Podcast
The Story of South Africa: Empire, Apartheid, and Transformation — Fexingo History
Episodes — page 12
Diamonds and Division: The Kimberley Diggings and South African CapitalismBefore gold transformed the Witwatersrand, diamonds changed everything in South Africa. This episode follows the story of the Kimberley diamond fields, from the 1867 discovery of t…
- The 1948 Election That Brought Apartheid to Power
In 1948, South Africa held a national election that would reshape the country for decades. This episode dives into the surprising victory of D.F. Malan's Herenigde Nasionale Party,…
- The 1976 Soweto Uprising: Students Who Defied Apartheid
On June 16, 1976, thousands of black students in Soweto took to the streets to protest the imposition of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in their schools. The peaceful march…
- The 1879 Zulu Civil War: Cetshwayo, Usibepu, and the British Divide
After the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, the British carved up the Zulu kingdom into 13 chiefdoms, setting off a brutal civil war. This episode follows the deposed King Cetshwayo's desper…
- The 1913 Natives Land Act: How South Africa's Spatial Apartheid Began
In 1913, four decades before formal apartheid, South Africa's newly unified parliament passed the Natives Land Act — a single piece of legislation that tore millions from their lan…
- Mpondo Revolt: The Last Anti-Apartheid Uprising of the 1960s
In 1960, as South Africa's anti-apartheid movement faced severe state repression after Sharpeville, a rural rebellion erupted in the distant Transkei region. The Mpondo Revolt was…
- The Great Trek: Voortrekkers, Massacre, and a New Nation
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Great Trek, the mass migration of Dutch-speaking Boers from the Cape Colony into the interior of South Africa in the 1830s and 1840s. We…
- The 1946 Mine Strike: Black Workers vs Apartheid Before Apartheid
They called it the Rand Autumn Rebellion. In August 1946, over 100,000 black mineworkers walked off the job across the Witwatersrand goldfields, defying the African Mine Workers' U…
- The First Boer War: Majuba Hill and the British Defeat
In Episode 41 of The Story of South Africa, Lucas and Luna explore the First Anglo-Boer War (1880–1881), a brief but decisive conflict that saw a ragtag Boer commando humiliate the…
- Mfecane: The Cataclysms That Reshaped Southern Africa
In the early 19th century, a series of wars and migrations known as the Mfecane (or Difaqane) transformed southern Africa. Lucas and Luna explore this turbulent period, which saw t…
- The Rise of Inkosi Zwangendaba and the Ngoni Migration
In the 1820s, as Shaka's Zulu kingdom rose in the southeast, a lesser-known chieftain named Zwangendaba led a splinter group of the Ngoni people on an epic migration north. Over th…
- The Cape Town Water Crisis: Drought, Inequality, and Day Zero
In 2018, Cape Town teetered on the edge of becoming the first major city in the world to run out of water. This episode tells the story of 'Day Zero' — not just a technological cri…
- Treason Trial of 1956: 156 Arrested, a Nation on Trial
In December 1956, South African police raided homes and offices across the country, arresting 156 people – activists, lawyers, teachers, and leaders of the African National Congres…
- The Cape Malay: Islam, Slavery, and Forging a Community
Long before apartheid, a community took shape in the shadows of Table Mountain. In this episode, Lucas and Luna trace the story of the Cape Malay—a people forged from slavery, exil…
- The Soweto Uprising: Students Against Apartheid
In this episode of The Story of South Africa: Empire, Apartheid, and Transformation, Lucas and Luna explore the Soweto Uprising of June 16, 1976. They discuss the immediate trigger…
- The Truth and Reconciliation Commission South Africa
In 1995, a newly democratic South Africa faced an impossible question: how to reckon with the crimes of apartheid without tearing itself apart. The answer was the Truth and Reconci…
- The Bambatha Rebellion: South Africa's Last Uprising of the Spear
In 1906, the British colony of Natal faced a rebellion that would become a pivotal moment in South African history. This episode explores the Bambatha Rebellion, an uprising led by…
- The Battle of Blaauwberg: How South Africa Became British
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806, a pivotal but often overlooked conflict that sealed British control over the Cape Colony. They discuss the…
- The Boer War Siege of Mafeking: Baden-Powell and Mythmaking
When the Boer War broke out in October 1899, the British Empire expected a quick victory. Instead, they found themselves besieged in a dusty railway town on the edge of the Kalahar…
- The Cape Frontier Wars: Xhosa Resistance and Colonial Expansion
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Cape Frontier Wars, a series of nine conflicts between the Xhosa people and European colonists that shaped the eastern frontier of the C…
