sekhonyela had emulated Moshoeshoe in forming alliances with the Drosters - the Griquas and other mixed race groups that were living along the western edge of his land. The Drosters had been repeatedly defeated by Mzilikazi and he stood menacingly in the path of the Trekkers pushing north across the Vaal River - a confrontation was unavoidable. It had been a remarkable journey for Mzilikazi from the area at the headwaters of the Black Mfolozi in north Western Zululand, up on the highveld to the Vaal River. As he roamed, he killed off all competitors, particularly members of his own family, similar to what Shaka and Dingane had done. He ran his kingdom as a Zulu, he also had age based regiments, he also forced his warriors to fight for him before they could marry, usually taking about 10 years, the unmarried men known as the amaJaha. The older men who were the members of the ibutho, had many wives and children, large herds, and took captives from war, who did the chores around the homestead, enslaved. By the early 1830s these Ndebele were happily ensconced north of the Magaliesburg mountains with its excellent water and pastures. And its warmer than other areas of the highveld, with its ridges covered in thick vegetation. Despite controlling territory all the way south of the Vaal and for hundreds of kilometers around this central point, Mzilikazi was paranoid about his safety. is diplomacy was specifically aimed at preventing others like the Drosters heading into his land from the Cape - and here he completely underestimated the Voortrekkers. They conformed to no treaty either, which is not what Mzilikazi had expected. Leading the most significant of these trek parties was Andries Hendrik Potgieter who was a farmer from the Cradock District who'd departed from his beloved Klein Karoo in December 1835. There were 49 armed men and teenage boys over 16, he led 50 wagons, and was joined by Charl or Sarel Cilliers as he became known, who lived near Colesberg. He had 25 adult men in his group, and included a ten year-old Paul Kruger as I've mentioned.
Just a quick thank you to the folks at East coast Radio, Diane and DW, for promoting this podcast with listeners to that station, I'm honoured to have cracked the nod and been selected to be part of their ECR podcast platform. Also a big thank you to all the listeners who've reviewed this podcast on iTunes and elsewhere, it's pushed the series into the top 20 or so at least according to Apple, and there've been close to 800 000 listens. With that slightly self-serving service announcement, back to the real world of the third decade in the 19th Century. Last episode we heard how Harry Smith was busy ridiculing the amaXhosa culture and religion, and planning to destroy their chiefs in order to ensure they would be pliable to the British government's needs in the coming years. We'll get back to Colonel Smith in future episodes. Moshoeshoe's kingdom had taken shape, and to his north, the kingdom of the BaTlokwa, who were led by Sekhonyela, the son of MaNthatisi. While she had been regal, stately, and charming, he was equally tall, but was surly and aggressive where she had been tactful. He was a capable war leader however, and Moshoeshoe had never managed to defeat him - in fact he had forced the BaSotho leader to hand over Thaba Bosiu to him in 1824. In the continuous war between Moshoeshoe and Sekhonyela, the greatest treasure was the Caledon River Valley - a land of water, pasturage, and defensive buttes and other landscape strongholds. The Batlokwa ruled the upper valley, the north, and by 1835 Sekhonyela had emulated Moshoeshoe in forming alliances with the Drosters - the Griquas and other mixed race groups that were living along the western edge of his land. The Drosters had been repeatedly defeated by Mzilikazi and he stood menacingly in the path of the Trekkers pushing north across the Vaal River - a confrontation was unavoidable. It had been a remarkable journey for Mzilikazi from the area at the headwaters of the Black Mfolozi in north Western Zululand, up on the highveld to the Vaal River. As he roamed, he killed off all competitors, particularly members of his own family, similar to what Shaka and Dingane had done. He ran his kingdom as a Zulu, he also had age based regiments, he also forced his warriors to fight for him before they could marry, usually taking about 10 years, the unmarried men known as the amaJaha. The older men who were the members of the ibutho, had many wives and children, large herds, and took captives from war, who did the chores around the homestead, enslaved. By the early 1830s these Ndebele were happily ensconced north of the Magaliesburg mountains with its excellent water and pastures. And its warmer than other areas of the highveld, with its ridges covered in thick vegetation. Despite controlling territory all the way south of the Vaal and for hundreds of kilometers around this central point, Mzilikazi was paranoid about his safety. is diplomacy was specifically aimed at preventing others like the Drosters heading into his land from the Cape - and here he completely underestimated the Voortrekkers. They conformed to no treaty either, which is not what Mzilikazi had expected. Leading the most significant of these trek parties was Andries Hendrik Potgieter who was a farmer from the Cradock District who'd departed from his beloved Klein Karoo in December 1835. There were 49 armed men and teenage boys over 16, he led 50 wagons, and was joined by Charl or Sarel Cilliers as he became known, who lived near Colesberg. He had 25 adult men in his group, and included a ten year-old Paul Kruger as I've mentioned.
