African Musical Instrument Museum

The African Musical Instrument Museum at Rhodes University in Grahamstown was fascinating. It has thousands of drums, horns, and other instruments. Many of them are very historic being hundreds of years old but most of them probably date from the 20th century and represent ways of playing music that stem back to ancient times. At top, at the end of our visit, some of the staff teamed up with one of your students, Tealie, to work out some African rhythms. At bottom are drums, many of them very old and historically important. Next, we have thumb organs, which have little prongs of metal that you strum with your thumbs. A simple but versatile instrument. At bottom is something a pipe organ.

Frontier Wars

The Eastern Cape, especially the area around Grahamstown, is historically connected to the Frontier Wars. These are nine conflicts that pitted the British settlers against the Xhosa people. At top is a monument to the 1820 settlers, Brits who relocated to South Africa to settle the country. They had an enormous impact on the future of the region. At bottom, we are receiving a blow-by-blow account of the wartime key events by a local historian of the wars.

Indian Ocean waves

An evening along the Indian Ocean at Port Elizabeth.

African Dance Troupe II

Telie and Lily get their photos with their dance instructors.

African Dance Troupe

On afternoon on a plaza at Nelson Mandela University, we were entertained by a great African dance troupe. Pictures cannot communcate the great sense of energy and excitement generated by their enthusiasm. The students loved it. The dancers were all ages. At top a group of the women work the crowd. The dancers pulled a number of our students out to dance with them. The bottom photos of a kind of conga line was great fun to watch.

Beautiful Vista

Algoa Bay at Port Elizabeth is a beautiful spot.

Seaview II

Lions were not the only attraction at Seaview. They had large numbers of giraffe and zebra as well as other animals wandering about the park.