History of South Africa podcast

As we heard last episode, the direction of trekker expansion was largely a function of the nature of the terrain, along with the availability of water and the quality of pasture. What was to take place through the 18th century was a steady growth of loan farms that extended northwards along rivers and eastwards between mountain ranges, or following the coastal lowlands. The main areas settled before 1720 included the country north of the Berg River around the Piketberg, and to the east of the Hottentots Hollands mountains. Trekboers arrived along the Oliphants River Valley about the same time, along with the upper Breede River and adjacent valleys and river basins. Like the isiXhosa far to the north east, it was the streams and rivers that determined trekboer settlement. These two people were going to bump into each other shortly. The Dutch settlers pushed eastwards into the coastal areas south of the Langeberg Mountains, then by the 1730s the trekboers were entering the Little Karoo and Swellendam which was settled in 1745. To the north, the Dutch speaking livestock farmers crossed the arid plain between the Cape Mountains and the Roggeveld escarpment in 1745 and occupied the most accessible portions of the interior plateau. They then headed mainly north or northeasterly into the Hantamsberg which was settled in the 1750s and the Nieuveld in the 1760s. By the 1760s trekkers were spreading along the summer rainfall area leading to farms being established in the good sites of the Cambedo including Graaff-Reinet. During the 1770s trekboers occupied the areas to the north and east of the Sneeuberg Mountains, along the southeast of the country behind Bruintjes Hoogte. By the 1770s the VOC was trying to stop colonists from expanding further east of the Gamtoos River - but trekboers had already taken out loan farms beyond this dividing line.

This is episode 25 and we’re following the early history of the Xhosa. They were about to come into direct contact with the Dutch expanding from the Cape Peninsular. Remember last episode we heard about the growing bizarre behaviour by Gcaleka who was one of Phalo’s sons – and his propensity to believe himself a diviner. That was after he escaped drowning in the musical sounding Ngxingxolo River. Phalo died in 1775 – but Gcaleka who became chief died only three years later. I was going to cover the infighting between Gcaleka and his brother Rharhabe but will leave that for a little later. We’re following the years of history here in a timeline format and I don’t want us to get ahead of ourselves. Just a few comments about the Xhosa social system which is going to have a bearing on our story as the Trek Boers came up against their clans. The matrix of Xhosa political and social organization was the small village led by the homestead-head. He and sometimes she, was drawn into wider relationships partly through membership of a patrilineage. His brothers, their father and his brothers, their grandfather and his brothers and so on for four or five generations to the earliest ancestor remembered by all these lineages. So it was an extension of time and space where it was father and his sons, and their uncles and their sons, uncles and their nephews, elder brothers and younger brothers. The elevation of the amaTshawe to the position of royal clan did not alter these existing linealogies, the chiefs still referred to each other as older brother or umkhuluwa or younger brother known as umninawa. The king was known as inkosi enkhulu which literally meant big chief, but also means the chief who is the eldest son. With that, its time to head back south to the expanding Dutch settlement in the Cape of the early 1700s. We’ll return to the Xhosa soon.

This is episode 24, the Foundation of the Xhosa Kingdom, the heroes Tshawe and Phalo. I’ve made use of a number of books and documents in the series so far, but Jeff Perez’s House of Phalo is probably my favourite source material mainly because he lectured me at Rhodes University in the mid-1980s. His book on the Xhosa is still the go-to research document and I’m leaning quite heavily on the work for this episode. Let’s take ourselves back to Xhosa pre-history, that time in early oral tradition where myths and legends are difficult to separate from reality. The Xhosa people of today think of themselves as being the common descendents of a great hero named Xhosa who lived many hundreds of years ago. Some believe he was the son of Mnguni who gave the name to the Nguni language – and brothers of other kingdoms such as the pre-Zulu Ndwandwe or Mthethwa, as well as the Swazi, or the Zulu themselves. The word Xhosa is a Khoi word meaning ‘Angry Men’ and Vete who is the main historian of the nearby Mpondomise people believes they were named by the amaThembu. Remember we met the amaThembu last episode, the people who lived on the boundaries of the Xhosa and were regarded as poorer because their land was less fertile. The earliest historical occurrance specific to the Xhosa was the installation of the amaTshawe as the royal family – and the story of Tshawe is probably the best-known of all Xhosa traditions. John Soga wrote about this in his work South Eastern Bantu which is a highly respected original document outlining the people of Xhosaland.

