48 Fun Facts About Zimbabwe

What is the capital and largest city of Zimbabwe?

Harare began in 1890 as a fort raised by Cecil Rhodes's Pioneer Column; its present name, adopted in 1982, is said to honour the Shona chief Neharawa, 'he who does not sleep'.

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'.

Great Zimbabwe grew rich sending gold and ivory to merchants on which stretch of African coast?

The Swahili coast: gold from the plateau went out through ports such as Sofala and made Kilwa the richest of the coastal trading cities, while Chinese porcelain and glass beads came back.

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

Of dry stone, without mortar: nothing but the weight and fit of the granite blocks holds them, yet the Great Enclosure's wall, up to 11 metres high, has stood since the 13th and 14th centuries.

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

A bird: eight such soapstone birds once stood on monoliths at Great Zimbabwe, and the emblem outlived the change of regime, having already flown on Rhodesia's flag and appeared on its coins.

Early Portuguese writers believed the gold of the Zimbabwean plateau had once enriched which biblical king?

Solomon: Portuguese writers took the plateau's goldfields for the biblical Ophir, and the legend later sent the explorer Karl Mauch searching there, which is how he reached the ruins of Great Zimbabwe.

Which general broke with the Zulu king Shaka in the 1820s and founded the Ndebele kingdom in Matabeleland?

Mzilikazi, a Khumalo chief who served Shaka, is said to have defied him by keeping captured cattle, then led his followers north for years before settling in what became Matabeleland.

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

Lobengula signed the Rudd Concession in October 1888 and soon disavowed it, accusing Rhodes's agents of deceit; Rhodes still used it to win a royal charter for his chartered company.

Which British officer learned woodcraft from the American frontiersman Frederick Burnham in Matabeleland in 1896?

Robert Baden-Powell rode on patrol with Burnham during the 1896 Ndebele rising, and the woodcraft he picked up went into the Boy Scouts he later founded.

In 1922, the colony that became Zimbabwe voted against joining which neighbouring country?

South Africa: Southern Rhodesia's settlers chose their own government instead, and the next year Britain took the territory over from Cecil Rhodes's chartered company as a self-governing colony.

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

Ian Smith, prime minister since 1964, signed the declaration on 11 November 1965 after days of talks with Harold Wilson failed: Britain would grant independence only with a fair share of power for the black majority.

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.

Which music star played Zimbabwe's independence celebrations in 1980?

Bob Marley and the Wailers played Rufaro Stadium on independence night; a year earlier he had released 'Zimbabwe', a song cheering on the fight against white rule in Rhodesia.

What was Gukurahundi?

Gukurahundi was a 1980s massacre campaign in Matabeleland: from early 1983 the Fifth Brigade killed thousands of Ndebele civilians, and it stopped only when the 1987 Unity Accord folded the opposition party into Mugabe's.

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.

Who was Zimbabwe's ceremonial first president, replaced by Mugabe in 1987?

Canaan Banana, a Methodist minister, was head of state from independence until Mugabe rewrote the constitution and took the office, now an executive one, for himself.

What name did Zimbabwe's government give the programme of white-owned farm seizures it launched in 2000?

Fast Track Land Reform followed Mugabe's defeat in a February 2000 referendum on a new constitution: within weeks war veterans and squatters were occupying hundreds of white-owned farms with government backing.

At the peak of Zimbabwe's hyperinflation in November 2008, prices were doubling roughly how often?

Every day: economist Steve Hanke put the doubling time at about 24.7 hours, and within months Zimbabwe had abandoned its own dollar for foreign currencies.

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

100 trillion dollars: the note carried fourteen zeros, the most ever printed on a banknote, and within three months of its issue Zimbabwe had stopped using its own currency.

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', was sacked on 6 November 2017 and fled abroad; the army moved about a week later, and by 24 November he was back and sworn in as president.

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.

Zimbabwe lies between which two great rivers?

Zambezi and Limpopo: the Zambezi marks the northern border with Zambia and the Limpopo the southern one; Cecil Rhodes wanted the land between them called Zambesia, but it took his own name instead.

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

Mount Nyangani, long written Inyangani, is a walk rather than a climb, but fog can close in fast, and several hikers who lost their way on it have never been found.

