Harare

Harare, Zimbabwe

The granite Kopje hill above central Harare glows gold at sunset, with its path leading up from boulders in the foreground.

Harare is a high, green, jacaranda-lined capital where Zimbabwe's art, politics and everyday city life can be met on foot.

The place

Harare is the capital and largest city of Zimbabwe, spread across a plateau in the north-east of the country, in the Mashonaland region. At about 1,492 metres above sea level, it feels different from the lowland heat many people expect of southern Africa. Days are warm, nights in the dry months can be properly cool, and the subtropical highland climate suits broad-canopied trees and gardens. The city has about 2.15 million people, and the wider metropolitan province also takes in Chitungwiza, Epworth and Ruwa, so what looks like one city on the ground is really a string of linked towns. The centre is a gridded colonial-era plan of wide avenues, office blocks, parks and a few old civic buildings, with the granite hill of the Kopje on its south-western edge. Suburbs spread out beyond, some leafy and low-rise, others dense and busy, with markets filling the gaps. Harare is also where Zimbabwe's finance, industry and communications are concentrated, which explains the traffic, the queues at banks and the steady hum of small-scale trading on pavements. Many travellers treat it as a gateway to Victoria Falls and the national parks, but it rewards a few days of its own: galleries, stone sculpture, cafés, a lively theatre scene and a pace gentler than most capitals. Street lighting is patchy, so evenings are best spent indoors or in a pre-arranged taxi.

Its story

Harare began in 1890 as a fort. The Pioneer Column, a volunteer force of settlers raised under Cecil Rhodes for the British South Africa Company, reached the site on 12 September and named it Fort Salisbury after the British prime minister of the day, Lord Salisbury. The ground was poorly drained, so the first buildings clung to a slope beside a stream, and the first district to be properly drained, Causeway, later filled with government offices. Salisbury became a municipality in 1897 and a city in 1935. Company officials ran it until 1923, when it became the capital of the self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia. After the Second World War it grew fast, helped by its role as capital of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland between 1953 and 1963, and it remained the seat of the Rhodesian government afterwards. Zimbabwe became independent from the United Kingdom in 1980, and on the second anniversary, in 1982, the city took the name Harare. Street names changed in the same years: the avenue once called Jameson is now Samora Machel Avenue. The layers now sit side by side, with a colonial grid carrying post-independence names, monuments to the liberation war, and the daily life of a working capital.

What to see

Culture

Harare's culture is shaped by a long habit of using art to talk about difficult times. Writers such as Doris Lessing and Petina Gappah and the musician Thomas Mapfumo have all pointed to the failings of government in their work, and since 2000 a sharper, more protest-minded theatre has grown up alongside them. Audiences have turned out in support, so an evening at a small theatre or a live gig can tell a visitor more about the country than a museum does. The Harare International Festival of the Arts has brought local and international performers to the city, though it was cancelled in 2019 and it is worth checking whether it is currently running. Music is everywhere, from church choirs on Sundays to bars with live bands, and the mbira, the thumb piano at the heart of Shona music, appears at ceremonies and in modern arrangements. English, Shona and Ndebele are all heard in the city, and a few words of Shona, such as a friendly Makadii (how are you), are warmly received. Greetings matter here, and people usually ask after one another before getting to business. Politics is a live subject, discussed with humour but also with care. Greet people properly before asking for anything, and ask permission before photographing individuals, government buildings or soldiers and police, which can cause real trouble.

What to wear

Fashion in Harare mixes inherited dress with the practical clothing of a working capital. Traditional dress is tied to Shona and Ndebele heritage: printed cotton wrap cloths worn as skirts, headscarves called doeks, and beadwork, especially the beaded collars, belts and aprons associated with Ndebele communities. These appear most at weddings, funerals, church events, cultural festivals and national holidays, when families often coordinate their cloth. Day to day, most people dress as in any city: shirts, suits and neat dresses for work, school uniforms, and jeans and trainers at weekends. Sunday church is the dressiest occasion of the week, and people take pride in being well turned out. Second-hand clothing from markets is widespread, and local designers show their work in boutiques and at arts events. Visitors should pack for a highland climate at 1,492 metres: light cotton and a sun hat for the day, and a fleece or jacket for evenings and the cooler months from May to August. Closed, comfortable shoes suit uneven pavements and the climb up the Kopje. Smart-casual is fine in restaurants. Covered knees and shoulders are respectful at churches and in rural areas, and camouflage-print clothing is best left at home.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. May–October is the dry season, with sunny days and cool nights, and June–July mornings can be properly chilly at this altitude. October–November brings the jacaranda bloom just before the rains, which usually arrive around November and bring heavy afternoon storms.

How long. 2–3

Getting there. Harare's international airport is the main gateway to Zimbabwe, with connections from Johannesburg, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Luanda, Cairo and Amsterdam, though airlines change, so check current schedules. The last leg is a taxi or pre-arranged transfer into town. National train services were suspended at the last check, so confirm before planning on rail. A good road links Harare with Johannesburg.

Budget. mid

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

Sources