This is episode 23 and its time to shift our attention away from the Dutch in the Cape to the amaXhosa. At the turn of the 18th Century there were signs of increased conflict in the region as the Khoekhoe began to feel the pressures of the expanding Dutch settlements which spread out from the southern Cape. The boundaries of the territory occupied by the Xhosa fluctuated considerably over time but in the years between 1700 and the mid 1800s they were limited to the area east of the Sunday’s River and West of the Mbashe River. They lived along the coastal strip which separates South Africa’s inland plateau from the Indian Ocean. It’s an area of temperate grassland which yields a variety of crops such as maize, sorghum, tobacco and pumpkins. However the soils are shallow and better suited to stock farming rather than intensive agriculture. Rain falls in a succession of thunder storms through Summer – basically between October and February. The land is well drained by numerous short rivers which run from the escarpment down to the sea. None of these is navigable for any great distance and the Xhosa have no taste for fish nor a tradition of building boats. There are no mineral deposits of any significance – those that exist are ironstone around the Tyhume and Kei Rivers. And yet they were and are a metal working people having traded metals with people further west and north for generations. The landscape is incredibly varied – and these characteristics have led to diverse clan associations as we’ll see. It is very important to note that as a people, the Xhosa’s traditions stretch back far longer than the Zulu, their more powerful neighbours to the north. To simplify things we identify four major groups of Xhosa in adjacent belts running parallel to the coast. IN the far north close to the mountains of the interior – the Drakensburg as well as a second tier of smaller ranges further south – few Xhosa settled.

This is episode 22 and we’re dealing with a number of things. First is the arrival in the Cape of an influential Muslim Cleric called Sheik Yusufs al-Taj al-Khwalwari al-Maqasari who was to have a major impact on the colony. We’ll also hear about what was going on across southern Africa in the first two decades of the 18th Century – a time of major change which set the tone for the expansion of colonialism for the next two hundred years. Shayk Yusufs was exiled to the Cape from his home in Java in 1694 and was settled at Zandvlier on the False Bay Coast along with fifty of his followers. The VOC officials were highly aware of his influence and attempts were made to isolate him from the mass of the Cape population but these failed. Van der Stel owned a private estate, Vergelegen, which was the foundation of the present day Somerset West and its wine route. He granted himself the in 1700 and he spent much of the VOC resources on its development. This allowed him an unfair advantage and led to strained relationships with the local “free burghers” as you’ve heard. His unilateral actions determining who could participate in the monopoly of wine and meat and eventually triggered a revolt amongst the farmers led by a man called Adam Tas. He was born in Amsterdam and arrived in the Cape in 1697 as a freeburgher to take up quarters with his uncle, Henning Husing. Unlike most burghers, he was well educated and his diary – albeit carefully edited by the VOC later – provides interesting reading. So in 1714 a momentous decision was taken to permit loan farming or LENINGPLAAT to develop east of the mountains. For a small fee, a farmer was given the use of at least 6000 acres on which to graze his cattle for a specific period of time. This was ideal for stock farmers who could lease two such farms and then leave one to lie fallow.

This is episode 21 and we’re probing the growth of Nguni societies – as well as the terrible smallpox epidemic of 1713. First a note about historical records. As I’ve mentioned the use of archaeological surveys and oral history along with specific tools used such as pottery and metal artifacts provides quite a bit of detail about the history of the Nguni and Sotho as well as the Tswana in South Africa. However, the oral history comes with an obvious warning. And nowhere is that more important than along the Eastern seaboard – the future home of the Zulu. After the development of Zulu power in early 1800, oral historians were pressurized to tell the story from the point of view of what had been a tiny clan before Shaka came along in the early 19th Century. This narrative cleansing if you like expunged a great deal of the knowledge traditional societies had developed over hundreds of years. I’m mentioning this now because that’s unlike other parts of South Africa – the Xhosa for example, the Sotho, Tswana and Venda whose individual clan narratives are still largely intact. Compounding this truth decay Nguni archaeology in KwaZulu Natal is also less well known that Tswana and Sotho. This is the result of difficulty in locating early Nguni settlements as well as the Zulu state’s revisionist oral history. Then a terrible disease made its way ashore in 1713 borne by a visiting fleet of VOC ships that anchored in Table Bay. It sent its linen ashore to be washed by company slaves in Cape Town. The laundry bore a smallpox virus which was to rage throughout that year, killing hundreds of Europeans and slaves. It’s impact on the Khoe was catastrophic.

