Special Report Transcript Episode 16, Section 2, Time 02:25

The British however cottoned on to the Cape’s strategic importance and for many years the Cape colony was tossed between the two colonial powers. The free burghers’ disenchantment with the colonial powers caused them to trek further east, where they first encountered and later clashed with the Xhosa people. The eighteenth century saw one of the greatest social upheavals in the history of southern Africa: The reign of King Shaka, who conquered and assimilated many tribes to form the Zulu nation. With the arrivals of the 1820 British settlers the trek Boers soon felt that once again their freedom was compromised by the colonial government. When the government freed the slaves in 1834 it was the last straw. // Piet Retief and others loaded their wagons and started the ”Great Trek” north. They repeatedly clashed with the African tribes they met along their way. ‘Die Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek’ and the ‘Republiek van de Oranje Vrystaat’ were established in the mid 1800s. In the late 1800s diamonds were discovered in Kimberley and gold on the Witwatersrand. Britain wanted the riches now in the hands of the Boer republics; it was time to hoist the Union Jack over the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The Boers disagreed. On 11 October 1899 the South African Republic and the Orange Free State were at war with the British Empire. The Boers were devastated, in spite of a legendary and heroic effort. They suffered their greatest losses in British concentration camps where 27 000 Afrikaner women and children died. Peace was signed in Vereeniging on 31 May 1902. // The active Union in 1910 brought the two Boer republics and the Cape and Natal colonies together under one flag.

Notes: Illustrations: Cape colony; Colonial illustrations of Xhosa people, King Shaka; Official document: Abolition of slavery; Illustration: Clashes; Film footage: Kimberley, Jo’burg at the time; Photos: Anglo-Boer war; Graveyard; Memorial; Historical photos: 1910 Union inauguration ceremony

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