Harare ( hə-RAR-ay) is the capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 982.3 km2 (379.3 sq mi), a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 census, and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metropolitan province. The city is situated in north-eastern Zimbabwe in the country's Mashonaland region. Harare Metropolitan Province incorporates the city and the municipalities of Chitungwiza, Epworth and Ruwa. The city sits on a plateau at an elevation of 1,483 metres (4,865 feet) 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 was named Fort Salisbury after the British 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 Zimbabwe's independence from the United Kingdom. The national parliament moved out of Harare upon completion of the New Parliament Building in Mount Hampden in April 2022.
Being the commercial capital of Zimbabwe, it remains an important center of commerce and government, as well as finance, real estate, manufacturing, healthcare, education, art, culture, tourism, agriculture, mining and regional affairs. Harare has the second-highest number of embassies in Southern Africa and had the African headquarters of the World Health Organization up to 2006.
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. It is also home to Dynamos FC, the club with the most titles in Zimbabwean football.
History
Early colonial history
The Pioneer Column, a military volunteer force of settlers organized 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. Salisbury was declared a municipality in 1897, and it became a city in 1935.
At the time of the city's founding, its site and surroundings were poorly drained. The earliest development was on sloping ground along the left bank of a stream, in an area where the Julius Nyerere Way industrial road runs today. The first area to be fully drained was near the head of the stream and was named Causeway. Causeway is now the site of many important government buildings, including the Senate House and the Office of the Prime Minister. After the position was abolished in January 1988, the office was renamed for the use of the President.
Salisbury was the seat of the British South Africa Company administrator and became the capital of the self-governing British colony of Southern Rhodesia in 1923.
Post-war period
In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Salisbury expanded rapidly, boosted by its designation as the capital of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. This growth 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, Southern Africa and, to a lesser extent, Southern Europe. According to the US Department of State, more than half of white Zimbabweans arrived in Zimbabwe after WW2. The rapid rise of motor vehicle ownership and the investment in road development greatly accelerated the outward sprawl of suburbs such as Alexandra Park and Mount Pleasant. At the same time, mostly black suburbs like Highfield suffered from overcrowding as their populations boomed.
The optimism and prosperity of this period proved to be short-lived, as the Federation collapsed, which hindered the city's prosperity.
1960s and 1970s
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was dissolved in 1963. Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front government declared Rhodesia independent from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965, with Salisbury retained as the capital. Smith's Rhodesia later became the short-lived state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia; it was not until 18 April 1980 that the country was internationally recognized as independent as the Republic of Zimbabwe.
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". Before it was renamed in 1982, the black residential area now known as Mbare was called "Harari".
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.
Harare was the location of several international summits during this period, such as the 8th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in September 1986 and the 1991 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The latter produced the Harare Declaration, dictating the membership criteria of the Commonwealth. In 1998, Harare was the host city of the 8th Assembly of the World Council of Churches.
However, by 1992, Harare began to experience an economic downturn and the government responded by enacting neoliberal reforms. These policies provoked a boom in banking, finance and agriculture, but also led to significant job losses in manufacturing, thereby greatly increasing unemployment and income inequality. Domestic firms struggled to compete with imports, leading to the collapse of several institutions, particularly in the textile industry.
Economic difficulties and hyperinflation (1999–2008)
In the early 21st century, Harare was adversely affected by the political and economic crises that plagued Zimbabwe, particularly following the contested 2002 presidential election and 2005 parliamentary elections. The elected council was replaced by a government-appointed commission due to alleged inefficiency. Still, 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 Financial Gazette described the city in an editorial as a "sunshine city-turned-sewage farm". In 2009, Harare was voted the world's toughest city to live in according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's livability poll, which factors in stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. The situation was unchanged in 2011, according to the same poll.
Operation Murambatsvina
In May 2005, the Zimbabwean government demolished shanties, illegal vending sites, and backyard cottages in Harare, Epworth and other cities in Operation Murambatsvina ("Drive Out Trash"). It was widely alleged that the true purpose of the campaign was to make sure shanty towns would not develop in any urban areas that might favor the 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 its actions were 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 poor-quality concrete housing.
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 livable 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, starting in the central business district, at a cost of $15,000,000.
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 and uneven economic growth. There has nonetheless been substantial international investment and speculation in the city's financial and property markets. Development on the urban fringes of the city has occurred in areas such as Borrowdale, Glen Lorne, The Grange, Mount Pleasant Heights, as well as in the new suburbs of Hogerty Hill, Shawasha Hills, Bloomingdale and Westlea. Urban sprawl has also expanded into the nearby areas of 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. This speculation 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.
Beginning in 2006, the city's growth extended into its northern and western fringes, beyond the city's urban growth boundary. Predictions that by 2025 the metropolitan area population will reach 4 to 5 million have sparked concerns over unchecked sprawl and unregulated development. The concentration of real estate development in Harare has also come at the expense of other Zimbabwean cities such as Gweru and particularly Bulawayo, 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. The top end of the market is completely dominated by wealthy or dual-citizen Zimbabweans (see Zimbabwean diaspora and Zimbabweans in the United Kingdom), Chinese and South African buyers. Despite gentrification and speculation, the country's and city's unemployment rates remain high.
