Makhanda, South Africa

Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Municipality, and the seat of the municipal council. It also hosts Rhodes University, the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court, the South African Library for the Blind, a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and 6 South African Infantry Battalion. Furthermore, located approximately 3 km south-east of the town lies Waterloo Farm, the only estuarine fossil site in the world from 360 million years ago with exceptional soft-tissue preservation.
The town's official name-change from Grahamstown to Makhanda was officially on 29 June 2018. The new name of Makhanda was chosen in memory of Xhosa warrior and prophet Makhanda ka Nxele.
In 2025, the city was listed as the country's worst-performing municipality, with levels of infrastructural collapse, and the South African Human Rights Commission began investigating service delivery failures in the ANC-run municipality.

History

Founding

Grahamstown was founded in 1812 after the Fourth Xhosa War as a military outpost by Lieutenant-Colonel John Graham as part of a campaign to secure the Eastern frontier of the Cape Colony. Initially Colonel Graham decided to establish his headquarters on the loan farm Noutoe, now known as Table Farm, but at the recommendation of Ensign Andries Stockenstrom it was moved to the homestead of the loan farm De Rietfontein, belonging to Lucas Meyer. Construction on the new headquarters, located on the site of the present Church Square, thus began in June 1812.
As part of the campaign, Graham was ordered to clear 20,000 Xhosa living in the region led by Ndlambe ka Rharhabe from the Zuurveld. During the campaign, which formed part of the Xhosa Wars, Graham ordered the adoption of numerous scorched earth tactics, which included the burnings of Xhosa farms. By 1812, Graham had completed his assignment, and transformed Grahamstown into the central military outpost in the region.

Battle of Grahamstown

On 22 April 1819, a large number of Xhosa warriors, under the leadership of Nxele, launched an attack against the British garrison stationed at Grahamstown. The Xhosas had warned Colonel Willshire, the commanding officer, of their planned attack on the settlement. It was one of countless attacks launched on the nascent colony by the Xhosas. During the course of the battle, the British were running low on ammunition. The Xhosas, with a force of 10,000 troops under the overall command of Ndlambe's warrior son, Mdushane, were unable to overpower the garrison of some 300 men. Nxele surrendered and was taken captive and imprisoned on Robben Island. On Christmas Day in 1819, he tried to escape but drowned in the attempt.

Growth

Grahamstown grew during the 1820s, as many 1820 Settlers and their families left farming to establish themselves in more secure trades. In 1833, Grahamstown was described as having "two or three English merchants of considerable wealth, but scarcely any society in the ordinary sense of the word. The Public Library is a wretched affair". As of 1833, it was estimated that the population of Grahamstown was approximately 6,000. In a few decades it became the Cape Colony's largest town after Cape Town. It became a bishopric in 1852. It was traditionally the capital and cultural centre of the Albany area, a district that was traditionally English-speaking and had a distinctive local culture.
In 1872, the Cape Government Railways began construction of the railway line linking Grahamstown to Port Alfred on the coast and to the developing national railway network inland. It was completed and opened on 3 September 1879.
Grahamstown grew rapidly to become the second-largest city in South Africa after Cape Town until 1930. The early 1860s saw the development of more schools, the botanical gardens, and the Eastern District Supreme Court was established. In 1864, a full parliamentary session was held in Grahamstown, instead of Cape Town. There was talk of making Grahamstown the capital of the Cape Colony because of its central position. Grahamstown was the location of the testing of the first diamond find by Henry Carter Galpin.
In 1904, Rhodes University College was established in Grahamstown through a grant from the Rhodes Trust. In 1951 it became a fully-fledged University, Rhodes University.

Name change

The name "Grahamstown" originated from the Cape Hottentot Corps in the Zuurveld's Commander of the Regiment, Colonel John Graham, who, in June 1812, oversaw the construction on the corps' new headquarters, located on the site of the present Church Square. Grahamstown went on to become a religious, military, administrative, judicial, and educational centre for the surrounding region of Albany.
Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa announced the name change from Grahamstown in the Government Gazette No. 641 of 29 June 2018. The purpose of gazetting was to publicise the minister's decision for objections or comments by 28 July 2018.
Prompted by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendation that geographic features, including geographical names, be renamed as a "symbolic reparation to address an unjust past", a proposal was for the town to be renamed after Makhanda, in recognition of his failed attack against the settlement's garrison in 1819. On 2 October 2018, Grahamstown was officially renamed Makhanda. Both names are used.

