Desmond Latham
75 episodes listed below
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A series that seeks to tell the story of the South Africa in some depth. Presented by experienced broadcaster/podcaster Des Latham and updated weekly, the episodes will take a listener through the various epochs that have made up the story of South Africa.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Des Latham connects military action, political calculation and economic change in a detailed narrative of South Africa's past.
Des Latham tells South Africa's past as a connected narrative, keeping battlefield decisions, imperial policy and material life in the same frame.
At Isandlwana, warriors watch gunners step aside; you see a battle's deadly learning curve.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A campaign story where loyalty, betrayal, and battlefield pressure all close in at once.
Cornelius Vane gives the episode its most grounded thread. Born in Holland, he arrives in Natal as a young man, then moves from protected letter-writer to agent and spy when Tlechwayo calls him back to compose another message. That shift gives the history a person-sized center.
Frontier warfare, bad judgment, and one prince who treats reconnaissance like a dare.
This episode stays close to the uneasy frontier around Wackensturm and the second British push into Zululand, where local knowledge, scouting, and Zulu movement keep changing the shape of the advance.
A grounded battlefield account of intelligence, difficult terrain, and imperial confidence at Gingindlovu.
The episode tracks the British campaign in Zululand as patriotic confidence gives way to unease. Pearson's column has been shut up for nearly two months, Chelmsford's judgment is under pressure, and the march toward Gingindlovu is shaped by ground that resists easy reading: long…
Kimberley becomes a compact lens on racial law, Black labor, and Cecil Rhodes's hardening ambitions.
Kimberley comes through as more than a diamond boomtown: a charged political landscape where racial law, Black labor, and Cecil Rhodes's ambitions converge.
Bad timing, confused movement, and terrain that leaves little room for error.
Battle of Shlobani reads as a study in bad timing, confused movement, and ground that punishes any misread. The episode is strongest when it slows down for Middeldrift, then follows the advance toward Llobani with Chelmsford, Buller, Wood, Russell, and Weatherly in view.
A dismissed gunshot and a quiet Zulu advance show how fast a British camp could fall.
Episode 261 tracks the Zulu War through the Tombi River massacre and Prince Hamu's defection, showing how pressure turns small judgments into disaster. At the British camp, slope, wet weather and mist narrow what the sentries can see, while Moriarty dismisses a shot at 3:30 a.m.
A broad 1879 survey of South African transport, early retail change, standard time, and military danger.
South Africa before 1880 comes through as a place organized by movement. Oxwagons haul wool, food, and mining equipment over rough tracks, while transport riders link farms, military posts, markets, and the interior.
A brisk history of tracks, railways, standard time, Woolworth, and a vulnerable British column.
South Africa before 1880 comes through as a story of movement: oxwagons and horse-drawn vehicles tracing repeated tracks between farms, military posts, markets, and outspans.
Phoebe Judge narrates true crime history and interviews the authors who uncovered it.
Dramatized deep dives into American history, from the Galveston hurricane to Harper Lee's Mockingbird.
Dana Schwartz narrates the violent lives of monarchs, warlords, and queens.
Tracy Wilson and Holly Frey narrate overlooked history, from Courbet's realism to IUD regulation.
Mike Duncan narrates Rome's full history solo, from Aeneas to Romulus Augustulus's exile in 476.
The British are reeling from the defeat at Usandlawan, and the episode follows their movement west toward the Mzinyati River and Rorke’s Drift.
Episode 249 sets up the invasion of Zululand as a campaign assembled piece by piece over the preceding months.
History of South Africa podcast episode 248, "The Eagle and Four Hawks: The Making of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879," traces how a border dispute around Utrecht, Pongola, and the Tugela moved toward war by January 1879.
This episode segment introduces Thomas Bain, a key South African road engineer in the 19th century, highlighting his contributions to building mountain passes and roads, his family background, and the historical context of road construction in South Africa.
The campaign begins in imperial politics.
This episode covers the Basutoland Gun War and its context within British imperial conflicts in South Africa.
This episode explores the political links between Irish nationalism and Boer resistance to British rule in late 19th-century South Africa.
Episode 269 explores Bapedi Chief Sikokuni's fate and the Afrikaner paradox, delving into Bapedi spiritual concepts like Moya and Sariti.
