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571 records
ArticleMatabele Wars 1836-1896
The reign of Mzilikazi Under the leadership of Mzilikazi, the people who came to be called the Ndebele in Zimbabwe (originally of the Khumalo clan) broke away…
ArticleKingdoms of southern Africa: Great Zimbabwe
Where is Great Zimbabwe? The Great Zimbabwe ruins date from the Iron Age and lie between the Limpopo and Zambezi Rivers in the Limpopo Province east of the…
ArticleDutch settlement, the Indian Ocean slave trade and slavery at the Cape - seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
… but small uprisings of slaves took place in the early 1800s, when the Cape was under British rule. Slavery was …
ArticleZulu
… history was the arrival of Europeans in Natal. By the late 1800s, British troops had invaded Zulu territory and divided …
ArchiveAll That Glitters - ’The rock on which the future will be built’ by Emilia Potenza
From the book: All That Glitters by Emilia PotenzaUp to the 1860s the economy of South Africa was based on agriculture and trade. Then the discovery of…
ArticleEuropean missionaries in southern Africa: the role of the missionaries
"Without doubt it is a far more costly thing to kill the (indigenous population) than to Christianise them." (Warneck 1888) European missionaries to…
PlaceSea Point
… as a residential suburb for European settlers in the early 1800s, and in 1839 was joined into one municipality with …
BiographyWilliam Henry Beaumont
William Henry Beaumont was born in India on 24 February 1851. His father was a Lieutenant Colonel of the 23rd Madras Light Infantry. Beaumont attended…
ArticleTimeline — Land Dispossession and Restitution in South Africa - 1995-2013
… communities were forcibly removed from their lands in the 1800s. November, More than 1 000 members of the South African …
PlaceCabo Verde
… when the ships returned home. The last 50 years of the 1800s was a period of decline for Cape Verde. By the 1840s …
ArticlePedi & Anglo-Pedi Wars 1876-1879
The largest North-Sotho language group in South Africa are the Bapedi group, who arrived in the northern province around the 1650s, and became powerful after…
PlaceValley of a Thousand Hills
… those who would not bow to his authority. In the early 1800s, English settlers arrived in Durban , which was then …
PlaceCarletonville
… of caves occupied by the ' Kwena people'' in the early 1800s. 'Lepalong' is a Tswana name, recounted in oral records …
PlaceEswatini (formerly Swaziland)
… ended in 1868, the Swazi nation was secure. During the 1800s European settlers, traders, missionaries and hunters …
ArticleThe Empire of Mali (1230-1600)
The Empire of Mali was one of the largest empires in West African History, and at its height, it spanned from the Atlantic Coast to central parts of the Sahara…
ArticleNdebele
The four major ethnic divisions among Black South Africans are the Nguni, Sotho, Shangaan-Tsonga and Venda. The Nguni represent nearly two thirds of South…
BiographyJosiah Tshangana Gumede
Josiah Tshangana Gumede was born on 9th October 1867 in Healdtown Village, Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape. His father, John Gumede, and his mother were…
ArticleNdebele architecture and settlement patterns
Glossary of Ndebele building terms APOKORWAN - Eaves overhang AMAKAPA - Roof AMAKAPA IBALELO - Timber roof rafter AMAOBA - Enclosed room located in the…
ArticleThe Linton Panel & the San language
Very little is known about the languages of South Africa's San people, as most of these beautiful, ancient languages were never recorded. Fortunately, the /Xam…
Community histories of Rustenburg
Afrikaans Community (1838-1899) The First White Inhabitants It is documented that the first pioneers from the Eastern Cape undertook a hunting expedition…
BiographyBartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias, also spelt: Bartholomew Diaz. He was a Portuguese navigator whose discovery in 1488 of the Cape of Good Hope showed Europeans there was a…
ArticleEuropean trading systems in the Middle Ages - fourteenth to sixteenth centuries
Expanding European frontiers The Trek Boers, with their servants and slaves, move inland From the late 1600s and into the 1700s, the Cape settlers moved…
ArticleHistory Grade 11 - Topic 3 Contextual Overview
… Diseases and colonial policies that began in the late 1800s decimated the population of about 1 million Aboriginal …
EventThe Dutch East India Company decides to send French Huguenot refugees to the Cape
On 3 October 1685 the Dutch East India Company in Amsterdam decided to send French Huguenot refugees to the Cape for settlement. The Huguenots were French…
ArticleSonghai, African Empire, 15-16th Century
Overview, West Africa and the rise of the Songhai Empire West Africa is home to many of Africa's oldest kingdoms. These kingdoms played an important role in…
BiographyJohannes Henricus Brand
Johannes Henricus Brand was the president of the Orange Free State, one of two Boer republics formed after the Boers left the Cape Colony in the Great Trek. He…
EventKing Leopold II of Belgium hands over the administration of the Congo to the Belgian parliament
From the beginning of colonialism in the 1880s following the 'scramble for Africa', the Congo had been regarded as Leopold II's personal fiefdom. Leopold's…
BiographyDr Somalingum (Leslie) Ponnusamy
Dr Somalingum (Leslie) Ponnusamy was born in Durban on 1 September 1958. He was the youngest of four sons. The family resided in Sea Cow Lake and later…
EventThe first cable connection between SA and Europe is launched
On 31 July 1879, the first cable connection between South Africa and Europe, via Aden, was launched. It was laid by the British electrical engineer Charles…
PlaceAthenaeum building, Belmont Terrace, Port Elizabeth
The building dates from the late Victorian period and has impressive neo-Classical elements. Its two sections were opened in 1896 and 1901 respectively, and it…