By Siyanda Zinyanga
Animals walk the dusty township streets. They wander freely into the centre of town, grazing among Rhodes students. They graze at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity entrance. Security guard Xolani offered a thought: “Animals are drawn to where their owners go. If people go to town, the cows will also follow. They think something is happening there.”
In the township cows graze among the graves, their hooves disturbing the quiet of the dead. Children, with sticks in their hands, herd them into cemeteries as if the graves were just another field. In many cultures, graves are sacred ground, a place of memory and silence, where the dead are believed to be in eternal sleep. However, in Makhanda, even the dead cannot rest.
Cows grazing in the cemetery. Photo Siyanda ZinyangaWhere rubbish is discarded, animals gather too, chewing on what people have thrown away. Here, hunger and neglect meet in the open: humans discard what they cannot use, and animals make a meal of it.
“These cows and donkeys, man, they are very annoying,” said Donald Oliphant. “I am tired of seeing cow dung in my driveway.”
The donkeys in particular rule Makhanda. They stand in the middle of roads, refusing to move. Cars wait, people wait, but the donkeys do not hurry. In this strange picture, it looks as if they are the true citizens of the town, with rights no law can take away. Some residents joke that donkeys have signed an eternal contract with Makhanda and belong here more than anyone else. However, jokes carry truth. Donkeys walk like kings, knowing the town is theirs.
The story of Makhanda’s stray animals is the story of people who have learned to live with what should not be normal. It is also a reminder of how nature, when left alone, reclaims space from human order. The animals have no fear of the government, because the government has no presence.
The animals of Makhanda walk, graze, and sleep where they please. Their footsteps echo in the silence of cemeteries, their dung marks the driveways of the living, their teeth tear through rubbish heaps, and their shadows stretch across the roads of a town that has been left to itself.
