Vintage Everyday: Zimbabwe

March 22, 2022

Fascinating Vintage Color Snapshots From a Trip Through Africa in 1970

March 22, 2022 1970s, Africa, Cairo, Cape Town, Egypt, Kenya, life & culture, people, Salisbury, South Africa, Zimbabwe

In 1970, British traveler and photographer Allan Hailstone took a trip from London to Africa that took in six cities and four countries. He traveled to Cape Town and back with stopovers in Cairo, Nairobi, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Salisbury in Rhodesia (now Harare in Zimbabwe).

“My arrival in Cairo was a culture shock, as it would be today, but I had experienced Morocco in 1960 and so I knew to some extent what sort of atmosphere to expect.” He told MailOnline Travel. “Rhodesia was fascinating because the country had declared itself independent of British rule in 1965, and the so-called Smith regime was regarded as illegal by the UK and one was advised not to visit. There were no UK consular links, and the only country friendly to it was South Africa. The only air link was from South Africa so I had to travel there from Johannesburg, then return to Johannesburg, rather than visiting it en route.

“South Africa existed under apartheid. I found the people intelligent and cultured. I remember that it was commonplace in Cape Town to see men playing chess in the street. The hotel where I stayed gives an example of the very cheap pricing. It was a luxury hotel, and I had a suite of rooms at £5 per night, which even then was ridiculously cheap. It had a closed-circuit TV in the lobby, which attracted much interest as ordinary TV did not exist.”

Take a look back at Africa in 1970 through these fascinating images. For more photographs, visit Hailstone's brilliant Flickr site.

Midan Tahrir (Liberation Square), Cairo

Cairo

Nile Hilton Hotel, Cairo

Cairo

Sunset over the Nile, Cairo

January 28, 2022

Zimbabwe in the Late 1960s Through Fascinating Photos

January 28, 2022 1960s, life & culture, street, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozambique to the east. The capital and largest city is Harare. The second largest city is Bulawayo.

The state endured international isolation and a 15-year guerrilla war with black nationalist forces; this culminated in a peace agreement that established universal enfranchisement and de jure sovereignty as Zimbabwe in April 1980. Zimbabwe then joined the Commonwealth of Nations, from which it was suspended in 2002 for breaches of international law by its then-government under Robert Mugabe, and from which it withdrew in December 2003.

The sovereign state is a member of the United Nations, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). It was once known as the “Jewel of Africa” for its great prosperity.

These fascinating photos from lindsaybridge that captured street scenes of Zimbabwe in 1968.