49 Fun Facts About Zimbabwe

What is the capital and largest city of Zimbabwe?

Harare, founded in 1890 as the Pioneer Column's fort, is Zimbabwe's capital and largest city; the name adopted in 1982 comes from the Shona chief Neharawa, whose people lived on the site's kopje.

Zimbabwe's capital was known by what name until 1982?

The Pioneer Column named the fort for Lord Salisbury, the British prime minister, when it arrived in Shona territory in 1890.

The name Zimbabwe is usually said to derive from a Shona phrase meaning what?

Houses of stone — dzimba dza mabwe in Shona — refers to the medieval walled city of Great Zimbabwe near Masvingo; a rival reading, dzimba hwe, gives 'venerated houses'.

The states that culminated in Great Zimbabwe grew rich exchanging gold, ivory and copper with merchants from where?

Arab traders on the Indian Ocean coast, via Swahili ports such as Sofala, bought the plateau's gold and ivory from about the 10th century, sending back cloth, glass beads and Chinese porcelain.

Great Zimbabwe's massive walls are famous for being built how?

Of dry stone, without mortar: Great Zimbabwe's granite blocks were cut and fitted so precisely that the Great Enclosure's outer wall, up to 11 metres high, has stood since the 13th-14th centuries.

The soapstone carving that appears on Zimbabwe's flag and coat of arms depicts what?

Eight such birds once stood on the walls and monoliths of Great Zimbabwe; the emblem was also used by Rhodesia on its currency.

Which Shona empire, called Monomotapa by the Portuguese, ruled much of Zimbabwe from c.1450?

Mutapa, founded by Nyatsimba Mutota as Great Zimbabwe declined, ruled the northern plateau from the Zambezi valley; the Portuguese rendered its king's title, Mwene Mutapa, as 'Monomotapa'.

Which Zulu general rebelled against Shaka around 1821 and founded the Ndebele kingdom in Matabeleland?

Mzilikazi, a Khumalo chief and Shaka's general, fled north with his followers and settled around 1840 on the plateau that became Matabeleland, ruling the Ndebele until his death in 1868.

From which Ndebele king did Cecil Rhodes obtain the 1888 mining concession used to justify colonisation?

Lobengula signed the Rudd Concession on 30 October 1888, granting exclusive mineral rights; Rhodes used it to win a royal charter for his British South Africa Company in 1889.

Which US-born scout assassinated the Ndebele religious leader Mlimo in 1896?

Frederick Russell Burnham, a Minnesota-born scout for the British South Africa Company, shot Mlimo in his cave sanctuary in June 1896; his fieldcraft later inspired Baden-Powell's scouting movement.

In which year did Southern Rhodesia become a self-governing British colony?

In 1923, after a 1922 referendum rejected joining South Africa, Britain annexed Southern Rhodesia as a self-governing colony; the settler assembly controlled internal affairs from 1 October that year.

Which prime minister issued Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965?

Ian Smith, Rhodesian Front prime minister from 1964, signed the UDI at 11 am on 11 November 1965 — Armistice Day — after Britain refused independence without guaranteed progress to majority rule.

The 1979 agreement that ended Rhodesia's guerrilla war was signed at which London venue?

Lancaster House, in London's St James's, hosted the talks Lord Carrington chaired from September 1979; the agreement was signed there on 21 December 1979, and Britain briefly resumed rule under Governor Christopher Soames.

In what year did Zimbabwe gain internationally recognised independence?

Zimbabwe became independent on 18 April 1980 after Robert Mugabe's ZANU won 57 of the 80 common-roll seats in February's election; Julius Nyerere told Mugabe he had inherited 'a jewel'.

What was Gukurahundi?

Gukurahundi was the 1980s massacre campaign in Matabeleland: from January 1983 the Fifth Brigade, answering directly to Mugabe, killed thousands of Ndebele civilians accused of backing 'dissidents', until the Unity Accord ended it.

Which country trained Zimbabwe's notorious Fifth Brigade?

North Korea trained the Fifth Brigade under an agreement between Mugabe and Kim Il-sung; North Korean instructors drilled the unit in the Eastern Highlands for about a year before it deployed to Matabeleland in January 1983.

