Masvingo Province – History
Masvingo, previously named Victoria, is a province in southeastern Zimbabwe. It has a population of 1.638 million as of the 2022 census, ranking fifth out of Zimbabwe's ten provinces. Established by the British South Africa Company, it was one of the five original provinces of Southern Rhodesia. In 1982, two years after Zimbabwean independence, it was renamed Masvingo Province. The province is divided into seven districts, including Masvingo District, which contains the provincial capital Masvingo City.
Masvingo Province is bordered by Matabeleland South Province to the southwest, Midlands Province to the northwest, Manicaland Province to the northeast, and Mozambique to the southeast. It has an area of 56,566 square kilometres (21,840 mi2), equal to 14.48% of the total area of Zimbabwe. It is the third-largest in area of Zimbabwe's provinces, after Matabeleland North and Mashonaland West. A diverse province, the Karanga, a Shona subgroup, form the majority, with communities of Tsonga people in the southeast and Ndebele people in the west. Its economy is largely centred around agriculture and tourism. Masvingo Province is home to the Great Zimbabwe ruins, a World Heritage Site and major tourist attraction.
The town of Fort Victoria was founded in 1890 and was the first large settlement to be established by the Pioneer Column of the British South Africa Company which makes it the oldest town in Zimbabwe. It was named in honour of Queen Victoria.
The province is largely populated by members of the Karanga tribe, who are a sub-group of the Shona speaking tribes that also include the Zezuru, Manyika, and Ndau. The province is in the drier lowveldt area in the south of Zimbabwe but however, the boundaries have undergone some changes in the 1980s. From white settlement until 2000 most of the area was devoted to cattle ranching, with mining and sugar cane growing (irrigated from Lake Mutirikwi), and communal areas where subsistence farming is carried out. With the land reforms of the early 21st century large scale cattle and mixed farms are being redistributed to small farmers.