Cornelius Vane rides into Zululand with trade goods and poor timing.
Des Latham begins in 1879.
This episode explores the Anglo-Zulu War, focusing on John Dunn's role as a British intelligence chief and the Battle of Gingindlovu.
Episode 264 examines the Battle of Khambula (29 March 1879), the decisive engagement of the Anglo-Zulu War in which British forces under Colonel Evelyn Wood repulsed a massive Zulu assault led by Chief Ntshingwayo kaMahole, breaking Zulu offensive capability for the remainder of the war.
This episode explores how Cecil Rhodes launched his political career in 1870s South Africa, focusing on the diamond town of Kimberley where racial segregation, political corruption, and frontier lawlessness created the conditions for his rise.
The episode traces the Battle of Shlobani from failed peace overtures to the reckoning at Devil's Pass.
This episode explores South Africa's pre-1880 transport evolution, from oxwagons shaping towns and roads to the rise of railways driven by diamond discoveries.
This episode explores transportation in South Africa before 1880, focusing on how oxwagons shaped settlement patterns and town layouts, then traces the transition to steam railways.
Dabulamanzi leads the Zulu reserve across the Imzinyati River toward Rorke’s Drift.
The war has already tilted at Asandluwana.
Des Latham delivers a masterful blow-by-blow account of the Battle of Isandlwana on January 22, 1879, where 20,000 Zulu warriors overwhelmed a British column of 1,400 troops.
Episode 253 of the History of South Africa podcast covers the order of battle before the battles of Isandlwana and Inyezane on January 22, 1879.
This episode details the events leading up to the Battle of Isandlwana in January 1879, focusing on Lord Chelmsford's strategic decisions, intelligence failures, and the Zulu army's movements.
The British invasion of Zululand is in its first week.
Episode 250 opens with the British advance into Zululand and the rocky country around Sihayo's homestead at Kwaso Khetle.
This episode details the diplomatic breakdown and betrayal that led to the Anglo-Zulu War, focusing on British official Sir Theophilus Shepston's shocking reversal at the Conference Hill meeting and High Commissioner Bartle Frere's determined push for conflict, despite Zulu King Cetshwayo's efforts to avoid war.
This episode explores the complex causes of the Anglo-Zulu War, focusing on Zulu King Kechwayo's internal struggles with marriage laws and female bodyguards, while Cape Governor Sir Bartle Freer's imperial ambitions and the British colonial pattern of warfare created external pressures.
Sir Bartle Freer arrives in South Africa with a reputation forged in India and a mandate to force confederation.
This episode explores the 1877 British annexation of the Transvaal Republic, focusing on the political machinations in London and South Africa, the secret mission led by Theophilus Shepstone, and the surprising role of young adventure author H.
Des Latham starts with merchant traders, Natal plantations, African farmers, and the Harry Smith Sour Felt land swindler.
This episode explores the technological and economic challenges facing South Africa's diamond miners in the mid-1870s, as they transition from surface digging to industrial mining.
Des Latham shifts the lens north and frames Carnarvon’s confederation drive as part of a broader imperial debate.
This episode chronicles the destruction of the Amahlubi and Amaingwe peoples in 1873-74 Natal, South Africa, after Chief Langalibalele fled British forces through Bushman's River Pass.
This episode covers the shift in power among the Xhosa and the arrival of the English in South Africa at the end of the 18th century.
Episode 40 covers the Second Frontier War, focusing on the conflict between Trekboers, Xhosa, and Khoikhoi on the Cape frontier in the 1790s.
This episode profiles Quinran de Base, a legendary 18th-century trekboer rebel who lived among Khoi and Xhosa people, challenging both colonial and nationalist narratives.
Episode 38 covers the first war between the Amakosa and settlers in 1781, detailing alliances, raids, and escalating tensions on the South African frontier.
This episode explores the complex land conflicts and cultural misunderstandings among Xhosa, Khoi Khoi, San, and Trekpua groups in late 18th century South Africa.
This episode covers the expansion of the Cape Colony under Governor Simon van der Stel from 1679 to 1700, including the founding of new towns and the VOC's colonization efforts.
This episode covers the early years of the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, focusing on interactions with the Khoi Khoi people and Jan van Riebeeck's challenges.