Hark! What sound breaks the inscrutable silence of the immense African veld? Dozens of wagons, which would become hundreds. Trundling along at about 5 miles a day, the Voortrekkers were leaving the Cape for their promised lands - albeit yet unidentified. This was a case of being pushed out at least in their minds - culturally, ideologically, fundamentally, they felt they did not belong in the Cape and the Karoo, they had been alienated in the land of their birth by the dreaded English. These initial trundling wagons were the first major parties of Boers under Andries Hendrik Potgieter and Charl Celliers - aka Sarel. We're going to travel with these men and women, and also join African leaders like Moshoeshoe, Mzilikazi and Dingane, as they watched the approach of heavily armed and well organised settlers. Some of these regents saw the Boers as a threat, others as an opportunity. Andries Hendrik Potgieter was a resolute and single-minded farmer from the Cradock District in the Eastern Cape who had decided to leave with a group of extended family, neighbours and friends - 40 men and boys, about the same number of women and girls, more than a hundred Khoesan slaves all aboard more than 50 wagons. It was December 1835 when they crossed the Orange River, joined in a while by Charl Celliers' trek party which included 25 men, attenuated by the arrival of Caspar Kruger's small section - the one in which a very young Paul Kruger travelled. These two parties had crossed the Orange River separately, and it wasn't a crossing for the faint hearted - the river was flooding and the horses and oxen swam to the northern bank as the wagons and the trekkers and their other goods managed to float across on rafts made of the willow trees that grow along the banks. As the women stepped onto the northern side, they began to sing hymns, here they were arriving on the hallowed land that they'd been hearing about for years. They had left the hated English behind, anything was better than that. More fuel was thrown on the fire of bitterness when word filtered through to the frontier Boers that the English had fibbed about the compensation that was going to be paid to former slave owners after emancipation - less than half of the 3.4 million pounds worldwide was now available, and the British had put a price of 73.9 shillings on each slave. 73.9 shillings and 11 pence to be precise. That's about 10 rand in today's currency - a lot of money in 1835 - but almost insulting isn't it? Ten bucks for a human. The Boers thought so too - they regarded their slaves as far more valuable than a measly 73.9 shillings and 11 pence and were outraged. So no compensation for the war, then what of their slaves? Slavery was banned in December 1834 as you heard, and the slave owners were supposed to be compensated but here was London, reneging on another promise. The British government said that all compensation would only be paid out in England - and Glenelg rejected an appeal from the Cape that payments be made locally. How was that going to work, most of the Boers never travelled to Cape Town, let alone to London? They were brought to the Cape from the first days of the VOC back in 1652. Most were southeast Asian Catholic converts from the island of Ambon, and soon this phrase, Merdeka, came to mean any creole mixed race person, or free black. Just to add a layer of irony here because this is South African history, the first known Merdeka to the Cape was Anthony de Later van Japan who was actually from Japan, and eventually freed along with his wife Groot Cathrijn van Bengale. She was from a region of modern day Bangladesh. Anthony de Later van Japan's foster parents were Japanese slave owners Johan van Nagasaki and Johanna van Hirado. Anthony it is thought was a child surrendered as debt bondage back in Japan.
Paul Kruger has an amazing story about how he was raised in the Mormon church, playing in the NFL, and what life is like after playing the game. Paul grew up in Utah and played college ball at the University of Utah. He was then drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the second round of the draft in 2009. Paul had a ton of success and was a valuable player in the NFL having won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens, playing with the Cleveland Browns, and ending his NFL career with the New Orleans Saints. Before playing in the NFL, Paul went on a service mission through his church. Throughout this journey, he learned valuable life lessons and gained perspective on what he truly wanted out of life.Paul thrived, worked hard, and won big in the NFL. However, he knew in his core that he wanted more out of life. After getting brutally assaulted and injured in Utah, Paul's views on life and its fragility were forever altered.With strong ties to his faith, and knowing his calling in life has a greater purpose, Paul has taken his wins in both life and the NFL and created success in business and in his personal life as a strong family man. Connect with Peter Meyerhoff:Website InstagramTikTokFacebookEmail: petermeyerhoff.info@gmail.comConnect with Paul Kruger Here:InstagramTwitter
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
Paul Kruger is a former NFL lineman. Paul was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the second round of the 2009 NFL Draft and the star linebacker for the Ravens during their Super Bowl victory in 2013. Paul and also played for the Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints. Prior to the NFL, he played college football at Utah.
