History of South Africa - Episode I: The Beginning!

South Africa has been a place of great importance, great tragedy, and global consequence from the moment the outside world began to set itself upon it. Episode I tells us how Europe first came upon it, and how they just couldn't get themselves to leave it alone.

[nable]

"So South Africa really all begins with Portugal in 1415." I am out with that one!

[ChefOrelleYoung]

The Dubai video brought me here, I truly love this channel. I’m planning on visiting South Africa in August.

[MalkaMoon]

They dont even teach this part of history in the school of my country anymore. This is a great video. Much love, from South Africa! <3

[transcribemusic]

If you're really looking for a historical narrative on South Africa, do NOT watch this!

No offense, but this video is the very definition of Eurocentrism. Apart from terrible overgeneralizations and misconceptions (what has started in the 15th century can hardly be called what you and many of our history teachers in school labelled »Age of Discovery« - South Africa was already there, the Europeans didn't "discover" it; the word "discover" itself implies your Eurocentric perspective). In fact, the history of the Southern part of the African continent (the current South African borders haven't been there when Bartolomeo Diaz or Jan van Riebeeck arrived!) is probably far older than the European one. Plenty of archeological research has been done proving that traces of humankind can be dated back to the very time of hominisation. Saying that "it all began in Portugal" implies that the peoples of South Africa didn't have any kind of culture worth mentioning and what is probably worse, it implies that it took European colonists to get one.

[jjshaw]

This is the most underrated channel on youtube. You deserve way more subscribers!

[darrylkeith]

*European's History of South Africa

[SuperSouljahBoy]

As we would say in South Africa, what kak is this?!

[dawoodwilliams]

episode 2 should focus on the bantu expansion, the establishment of Boer Republics and the Zulu empire and the wars that followed.

[waqkiidthemangaandanimekid]

And the history of South Africa does not start in Portugal...they are just the first Europeans to land here

[tselisomolukanele]

But South Africa history doesn't start in Portugal! What non sense is that?

[rykheer]

@Michael Beach, Thanks for doing the work to put something together that aims to re-cap very broadly a review of SA history. I want to point out to visitors completely unfamiliar with the history, that several very key elements are missing though - Despite acknowledging that this is only a high-level summation. Missing elements speaks to motivations and driving powers and true nature of groups and characters in the full historical storyline. I don't believe it serves to capture the character of the SA people themselves, but the video does achieve enough context and overview to provide points of history to further build knowledge from. I regard this stil as an insightful singular view of an SA historical perspective. Well done for doing it.

[lmc]

I don't think I've ever been put off by a documentary in the very first sentence before. "the history of South Africa actually begins in Portugal."

[emmanuelsithagu]

I thought this was a history about South Africa!

[tutukanizungu]

What an excellent history teller...Good job Michael! 💯

[casperjohannesjakobuslabus]

Hi Michael, great video! Would it be possible for you to do Episode 2 or 3 even? Me being a South African found this extremely interesting, and I do believe South Africa is a very complex case study. Cheers!

[HowToWatchMovies]

Hey, that’s where I live!! Do the rest of it! History in South Africa is so darn gloomy. The cutesy animation takes the sting out of it.

[MrNardusdutoit]

I liked this video. These historical facts place South Africa apart on the continent and are worth noting. It produced a rich and colorful history that is fascinating and exiting. Apart from the political powers of the time, many European’s fled persecution in Europe resorting to the Cape as “European slaves”, suffering under the powers of that time, as modern day emigrants meet foreign labor demands. Reference to the “Dutch” South Africans omit societies of French, German and Portuguese who emigrated to South Africa escaping persecution. Many did succumb to hunger and suffering under ‘Machiavellian Governance’ of the time. The European community in SA was liberating as it constituted a great portion of other European communities apart from only the Dutch, removing the ‘Racial Stereotyping’ in practice. Thus, historically the country was not ‘Colonized’ to the extend to which other countries were, rather it was pollinated with rich culture that played an important role in resisting English colonization centuries later. With no intent to cause resentment (sometimes a sensitive topics) or blame but purely constructive reference of history; European South African population declined at the hands of English concentration camps which declined the future European population in South Africa, consequently restricting the capacity for future ‘Democracy’ and meritocracy. Followed by the world depression and immense Anti-European agenda’s under Cecil John Rhodes laid foundations for the advocacy that followed. The countries history has been controversial ever since contributing to torn society of date. Western and Eastern powers played their part in the times to follow; the US in their fight against ‘Communism’ in the 1975’s, imposing the controversial arrests of political opponents and a war against Angola with detrimental long term consequences for SA and modern day history experience Chinese Neo-colonization and African nepotism. A stable country polarized by continuous political calamity which seem to make its round every 50 years or so.

[goodafy]

King Gumede KaZulu of 1330 Zululand,
KhoiKhoi and khoisan hunters and farmers on the cape scrublands, their culture, food, political system, marriage rights are the earliest history of area known today as South Africa.
I am shocked that in 2019, people still have European propaganda about Africa as true representation of facts.
9minutes video on South Africa history, 1st 2.5minutes is about Portugal and Spain.
Otolo...

[rochellesmal]

The visuals on this is kinda misleading, by the end it makes it look like the Dutch & French had conquered the Xhosa and Sotho people and where on the doorstep of the Zulu people, while in reality they hadn't made contact yet. The upper right bit of the final visual(where the date displays 1814) of south Africa looks like the British Cape colony is on top of Lesotho which would be very inaccurate as they were neither conquered by the Dutch or the Zulu and thus is the reason it is still an independent country today.

[jcb]

Great video! There is a brilliant Dutch book covering a Dutch 18th century explorer who lived in Capetown and made several expeditions into the heartland. He came across some wild stuff there, like a guy who inherited land on the border of company and local territory and simply proclaimed his own kingdom.
If there are any dutch here, the book is called "Een Nederlander in de Wildernis." A must read for anyone interested in this kinda stuff.