This is episode 20 and the expansion of settlers from the Cape is gaining pace. At the same time, the Xhosa to the north are experiencing political upheavals, while further north, the Nguni speaking farmers have spread into the Free State and Transvaal highlands – now known as Gauteng. The decline of the Khoekhoe chiefs and the increasingly coercive nature of the trade took place at the same time as another major development in the Cape. This was the intensification of labour relations between the Khoe and the Colony. Ever since van Riebeeck’s time, some Khoekhoe had worked in the colony as cook’s assistants, domestics, building labourers and dispatch runners amongst other jobs. Europeans did not hire Khoekhoe as herders or shepherds before 1670 because they feared the theft of their livestock – and then only under close supervision. However the rapid expansion into Stellenbosch and Drakenstein we heard last episode meant the Dutch and Huguenot farmers needed more labour. There weren’t enough slaves so naturally as the Khoe lost their land and grazing rights, they took up more of these positions as workers. According to the census of 1690, there was one slave in the Bay area of the Cape for every nine cattle tended and for every bushel of seed sown. Compare that to Drakenstein and Stellenbosch where there was one slave for every 63 cattle and twenty bushels of seed sown. The Khoekhoe were now experiencing a rapid decline in their wealth and security and responded in large numbers to the new farms and their requirements. The Dutch official Van Rheede whom we met last episode wrote a scathing note to the colonists about the children of slaves – and by 1700 three quarters of these children had white fathers. He said the children of slaves – dusky skinned, blonde haired and even blue eyed – should receive the same education as other children. The Freeburgers were shocked and disagreed.

This is episode 19 and we’re looking at the years between 1679 and 1700 and developments in both the Cape and the interior of the sub-continent. Last episode we heard how new Governor Simon van der Stel who arrived in 1679 began a rapid expansionist policy in the Cape, including building two new towns – Stellenbosch and Drakenstein. The last two decades of the 17th Century and the first two of the eighteenth are regarded as the most important in the early history of South Africa – at least with regard to colonization. After 1707 the VOC effort at peopling the country slowed significantly. It was the fear of the British then the French that had driven the Dutch to make a decision to increase settlers in the Cape between the 1660s and the turn of the century. Ultimately and ironically, considering the Dutch/French War, salvation really came indirectly from France. There had long been French speaking Walloons in the United Provinces of Holland who had fled from the Spanish terror at the end of the sixteenth century. These refugees were now being joined by the Huguenots who had abandoned France. That was in response King Louis XIVs severe view of anyone who had a reformed faith Naturally after years of failing to attract large numbers of settlers to the Cape, the Heeren Seventeen regarded the Huguenots as a pool of possible immigrants to exploit. Some of the Frenchmen knew how to make wine, brandy and vinegar. Things were moving in the Cape. By 1689 van der Stel had occasion to meet a sailor shipwrecked in terra de Natal. Captain W Knyff of the Dutch East India company managed to make his way back to the Peninsular after living amongst the people in the region for a year. He told van der Stel that the people who helped him were peaceable and obliging. Two other sailors had already been living amongst the people who known as the Xhosa.

This is episode 18 and we’re focusing on the 1670s through to the 1680s where a whole lot was going on in the south of Africa. Let me first start with race relations. South Africans probably have no idea that the man who launched the most aggressive drive to expand into Africa was not born in Europe – he was born in Mauritius of Dutch and Indian stock. Had he been born after apartheid’s firm grasp fixed South African in a race-based laws after 1948 he would have been classified coloured. The man who ran the first version of our country would have been denied the right to vote and forced to take second-class trains. And yet he introduced colonialism in South Africa in its full stark reality. History. Got to love it in all its irony. He arrived with his six children, but not his wife. She refused to make the trip so he was not only a coloured governor, he was also single parent. Van der Stel was to found a South African dynasty, casting off his links to the motherland. More than a thousand miles away to the north another process which had started hundreds of years before was also to prove significant and we need to return to this part of Southern Africa for an update. From the fourteenth century, Shona and Sotho speakers were in close proximity in the Soutpansburg close to the Limpopo River. The Venda people were emerging from the Singo – an offshoot of the Shona. There’s a lot of debate between archaeologists and traditionalists around this story where Venda oral history speaks of the Singo Capital Dzata.

