Masvingo

Sister cities

• Middlesbrough
• Kernen im Remstal

History

The city was known as Fort Victoria until 1982, when its name was briefly changed to Nyanda, after a mountain about 10 kilometres south of the town, on the Masvingo to Beitbridge Road. That led to protests, because "nyanda" means "one who has lice", and public sentiment was that Masvingo would be more reflective of the history of the city. Within a few months, the name was changed to Masvingo, which means "fort" in Shona, and the Great Zimbabwe, which is essentially a walled fort, is often referred to as "Masvingo eZimbabwe" or sometimes "Masvingo eVitori", a translation of the original name. Masvingo is the oldest colonial settlement in Zimbabwe which developed around an encampment established in 1890, when the British South Africa Company "Pioneer Column" of the first European colonists passed through on their way to what became Salisbury, now Harare. The Old Fort national monument is located in the center of town, and was erected in 1891 as one of a series of fortifications to guard the route from Salisbury to the south. The very first cricket match in Zimbabwe is said to have taken place close by, in 1890.

Geography

The landscape in southern Zimbabwe is relatively flat, interspersed with rounded granite mountains. Known as kopjes (Dutch: little heads), they are often quite smooth. Msasa trees dominate the savannah landscape, with the occasional baobab tree. The weather is hot and dry throughout the year, except during the summer when the rains come. There is a range of small hills to the south of the city centre. Mucheke and Shagashe rivers run close to the centre and both of them act as de facto boundaries of the central business district. Robert Mugabe way, one of the city's main streets, is lined with pine trees adjacent to some of the oldest buildings in Zimbabwe such as The victoria hotel and the building opposite to it that now houses The High Court of Zimbabwe. The tallest building is the 9-storey Zimre center located in the CBD. The Bell Tower is a historical building and formed part of the fort erected by the British South African Company in 1892 to protect settlers around Fort Victoria. The town lies near Lake Mutirikwi and is home to a nine-hole golf course and a freight railway line. It lies on the Mucheke River, with a civic centre at the town centre. Shagashe Game Park and an Italian memorial church built during World War II are nearby. Masvingo also has an airstrip. The national airline, Air Zimbabwe, has reintroduced a domestic flight connecting Masvingo to Harare in the north and Buffalo Range in the south starting on 5 December 2014. Masvingo is situated in a drought-prone area, with average rainfall of 600 mm/a. The raw water source for the city is Lake Mutirikwi. Apart from providing water for the city, Lake Mutirikwi supports water supply schemes for several riparian farmers and large sugar cane irrigation schemes in the Triangle, Zimbabwe and Hippo…