NALC Rev. Paul Kruger
Paul Christian Kruger Jr. is a former American football defensive end who was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the 2009 NFL Draft during the second round. Prior to his time in the NFL Paul played on the collegiate level ball at Utah. He also had two separate tenures with Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints before retiring, but not without putting his entrepreneurial skills on display as an owner of By the Bucket, a national restaurant chain, commercial real estate, and multiple other investments.In this passage about Mr P C KRUGER JR
In this episode John discusses the epic lesson that he learned interviewing his friend, former NFL player Paul Kruger, that will help you stay focused on your goals and continue to win in any environment. Listen in! –––––––––––––––– Also, if you have a question that you think John should address on the show; click the link below and reach out on Instagram, or leave a comment where you see this message.
In today's episode: how cataloguing old vines in South Africa has raised standards for fair employment, and sustainable farming and may just prove the key to solving the problem of the country's most prevalent vine virus. We continue investigating the topic of old vines, this time from a different perspective, as we look to the Certified Heritage Vineyards of South Africa. We hope you've built up an appetite for the subject after last week's head-turning conversation with the South Australian duo of Dr. Dylan Griggs, the man who wrote the Ph.D. thesis on old vines after an extensive study of the old vines of the Barossa Valley, and Prue Henschke, viticulturist for the renowned Henschke winery, that produces two of the oldest single vineyard wines in Australia today.We know that the term “old vines” helps to sell wine. Trade and well-informed consumers, tend to believe that old vines = better wine. But is that really true? Listen to last week's episode to find out more about that topic but, spoiler alert, a more accurate expression would be “old vines make different wines”. The Thieves have come to think that those differences are worth preserving and protecting and thus will be discussing a movement in South Africa whose core mission is to do just that - preserve and protect old vines. Winery members of what is known as the “Old Vine Project” can now put a Certified Heritage Vineyards seal on bottles - the threshold for old is 35 years, which is not quite as arbitrary a number as you might think and the seal includes the date of the original planting of each of these old vineyards – a guarantee of authenticity. Our guests on the program include former lawyer-turned-viticulturist Rosa Kruger who is the founder of the small, privately funded group of crusaders known as “The Old Vines Project”. Kruger is the great-great-granddaughter of Paul Kruger, President of South Africa from 1883-1900, and the one for whom the famous Kruger national park is named. During her travels and tastings around the wine world, Kruger arrived at the realization that old vines not only had advantages on a viticultural level, but also produced better, or at least distinctively, wine. Rosa's colleague and counterpart at the OVP, Andre Morgenthal, joins the round table. André has lectured at the Cape Wine Academy and has worked several vintages at Domaine Bertagna in Vougeot, Burgundy and made wine on a small Stellenbosch property, Clos du Ciel. In 2001, he joined Wines of South Africa (WOSA) as Communications Manager with a focus on media relations but in 2016 he resigned from WOSA to start his own business, among other ventures assisting Rosa Kruger with the Old Vine Project (OVP). Also joining the conversation is Andrew Harris of DGB, one of the largest South African producers and distributors of wine and spirits. DGB has developed and built some of the most successful wine brands in South Africa, including Boschendal, Franschhoek Cellars and Bellingham, as well as new projects through Artisanal Brands such as The Old Road Wine Co. and Fryer's Cove, which DGB acquired last year. DGB is an important member of the Old Vine Project and manages more old vineyards than any other group in SA.Find yourself a glass of old vines chenin blanc and join the conversation!
Es ging um Gold. Um Freiheit. Und um die Sklaverei. Der zweite Burenkrieg war eine Auseinandersetzung zweier ungleicher Gegner: Die kleine Burenrepublik Transvaal im Süden Afrikas kämpfte unter Paul Kruger gegen das britische Empire. Und das zeigte sich gnadenlos. Autorin: Andrea Kath Von Andrea Kath.
