Masvingo Province: History
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.