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Welcome!
Hello! Or, as they say in Zimbabwe, Mauya or Silamukele!
Name of City: Harare
Flag of City:
Country: Zimbabwe
Ambassador to the United States: Ambassador Dr. Machivenyika Mapuranga
Embassy Contact
Address: 1608 New Hampshire Ave
Washington, DC 20009
Telephone: (202) 332-7100
Fax: 202-483-9326
Email
Capital of Country: Harare
National Holiday: April 18 is Zimbabwe’s Independence Day
Flag:
Currency: Zimbabwe Dollar
Population: There are 1,600,000 people in the city itself, and 2,800,111 people in the surrounding urban area.
Latitude & Longitude: 17°51′50″S 31°1′47″E
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Location, Geography, and Climate:
Harare is located in northeastern Zimbabwe. The city is set above the lowlands of the Zambezi River in the north and the Limpopo River in the south. It lies on a high plateau. Harare’s average temperature is 17.95 degrees Celsiuis, due to its high altitude and cool breezes. The city has three main seasons – a warm, wet season from November-April; a cool, dry season from May-August, and a hot, dry season from September-October. Rainfall goes through cycles from year-to-year and varies between wet and dry periods that are 7-10 years long.
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Local time: Harare is 6 hours ahead of Cincinnati; Harare has no Daylight Savings Time in 2008.
The Cincinnati-Harare Connection: Mayor Mark Mallory suspended Cincinnati’s Sister City relationship with Harare on June 27, 2008 in protest of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s actions in the presidential elections and the violence that resulted from those actions. Harare had been Cincinnati’s sister city since 1990.
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History:
Prior to the colonial era, Zimbabwe was inhabited by several different tribes, primarily the Shona and the Ndebele. It was a Shona empire until 1834, when the Ndebele people, fleeing from Zulu, conquered it and renamed it Matabeleland. However, the Shona still account for 82% of the population of Zimbabwe, while the Ndebele only comprise 14%. The colonial period in Zimbabwe began in 1888, when the British colonialist Cecil Rhodes obtained mining rights from the Ndebele, and renamed Matabeleland ‘Southern Rhodesia.’
Harare was founded in 1890 as a fort by a group of settlers under the purview of Cecil Rhodes. They named the city Fort Salisbury after the Marquess of Salisbury, who was the British Prime Minister at the time. It was officially declared a city in 1935. Salisbury was the capital of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland from 1953-1963, and subsequently the capital of Southern Rhodesia, the Republic of Rhodesia, and Zimbabwe Rhodesia – each subsequent name indicating the political convolutions that the country went through in its fight for independence and the ensuing struggles for power. On April 18, 1980, the country finally became recognized as the independent Republic of Zimbabwe, and Salisbury was named its official capital. In 1982, the city was renamed as Harare. The name was taken from a Shona chieftain named Neharawa, although it may also be derived from the world “Haarari,” which means “He does not sleep.”
The Prime Minister at the time of independence, Robert Mugabe, still holds power in Zimbabwe 28 years later. He has been accused of dictatorship and suppression by various human rights groups and governments across the world. The presidential election of 2008 saw new heights of voter intimidation and violent suppression by the ruling party, ZANU-PF.
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Government: The official government site for Harare The current Mayor of Harare is Muchadeyi Masunda, a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party. In March 2008, Emmanuel Chiroto, an MDC party member, won the mayoral seat of Harare; in the same election, the MDC won 45 of 46 local council seats. At the same time, the presidential election between incumbent President Robert Mugabe, the head of the ruling party ZANU-PF, and Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC was sent into a runoff election, even though Tsvangirai had won a majority of the votes. In the weeks leading up to the runoff, violence and voter intimidation was perpetrated by ZANU-PF supporters against MDC party members. Chiroto’s wife and young son were kidnapped, and his wife was murdered. Chiroto then stepped down from the mayoralty and accepted the position of deputy mayor. Masunda was unanimously elected to the mayoral position by the Harare city council on July 2, 2008. The Mayoral position is a non-executive position in Zimbabwe, as a result of political reforms agreed to by the ZANU-PF and MDC.
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Economy:
Harare is Zimbabwe’s main commercial, transportation, and industrial center. Its main products include processed foods, motoer vehicles, textiles, tobacco products, and chemicals. Zimbabwe is currently in an economic crisis, as inflation has skyrocketed and is rising at an annual rate of 2,200,000%.
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Education: The University of Zimbabwe, which is the largest institution of higher learning in Zimbabwe, is located in Harare.
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Religion: Religion in Zimbabwe is a mixture of past and present – 50% of the country has a syncretic belief structure, which means that their faith is an amalgam of Christian and indigenous beliefs. Of the remainder of the population, 25% have purely Christian beliefs, 24% have indigenous beliefs, and 1% are Muslim or other. The Mwari cult is the most-practiced non-Christian religion; it involves ancestor worship.
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Culture: Because of its complicated history, both colonial and pre-colonial, Zimbabwe has many different cultures. Sculpture is a large part of the Zimbabwe art scene, and several sculptors have gained international reputations.
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Recreation: Cricket is the most popular sport in Zimbabwe, while soccer is also played. Rugby and field hockey are popular among the white minority.
Tourism Tips:
Recent Headlines: click here. A list of online newspapers for the country of Zimbabwe can be found at their embassy website.
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Contacts:
Harare Sister City Committee:
tel: (513) 241-8800 push 7
email
Sources:
Websites consulted:
Mapsofworld.com
Geography.howstuffworks.com
Infoplease.com
Harare wikipedia
Zimbabwe wikipedia
Cincinnati.com
Geography.about.com
Ambassade-zimbabwe.com
Culture_of_Zimbabwe
Sport_in_Zimbabwe
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