In 2020, Harare was classified as a Gamma city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. In 2026, the suburbs of Harare were affected by widespread flooding.
Demographics
As of 2026, Harare has a population of 2,504,409 in its metropolitan area. Some 90% of people in Harare are Shona-speaking people of African descent. Harare is also home to many Ndebele and Kalanga people as well. Many white Zimbabweans also live in the Harare metropolitan area.
Harare has always has a relatively large Black Zimbabwean population since the city's foundation, most of whom were drawn from across the country to the capital for better opportunities. African residents composed about 50% of the city's total population between 1914 and 1970 Since 1980, that number has grown to about 90 percent as the black population grew and the number of whites declined, while minority groups like Asians and Coloured Zimbabweans have either stagnated or grown slowly.
As of the 2022 census, there were an estimated 81,734 immigrants living in Harare. Major sources of immigration include Malawi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Zambia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, parts of East Africa and China, with a large concentration of Malawians in high density areas like Highfields and Mbare.
Geography
Topography
The city sits on one of the higher parts of the Highveld plateau of Zimbabwe at an elevation of 1,483 metres (4,865 feet). The original landscape could be described as a "parkland" or wild place. The soils of Harare are varied: the northern and central areas largely have reddish brown, granular clay; some of the southern parts have gray-brown sand over pale, loamy sand or sandy loam.
Suburbs
The City of Harare is divided into suburbs, outside of which are independent municipalities such as Epworth, Mount Hampden, Norton, Ruwa, and Chitungwiza, which are still located within the greater metropolitan province.
The central business district of Harare is characterized by wide streets and a mix of historic, post-war, and modern buildings. Downtown sights include the Kopje Africa Unity Square, the Harare Gardens, the National Gallery, the August House parliamentary buildings, and the National Archives. Causeway, a road and sub-neighbourhood of central Harare, is a busy workaday area that acts as the city's "embassy row" (along with Belgravia to the north-east) in which numerous embassies, diplomatic missions, research institutes, and other international organizations are concentrated. Additionally, many government ministries and museums, such as the Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences, are located here.
Rotten Row is a sub-district of downtown Harare that begins at the intersection of Prince Edward Street and Samora Machel Avenue and runs to the flyover where it borders Mbare on Cripps Road. Rotten Row was named after a road in London of the same name. The name "Rotten Row" is an altered form of the French phrase "Route du Roi," the King's Road. It is known as Harare's legal district, home to the Harare Magistrate's Court, the city's central library, and the ZANU-PF building, along with numerous law offices. The neighbourhood also lends its name to the eponymous book by Petina Gappah published in 2016.
The northern and north-eastern suburbs of Harare are generally home to its more affluent residents, including former president Robert Mugabe, who lived in Borrowdale Brooke. These northern suburbs are often referred to as "dales" because of the common suffix "-dale" found in some suburbs such as Avondale, Greendale, and Borrowdale. The dwellings are mostly low-density homes of 3 bedrooms or more, and these are usually occupied by families. Borrowdale in particular is home to some of the most extensive real estate developments in the city. The north-western suburb of Emerald Hill is named so either due to the green colour of the tree-covered hill or its Irish connections — many of the roads in the suburb have Irish names, such as Dublin, Belfast, Wicklow, and Cork.
To the east of Harare's city center, notable suburbs include Arcadia, Newlands, Arlington, and others. Newlands was named by Colin Duff, Zimbabwe's agricultural secretary in the 1920s. Arlington is a newer suburb adjacent to Harare International Airport and was previously owned by William Harvey Brown, a former mayor of Salisbury. Brown was originally from Iowa and joined the occupying British South Africa Company forces in the 1890s to collect specimens for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
The southern portions of Harare have historically been more industrial areas, often home to most of its African population as well as some lower-class European-descended populations. Willowvale, is perhaps best known for the 1988 Willowgate scandal, which implicated several members of the ZANU-PF party in a scheme where automobiles were illegally resold by various government officials. Harare's south-west also contains many high-density townships, which were set up by the government from the 1930s onwards. For example, Highfield, established in 1930, is the second-oldest high-density suburb in Harare. Highfield was created as a place for black workers to settle, providing labor for the industrial areas of Southerton and Workington.
Climate
Under the Köppen climate classification, Harare has a subtropical highland climate (Köppen Cwb), an oceanic climate variety. Because the city is situated on a plateau, its high altitude and cool south-easterly airflow cause it to have a climate that is cooler and drier than a tropical or subtropical climate.
The average annual temperature is 17.95 °C (64.3 °F), rather low for the tropics. This is due to its high altitude position and the prevalence of cool south-easterly airflow.
