Manicaland

Manicaland is Zimbabwe's mountain province, the eastern edge where the plateau rises into the Nyanga, Bvumba and Chimanimani ranges along the Mozambique border. It takes its name from the Manyika, whose kingdom sold gold to the Swahili coast for centuries before Portugal and the British South Africa Company split it between them in 1890. The tea on its slopes goes back to a box of seed smuggled out of India, and the hills still carry the marks of the liberation war and of Cyclone Idai.

1. 15th century

   Late Iron Age farmers at Ziwa built stone terraces along the contours of the hills, pit structures, hill forts and furnaces for smelting and forging iron. Ziwa was made a national monument in 1946 and the site covers 3,337 hectares. source

2. about 1500 to 1890

   The Manyika kingdom, ruled by a Chikanga, sold gold to the Swahili towns on the coast, and in the late 1500s the Portuguese set up a trade fair there with the approval of Mutapa, its overlord. Manyika broke free of Mutapa in the early 1600s, was conquered in the 1690s by Changamire Dombo of the Rozvi, who installed the first ruler of the Mutasa dynasty, and in the 1840s and 1850s paid tribute to Soshangane's Gaza kingdom. In 1890 it was split between Portugal and the British South Africa Company. source

3. 1890 to 1891

   The British South Africa Company's men fought the Portuguese at Massi Kessi (Macequece), just over today's border from Mutare, in November 1890 and again in May 1891. The Portuguese abandoned their fort there, and the Manika treaty of June 1891 gave the company control of Manica. source

4. 1893

   Thomas Moodie led a trek of mostly Afrikaner farmers from the Orange Free State, who left Bethlehem in May 1892. They settled on 4 January 1893, and Moodie founded the town of Melsetter, named after his family's ancestral home in Orkney. source

5. 1896

   In the First Chimurenga, the 1896 rising against company rule, Chief Mangwende attacked the young settlement at Rusape. At Gwindingwi the British executed Chief Chingaira Makoni by firing squad and beheaded him in front of his people. His head was taken to England. source

6. 1898

   A narrow-gauge railway from Beira reached Umtali (Mutare) on 4 February 1898. The line was later rebuilt to the wider 1,067 mm gauge. source

7. 1965 to 1980

   Rhodesia's white minority government declared independence in 1965, and in the liberation war that followed guerrillas moved through the Chimanimani passes between Zimbabwe and their camps in Mozambique. They mined local roads; Rhodesian forces mined the passes heavily in turn, and decades later those mines are still a hazard, worst after heavy rain. Independence came in 1980. source

8. 15 March 2019

   Cyclone Idai came ashore near Beira on 15 March 2019 and then drifted along the border hills as a weakened depression, dropping 200 to 400 mm of rain on Chimanimani and Chipinge districts. Flash floods killed at least 634 people in Zimbabwe, at least 169 of them in Chimanimani, and bodies were found buried as far as 40 km inside Mozambique. Bridges and roads in eastern Chimanimani were destroyed, and in Chipinge town about 600 houses went. source

People

The 2022 census counted 2,037,703 people in Manicaland, more than any province but Harare, and more women than men (1,072,353 to 965,350). Mutare city had 224,804 people, Makoni district 288,441 and Nyanga district 146,227. source

Languages

Nearly everyone speaks Shona, but each district has its own language or dialect, following the old chiefdoms rather than today's boundaries: Manyika in Mutasa, chiUngwe among the Ungwe of Makoni, chiBocha among the Marange people and chiJindwi among the Jindwi of Zimunya south of Mutare, and chiNdau in Chimanimani and Chipinge, where Shangaan is spoken too. source

Tea and coffee

Zimbabwe's first tea bushes were planted near Chipinge in 1924 from a box of seed smuggled out of India, credited to Florence Phillips, a tea planter's wife from Assam. Her family firm's estates, New Year's Gift and Ratelshoek, became the core of Tanganda, still the biggest grower and producer of tea and coffee in the country. source

Trout

Rainbow trout are the most widespread fish in Nyanga's dams and streams, raised in the national parks' own hatcheries such as Nyazengu. Brown and brook trout live only in Lake Gulliver and Purdon Dam. source

Africa University

Africa University, a United Methodist university, opened at Old Mutare, 17 km north-west of the city, in 1992 with 40 students from six countries. By 2021 it had over 2,500 students from 31 African countries. source