Robert Mugabe switched from prime minister to executive president in which year?

In 1987 Mugabe amended the constitution to abolish the ceremonial presidency and the premiership, becoming executive president on 31 December; that same month ZANU and ZAPU merged under the Unity Accord.

What did the government launch in 2000 that led to the eviction of more than 4,000 white farmers?

The Fast Track Land Reform programme, launched in 2000 after voters rejected a new constitution, saw war veterans and the state seize most of the roughly 4,500 white-owned commercial farms; Zimbabwe became a net food importer.

At hyperinflation's peak in November 2008, monthly inflation reached roughly what?

79.6 billion percent a month was economist Steve Hanke's estimate for November 2008, when prices doubled roughly every 24 hours; the government had stopped publishing official inflation figures after July 2008.

What was the face value of the largest banknote issued during Zimbabwe's hyperinflation?

The notes are now collectors' items; the economy rebounded only after a multi-currency system was adopted in 2009.

Which opposition leader became prime minister in 2009 under a power-sharing deal with Mugabe?

Morgan Tsvangirai, founder of the Movement for Democratic Change, was sworn in as prime minister on 11 February 2009 under the Global Political Agreement, having withdrawn from the violent 2008 run-off.

Which vice-president's sacking triggered the November 2017 coup that ended Mugabe's rule?

Emmerson Mnangagwa, nicknamed 'the Crocodile' after his 1960s Crocodile Gang guerrilla unit, was sacked on 6 November 2017; the army moved on 15 November and he was sworn in as president on 24 November.

Where did Robert Mugabe die in September 2019, aged 95?

Singapore's Gleneagles Hospital, where Mugabe had long travelled for treatment, was where he died on 6 September 2019; his 37 years in power had ended with the November 2017 coup.

How many official languages does Zimbabwe recognise?

16 languages are officially recognised under section 6 of the 2013 constitution, including English, Chewa, Kalanga, Tonga, Venda, Xhosa and sign language, all of which the state must treat equitably.

Zimbabwe lies between which two great rivers?

The Zambezi and Limpopo bound the country: the Zambezi, which plunges over Victoria Falls, forms the northern border with Zambia, while the Limpopo forms the southern border with South Africa.

What is Zimbabwe's highest point, at 2,592 metres in the Eastern Highlands?

Mount Nyangani, in Nyanga National Park, is Zimbabwe's highest point at 2,592 metres; Mount Binga, the highest of the Chimanimani range, lies on the Mozambique border.

What is Zimbabwe's largest national park, home to the lion Cecil?

Hwange National Park, formerly Wankie Game Reserve, covers about 14,600 square kilometres of Matabeleland North and holds one of Africa's largest elephant populations, numbering in the tens of thousands.

Cecil the lion, killed in 2015 in an outcry that went global, was shot with what by an American dentist?

Walter Palmer wounded him with an arrow and finished him with a compound bow 10 to 12 hours later; he had a permit and was never charged.

Cecil Rhodes is buried at 'World's View' in which range of granite hills in Matabeleland?

The Matobo Hills hold Rhodes's grave at World's View, known to the Ndebele as Malindidzimu, and thousands of San rock paintings; they were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.

What geological curiosity, pictured on Zimbabwe's banknotes, is most spectacular in Matabeleland's granite hills?

Balancing rocks — granite boulders weathered into precarious stacks — appear on Zimbabwe's banknotes: the famous 'Banknote Rocks' stand at Epworth, southeast of the capital, while the grandest displays crowd Matabeleland's granite hills.

The Marange fields, discovered in 2006, are one of the world's largest sources of what?

Diamonds: the Marange alluvial fields in Manicaland, opened by a diamond rush in 2006, yielded around 12 million carats in 2012, briefly making Zimbabwe one of the world's largest producers by volume.

What is sadza, the staple of Zimbabwean meals?

Sadza is a thick maize-meal porridge, cooked stiff enough to be rolled into balls by hand and eaten with relishes such as greens, beans, stew or kapenta; the Ndebele call it isitshwala.

The mbira dzavadzimu, central to Shona ceremonies, is what kind of instrument?