This is episode 17 and we’re dealing with the second Khoe-Dutch war of 1673 which dealt the Peninsular tribe known as the Cochoqua a terminal blow. The growing population at the Cape meant both the colonisers and the passing fleets needed to be well fed with fresh produce. The colonial programme was created to foster farming to supply the station’s needs – and it was the expanding use of arable land and fresh water that went along with it that further exacerbated the conflict with the indigenous peoples. By the early 1670s the colonial government was convinced the Gonnema had begun to instigate a series of attacks on Europeans. In some of these cases, clans who were answerable to Gonnema assaulted farmers. In others, the much feared San hunters who were also under Gonnema’s sway ambushed and killed Dutch hunters who had begun to penetrate their territories.

This is episode 16 and its about de Kaap and the Peninsular in the 1660s. As we’ve heard, the trading with the Khoe at the Cape is not going as well as the Dutch hoped and Jan Van Riebeeck the fort commander had decided to lay out his formal frontier albeit a tiny start to what would become a major immigration. And it would start with a tree called the Bitter Almond which considering what was to happen to the Khoe over the next century, is a pretty accurate name. But first, some domestic news. Remember van Riebeeck had arrived in 1652 with his whole family – his wife Maria de la Quellerie was a relatively strong person of 22 when she landed on the shores of Table Bay as one of the six European women joining the 80 odd men. The other five were all married to various officials living at the Fort. Maria and Jan had arrived with a child of their own as well as two orphaned nieces. She was sickly and pregnant almost every year while at the Cape – having one miscarriage after another. The van Riebeeck’s had arrived with a son and two adopted daughters but their attempt at having a fourth child appeared to be doomed. Living with the van Riebeecks was a really interesting Khoe woman called Krotoa. As Patric Mellet points out in his work, the lie of 1652, Krotoa was a key figure in the struggle between the Khoe and the Dutch. From various descriptions, Krotoa is likely to have been fathered by a European traveler with her Khoe mother who left Krotoa’s upbringing to her brother Autshumao. Basically her mother disowned her it appears but that didn’t stop the youngster from developing into quite a force at the Dutch fort.

This is episode 15 and we’re looking at the first Khoe-Dutch war of 1659-1660. Up to now the relationship between the Dutch and the various Khoe tribes on the Cape Flats has been rife and filled with chaos. Things as you’ll hear, are not going to improve or settle down. By January 1659, Doman one of the Khoe translators we heard about last week had become disillusioned about Dutch aims in the Cape. He’d seen the VOC in action after a trip to the Far East, to the Dutch capital Batavia and was impressed by their organizational capacity and power. But now, back home, he was aware that the KHoe people were no longer able to fully control their futures. And he was angry with Jan van Riebeeck for taking three Khoe chiefs hostage as the Dutch tried to force the Khoe to bring their escape slaves back. And worse, the Europeans had begun to show signs of settling in for the long haul – after all the first tranche of free burghers had just been given their 28 hectare plots around modern day Rondebosch and between the Liesbeeck and Salt Rivers which was prime Khoe grazing land. Now it was out of bounds to people who had seen generations use the same land. A census in December 1658 had revealed that the company was farming over 300 hectares of Cape Peninsular land. Stock thefts begin to take place in earnest in January 1659 – and the freeburghers were the victims to a large extent. They had started farming as we’ve heard in 1657 and the Khoe focused on their small herds as there was not much that the Dutch could do in their little isolated farms. The Khoekhoe for their part said the land was their mother and the Dutch were raping their land.

This is episode 14 and the first settlers are about to make their way out of the Dutch fort at the Cape after being allocated land to plant their gardens. This action which Jan Van Riebeeck took in 1657 was to have reverberations which are still being felt across the southern African region – and beyond. It must be remembered that the VOC did not envisage colonization as an end to itself. It merely wished to substitute limited private farming for state production in order to reduce expenditure. So far we’ve heard how the VOC company commander at the Cape of Good Hope had managed to grow his vegetables and fruit, but was not able to secure enough head of cattle from the Khoekhoe despite his constant trading and badgering. The Khoe for their part had realized that the Dutch were not going to go away and had begun to show signs of more aggression – particularly in 1655 and 1656 with groups of Khoe setting up their shelters close to the VOC fort. By January 1657 van Riebeeck was visited by Harry the Strandloper who had become a significant player in the Cape, along with a local Khoe chief they called The Fat Captain. His name was Gogosoa and he was paramount chief of the Gorachouqua and Goringhaicona. More about him in a while. He represented a group of Khoe living where Salt River is today – and both were unhappy about what they heard when they received information that the Dutch were going to allow freeburghers to own land. They were opposed to the idea of freemen, of Dutch settlers permitted to own their own land around the fort. Van Riebeeck explained that there was enough room for all and that all would benefit from the corn and tobacco grown on these new farms. This did not placate the Khoekhoe who argued their case and then left.

