Place:Harare, Zimbabwe

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 960.6 km² (371 mi²) and a population of 2,123,132 in the 2012 census^[1] and an estimated 3,120,917 in its metropolitan area in 2019.^[2] Situated in north-eastern Zimbabwe in the country's Mashonaland region, Harare is a metropolitan province, which also incorporates the municipalities of Chitungwiza and Epworth. The city sits on a plateau at an elevation of above sea level and its climate falls into the subtropical highland category.

The city was founded in 1890 by the Pioneer Column, a small military force of the British South Africa Company, and named Fort Salisbury after the UK Prime Minister Lord Salisbury. Company administrators demarcated the city and ran it until Southern Rhodesia achieved responsible government in 1923. Salisbury was thereafter the seat of the Southern Rhodesian (later Rhodesian) government and, between 1953 and 1963, the capital of the Central African Federation. It retained the name Salisbury until 1982, when it was renamed Harare on the second anniversary of Zimbabwean independence from the United Kingdom.

Long the commercial capital of Zimbabwe, Harare has seen economic ups and downs since the 2000s. It remains an important centre of commerce, government, finance, real estate, manufacturing, healthcare, design, education, art, culture, tourism, agriculture, mining and regional affairs. Harare has the second-highest number of embassies in Southern Africa and serves as the location of the African headquarters of the World Health Organization, which it shares with Brazzaville.

Harare has hosted multiple international conferences and events, including the 1995 All-Africa Games and the 2003 Cricket World Cup. In 2018, Harare was ranked as a Gamma world city. The city's marquee festival is the Harare International Festival of the Arts, modelled on the Edinburgh Festival and one of the largest arts festivals in the southern hemisphere. It is also home to Dynamos F.C., the club with the most titles in Zimbabwean football.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The Pioneer Column, a military volunteer force of settlers organised by Cecil Rhodes, founded the city on 12 September 1890 as a fort. They originally named the city Fort Salisbury after The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, then-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and it subsequently became known simply as Salisbury. The Salisbury Polo Club was formed in 1896. It was declared to be a municipality in 1897 and it became a city in 1935.

The area at the time of founding of the city was poorly drained and earliest development was on sloping ground along the left bank of a stream that is now the course of a trunk road (Julius Nyerere Way). The first area to be fully drained was near the head of the stream and was named Causeway as a result. This area is now the site of many of the most important government buildings, including the Senate House and the Office of the Prime Minister, now renamed for the use of the President after the position was abolished in January 1988.

Salisbury was the capital of the self-governing British colony of Southern Rhodesia from 1923, and of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland from 1953 to 1963. Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front government declared Rhodesia independent from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965, and proclaimed the Republic of Rhodesia in 1970. Subsequently, the nation became the short-lived state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, it was not until 18 April 1980 that the country was internationally recognised as independent as the Republic of Zimbabwe.

Post-war period

In the immediate years after World War II, Salisbury expanded rapidly, its growth boosted by its designation as the capital of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which ushered in a wave of liberalism, investment and developmentalism from 1953 to 1963, transforming the city's skyline in the process. This was accompanied by significant post-war immigration, primarily from Great Britain, across Southern Africa and to a lesser extent, Southern Europe. The rapid rise of motor vehicle ownership and the investment in road development greatly accelerated the outward suburban sprawl and saw the development of suburbs such as Alexandra Park and Mount Pleasant. At the same time mostly black suburbs such as Highfield suffered from overcrowding as the population boomed.

The optimism and prosperity of this period proved to be short-lived, as the Federation collapsed, which hindered the city's prosperity.^[3]

Post-independence years

The city initially boomed under a wave of optimism and investment that followed the country's independence in 1980. The name of the city was changed to Harare on 18 April 1982, the second anniversary of Zimbabwean independence, taking its name from the village near Harare Kopje of the Shona chief Neharawa, whose nickname was "he who does not sleep". Prior to independence, "Harare" was the name of the black residential area now known as Mbare.

Significant investment in education and healthcare produced a confident and growing middle class, evidenced by the rise of firms such as Econet Global and innovative design and architecture, exemplified by the Eastgate Centre. A notable symbol of this era in Harare's history is the New Reserve Bank Tower, one of the city's major landmarks.

