Barnabas: Makhanda, South Africa

26 x 19.5 narrative

The first thing I noticed when I arrived in the then Grahamstown in 2018 was the deplorable state of the roads. The potholes remind me of the bad state of the roads in Zimbabwe, where the nation’s leadership has the audacity to rename the roads without fixing them, just as Grahamstown was renamed Makhanda towards the end of 2018.

Barnabas: High Street, Makhanda, South Africa

22.5 x 17 narrative

Makhanda’s central business district is marked by High Street, which is quite wide. That street reminds me of the streets of Bulawayo, which is Zimbabwe’s second capital. In building Bulawayo, the early British settlers made wide roads to accommodate U-turns for their horse-drawn wagons. Nicknamed the City of Kings and Queens, Bulawayo was established as the nation’s industrial hub, and I lived there for two years.

Barnabas: Salisbury House, Makhanda, South Africa

20 x 15 narrative

There is a building called Salisbury House at Rhodes University. While I am not privy to its history, its name always reminds me of Salisbury, the old colonial name for Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare. Interestingly, Zimbabwe was previously named Rhodesia after the British arch-imperialist Cecil John Rhodes, whose name the university is also named after.