Harare & Mashonaland

Mashonaland was the core of the Mutapa state, which grew up after the decline of Great Zimbabwe and controlled gold and ivory trade in the north of the plateau from about the fifteenth century. Portuguese traders set up market fairs in its territory in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and at times intervened in its politics. Rock paintings at shelters such as Domboshava record the far older presence of hunter-gatherers.

In September 1890 Cecil Rhodes's Pioneer Column raised the British flag at Fort Salisbury, which grew into the colonial capital. The Shona rising of 1896–97, the First Chimurenga, was led in part by the spirit mediums Nehanda and Kaguvi, who were hanged in 1898. Mashonaland's rich soils became the centre of white commercial farming, above all tobacco and maize. In 1966 a clash with guerrillas near Sinoia, now Chinhoyi, is remembered as the start of the Second Chimurenga, and from 1972 ZANLA fighters opened a front in the north-east.

Independence was celebrated at Rufaro Stadium in Harare in April 1980, and Salisbury was renamed Harare in 1982. From 2000 the fast-track land reform hit Mashonaland's commercial farms, and tobacco output collapsed in the years that followed. In 2005 Operation Murambatsvina demolished informal housing and markets around Harare, and in November 2017 soldiers in the capital's streets ended Robert Mugabe's rule.

This is Shona country, and the Zezuru dialect spoken around Harare is close to the standard form of the language; Korekore is heard in the north. Harare is also a meeting place for the whole country, and English, Shona and Ndebele mix freely on its streets.

Music is central. The mbira, a thumb piano of metal keys on a wooden board, is played at religious ceremonies, weddings and gatherings, and its patterns shaped the chimurenga music of Thomas Mapfumo. Today Zimdancehall and gospel dominate the kombis, and Harare's townships, Mbare and Highfield above all, are known for their musicians and politicians alike.

Shona stone sculpture grew from a workshop at the National Gallery and from artists' communities such as Tengenenge in Mashonaland Central; sculptors still carve serpentine and springstone around Harare. Church life is strong, from Catholic and Methodist congregations to white-robed apostolic groups meeting in the open, and greeting properly and deferring to elders matter everywhere.

Harare and its satellite town Chitungwiza hold well over two million people, and the city is the centre of government, business, universities and the media. Smaller towns such as Chinhoyi, Marondera, Bindura and Kariba serve the farming and mining districts around them.

Mashonaland is Zimbabwe's farming belt: tobacco, the main export crop, leads, with maize, soya and cattle beside it. Gold and platinum are mined along the Great Dyke, and informal gold panners work many rivers. The Kariba Dam is one of the country's two main power sources, and its output falls when drought lowers the lake.

Harare has lived through every stage of the currency crisis: hyperinflation that peaked in 2008, the adoption of the US dollar in 2009, bond notes from 2016, a revived Zimbabwe dollar in 2019, and the gold-backed ZiG launched in 2024. In practice US dollars dominate, and a large informal economy of vendors, street markets and money-changers fills the gaps left by formal jobs.

Sadza, the stiff maize porridge, is the staple here as across the country, eaten with muriwo (greens), sour milk or a stew of beef or chicken. Peanut butter flavours many dishes, from bota, a thinner breakfast porridge, to rice cooked with peanut butter, a local favourite served with gravy, vegetables and meat. Most meals are built from simple, filling ingredients grown close to home.

Lake Kariba adds fish, above all kapenta, a small sardine sold dried in markets across the country. Harare's Mbare Musika is the national produce market, where lorries unload maize, tomatoes, leafy greens and fruit, and braai stands turn out grilled meat outside beer halls on weekend afternoons.

Mazoe orange crush takes its name from the Mazowe valley citrus estates north of Harare. Chibuku and home-brewed sorghum beer are the traditional drinks, maheu is the non-alcoholic alternative, and bottled lager is brewed in Harare's Southerton district.

Mana Pools National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the neighbouring Sapi and Chewore areas, is the region's finest wilderness: a floodplain of old river channels and winterthorn trees on the Zambezi, with the country's biggest concentration of hippos and crocodiles and large dry-season herds of elephant, zebra and buffalo. Upstream, Lake Kariba's eastern shore holds Kariba town above the dam wall, houseboats and fishing, and Matusadona National Park on the lake's southern shore.

Harare repays a few days. The National Gallery and the sculpture gardens show Shona stone carving, Mbare Musika and its craft market show the city at its busiest, the Kopje gives a view over the centre, and the Eastgate Centre is known for its termite-mound-inspired cooling. Lake Chivero, south-west of the capital, has a recreational park with rock art and game.

Chinhoyi Caves, beside the highway to Kariba, is a network of dolomite caverns around the Sleeping Pool, a sunken lake whose clear water glows deep blue. North- east of Harare, Domboshava is a great granite whaleback with a rock shelter of painted animals and figures, and a summit walk popular for sunset.