However, by 1992, Harare began to experience an economic downturn and the government responded by enacting neoliberal reforms, which led to a boom in banking, finance and agriculture, while leading to significant job losses in manufacturing, thereby greatly increasing unemployment and income inequality. Domestic firms struggled to compete with foreign imports leading to the collapse of several institutions, particularly in the textile industry.^[3]

Economic difficulties and hyperinflation (1999–2008)

In the early twenty-first century, Harare has been adversely affected by the political and economic crisis that is plaguing Zimbabwe, after the contested 2002 presidential election and 2005 parliamentary elections. The elected council was replaced by a government-appointed commission for alleged inefficiency, but essential services such as rubbish collection and street repairs rapidly worsened, and are now virtually non-existent in poorer parts of the city. In May 2006, the Zimbabwean newspaper the Financial Gazette, described the city in an editorial as a "sunshine city-turned-sewage farm". In 2009, Harare was voted to be the toughest city to live in according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's livability poll. The situation was unchanged in 2011, according to the same poll, which is based on stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

Operation Murambatsvina

In May 2005, the Zimbabwean government demolished shanties, illegal vending sites, backyard cottages in Harare, Epworth and the other cities in the country in Operation Murambatsvina ("Drive Out Trash"). It was widely alleged that the true purpose of the campaign was to punish the urban poor for supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and to reduce the likelihood of mass action against the government by driving people out of the cities. The government claimed it was necessitated by a rise of criminality and disease. This was followed by Operation Garikayi/Hlalani Kuhle (Operation "Better Living") a year later, which consisted of building concrete housing of poor quality.

Economic uncertainty

In late March 2010, Harare's Joina City Tower was finally opened after fourteen years of delayed construction, marketed as Harare's new Pride. Initially, uptake of space in the tower was low, with office occupancy at only 3% in October 2011. By May 2013, office occupancy had risen to around half, with all the retail space occupied.

The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Harare as the world's least liveable city out of 140 surveyed in February 2011, rising to 137th out of 140 in August 2012.

In March 2015, Harare City Council planned a two-year project to install 4,000 solar street lights, at a cost of $15,000,000 starting in the central business district.

In November 2017, the biggest demonstration in the history of the Republic of Zimbabwe was held in Harare, which led to the forced resignation of the long-serving 93-year-old President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, an event which was part of the first successful coup in Zimbabwe.

Contemporary Harare

Since 2000, Harare has experienced periods of spectacular decline, particularly in the 2000s, but since the Great Recession it has stabilised and experienced significant population growth, along with uneven economic growth. Despite this volatility (or perhaps because of it), there has been substantial international investment and speculation in the city's financial and property markets. Major development has occurred on the urban fringes of the city has occurred in areas such as Borrowdale, Glen Lorne, The Grange, Mount Pleasant Heights, and the new suburbs of, Hogerty Hill, Shawasha Hills, Bloomingdale and Westlea resulting in urban sprawl into nearby Mount Hampden, Ruwa and Norton. In addition, inner city areas such as Avondale, Eastlea, Belgravia, Newlands and Milton Park have seen increased gentrification driven by speculation from expat Zimbabweans that has also attracted other foreign buyers, resulting in high property prices and widespread rent increases. Harare sustained the highest population increase and urban development of any major Zimbabwean city since 2000, with other cities such as Bulawayo, Gweru and Mutare largely stagnating during the same period.

From 2006, the growth of the city extended into its northern and western fringes, beyond the city's urban growth boundary. Predictions of the metropolitan area reaching 4 to 5 million by 2025, have sparked concerns of unchecked sprawl and unregulated development. In addition, the concentration of real estate development in Harare has come at the expense of other cities such as Gweru, and Bulawayo, particularly the latter, which is increasingly characterized by stagnation and high unemployment due to the collapse of many of its heavy industries. Today, Harare's property market remains highly priced, more so than regional cities such as Johannesburg and Cape Town, with the top end of the market completely dominated by wealthier dual-citizen Zimbabweans (see Zimbabwean diaspora and Zimbabweans in the United Kingdom), Chinese and South African buyers and largely unaffordable to most locals.^[4][5] Such gentrification and speculation is especially jarring given the country's high unemployment. Additionally, in 2020, Harare was classified as a Gamma city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

Research Tips