Wherever you go in Bulawayo, the settler experience lingers in the recesses of your mind. Few places match the city's ability to ally a sense of historical importance with the perception that time has slowed down. Its pivotal role as the venue where Ndebele and British cultures collided has been supplanted by a calm acceptance that its performance in the historical spotlight is over. As a result, the city travels happily through time at a more leisurely pace than elsewhere.

It still seems like a town carved from the bush. Large boulders and spiky desert vegetation (caramel-coloured for most of the year, intensely green after the rains) mingle with more tailored gardens. "My grandmother came up on the first settler trek in the 1890s," a local man reminisces. "She was seven years old and remembered a time when they crossed a river, forgetting about the live chickens kept in cages under the wagons. All the birds drowned."

A rich architectural heritage, the local tendency towards conservative dress and an abundance of lovingly preserved old cars can make visitors feel they've arrived in the Rhodesia of fifty years ago. Bulawayo even successfully doubled as 1950s Johannesburg in the filming of A World Apart.

But if this is genteel colonial England, it's also Africa's erstwhile Wild West and the Matabele homeland, founded by rebels from Shaka's violent Zulu kingdom. Its population of about 1.2 million lives mostly in the townships north-west of the central colonial grid, resulting in a city centre more reminiscent of a pleasant provincial retreat than Zimbabwe's leading industrial hub. The traffic is light, and despite central parking strips lined with mature jacaranda trees, the width of the streets is striking. Designed so that a span of 16 oxen could be turned full circle, they give the city its spaciousness. An open expanse divided into Centenary and Central Parks (the latter still containing patches of raw bush) separates the centre from the first residential suburb - lazily named Suburbs.

Since Bulawayo's prestigious early days, its citizens have sometimes felt neglected as Harare's glass-and-steel high-rises grabbed attention and investment. But Bambazonke (Ndebele, loosely meaning "[Harare] grabs everything") has resulted in the survival of many fine old buildings.

Rows of quaint colonial houses in the central grid remain well preserved, with pillars, verandahs and corrugated tin roofs. Small by colonial standards but spacious next to their English equivalents, some now house curio shops, complete with original high ceilings and wooden floors.

Walking the streets reveals a wealth of architectural detail: the strange turreted porch of the Railway Union; the snarling lion supporting an ornamental balcony on the Municipal Offices and Customs building; numerous cupolas, spires and clock towers. Jazz Age apartment blocks overlook fifties office buildings. The gracious City Hall, set in gardens where hawkers, flower-sellers and artists flaunt their goods, holds orchestral performances in its concert hall.

Among the finest colonial buildings is the imposing Douslin House, completed in 1900 with foundations only 15cm deep, due to the high cost of cement. In the 1980s, Bulawayo's Art Gallery bought the building and established it as a showcase for modern African art. Zimbabwe's creative heritage is also celebrated at the Mzilikazi Arts and Crafts Centre, founded in 1963 to train latent local talent. A museum displays painting, sculpture and ceramics by the several hundred full- and part-time students.

Their remote location has never stopped Bulawayo's residents from pursuing such interests. The city has a club for virtually everything - even diving. Socialising revolves largely around football, rugby, cricket, golf and hockey clubs; as a result, it's pretty relaxed. Most people know each other but outsiders are welcomed, not least as an influx of fresh air. The Ndebele prefer soccer and have produced some quality players, such as the Ndlovu brothers, who have played in the Premiership in England.

You can dine well in Bulawayo's restaurants for a snippet: Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese - but, surrounded by cattle country, this is really a city for steak.

Finding your way around the centre is simple, thanks to the grid layout and relatively short distances, but the cluttered north-western township of Makokoba, the city's oldest and most vibrant, is harder. The buildings of the Township Square Cultural Centre are styled on traditional Ndebele architecture. A restaurant serves authentic Zimbabwean food and the pioneering Amakhosi Theatre holds cutting-edge performances, as well as celebrating music and dance from pre-settler days.

Bulawayo has traditionally lacked the tourism Harare has enjoyed, but its laid-back attitude and the friendliness of the Ndebele population have spared it from the tension that can dog visitors to the capital's "high-density suburbs". The MaKhumalo Beer Garden (one of Africa's biggest) is Makokoba's social hub. Tourists are often pleasantly surprised to be welcomed by locals with bucket-sized ceremonial beer mugs: "Ekuhle!" they smile, "Come in, have a drink."

But things have not always been so civil. The name Bulawayo means "Place of Slaughter", presumably derived from the killings involved in the establishment of the Ndebele state. Led by Mzilikazi, the Zulu splinter group arrived in south-west Zimbabwe in the 1830s, taking the name Ndebele, meaning "those who carry long shields". In 1870, Mzilikazi's son Lobengula took power and moved his capital to Bulawayo, unaware that under the insatiable Cecil Rhodes, the British South Africa Company was creeping north.

In 1888, Lobengula met Rhodes and was duped into signing the Rudd Concession, which granted the British mineral rights in return for rifles, ammunition, a gunboat and 100 pounds monthly. A series of misunderstandings soon resulted in an uprising against the colonial power. Rhodes forced a negotiated settlement on the weakened Ndebele and the Company set about constructing its own Bulawayo.

On June 1, 1894, Dr Leander Starr Jameson mounted a soapbox outside the Maxim Hotel and, with no pomp, declared the city officially open: "I don't think we want any talk about it. There's plenty of whisky and soda inside, so come on in." The colonial foundations of the town rest on the gold rush that saw 400 claims staked within two weeks of Jameson's amicable invitation. A decade later, Bulawayo boasted a population of 6000 and was one of the major transport hubs of Southern Africa.

The city's Museum of Natural History displays an original pioneer stagecoach, alongside sepia photographs of passengers who braved its perilous journeys and of bearded explorers with luminous eyes. These pictures spark the imagination and are striking reminders of how cosseted we are as modern travellers.

Beyond the centre lies Africa's pre-colonial past. In the Highmount suburb, to the north, is the site of Lobengula's original kraal, which burned down when the King fled British troops. Ironically, all that remains is his indaba, or meeting tree, where he consulted the Ndebele tribal council, and a round hut constructed for one of Rhodes' visits. Just south of the city, amid the silence of the bush, lies Old Bulawayo, currently being restored, with the remains of Lobengula's 1881 wagon garage, several hut floors and a hut reconstructed in the traditional Zulu beehive style.

Further afield are the 17th century Khame Ruins (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and the spiritual Matobo Hills. The latter contain countless African spirits and Bushman cave paintings, many Black and White rhino and the world's highest concentrations of Black eagle and leopard.

Visitors often regard Bulawayo simply as a stopover en route to Victoria Falls or a gateway to the Matobo Hills. Yet there is no doubt that it warrants exploration in its own right.

Drenched in a delicious sense of nostalgia, subconsciously resisting the encroaching fingers of modernity, Bulawayo has a strong sense of its own identity. It is laid-back in a way that Harare, the country's political centre, cannot be, and it remains slightly wary of its slicker sibling. But its omnipresent history treats its visitors to a greater understanding of theroots of modern Zimbabwe.

Compiled with the assistance of Simon Arnold and Mark Eveleigh.

Published in Travel Africa Edition Eighteen: Winter 2001/02. Text is subject to Worldwide Copyright (c)