There are a few more skirmishes and one more big battle after this period with its frustrations for the British and determination by the Boer die-hards or Bitter einders to continue their war against an empire at its zenith. We will hear about General Christiaan de Wet and Lord Kitchener who are closer physically than at virtually any other time in the war. Kitchener arrived in the Transvaal town of Klerksdorp on the 26th March, de Wet has evaded Kitchener's columns and blockhouses in the the Free State and is about to cross over the Vaal River to join General Koos de la Rey. More about that in a while. What these soldiers don't know is that there have been peace moves afoot internationally for some time. The Dutch Prime Minister, Abraham Kuyper, had sent a coded message to Lord Landsdowne, the British Foreign Secretary, on January 21st 1902. As was the case in those days, the language used was French - the language of diplomacy. And in his forthright way, The Hague was offering “en traite de paix” – a peace treaty between the British and Boers. The Dutch went one step further. They had already worked out a scenario. First the three members of the Boer Delegation which we heard about last year were still in the Netherlands. They would return to South Africa to confer with Boer leaders then return with an authorisation to conduct peace talks somewhere in the Netherlands. On the 29th January, Lord Landsdowne replied bluntly that the British government appreciated the humanitarian considerations that inspired the offer, but on principle declined the intervention of foreign powers in the South African war. Leyds, who was Paul Kruger's secretary in Holland, heard about Kuypers offer through the newspapers and was not amused. Why had the Dutch Prime Minister not bothered to confer with him or Kruger? What also angered the Boer emissaries in Europe was the tone adopted by the Netherlands missive. The letter which failed to call on the British to end an imperialist war nor did it mention the abuses being suffered by Boer women and children in the internment camps. The Dutch message implicitly urged the Boers to give up a hopeless cause. Worse, that response came at about the same time another arrived from America which was negative. President Roosevelt told the Boers that his predecessor, McKinley, had offered his services as a mediator and had been turned down flatly by the British. So Roosevelt said any attempt at intervention would be folly.
IT's June 1901 and there's trouble brewing like a north sea storm around the British Isles. The main force behind this political hurricane is a diminutive but loud woman called Emily Hobhouse. While the suffragette movement is in its infancy, there's nothing about Hobhouse that is a wallflower. In fact, you could say that it was precisely because of courageous women like her that the entire suffragette movement gained momentum. Still, much of what was to happen in that social and political project emerged after the First World War, when women who'd been building artillery pieces and loading ammunition into crates suddenly were told that they needed to go home and put on curlers and become housewives again. After the freedom they'd experienced, and earning their own living, that was always going to be a tough sell as the soldiers marched back from the Western Front. But here we are, 13 years before the First World War, and tracking that truly fascinating person called Emily Hobhouse. Sir Alfred Milner, the Cape governor, referred to her as that screamer - always complaining. Milner ironically was on board the same ship that took Emily Hobhouse from Cape Town to Portsmouth in England - although the two gave each other a wide berth if you excuse the pun. So on the 8th May the Saxon set sail from Cape Town. As with the habit of those on these long journeys, Hobhouse sought out Milner in private but he avoided talking to her. Only after the Saxon had passed Madeira in Spain did an opportunity present itself. In the course of their conversation she found out whey Milner had been unwilling to meet her. In the preceding months he had received more than 60 reports all containing personal allegations against her. She was accused by the camp commanders of inciting unrest and playing politics. That was because Hobhouse was determined and had facts at her fingertips. So what better way to deflect her truths than accuse her of malicious political intent? I'm afraid this technique of dealing with uppity women continues to this day - and often ends in failure as it did in this case too. in Holland, President Paul Kruger was mulling over a coded letter sent by Jan Smuts and Louis Botha. Remember last week I explained how Botha and Smuts had begun to question Boer tactics and Smuts in particular was growing more certain that this war could not continue. He was aware of the reports of the death of women and children in concentration camps, and his men had run out of just about everything. Even their will to fight. Kruger had installed himself in the Hotel des Pays-Bas in Utrecht in January 1901, but by June he'd moved to a guest house called Casa Cara in Hilversum. That's where he and his secretary Leyds met to discuss Smuts' letter.