There are three main seasons: a warm, wet summer from November to March/April; a cool, dry winter from May to August (corresponding to winter in the Southern Hemisphere); and a warm to hot, dry season in September/October. Daily temperature ranges are about 7–22 °C (45–72 °F) in July (the coldest month), about 15–29 °C (59–84 °F) in October (the hottest month) and about 16–26 °C (61–79 °F) in January (midsummer). The hottest year on record was October 26, 2011 with 37 °C (98.6 °F) and the coldest year was 1965 with 17.13 °C (62.8 °F). in the rainy season heat index exceeds 37°c usually & a cool dry season from may to August hot dry season from September & October
The average annual rainfall is about 1,250 mm (49 in) in the southwest, rising to 1,255 mm (49.4 in)on the higher land of the northeast (from around Borrowdale to Glen Lorne) From Late October/November to April mainly from the NW Monsoon congo airmass & the easterly trade winds coming from the Indian ocean the city is probe to flooding & very heavy convective thunderstorms especially peak rainy season December to February .Very little rain typically falls during the period of May to September, although sporadic showers occur most years. Rainfall varies a great deal from year to year and follows cycles of wet and dry periods from 7 to 10 years long. Records begin in October 1890 but all three Harare stations stopped reporting in early 2004.
The climate supports the natural vegetation of open woodland. The most common tree of the local region is the msasa or Brachystegia spiciformis whose wine-red leaves are most visible in the city in late August. Two introduced species of trees, the jacaranda and the flamboyant from South America and Madagascar respectively, were introduced during the colonial era and contribute to the city's colour palette with their lilac and red blossoms. The two species flower in October/November and are planted on alternating streets in the capital. Bougainvillea is prevalent in Harare as well. Some trees from Northern Hemisphere middle latitudes are also cultivated, including American sweetgum, English oak, Japanese oak and Spanish oak.
Economy
Harare is Zimbabwe's leading financial, commercial, and communications centre, as well as an international trade centre for tobacco, maize, cotton, and citrus fruits. Manufacturing of products including textiles, steel, and chemicals is also economically significant, as is the trade of precious minerals such as gold, diamonds and platinum. Early investor optimism following the inauguration of the Mnangagwa government in 2017 has since largely subsided due to the slow pace of reforms aimed at making Harare and Zimbabwe more business-friendly. The economy suffered high inflation and frequent power outages in 2019, which further hampered investment, and the poor implementation of adequate monetary reforms alongside deficit reduction attempts had a similar effect. Although the government has repeatedly stressed its commitments to improving transparency, increasing the ease of doing business, and fighting corruption, progress remains limited under the Mnangagwa administration.
Harare experienced a real estate boom in the 2000s and early 2010s, particularly in the wealthy northern suburbs, with prices rising dramatically over the last decade despite challenges in other sectors of the economy. This boom was largely fueled by members of the Zimbabwean diaspora and by speculation, with investors hedging against the local currency. However, the once-growing market began to cool off due to a 2019 hike in interest rates and the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving a number of projects unfinished.
Another challenge to Harare's economy is the persistent emigration of highly educated and skilled residents to the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand, largely due to the economic downturn and political unrest. The city's brain drain has led to declining numbers of local entrepreneurs, an overstretched and declining middle class, and a dearth of employment opportunities outside the informal and public sector. In addition, the city's working-class residents are increasingly moving to nearby South Africa and Botswana, though they are readily replaced by less well-off rural migrants. However, despite over a decade of neglect, the city's infrastructure and human capital still compares favourably with cities in other parts of Africa and Latin America. It remains to be seen whether the current government can entice its diverse and well-educated Zimbabwean diaspora, numbering some 4 to 7 million people, to invest in the economy, let alone consider returning.
Shopping and retail
Locally produced art, handicrafts and souvenirs can be purchased at locations including Doon Estate, Uwminsdale, Avondale Market and Mbare Musika. Msasa Park and Umwinsdale in particular host a number of galleries that produce high-quality Shona soapstone sculptures and textiles, such as Patrick Mavros Studios, which has another gallery in Knightsbridge, London. International brands are generally less common in Harare than in European cities. However, conventional and luxury shopping can be found on Fife Avenue, Sam Nujoma (Union) Avenue, Arundel Village, Avondale, Borrowdale, Eastgate, Westgate and Sam Levy's Village. Virtually all luxury shopping is concentrated in the wealthier northern suburbs, particularly Borrowdale.
Transportation
Harare is a relatively young city, mostly growing during the country's post-Federation and post-independence booms. It was also segregated along racial and class lines until 1976. As a result, Harare today is a mostly low-density urban area geared towards private motorists, lacking a convenient public transportation system. Very little investment has been made to develop an effective and integrated public transportation system, leaving a significant number of the city's residents dependent on the city's informal minibus taxis. The rise of local ridesharing apps such as GTaxi and Hwindi has partly eased pressure on the city's transportation system, but such rides are still too expensive for most working people to use. In addition, bus services are also available but they are mostly geared towards intercity travel and recreation than journeys within Harare itself.