This is episode 13 and we’re covering the period between 1652 and 1657. These five years saw the establishment of the Dutch’s refreshment station at the Cape and the increasing frustration of Jan van Riebeeck who commanded the small group of sailors and soldiers who were trying to build a garden to feed the passing VOC fleets. Last episode I explained how the Dutch were facing a problem in terms of communication. No-one in the little fortress could speak Khoekhoe and they were relying on Khoe translators. What the Dutch did not properly understand for quite a while is just how fractured the Khoe were as a people who functioned as small clans and often at war with each other. As we will hear over coming podcasts, Khoe hierarchy was a fleeting thing based on economic power and not laws of succession. By December 1652 the group of Khoe van Riebeeck called “The Saldanhas” had migrated back to their grazing lands along the base of Table Mountain – where Kirstenbosch, Constantia and the Steenberg is today. He wrote that “…the country is covered with cattle and sheep as grass…” These Saldanhas or Chochoquas were obviously different people compared to the Strandlopers as the Dutch called the small clan living along the Cape Town beach. “there is nothing degenerate in the proud Saldanhas…” he wrote “they have all the traditional courtesy of the cattle-keeper…” As far as van Riebeeck was concerned, they were unlike the non-cattle keeping Soaqua or San he was to meet.

This is episode 12 and we’re at the point where Jan van Riebeeck and 88 men and women had setup the refreshment station to provide fruit, vegetables and meat to passing VOC fleets. As we heard last episode, the fort would take a year to complete. The Dutch had arrived in the Cape at precisely the wrong time, it was Autumn and the Mediterranean climate meant the coming winter would be cold and wet. Worse, the Khoekhoe had left their settlements on the Cape Flats heading up the east coast to areas which were more sheltered for the winter and van Riebeeck’s men suffered as meat was not available. They were reduced to eating penguins, seals and birds of different kinds to stay alive. So by eight months and despite Jan van Riebeeck’s determination being tested, earth works had been built, gardens were laid out and seeds had been sown – and he’d even managed to harvest the first vegetables. This was rather deceptive, because when the first large Dutch fleet passed by in March 1653, the ships themselves were obliged to contribute several tons of rice, together with salted meat and biscuit to the hungry garrison. And yet, some fresh meat was made available for the fleet along with fresh vegetables. That by itself was quite an achievement. The Khoekhoe had largely left the Cape flats for winter so locating cattle to buy had been a big problem. Soon things improved as the Khoekhoe returned by December 1652 and were happy to trade their animals for tobacco and copper. “the Saldanha’s seek to show us all the friendship they can..” wrote van Riebeeck on December 8th. But the Khoekhoe moved on a few days later and the Dutch fort commander seemed to forget his orders as he began to consider other ways to obtain cattle.

This is episode 11 and it’s all about Jan van Riebeeck arrival in 1652 and the amaXhosa/KhoeKhoe relationship. South Africa’s modern community is a melting pot of people and part of that melting story started when the Dutch company the VOC decided to build a refreshment station in Table Bay. But it took quite some time to convince the Heeren 17 to agree to this plan. Van Riebeeck’s landing was also extremely well documented – the logs he kept and those maintained by the VOC is a vast repository of the past. We need to talk a little about van Riebeeck. I mentioned a few things last episode, but now we must understand the short, fiery and energetic person more completely. He was lionised as the man who had vision leading the arrival of Europeans who came to live in south Africa – but the tale is not as it seems. The real distinction for running a proper colony fell to later men such as Simon van der Stel and Hendryk van Rheede whereas van Riebeeck never wanted to remain in Africa. In the mid-1600s the amaXhosa were still living in the vicinity of the Mbashe River in the modern Transkei and were going through a process of major segmentation as several chiefdoms hived off from the paramountcy. Some of their history was noted in 1554 after Portuguese ship São Bento ran aground at the mouth of the Mbhashe River.

