Harare
Zimbabwe
Lily Kundai Kabade
Welcome to my city Harare!!
I have lived in Harare Zimbabwe my whole life until a year ago in August when l moved to the Netherlands to join the United World College family. l would like to believe that my journey to this Youth Mayors Group started way before its existence. From the constant frustrating nights of analysing the problems that were ever-growing in my country to looking at ways of how l could be of more use to my country. Youth Mayors is a platform that allows me to tackle various issues in not only my city but a worldwide perspective by teaching me the skills to go about it and giving me the opportunity to learn from other cities.
My City
Harare (Salisbury until 1982 ) is the capital of Zimbabwe. The city had around 1.4 million inhabitants in the 2002 census and an estimated 2.8 million people live in the conurbation. Harare is the largest city in the country and also the political and economic centre. The city is a trade centre for tobacco, corn, cotton and citrus fruits. Furthermore, textile, steel and chemicals are manufactured and there is a gold mine nearby. Harare is located at an altitude of 1,483 meters and has a temperate climate.
Harare is home to the University of Zimbabwe, the largest university in the country.
more attractive than most other Southern African capitals, Harare gets a bad rap and unjustly so. While it's certainly not without its problems, overall it's a safe and laid-back city where wide avenues are lined with dusty red earth, and indigenous plants and blooming jacarandas give it a lovely African summertime feel. While it's tempting to rush off to your safari, it's worth hanging around in Harare to sample its fine dining, museums, craft markets and varied bars.
Snapshot
1. The first people of the country were the Bantu-speaking Iron Age farmers that settled in the region around AD 300.
2. Zimbabwe’s former president – Robert Gabriel Mugabe – is one of the oldest and also the longest-serving leaders of a non-royal country in the world. He has served as the leader of Zimbabwe for the past 36 years. He served as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987, and then assumed office as the President of Zimbabwe on 22 December 1987 and resigned from the office on 21st November 2017. He was born on 21 February 1924. Robert Gabriel Mugabe is succeeded by Emmerson Mnangagwa (born 15 September 1942) who assumed office on 24 November 2017.
3. Zimbabwe abandoned its currency and is currently using others’. This happened after the massive inflation that hit the country in 2008. The country abandoned its currency and has been using the U.S. Dollar, the South African Rand, and the Botswana Pula since April 12, 2009.
4. It is illegal in Zimbabwe for the police to impound your vehicle on the road. The only occasion when they can do so is when they ask you to produce your driver’s license.
5. Zimbabwe has won a total of eight medals at the Olympic Games in two sports – hockey (1) and swimming (7). At the 2004 Summer Olympics, in Athens, Greece, Coventry won three Olympic medals: a gold, a silver, and a bronze, while in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing she won four medals: a gold and three silver. A gold medal was won by the women’s national field hockey team in 1980.
6. Zimbabwe is a landlocked plateau country.
