Visit any black area in the Eastern Cape and you will find a section called eNdlovini. This has a double meaning: the first literal translation is “at the elephant/place of the elephant”. The second meaning is more nuanced and slightly loaded: “the place at which we charged in and settled”.

The Xhosa word for elephant is “indlovu”, so eNdlovini invokes — at least for mother-tongue speakers — a powerful image of resistance. Continue reading →