The Dutch have eclipsed the Portuguese Far East maritime trade and are looking to exploit the Indies as effectively as possible. Back in Southern Africa, the KhoeKhoe have no idea what this century will bring which includes the beginning of the destruction of their way of life in Table Bay as the first colonists arrive. Despite the English and the Dutch now beginning to use Table Bay as a stop off point, St Helena was still the preferred route to the Indies for most of the 17th Century. As I explained previously, the currents off the African West Coast were treacherous, and the Portuguese had experienced a few disasters in southern Africa as they tried to enslave locals. By 1620 the number of European ships anchoring in the shadow of Table Mountain had increased, but had not reached the flood of vessels that would characterize the period after the first colony setup by the Dutch VOC official, Jan van Riebeek in 1652.

IT was only in 1610 that the Dutch discovered the advantages of sailing east from the Cape before swinging north to reach the hub of their trading network in Java. As a result, contacts between the Khoekhoe and the Europeans steadily increased particularly around Table Bay. In the first half of the 17th Century a regular system of trade developed between the Khoekhoe of the southwestern Cape and the visiting sailors. It boiled down, if you excuse the pun, to sheep and cattle exchanged for metals initially iron, but then brass and copper. The Khoekhoe as we heard last episode were not interested in the baubels and trinkets dished up by would-be traders earlier and the Europeans learned very swiftly to trade valuable goods for valuable foods. Unlike the farmers of eastern southern Africa, the Khoekhoe could not manufacture iron themselves but knew how to smelt metal. The Tswana/Sotho and Nguni were already mining and smelting iron but in essence the KhoeKhoe remained what is known as stone age people. This is not an insult, its how historians refer to the use of technology. The Khoekhoe knew full well how valuable iron was an were using iron hoes, weapons and other metals extensively. They didn’t need to figure out how to mine iron and other metals because there was so much trade in the product already that existed with iron goods flowing into Khoekhoe society before Europeans arrived from the farmers who knew how to grind and crush rock, extract the metals, then using bellows and charcoal to generate the heat required to melt the ore. The Dutch meanwhile begin controlling Indian Ocean trade through their VOC company. They were also importing a new product called Coffee from the Dutch factory at Mocha on the tip of the Arabian peninsular and tea from Formosa or Taiwan as we know it today.

So by the early 1500s Portugal controlled the major ports along northern Mozambique and into modern day Kenya all the way up to Mombasa. However, they did not seek to take over the land so to speak – at least at first. The idea was to build fortified ports so that they could enhance trade with those inland without resorting to boots on the ground. At the same time, Great Zimbabwe had passed into history and the western parts of Zimbabwe were now controlling the trade routes between Southern Africa and the Indian ocean ports. Meanwhile to the south, Sotho and Tswana speakers had pushed into the mixed Bushveld habitats that lie against the grasslands of the Highveld. At this time, dry stone walling starts to be used to mark essential settlement boundaries, reaching the southern shores of the Vaal river and the Free State by the early 1600s. Oral history has helped us a great deal as the Sotho and Tswana storytelling means we know that the people who moved here came from Botswana of today, and founded a core Tswana identity in the areas of present-day Rustenburg and Marico by the late 1400s. There is an elaborate Tswana creation myth involving a leader called Matsieng who is said to have emerged from holes in the earth. This is now believed to be related to the origin of the Tswana northeast of capital of Botswana Gaborone where there are rock cavities and sumps in the riverbeds. Once again Geology and landscape plays its part in our history. Meanwhile, the last year of the fifteenth and through the sixteenth century, South Africa’s contacts with the outside world took on new forms.

We heard last episode how Portuguese explorer Bartolemeu Dias had rounded the Cape and landed at Mossel Bay in November 1488. He was the first person to sail around the continent to the South and his journey revolutionized commerce in Europe – and southern Africa. Dias dropped anchor in Mossell bay and as his men filled their water barrels, they were approached by Khoe herders who were nearby. There appears to have been some sort of confrontation, stones were thrown, and when the Portuguese fired back with a cross bow, one of the Khoe herders had been killed. This was an ominous sign for future relationships. The first contact between Europeans and traditional Khoe herders ended in violence. It is not clear exactly what set this off but neither group could speak the other’s language which didn’t help. Dias sailed onwards to Algoa Bay, then satisfied he’d rounded the tip of Africa, sailed home again passing Cape point and the future location of Cape Town on the way back. As he journed home and just beyond the southern tip of Africa, Dias’ ships were hit by gale force winds and a major storm – so naturally he gave the Cape the name “Cabo de Todos los Tormentos” or Cape of Storms. When he returned to Portugal King Joåo was delighted to hear about the route, but not exactly pleased with the name - but he had a good eye for public relations and ordered it changed to “Cabo de Båo Esperanza” or Cape of Good Hope – a name which remains in use to this day. I ended last episode by explaining how name changes are a natural human compulsion and King Joao was no different.

