Harare, Zimbabwe

Harare is the capital of Zimbabwe and that nation’s administrative, economic, and communications hub. Harare is located in the northeastern part of Zimbabwe, a landlocked country, and serves as the trade center for the nation’s many farming, mining, and manufacturing industries. It is also Zimbabwe’s largest city and was once considered one of the most modern cities in Africa from its many years under British colonization. During colonization Harare was known as Salisbury, but the name was changed in 1980 when Zimbabwe became an independent nation. The word harare was borrowed from the name of the local Shona tribal chief Haarare, which means “one who does not sleep.”

Landscape

Harare is situated along the country’s central plateau ridge, an area known as the Highveld. This region, which comprises approximately 25 percent of the country’s area, is one of the higher elevation areas at 1,483 meters (4,865 feet). Harare is approximately 960 square kilometers (370 square miles) and has an average elevation of 1,490 meters (4,888 feet) above sea level. Harare is surrounded by beautiful game parks, natural reserves, recreational lakes, and farmland.

Temperatures and seasons in Harare are dictated by its location in the Southern Hemisphere. Winter in Harare lasts from May to August, and the weather is typically dry and sunny with monthly average temperatures from 13.9 to 16.7 degrees Celsius (57 to 62 degrees Fahrenheit). Summer in Harare lasts from October to April; monthly summer temperatures average 19.3 to 22 degrees Celsius (66.7 to 71.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Harare also experiences a rainy season from October to March.

While most of Harare is characterized by wide, well-designed boulevards, tall buildings, and well-kept parks, some areas reflect extreme poverty, inadequate housing, and poor sanitation.

Because of climate change, the temperature in Zimbabwe has risen while the precipitation has decreased. Droughts have become more common. A lack of water has adversely affected the country's wildlife.

People

Approximately 1.578 million people lived within the city limits of Harare in 2023, but the greater Harare Province region is estimated to be around 2.49 million as of 2021, based on census results. Due to the nation’s historical ties to Great Britain, a significant part of the population of Harare is of European decent, but the majority of the city’s residents are black Africans of the Shona and Ndebele peoples. As of the 2017 intercensal survey, about 87 percent of the population of Harare was Christian, 9 percent were unaffiliated, fewer than 2 percent practiced indigenous religions exclusively, and about 1 percent were Muslim. Much of the population subscribes to a combination of Christian and indigenous beliefs.

The culture of Harare reflects both British colonialism and the tribal influences of the rest of Zimbabwe. The region’s most popular sports are soccer, basketball, and cricket, while the traditional crafts of the region, such as soapstone carving, still reflect the native African culture.

In 2024 it was estimated that 40 percent of the population of metropolitan Harare lived in substandard housing. In an effort to reduce the appearance and influence of poverty in Harare, the government of Zimbabwe began Operation Murambatsvina, or “drive out rubbish,” destroying most of the city’s illegal shanty housing and roadside markets. Critics questioned the authenticity of the government’s concern for the poor, and slums and civil unrest within the city only increased. Meanwhile, Harare has also been fighting an epidemic of HIV/AIDS, and it was estimated that 13 percent of the adult population was affected in 2022.

Economy

Harare has been the primary trade center for Zimbabwe’s many agricultural goods, such as cotton, tobacco, corn, wheat, sugarcane, and peanuts. The country’s industrial products include metals and minerals, wood products, cement, chemicals, fertilizer, apparel, and beverages. The gold mining industry of Zimbabwe has also used Harare as a major distribution center, and although the industry was on the decline in the early twenty-first century, gold was still the nation’s fourth largest export item in the late 2010s.

Harare, along with the rest of the country, has suffered from the economic ramifications of medical concerns and political and social unrest. Although Harare includes all of the transportation options of a major metropolitan city, including buses, taxis, trains, and an international airport, widespread gas shortages, electrical power outages, and subsequent government regulation adjustments affected the efficiency of industry and transportation. Public sewage and water supplies also fell into disrepair, causing additional complications for some parts of Harare.

All of those issues contributed to Zimbabwe’s huge inflation rate, which at one time was the highest in the world. Until 2009, money was regularly printed in response to the country’s budget deficit, but inflation was drastically reduced after 2009 when Zimbabwe implemented dollarization, which allowed currencies such as the US dollar, the South African rand, and the Botswana pula to be used locally in Zimbabwe. The country’s economy was also helped by encouraging tourism, and the city of Harare has hosted international tourism fairs in order to boost the nation’s tourism industry. The fairs focused primarily on Zimbabwe’s natural beauty and wildlife and especially the nation’s natural wonder, Victoria Falls. Nevertheless, as of 2023, unemployment in the province of Harare remained far higher than in the rest of the country.

Lack of foreign investment and insufficient exports led to a shortage of US dollars, which in turn spawned shortages in commodities, fuel, and medicines in 2018. Prices soared, and rationing was instituted. In early 2019, amid an ongoing economic crisis and fears of hyperinflation, the government announced the release of a new currency that year. However, in 2023, the inflation rate soared to more than 175 percent. According to economists, this was the result of multiple devaluations of Zimbabwe's struggling dollar.

