Born Out of Sorrow

HALF the size of New York cemetery and twice as dead: this much-quoted, wry comment is generally attributed to the satirical writer Tom Sharpe who worked in Pietermarizburg in the 1950s. Also described as 'sleepy hollow' and the 'last outpost of the British Empire', Pietermaritzburg in fact possesses a rich history that highlights many key areas of South Africa's past. This is particularly true of the apartheid period.