This two-part presentation Lecturer Magdalena Therrien recounts the fascinating story of South Africa, from its humble beginnings supplying ships going to Asia to the deadly and deceitful events of the Anglo-Boer War at the beginning of the 20th Century. From the settling of the Cape Colony by the staunch Calvinist Dutch to Winston Churchill’s early career to Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden,” to the stoic and stubborn anti-Uitlander attitude of the Dutch Boer population – this story has it all.

You will learn how John Ruskin’s, Cecil Rhodes,’ and Lord Alfred Milner’s scorched-earth “New Imperialism” set the stage for concentration camps and the racist system of apartheid in South Africa that this resilient nation is still trying to overcome in the 21st century.

The importance of this topic cannot be over-stated as it was truly a Vietnam war of the day which altered the course of world history and saw the largest force of re-structuring of the British Empire under an insidious cult that became known as ‘The Rhodes Trust’.

Speaker Bio: Magdalena Therrien is a retired elementary teacher, is an avid rock collector and curious pursuer of causes of historical events.