Landmarks

Harare is home to the Zimbabwe parliament and government buildings, as well as many of the nation’s museums, including the Queen Victoria National Library and the Queen Victoria Museum. The National Art Gallery in Harare features a collection of soapstone carvings by the local Shona people, as well as a variety of traveling international exhibits. The Zimbabwe National Archives includes a collection of Zimbabwean and African artifacts, including diaries, notebooks, and reports from missionaries and explorers.

Beyond the many museums and famous buildings of Harare, the region around the city offers an abundance of natural beauty. Just outside of Harare are a variety of safari-style animal reserves including the Lavron Bird Gardens, the Lion and Cheetah Park at Norton, and the Lake Chivero Mukuvisi Woodlands, which features such wildlife as giraffes, zebras, impalas, wildebeests, and elands. Harare is also home to the Vhukutiwa Sculpture Garden and National Botanical Garden, which includes more than nine hundred species of wild trees and shrubs from all over Zimbabwe.

Harare also has more modern landmarks, namely the Westgate and Borrowdale Village shopping malls. These metropolitan shopping centers are popular destinations for both city residents and visitors. For more traditional shopping, Harare is home to the popular Mbare open-air market, which includes a variety of handmade goods by local craftsmen, including baskets, clothing, soapstone carvings, wooden sculptures, and wickerwork.

History

The area of present-day Harare was originally inhabited by the Shona, Ndebele, and Mbare peoples. Over time the tribes fought, and the Mbare eventually moved toward the more rugged western plateau just north of the Zambezi Valley.

In September 1890, the kopje of Zimbabwe, a region south of Harare that is marked by large, mountain-like rock formations, was discovered by the British South Africa Company (BSAC) pioneer column. Led by Cecil J. Rhodes, the company seized the potentially favorable farm and mining land of the Mashonaland region, claiming it for Great Britain. The first British settlement there was named Fort Salisbury after the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, then prime minister of the United Kingdom.

After a few seasons, the British learned that the marshy lowlands were not ideal for the establishment of a modern city and the entire settlement of Fort Salisbury was relocated to the highveld region northeast of the kopje. After relocating, the British began work on a grid plan for city development, which still governs the layout of modern Harare.

In 1896 Salisbury experienced its first conflict between native Africans and British settlers. The Shona and Ndebele took arms against the British in what became known as the First Chimurenga. The tribes were defeated in 1897 due in large part to the superior weaponry of the British. The leaders of the Shona and Ndebele were captured, tried, and hung.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the city of Salisbury benefited from the Industrial Revolution. Locomotives, steam boilers, diesel engines, and electricity all helped to modernize the city, while neoclassical architectural styles kept Salisbury current with the trends of Europe.

After World War II, the outskirts of Salisbury grew with the establishment of low-cost housing for the growing number of African workers who were employed by the factories and farms of the British colonists. These suburban townships included a variety of walk-up hostels and other shared facilities for multiple single inhabitants; they were cramped constructions and were in obvious contrast to the more luxurious suburban British homes and gardens.

In 1953 Salisbury became the capital of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland under joint rule by black Africans and white British former colonists. Between 1953 and 1963 the central business district of Salisbury grew with high rise office buildings and flourishing retail businesses. During this period of development, tensions grew stronger between the black and white populations of the region.

From 1964 to 1979 Salisbury and all of Zimbabwe suffered through the Rhodesian Bush War, which was also known as the Second Chimurenga or the Liberation Struggle. At various times the city served as the capital of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, the Republic of Rhodesia, and Southern Rhodesia before the nation gained independence in 1980 as the Republic of Zimbabwe, with the city being renamed Harare.

Since 1980 Harare has grown and developed as a major city of sub-Saharan Africa, though persistent political conflicts have produced major setbacks for the city. In the early part of the twenty-first century, presidential and parliamentary elections throughout the first decade are rife with accusations of intimidating opposing candidates, fraudulent voting practices, and violence against party members. Presidential elections held in July 2013, which reelected Robert Gabriel Mugabe, who had been president of Zimbabwe since 1987, were also considered flawed and were criticized by local and international bodies. Mugabe maneuvered for his wife to be next in line for the presidency, and the military placed Mugabe under house arrest, essentially initiating a bloodless coup. The embattled leader stepped down in 2017 when legislators considered impeachment proceedings. Emmerson Mnangagwa, the former vice president and a former guerilla fighter, was installed as interim president. Harare erupted in jubilation.

The celebration proved short-lived, however. Mnangagwa won the July 2018 election, but the results of the narrow contest were disputed and opposition protesters treated harshly. Within months, the country faced another economic crisis, and Harare soon experienced a major cholera outbreak and accompanying state of emergency in September 2018. Union-led strikes and street protests in Harare over shortages were met with violence and widespread detentions. As of 2024, Mnangagwa remained president.

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