As we heard last episode Mapungubwe emerged from the increased trade between central south Africa and the East Coast seaboard including ivory, skins and eventually, gold around 1000AD. Unlike areas of Africa further north and north west, slave trade did not impact this region for a number of reasons. The main is distance. Each mile further south from the main Arabian, Asian and European – then American centers of slavery meant was a threat to the survival of those unfortunate souls seized as slaves by intermediaries. So Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe were not crucial in the trade of humans over the centuries, their power lay in goods rather than people. We heard too how by the start of the eleventh century Mapungubwe culture had shifted from the Complex Cattle Pattern where each settlement featured a large cattle kraal in the centre – to something very different. The spatial expression of status and the greater social distance between elite and commoner was expressed through the trade and storage of valuable products that replaced cattle as items regarded as most important. While ivory had been traded for hundreds of years, gold became extremely important to the Mapungubwe people. Gold plated rhino statuettes, a bowl and scepter have been found in the grave or what we think was a royal cemetery on the Mapungubwe main settlement hilltop. In more modern Shona ethnography, the black rhino is a symbol of political power and leadership so there is some speculation that the golden rhino found in the grave pointed to an important burial site. These royal burial sites are also smothered in some thing else … thousands of gold and glass trade beads By 1000AD the first Tsotho/Tswana people and Nguni arrive - the latter following a course along the KwaZulu Natal coast.

The distinction between the eastern and well-watered part of the country with summer rainfall and good soils, and the more arid western region with its mainly winter rainfall is critical to understanding the spread of domesticated grains and livestock. Pastoralists who farmed cereals are called Agro-pastoralists and these people preferred the Eastern region with its higher rainfall. Sheep and later cattle herding pastoralists favoured the west initially. This is one of separation points in South African history because the western people never did manage to manufacture their own iron-implements they merely bartered these when required. They exchanged iron products from the Tswana and Sotho as well as the isiXhosa who were able to manufacture iron implements and weapons. Then cattle arrived in the Cape and it looks like these came from the north east with early Tswana and Bantu pastoralists. This migration accelerated along with the increased size of settlements around 1000 years ago. Remember by this time, people living in the latter part of the first millennium had already been trading constantly with the entrepots to the East, the Indian ocean ports, for generations. This trade intensified after 1000AD first with Swahili-speakers based along the seaboard from modern Mozambique and north along the East African coast where Arab and other merchants would ply their trade from Zanzibar – through to the Red Sea. The coastlines of East Africa as far South as Madagascar and of west Africa as far south as Sierra Leone were known to the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans. The East African coast had a string of Hindu settlements hundreds of years before the Christian era. Until the 4th Century AD, the Sabaean kingdom of Southern Arabia controlled the east coast of Africa.

This is episode 4 and we’re at the point where the first farmers arrived in Southern Africa 2000 years ago. AS we now know, prior to this event, there was broad cultural continuity in the hunter-gatherer groups going back another 10 000 years at least. The movement of farmers into the eastern summer rainfall areas in the first one thousand years AD took place as the climate stabilised. The ancestors of these first farmers domesticated sorghum and millet in the Sahel north of the equator and then brought their new skills southwards as they migrated. When Bantu-speaking people arrived in southern Africa they integrated at times with the local population– the San and Khoe. This is proven by the incorporation of the hunter-gatherer clicks in both Zulu and Xhosa. You don’t assimilate parts of foreign languages without adopting something of the culture. We heard last episode how important pottery has been in tracking what happened and when. On the basis of the style of pottery, three separate streams of movement into South Africa have been investigated. They’re known as the Phillipson’s Chifumbase Complex and is the research into deposits of shards of pottery that represent migrating people traveling and living from place to place on the landscape. Two of the streams have a common origin in East Africa known as the Urewe Tradition. The least controversial of the three is called the Kwale Branch linked to two distinct phases. One was the Silverleaves which dates between 250 AD to 430AD and the second, the Mzonjani between 420AD to 580AD. The pioneer phase involving these agriculturalists was centred on the coastal plains of southern Africa and many were found in present day KwaZulu Natal particularly around the Tugela River.

