Q: What was it like? Was it exciting, exhilarating?
A: It was a mixture of pleasure and pain. Abject tedium and infrequent spurts of excitement. And quite a lot of pot smoked second-hand (mostly).

Q: Why did you study journalism at Rhodes?
A: I grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe and was introduced to Journalism by a number of working journalists who were parents to some of my closest high-school friends. One was Hugh Lewin, author of “Bandiet” – the story of a white activist, a member of the largely forgotten African Resistance Movement (ARM), who spent seven years in Pretoria Central Prison, a hanging prison for death-row prisoners. ARM was a militant anti-apartheid resistance movement, which operated in South Africa during the early and mid-1960s. The other notable influencer was Edwina Spicer, Zimbabwean film-maker and director of "Keeping a live voice: 15 years of democracy in Zimbabwe" (1995). In January 2002 supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were abducted and beaten by supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF. Edwina’s youngest son, Thomas Tawanda Spicer, 17, was tied to a tree, beaten and kicked
throughout the night. Rhodes has always attracted a number of Zimbabwean students who bring their own histories, challenges, humour and cultural identities.

Q: What do you remember about your time here? What do you remember about your curriculum?
A: I signed up for a four year BJourn but at the start of my final year realised the course seemed too academic and not nearly practical or industry-focused enough so I changed to English Honours and left the Journ department after third year with a BAJourn. I kept up with Journalism-related subjects throughout my Honours year including Narratorio-style interviews modelled on “I Rigoberto Menchu” and taught by Janet Varner Gunn.

Q: What was your specialisation?
A: Feature writing and copy. I have always and still enjoy narrative-based story telling and crafting. I also studied Creative Writing with Etienne van Heerden in the department of Afrikaans and Nederlands and courses with poet Robert Berold. I worked on campus radio, the student newspaper and CUE festival newspaper.

Q: Do you carry the department with you or is it now just a distant memory?
A: I carry memories of good people like Guy Berger, Cathy Knox, George Mazarakis, Christo Doherty, Don Pinnock and Larry & Lynette Steenveld as well as endless screenings of old black and white film classics (blame Lynette’s passion for film theory) like Battleship Potemkin (1925), Nosferatu (1922), Birth of a Nation (1915) and many others blurred by time.

Q: Has your study in the department influenced the work you have done and are doing?
A: Probably. Lol.

Q: What stands out to you in your memory?
A: 1. The people I studied alongside who are certainly worth your time contacting if you have not done so. These include Adam Cooke (featured in the same JD publication you attached) and son-in-law of English department academic Ron Hall. A photograph in that same issue is by Kirsty Jones, a wonderful photographer whom I worked alongside at CUE covering Jazz at the National Arts Festival when Jimmy Dludlu made his first appearance. Sadly she died in a motor-vehicle crash in her hometown Port Elizabeth while still a Rhodes student. Other memorable student colleagues were Isabella Matambanadzo, an outstanding Zimbabwean women’s rights activist, Sanja Goehre, Stephen Grootes, Steyn Speed, Sarita Ranchod and so many other awesome people.

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2. Moments of challenge, frustration and delight like keeping the CUE Festival Newspaper going
through a power outage. We did this by running a series of extension cables out the top floor window of the old Journ Department (where the Drama Department is probably now) and ACROSS the main road into a student digs, where power had been partially restored. This allowed us to keep a few computers, printers and essential equipment alive in time to meet the daily print deadline. The memory of this should be archived or remembered by someone else – must have been around 1993- 1995.