Norton

Norton is a working town 40 km west of Harare (Salisbury) on the Bulawayo road and railway, and most visitors only see it through the windscreen. It carries the name of a settler family killed in the 1896 rising, grew around a railway siding and a 1960s factory zone, and took a beating when the economy collapsed in the late 2000s. What brings people off the highway is music and water: Oliver Mtukudzi's arts centre in town, and Lake Chivero with its bird sanctuary down the road towards Harare.

1. 1890s to 1896

   The Norton family farmed here from the 1890s. They were killed in 1896 in the First Chimurenga, the armed rising against settler rule, and the town later took their name. source

2. June 1896 to 1898

   The Shona rising broke out on 17 June 1896 when the Hwata dynasty attacked the Alice Mine at Mazowe. Company forces took the Shona strongholds one by one with Maxim guns until October 1897, and the spirit mediums Nehanda Nyakasikana and Kaguvi Gumboreshumba, who had helped lead the rising, were captured and executed in 1898. source

3. 1914

   The railway put in a siding here on the Salisbury to Bulawayo line, and that siding is where the town actually starts. For decades it was a service centre for the tobacco, maize, wheat and cattle farms around it. source

4. 1941 to 1945

   RAF Norton opened in late 1941, the last air station to open in Southern Rhodesia, as part of the Rhodesian Air Training Group, where Commonwealth pilot cadets learned to fly in Tiger Moths, Harvards, Oxfords and Cornells. The Central Flying School trained flying instructors here from September 1941, the station was ordered closed in December 1944 and the school disbanded in October 1945. source

5. 1952

   Lake McIlwaine, now Lake Chivero, opened to the public in 1952 after about two and a half years of building. The 400 m wall on the Manyame River holds back Harare's main water supply. source

6. 1960s to 2000s

   Water close by, and an intake point from the Kariba hydroelectric dam to the national grid just outside town, made Norton an industrial centre. From the 1960s it got a big pulp and paper mill, a brewery and a string of factories. The economic crisis of the late 2000s hit them badly, and Norton today is as much a commuter town for Harare as an industrial one. source

7. 2000 to 2009

   Land seizures began in 2000, and the Kuimba Shiri bird sanctuary on Lake Chivero says it was targeted 30 to 40 times before Robert Mugabe endorsed it. When the economy collapsed in 2009 and hyperinflation reached 500 billion percent, many of its birds starved, and the owner sold vehicles and a tractor to feed the rest. source

8. October 2016

   The Norton by-election of October 2016 went to Temba Mliswa, standing as an independent, after the seat had been held by Christopher Mutsvangwa of ZANU PF. Richard Tsvangirai has held it since the 2023 election. source

Language

Norton is Shona country, and the dialect around Harare is Zezuru, which standard written Shona is based on. Shona has about 9.6 million first-language speakers and millions more who use it as a second language, so a greeting in Shona goes a long way here. source

Tuku and Pakare Paye

Oliver 'Tuku' Mtukudzi, one of Africa's most famous musicians, put his own savings into an arts centre on a three-hectare plot in 2004, knocking down an old factory to build it. Pakare Paye means roughly 'same old place' in Shona, and he ran it with no fees, no tutors and no curriculum, a place for young musicians who often got no support for it at home. source

OMIFA in September

The Oliver Mtukudzi International Festival of the Arts started at Pakare Paye in 2024 and is held in the week of his birthday, 22 September. The 2025 edition opened with workshops and a children's showcase from more than 20 schools in Norton and nearby. source