100-year-old class photo from Outjo

I found this old photo in my photo archive and with the start of the school year this month, this hundred-year-old class photo couldn’t be more apt.

It was taken at the government school in Outjo in 1921, as written in chalk on the board held by the small child in the middle. With a small number of students, it appears that various grades were in the same class. On a closer look, we see that some of the children are wearing shoes while others are barefoot, the boys are on the one side and the girls on the other.

Although the pace of life - and technology - has speeded up in the last century, these children probably would have felt the same way about their first day of school as children do today, around the world.

(If you have any old photos from your schooldays, please share them with us and stand a chance to win a weekend at one of Gondwana’s premium lodges)