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Secret History

Secret History

By: Matthew Blackman
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About this listen

Historians Matthew Blackman and Nick Dall investigate fascinating, forgotten, and misunderstood histories from the margins. With a focus on Africa, they explore the intriguing personalties and events that shaped our history — stories that have been either omitted or suppressed from the mainstream historical record.


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Episodes
  • Rhodes, Populism and the Election that Changed the World

    Rhodes, Populism and the Election that Changed the World
    Apr 25 2024
    The multi-racial 1898 election in the Cape Colony was the most factional in its history. What was more, it was an election that found the mining magnate and self-professed racist, Cecil John Rhodes, prostrating himself before an entirely black audience. But just why he ended up at this meeting near Kimberley, accusing the black newspaper editor John Tengo Jabavu of ‘Krugerism’, is a highly complex colonial story.

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    47 mins
  • Bonus on Pickled Fish, Brutalism and a Dog

    Bonus on Pickled Fish, Brutalism and a Dog
    Apr 18 2024
    In this week's episode Nick and Matthew chat about three fascinating - but entirely unrelated - topics. You'll find out why Cape Christians and Muslims all eat pickled fish over Easter. How a brutalist masterpiece came to be in Durban's port - and why it's on the verge of being torn down. And finally, you'll learn about the life and times of Just Nuisance, the first dog ever to be enlisted in the Royal Navy.

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    30 mins
  • Yonge and Corrupt at Heart

    Yonge and Corrupt at Heart
    Apr 11 2024
    Sir George Yonge - aka The Lofty Twaddler - was so flagrantly (and hopelessly) corrupt, that he lasted little more than a year as Governor of the Cape Colony. But while there is much comedy in his actions (he was surprised when the Dutch objected to him doubling the tax on brandy, for example) Yonge also had a dark side: he was fired because of his involvement in a slave smuggling ring.

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    45 mins
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