Sarah Baartman
Makhanda
A university and festival town of steep streets and old stone buildings, halfway between Gqeberha and East London.
Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) is home to Rhodes University and to the National Arts Festival, the largest arts festival on the continent, which fills the town every winter.
Its layout is largely unchanged 19th-century: a cathedral at the centre of the high street, churches and Victorian frontages up the hills, and frontier history in every direction around it.
Why people come to Makhanda
- National Arts Festival each winter
- Rhodes University and the historic high street
- Museums and frontier heritage sites
- An easy stop between Gqeberha and East London
Things to do in Makhanda
Where to eat in Makhanda
Where to stay in Makhanda
Culture & heritage in Makhanda
Arts festival
National Arts Festival
Makhanda
Africa's largest arts festival takes over Makhanda for about eleven days each winter, filling halls, churches and school venues with theatre, music and visual art.
View detailsMuseum
Observatory Museum
Makhanda
A restored Victorian house on Bathurst Street containing a working camera obscura in its rooftop turret, projecting a live image of the town onto a table.
View detailsMuseum complex
Albany Museum
Makhanda
One of South Africa's oldest museums, now a complex of sites in Makhanda covering natural science, history and the region's frontier past.
View detailsMonument & venue
1820 Settlers National Monument
Makhanda
The modernist building on Gunfire Hill above the town, home to the festival's main venues and a wide view across Makhanda.
View detailsCathedral
Cathedral of St Michael & St George
Makhanda
The tall stone spire in the middle of High Street, the landmark you navigate the town centre by.
View detailsArt collective
Egazini Outreach Project
Makhanda
A community printmaking and art collective in Makhanda producing work that reads the frontier wars from a Xhosa perspective.
View detailsCreative space
The Black Power Station
Makhanda
A disused power station turned into an independent arts and music space, running workshops and performances outside the festival calendar.
View details