Religion

is the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Grahamstown. The town also has Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Ethiopian Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist, Pinkster Protestante, Dutch Reformed, Charismatic, Apostolic and Pentecostal churches. There are also meeting places for Hindus, Scientologists, Quakers, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Muslims.
The city is home to more than forty religious buildings and is nicknamed the "City of Saints". According to one story recorded by H. V. Morton, The town earned its nickname from Royal Engineers stationed in Grahamstown in 1846 who were in need of building tools. They sent a message to Cape Town requesting a vice to be forwarded to them from the Ordnance Stores. A reply came back, 'Buy vice locally'. The response was, "No vice in Grahamstown".

Demographics

According to the 2011 census the population of the town was 67,264, of whom 78.9% described themselves as "Black African", 11.3% as "Coloured" and 8.4% as "White". Since 1994, there has been a considerable influx of black people from the former Ciskei Xhosa homeland, which lies just to the east. The first language of 72.2% of the population is Xhosa, while 13.7% speak Afrikaans and 10.8% speak English.

Education, arts and culture

The town is home to Rhodes University, the South African National Library for the Blind, the National English Literary Museum, the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, the International Library of African Music, the Albany Museum, and the Institute for the Study of English in Africa. A number of palaeontological discoveries made from Waterloo Farm in the past two decades have sparked a global interest in the fossils of the Eastern Cape Province and this has resulted in numerous international collaborations. These discoveries and collaborations have been made possible by the persistent work of Robert W. Gess of the Devonian Ecosystem Laboratory, Albany Museum, who has dedicated most of his life excavating and studying blocks of black shale that he, with later support from the South African Roads Agency Limited has rescued from road cuttings from back in the mid- 1980s.
The legacy of disparate education during Apartheid still echoes in the provision of secondary education in this former frontier town, where significant discrepancies in matric pass rates and general quality of education exist. Addressing this problem is one of the town's greatest challenges.
In March 1984, the City of Grahamstown adopted a flag, one of six designs prepared by heraldic expert Prof. Hugh Smith, of Rhodes University.

Clock towers in the town

The following is a list of tower clocks in the town, with their location and if they are in working order:

St Michael and St George Cathedral, in working order,
City Hall, not in working order,
Rhodes University, in working order,
High Court, not in working order,
Dutch Reformed Church, in working order,
Observatory Museum, not in working order,
St. Andrew's College, in working order,
Kingswood College chapel, in working order,
Festivals

Two large festivals take place annually in the town: the National Arts Festival in June/July and SciFest Africa in the first term of the year and attracts some 50,000 people. The National Arts Festival is the largest Arts festival in Africa and sees some of the leading talent on the South African and international art scene arriving in the town for a celebration of culture and artistic expression. South Africa's National Science Festival, was established in 1996 to promote the public awareness, understanding and appreciation of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and innovation. The town is also host to the Puku Story Festival since 2013 presented by the Puku Children's Literature Foundation. The festival was created in partnership with the National Arts Festival and the African Studies Department at Rhodes University with the aim to facilitate access to literature and educational/recreational materials in Xhosa.

Schools

School	Year Founded	Denomination	Language	Grades	Gender	Private/Public
St Andrew's College	1855	Anglican	English	8–12	Single sex male	Private
Graeme College	1873	Non-denominational	English	0–12	Single sex male	Public
Diocesan School for Girls	1874	Anglican	English	4–12	Single sex female	Private
St Aidan's College	1876	Jesuit	English	?–12	Single sex male	Private
St. Andrew's Preparatory School	1885	Anglican	English	0–7	Single sex male	Private
Good Shepherd School	1884	Anglican	English	1–7	co-educational	Private/public partnership
Kingswood College	1894	Methodist	English	0–12	Co-educational	Private
Victoria Girls' High School	1897	Non-denominational	English	8–12	Single sex female	Public
Victoria Girls' Primary	1945	Non-denominational	English	0–7	Single sex female	Public
Oatlands Preparatory	1949	Non-denominational	English	0–7	Co-educational	Public
P.J. Olivier	1956	Non-denominational	Afrikaans	0–12	Co-educational	Public
Andrew Moyake School for Excellence		Non-denominational	Xhosa/Afrikaans	8–12	Co-educational	Public