Masvingo

About Masvingo

Masvingo, formerly known as Fort Victoria, is a city in southeastern Zimbabwe and the capital of Masvingo Province. The city lies close to Great Zimbabwe, the national monument from which the country takes its name and close to Lake Mutirikwi, its recreational park, the Kyle dam and the Kyle National Reserve that is home to a range of animal species. It is mostly populated by the Karanga people who form the biggest branch of the various Shona tribes in Zimbabwe.

The city was known as Fort Victoria until 1982, when its name was briefly changed to Nyanda, after a mountain about 10 kilometres south of the town, on the Masvingo to Beitbridge Road. That led to protests, because "nyanda" means "one who has lice", and public sentiment was that Masvingo would be more reflective of the history of the city. Within a few months, the name was changed to Masvingo, which means "fort" in Shona, and the Great Zimbabwe, which is essentially a walled fort, is often referred to as "Masvingo eZimbabwe" or sometimes "Masvingo eVitori", a translation of the original name.

Masvingo is the oldest colonial settlement in Zimbabwe which developed around an encampment established in 1890, when the...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.