Its the end of May and the guerrilla war has turned nasty as the coldest winter of living memory has started - bringing gusts of freezing wind which whipped through the Concentration Camps with their exposed bell tents a threadbare protection for the women and children. Also chilled to the bone was Deneys Reitz and his four German comrades who were riding south from the western Transvaal, heading for the Vaal River. Their plan was to cross in the Free State, then continue the four hundred kilometres further southwards in order to invade the Cape Colony. As we heard last week, the entire plan had a Quixotic flavour with Reitz the canny veld-wise Boer and his friends - two students, a businessman and a farm hand. It was the farm hand , Heinrich Wiese who had the first major problem. After the little group had bungled an attempt at capturing a spy the previous day, they set off before first light towards the Vaal River. The country-side was alive with British troops moving about on one of their drives ordered by commander in chief Lord Kitchener. They were burning farms and rolling up the Boer citizens forcing them into the internment camps. General Louis Botha, in command of the Boers in the Transvaal, was growing more concerned by the misery these people were suffering. His own private view now was that the Boers could not win, but he would carry on fighting based on his honour code. But he reached out to Lord Kitchener as we heard in podcast 86, asking for permission to send emissaries to Paul Kruger in Holland. Kitchener was also keen on ending the guerrilla war as fast as possible. The costs continue to rise, he now had almost a quarter of a million men in South Africa and the war that was supposed to last one to three months had now stretched to nineteen. While Free State President Steyn had sent a withering reply to Botha and Jan Smuts suggestion that a cease fire be negotiated, the Transvaal leadership stubbornly persisted in their plan and if an emissary was not permitted, they'd send messages.
This week we spend some time with Johanna van Warmelo and Deneys Reitz, the former who starts a new position as a nurse in a Concentration Camp at Irene outside Pretoria, and the the latter who has just convinced his German fellow travellers that an invasion into the Cape is feasible. Its mid-May 1901. President Steyn of the Free State and his Transvaal colleagues have had a disagreement about the possibility of a cease fire, but that has not stopped General Louis Botha who is in the Eastern Transvaal sending a note to British Army commander Lord Kitchener asking for permission to send an emissary to the Netherlands. Botha want's to ask President Paul Kruger's permission to embark on peace talks as he's growing more certain that the Boers can't defeat the British in South Africa. The Free State leadership are more intransigent and prefer to fight to the death, led by their fiery leader General Christiaan de Wet. The stage is set for more confrontations between the supposed allies, but as they grind their teeth, in Pretoria Johanna van Warmelo is now determined to assist her Boer sisters and their children who are squeezed into the nearby Concentration Camp. They are beginning to die in large numbers and with the temperature dropping, its bodes ill for the coming winter. Remember in Episode 83 I explained how Johanna and her mother were working as secret agents for the Boers from their strategic base at SunnySide farm on the outskirts of Pretoria. The British did not believe they were involved in spying, but that's exactly what they were doing. We also heard how Johanna was keeping three separate diaries - one her open diary, the second her secret love diary, and the third her top secret war diary. Historian Jackie Grobler published a book in 2007 called "The war Diary of Johanna Brandt" which combined all three. She was still a van Warmelo during the war, and in May 1901 arrived at Irene Concentration Camp having volunteered as a nurse. Her initial job was to walk around the huge camp looking for sick Boer women and children and then bring these to the attention of the camp doctor. There were six Boer nurses in a camp of 5000 and by early May 3 people were dying a day. Far to the West, somewhere in the vicinity of Harts River, Deneys Reitz and his four German friends were holed up having been left behind by the Commando under the leadership of Mayer. General Koos de la Rey had ordered that the Boers return to their homes for the meantime as the cold weather drew in and the movement around the veld became more difficult. But Reitz was so isolated along with his colleagues that he had decided to take matters into his own hands. Remember last week I explained how Reitz had convinced his fellow travellers that instead of heading back to the north, they should try to enter the Cape Colony. “After I had explained my views…” he writes in his book Commando “…and had pictured the Cape to them as a land of beer for the taking at every wayside inn, they became eager converts, and we agreed to start without delay…”
We've reached May 1901 and surprisingly, General Louis Botha is trying to reach out to Lord Kitchener who is the British Army commander of the over 240 000 troops in South Africa. Botha wants special permission to send emissaries to Paul Kruger in the Netherlands to ask if a ceasefire could be arranged. But that only happened after Botha and Jan Smuts had collected as much information about the Boers position - and it was a depressing account. They were running out of weapons, ammunition, food, clothing, horses, money, everything as Historian Martin Bossenbroek writes. Could supplies be sent from Europe, through German South West Africa perhaps? Between the two countries was a significant desert, but was traversable - still this was indicative of just how desperate the Boer leadership was. While Generals Koos de la Rey and Christiaan de Wet and the other unconventional leaders were foraying back and forth, the echelon of senior leaders was growing more aware of an unsustainable situation. In the southeastern Transvaal reports emerged of British using Zulu warriors to loot cattle from Boers. There's an allegation made that British officer Colonel Bottomley sent a letter to King Dinizulu suggesting he send his men into the region to grab cattle and around 6 000 warriors crossed to border between Natal and the Transvaal in May 1901. Meanwhile, far to the north west on the Transvaal border with Bechuanaland - modern day Botswana, Deneys Reitz and a small commando under the leadership of Commandant Jan Kemp were under orders to attack the railway line which was being used to ferry supplies into the Mafikeng. General de la Rey had divided his force into two parties, and took one of these south where he began to engage with British columns. Commandant Jan Kemp led his group westwards, and for two days in mid-May they rode through barren country until they reached a point on the Harts River. British troops could be seen along the River, watching for any Boer movement so they decided to make the crossing at night. Reitz was part of a German scouting unit led by the Johannesburg businessman called Mayer that was sent ahead of the main body, riding through the Cunana Native Reserve all night until four the next morning when they crossed the British border.