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

Hwange, founded as a game reserve in 1928, is Zimbabwe's largest park; wardens pump underground water into its pans through the dry season, and its elephant herd has grown far beyond what the land would naturally carry.

Cecil the lion, whose killing in 2015 caused a global outcry, was first shot with what by an American dentist?

A bow and arrow: Walter Palmer wounded Cecil with an arrow and the lion was tracked and killed hours later; as the outcry grew, three big US airlines stopped carrying big-game trophies.

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

The Matobo Hills hold Rhodes's grave on Malindidzimu, a summit sacred as a place of spirits; in 2012 war veterans demanded his remains be dug up and sent to Britain, and Mugabe's officials refused.

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 in eastern Zimbabwe, scene of a mineral rush in 2006, became a major source of what?

Diamonds: after some 10,000 illegal miners rushed Marange in 2006 the state took the fields over, and reports of abuses by its security forces led campaigners to demand the stones be kept off world markets.

What is the Zimbabwean food sadza?

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: its metal keys are fixed to a wooden board, and players add bottle tops or shells so that it buzzes, a sound they treat as essential to the music.

Thomas Mapfumo pioneered which politically charged Zimbabwean music genre?

Chimurenga, a Shona word for struggle, named the style Mapfumo built by moving mbira lines onto electric guitar; Rhodesia's government jailed him without charge in 1979 over one of his songs.

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

Doris Lessing left Southern Rhodesia for London in 1949 and published 'The Grass Is Singing' a year later; after a visit in 1956 the colony banned her for attacking white minority rule.

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?

Presidency of the IOC: Coventry won the vote on the first ballot against six rivals, among them Sebastian Coe, and became the first woman and the first African to lead the Olympic movement.

In 1992 the International Cricket Council made Zimbabwe the ninth country to hold which status?

Test status came nine years after Zimbabwe stunned Australia in its first World Cup match in 1983; the country played its first Test at home to India in October 1992.

Which Zimbabwean golfer won three majors in the 1990s and reached world number one?

Nick Price won the 1992 and 1994 PGA Championships and the 1994 Open, where a 50-foot eagle putt on the 71st hole made up for the three-shot lead he had let slip at the 1982 Open.

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

Bulawayo grew beside the royal town of the last Ndebele king, which was left in flames as Rhodes's company troops closed in during 1893; the settlers then laid out their own town nearby.

Which ZAPU leader, nicknamed 'Father Zimbabwe', was sacked by Mugabe in 1982 and later became his vice-president?

Joshua Nkomo fled into exile in 1983, fearing for his life, then came home to merge his party into Mugabe's in 1987, a pact that ended with the old rivals as president and vice-president.

Which Scottish missionary named Victoria Falls after his queen in 1855?

David Livingstone, the first European recorded at the falls, saw them in November 1855 from an island that now bears his name, and named them for Queen Victoria.

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

Largest man-made reservoir by volume: Lake Kariba holds about 180 cubic kilometres behind a dam finished in 1959, and as it filled, Operation Noah ferried thousands of stranded animals off the shrinking islands.

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's Caprivi Strip reaches almost to Zimbabwe at Kazungula, where four countries all but meet?

Namibia: the tip of its Caprivi Strip stops about 150 metres short of Zimbabwe at Kazungula, so Zimbabwe has four land neighbours and Namibia, so near, is not one of them.

After its disputed 2002 election, Zimbabwe was suspended from which body, quitting it in 2003?

The Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe after observers condemned the vote; when the suspension was extended, Mugabe pulled the country out, and it applied to rejoin only in 2018, after he had gone.

Zimbabwe's first national anthem, used until 1994, was a Shona version of which famous African song?

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika, sung in Shona as 'Ishe Komborera Africa', served from 1980 until 1994, when a national competition replaced the South African hymn with a song Zimbabweans had written themselves.

Victoria Falls is known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya, a name that means what?

The smoke that thunders: the name describes the towering spray and the roar of the Zambezi dropping about 108 metres, and it has stayed in everyday use beside the English name given in 1855.

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

The Warriors reached their first Africa Cup of Nations in 2004, but FIFA threw them out of 2018 World Cup qualifying before a ball was kicked because their federation had not paid a former coach.