A plucked thumb piano: the mbira dzavadzimu ('mbira of the ancestral spirits') carries about 22 metal tines on a hardwood soundboard, plucked with the thumbs and a forefinger, usually inside a calabash resonator called a deze.

Thomas Mapfumo pioneered which politically charged Zimbabwean music genre?

Chimurenga music, named for the Shona word for 'struggle' used of the liberation wars, was pioneered by Thomas Mapfumo, who transposed mbira patterns onto electric guitars; his 1989 song 'Corruption' angered the government.

Which Nobel laureate grew up in Southern Rhodesia and set her first novel, 'The Grass Is Singing', there?

Doris Lessing, raised from 1925 on a farm near Banket, left for London in 1949 and published 'The Grass Is Singing' in 1950; she won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007.

Which Zimbabwean writer's 1978 debut 'The House of Hunger' won the Guardian Fiction Prize?

Dambudzo Marechera, expelled from Oxford's New College, published 'The House of Hunger' in 1978 and shared the 1979 Guardian Fiction Prize with Neil Jordan; he died aged 35.

Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry, winner of seven Olympic medals, took up which post in June 2025?

She is the first woman and first African to lead the International Olympic Committee; her golds came in the 200m backstroke in 2004 and 2008.

Zimbabwe became a full member of the International Cricket Council, with Test status, in which year?

In 1992 Zimbabwe was elected the ICC's ninth full member, and in October that year played its inaugural Test against India, a draw in which Dave Houghton scored 121.

Zimbabwean golfer Nick Price won three majors; which of them did he win only once?

He won the PGA Championship twice and the Open at Turnberry, and was ranked world number one in the mid-1990s.

Which city, Zimbabwe's second largest, grew from the last Ndebele king's royal kraal?

Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, takes its name from koBulawayo ('the place of slaughter'), the last Ndebele king's royal kraal founded around 1870; the colonial town was laid out nearby in 1894.

Which two ethnic groups make up about 95% of Zimbabwe's population?

Shona and Ndebele: the Shona, in dialect clusters such as Karanga, Zezuru and Manyika, form the large majority, while the Ndebele, descended from a 19th-century Zulu offshoot, dominate the south-west.

A 2013 ranking put Zimbabwe top in Africa for what, at around 90%?

Adult literacy: a widely cited 2013 ranking put Zimbabwe first in Africa at around 90 percent, credited to the rapid expansion of free primary schooling in the decade after independence.

Zimbabwe's Kariba, shared with Zambia, holds what world record?

Largest man-made reservoir by volume: Lake Kariba holds about 180 cubic kilometres of water behind a dam completed in 1959, whose filling prompted Operation Noah to rescue some 6,000 stranded animals.

From 1953 to 1963 Southern Rhodesia dominated a federation with Northern Rhodesia and which territory?

African opposition, especially in Nyasaland (now Malawi), persuaded Britain to dissolve it; the two northern territories then got majority rule while the south did not.

Which country does NOT border Zimbabwe?

Namibia does not: Zimbabwe's four neighbours are Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa and Botswana, though Namibia's Caprivi Strip comes within about 150 metres at the Kazungula near-quadripoint.

In which year was Zimbabwe suspended from the Commonwealth over farm seizures and vote rigging?

2002: the Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe on 19 March 2002 after observers condemned the presidential election; Mugabe withdrew the country from the organisation in December 2003, and it applied to rejoin in 2018.

Zimbabwe's national anthem, adopted in 1994 after a competition, replaced which song?

'Ishe Komborera Africa', the Shona version of the pan-African hymn 'Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika', served from independence until 'Simudzai Mureza wedu WeZimbabwe', written by Solomon Mutswairo and composed by Fred Changundega, was adopted in 1994.

Roughly what share of Zimbabwe's population is Shona, by the usual estimate?

82%: the Shona, in dialect clusters including Korekore, Zezuru and Ndau, are usually estimated at about four-fifths of the population, with white Zimbabweans now well under 1 percent.

What is the nickname of Zimbabwe's men's national football team?

The Warriors, Zimbabwe's men's football team, made their first Africa Cup of Nations appearance at the 2004 finals in Tunisia, coached by Sunday Chidzambwa.