Barham Green

Also known as Barham.

Residential area named after Alderman Mrs M. E. Barham MBE and the Rev. Rufus Green; in the colonial era it was set aside for Bulawayo's Coloured community.

Barham Green carries two names in one. It honours a city councillor and a clergyman. It is also one of the places where the colonial city’s rules about who lived where can still be read in the map.

What the name remembers

• Mrs M. E. Barham, MBE was a Bulawayo city councillor who later became an alderman.
• The Rev. Rufus Green was a clergyman.

Both were “critical in the establishment of this suburb”, as the earliest description of the name puts it. That description also says plainly that the area was designated for the Coloured community under the residential segregation of the Rhodesian era, and The Herald says the same.

What we don’t know yet

We know almost nothing about Mrs Barham or Rev. Green beyond their names. What did they do to establish the suburb, and when? If you grew up in Barham Green, or your family were among its first residents, we would like to hear your story. The history of Bulawayo’s Coloured community is badly under-told, and it is not ours to tell without you.