Jack Zimba

Fr. Thomas is dean of the cathedral.   The people’s cathedral Thousands have passed through its door, dead or alive JACK ZIMBA   V ERY few places in Lusaka have such a unifying force as the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Cross, and perhaps none comes close to its architectural magnificence. Many times, I have come here for the sad reasons – a funeral service. I have seen so many tears in this place. I have seen many caskets carried into the cathedral and carried out for the final journey to the other side. I have heard numerous poignant eulogies by heart-broken relatives and friends. I have heard many fervent prayers in this place, many beautiful sermons and boring ones too. I have heard singing like the singing of angels and awful singing too. Sometimes, I worry at the rate I have to return here for a funeral service for a government official or other prominent people. Last week, I was here for Minster of Gender Victoria Kalima’s mem...

The first top picture shows the E.W. Tarry building in the 1950s and, below, the building now undergoing reconstruction.   Iconic E.W. Tarry building gets facelift   JACK ZIMBA BEFORE there were glitzy banks, multi-storey office blocks, popular restaurants and shops on Lusaka’s Cairo Road, there was E.W. Tarry. Built in the 1920s as a farm stall selling agriculture machinery and fertilisers, this single-storey building was the first shop on Cairo Road (or at least one of the first), according to Kagosi Mwamulowe, who is regional director for the National Heritage Conservation Commission (NHC). E.W. Tarry Limited Company was established as a machine distributor by Edward Wallace Tarry in South Africa in the late 19 th century. Years later, the company had grown and extended its tentacles northwards, opening shops in Bulawayo and Salisbury (Harare) in then Southern Rhodesia, and then the newly established settlement at Lusaka in 1927. The company ...