This episode we’re moving forward into the early stone age as it’s known and much of our story covers the period after the last ice age which ended 10 000 years ago. Prior to this the oceans had subsided as ice covered much of the world – leading to the coastline along the Indian and Atlantic seaboard of South Africa moving around one hundred kilometers out to sea beyond today’s beaches. That poses a challenge as we investigate origins of man and woman on the sub-continent. Much of the archaeological evidence is now under hundreds of feet of sea water way offshore. We do have some material inland, as well as the shellfish middens that began to appear much later in the record which allows us to piece together an increasingly accurate picture of what was going on. South Africa’s prehistory has been divided into a series of phases based on broad patterns of technology. The primary distinction is between a reliance on chipped and flaked stone implements which is referred to as the Stone Age which begins with the peolithic period 2.5 million years ago – that’s the early stone age. The middle stone age starts 150 000 years ago and ends around 30 000 BC, while the late stone age ends 2000 years ago. That is when new people arrived in South Africa who had the ability to smelt iron weapons and tools – the Iron Age had arrived with these farmers from central Africa. The first peoples of the region predated both the San and Khoe and of course we have no clear idea of their language. But we do have Mitocondrial DNA evidence and cultural artifacts. First, let’s consider Hunter-gatherers who foraged along the seashore for shells and fish, and cooked seafood over fire -the original people of this land. As there are a lot of hollowed caves along the South Eastern coastline of South Africa, many were extended and improved by the people living in them.

This is episode 2 and we’re continue our geostrophic tour around the beautiful landscape of Southern Africa after a brief geology excursion in episode 1. Like the rest of Africa south of the Sahara, the landscape features a dominant high central plateau surrounded by coastal lowlands. Any glance at a proper map will show you that. One of the more prominent features is the Great Escarpment between KwaZulu Natal and Lesotho otherwise known as the Drakensburg. That was caused by lava flows which are more resistant to weathering than conglomerates or sandstone. Most of this lava has eroded away but a small patch remains and covers much of Lesotho today. This mountainous area has a major part to play in our story, although these days South African’s are pretty disparaging about the tiny mountain kingdom. Some regard it as the tenth province. That would be an historical mistake although Lesotho is utterly dependent on South Africa for its income – but that wasn’t always the case. Consider what happened when the Boers first arrived at Basotho King Moshoeshoe’s door. The trekkers were escaping from British rule in the 1830s. The Boers bartered meat and other goods for grain from the Sotho. At that point migrating Dutch were not very good at planting or growing grains in sustainable volumes but much better at livestock management. They were more like the Khoekhoe and San – less like the Xhosa and Zulu. This fact will sit most uncomfortably with those who believe some races are somehow genetically predisposed to be more effective farmers than others. The Lesotho mountains were eroded in the south West by tributaries of the Orange River which drain the highlands away from the escarpment, making it rugged and particularly scenic landscape as the rivers head off to the Atlantic Ocean. These mountains can rise to ten thousand feet with the highest peak of Thabana Ntlenyana at 11 500 feet.

This is episode one of what is going to be a fairly lengthy series which by could extend over more than three years as we burrow deeply into a truly unique part of planet earth. Each podcast will take around 20 minutes and at times I’ll be drawing on guests to provide expertise. Just a note of thanks to one of the most unique and informed people I’ve ever met – apart from my wife of course!! Through the academic year of 2000 and 2001 I was fortunate to attend a series of lectures at Harvard University delivered by the remarkable Professor John Stilgoe who is the Robert and Lois Orchard Professor in the History of Landscape Development. Just to give you some idea about how erudite and informed he is – John was the youngest tenured professor ever at Harvard at age 24. His understanding of historical connections through a broad array of sources and his factual precision was life-changing. I dedicate this series to John Stilgoe thank you for those 2 hour lecturers that kept me enthralled with your sophisticated idiosyncratic presentation style and facts which remain with me for the rest of my life. So to the topic – In this episode will begin with pre-history where we understand that humans are merely a recent layer of mammal on top of ancient rocky outcrops. Parts of South Africa feature some of the oldest rocks you will find anywhere on the planet. And the oldest rocks bequeath the greatest wealth and southern Africa is especially well endowed. 2 billion years ago volcanic spasms squeezed magma through the crust and laid it down – an island of solid rock 400 kilometers long and 10 kilometres thick. It was one piece. This is crucial to understand what treasures it containes and have been tapped by Africans and then Europeans.