The university town of Grahamstown lies in a sheltered basin 60km/37mi from the south coast, half way between Port Elizabeth and East London. It is the chief town of the Settler Country, in which white settlers came into conflict with the Xhosa in the early 19th C.
With Rhodes University and many other educational
institutions, Grahamstown has developed in recent years into a major cultural center. It is also the see of an Anglican bishop, and its many churches (said to number more than 40) have earned it the name of "city of the saints". The Grahamstown Arts Festival, famed throughout South Africa, is held annually at the end of June, when the town becomes one gigantic stage hosting a great variety of cultural events.
In the 18th C Dutch settlers began to move east from the Cape in search of new land. On the Great Fish River they came into contact for the first time with the Xhosa, a Bantu people who were moving south, also in the quest for land. After the Cape Colony was taken over by Britain in 1806 there was an influx of British settlers, most of whom established themselves on the east coast. By 1857 there had been eight bloody wars within less than a C in the border region between the Great Fish River and the Bushman River. To protect the frontier between the white and the black population the British built a chain of military posts and forts, including a military base, established in 1812 and named after Col. John Graham, which was to develop into Grahamstown. The settlement flourished, and by 1831 Grahamstown was the largest town in the Cape Colony after Cape Town.
Grahamstown is a trim and attractive place with many historic old buildings in the town center. The High Street, running east-west, is its central thoroughfare, with Rhodes University at its west end. From here a brief walk will take visitors round the town center and up Gunfire Hill.
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