Harare

Harare, formerly Salisbury, city, capital of Zimbabwe, in Mashonaland East Province, in the north central part of the country. A modern city, it is the main administrative, commercial, manufacturing, and educational center of the country and serves as a distribution point for the surrounding agricultural and gold-mining area. Major manufactures include processed food, beverages, textiles, clothing, tobacco products, chemicals, construction materials, and wood and plastic items. Harare is the site of the University of Zimbabwe (1955), Gwebi College of Agriculture (1950), a polytechnic institute (1927), a school of art, Zimbabwe College of Music (1948), the National Archives, and the Library of Parliament. Points of interest include the Queen Victoria Museum, featuring zoological and historical exhibits; the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, with a collection of European paintings and traditional and contemporary African art; and Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals.

Established as a military post by the British South Africa Company's Pioneer Column, the community was named Fort Salisbury in honor of Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd marquess of Salisbury, who was then the British prime minister. It developed as a trading center after the railroad from Beira, Mozambique, reached it in 1899. The city, then known as Salisbury, became the capital of the British colony of Southern Rhodesia in 1923, and it served as the capital of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland from 1953 to 1963. The name Harare was widely used for the city beginning in 1982. Population (2002) 1,903,510.