We're going to ride with the French Colonel or "Die Franse Kolonel", Georges Villebois-Mareuil as he heads into the Free State with the International Legion. This episode is slightly longer than usual because the details of this Frenchman are so intriguing. We will also be introduced to some of the International soldiers who fought for the Boers, including artist Vincent Van Gogh's brother, Cor. He's already been living in the Transvaal building locomotives for the President Paul Kruger's government, and when war breaks out, naturally he signed up to fight for the Boers. The French Colonel Villebois-Mareuil, a man steeped in family military tradition, had arrived in South Africa soon after the war began in October 1899 and had travelled to Ladysmith in November. He was present at the battle of Colenso, and by January 1900 was well known to the Boer soldiers as he began to advise General Piet Joubert. This was a sensitive matter as Joubert brooked no interference, but at one point the Frenchman had suggested an attack on two British outposts that were critical for the defence of the besieged town. These were observation points known as Caesars Camp and Waggon Hill and they required attacking at night. On 2nd January General Joubert held a war council at his hooflaer or HQ above Ladysmith and it was finally decided to launch an attack on the town, preceded by the taking of Caesars Camp and Waggon Hill. On 5th January the Boers began to move - little knowing that fate was against them. One of the better organised British commanders, Colonel Hamilton, was in command at Caesars Camp and Waggon hill. Also, Sir George White, the Ladysmith commander, had issued orders for the various guns there to be moved out on to the plateau - dealing the Boers a blow before the battle started because the hustle and bustle of artillery moving around meant the British were very wide awake.
The Anglo-Boer war, embarked upon by both sides with confidence, was now to be maintained by faith and we shall see how that faith was expressed, and by whom .. and what became of it. One of these men of faith was Transvaal President, Oom Paul Kruger. Although well into his 70s by this time, he found the energy to climb aboard a rattling Boer train and to travel to both war fronts - in Natal and in the Free State. When he arrived in Natal he found the Boers in full flight. Buller had successfully relieved Ladysmith and the burghers wanted to leave for home. Kruger found General Joubert sick with illness and defeat and tried to stop what had turned into a stampede. He entreated and exhorted, and promised that he would suggest arbitration to end the war as long as the men stood firm. Many had decided that it was huis toe or time to go home and had retreated as far north as Newcastle from Ladysmith before they were persuaded to return to fight. But when Kruger travelled to the front in the Orange Free State at Poplar Grove, Lord Roberts who led the British force had ordered an attack on the Grove on the same day Kruger arrived - March 7th 1900. Would Kruger escape?
It's been a slow week on the podcast, but it just got a lot better. I reached out to Will Burge of WTAM and he made some time for us to talk about Cleveland sports. We discussed public financing of stadiums, the Cleveland Browns and even the Cleveland Browns' quarterback quandary. We're on Patreon and you can support us! Subscribe: iTunes - Stitcher - Google Play Will Burge from WTAM NFL hypocrisy in how it's covered Being a left-leaning guy on a right-leaning station Public financing of stadiums One-sided relationship between sports franchises and governments Cleveland leading or following on the conversation with public funding of stadiums The Browns leaving Cleveland being leverage for all sports teams Are fans just jealous of owners' profits and wealth? What kind of civic leader will Jimmy Haslam be in the long run? Can the Browns continue to rebuild how they want with how bad they are? The idea was right, but the execution was questionable How much difference is there between going winless and winning one game? The cutting of Paul Kruger on August 29 Not re-signing Mitchell Schwartz RG3 vs. Cody Kessler Hue Jackson wants a victory so he's going to play RG3 Mitch Trubisky in the draft Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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