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Bulawayo

City in Zimbabwe

  • 16 min read
  • 14 chapters
Picture taken from 10th Floor Pioneer House
Prince Phumulani Nyoni · Public domain

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Bulawayo was founded by a group led by Gundwane Ndiweni around 1840 as the kraal of Mzilikazi, the Ndebele king and was known as Gibixhegu. His son, Lobengula, succeeded him in the 1860s, and changed the name to koBulawayo and ruled from Bulawayo until 1893, when the settlement was captured by British South Africa Company soldiers during the First Matabele War. That year, the first white settlers arrived and rebuilt the town. The town was besieged by Ndebele warriors during the Second Matabele War. Bulawayo attained municipality status in 1897, and city status in 1943.

Historically, Bulawayo has been the principal industrial centre of Zimbabwe; its factories produce cars and car products, building materials, electronic products, textiles, furniture, and food products. Bulawayo is also the hub of Zimbabwe's rail network and the headquarters of the National Railways of Zimbabwe.

Bulawayo's central business district (CBD) covers 5.4 km2 (2.1 sq mi) in the heart of the city and is surrounded by numerous suburbs. The majority of the city's population belongs to the Ndebele people, with minorities of Shona and other groups, including Coloured and White Zimbabweans. Bulawayo is home to over a dozen colleges and universities, most notably the National University of Science and Technology, Bulawayo Polytechnic College, Zimbabwe School of Mines, Hillside Teachers College, and the United College of Education. The Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, formerly the National Museum, is located in Bulawayo. The city is close to tourist sites such as Matobo National Park and the Khami World Heritage Site.

History

The city was founded by the Ndebele king Lobengula, the son of King Mzilikazi, born of Matshobana, who settled in modern-day Zimbabwe around the 1840s. This followed the Ndebele people's great trek from northern Kwazulu. The name Bulawayo comes from the Ndebele word bulala and it translates to "the one to be killed". It is thought that at the time of the formation of the city there was a civil war. Mbiko ka Madlenya Masuku, a trusted confidant of King Mzilikazi and leader of the Zwangendaba regiment, fought Prince Lobhengula as he did not believe that he was the legitimate heir to the throne. This was because Lobhengula was born to a Swazi mother, and Masuku felt that she was of a lesser class.

At the time Lobengula was a prince fighting to ascend his father's throne. It was common at the time for people to refer to Bulawayo as Bulawayo UmntwaneNkosi, "a place where they are fighting or rising against the prince". The city of Bulawayo coincidentally has a similar name to the capital of the great Zulu warrior king Shaka ka Senzangakhona in Kwazulu, where Mzilikazi and his Khumalo clan and other Nguni people came from.

In the 1860s, the city was influenced by European intrigue. Many colonial powers cast covetous eyes on Bulawayo and the land surrounding it because of its strategic location. Britain made skilful use of private initiative in the shape of Cecil Rhodes and the Chartered Company to disarm the suspicion of her rivals. Lobengula once described Britain as a chameleon and himself as the fly.

During the 1893 First Matabele War, British South Africa Company (BSAC) troops invaded and forced King Lobengula to evacuate his followers, after first detonating munitions and setting fire to the town. BSAC troops and white settlers occupied the ruins. On 4 November 1893, Leander Starr Jameson declared Bulawayo a settlement under the rule of the BSAC. Cecil Rhodes ordered the new settlement to be founded on the ruins of Lobengula's royal kraal, a typical action by a conquering power. This is where the State House stands today.

In 1897, the new town of Bulawayo acquired the status of municipality in the British colonial system, and Lt. Col. Harry White was appointed as one of the first mayors.

Siege

At the outbreak of the Second Matabele War, in March 1896, Bulawayo was besieged by Ndebele forces. The settlers established a laager here for defensive purposes. The Ndebele had experienced the brutal effectiveness of the Maxim guns employed by BSAC troops in the First Matabele War, so they never mounted a significant attack against Bulawayo, although over 10,000 Ndebele warriors gathered to surround the town. Rather than wait passively for attack, the settlers mounted patrols, called the Bulawayo Field Force, under Frederick Selous and Frederick Russell Burnham. These patrols rode out to rescue any surviving settlers in the countryside and attacked the Ndebele. In the first week of fighting, 20 men of the Bulawayo Field Force were killed and 50 were wounded. An unknown number of Ndebele were killed and wounded.

During the siege, conditions in Bulawayo quickly deteriorated. By day, settlers could go to homes and buildings in the town, but at night they were forced to seek shelter in the much smaller laager. Nearly 1,000 women and children were crowded into the small area and false alarms of attacks were common. The Ndebele neglected to cut the telegraph lines connecting Bulawayo to Mafikeng. The settlers and forces appealed for relief, and the BSAC sent additional troops from Salisbury and Fort Victoria (now Harare and Masvingo respectively) 500 kilometres (300 miles) to the north, and from Kimberley and Mafeking 1,000 km (600 mi) to the south. Once the relief forces arrived in late May 1896, the siege was broken. An estimated 50,000 Ndebele retreated into their stronghold of the Matobo Hills near Bulawayo. Not until October 1896 did the Ndebele finally surrender their arms to the BSAC.

Modern era

By the late 1930s, Bulawayo was no longer the country's biggest city. Influence and activity moved eastwards to the other cities, especially Salisbury, a trend which continues up to the present day. Despite this, after the Second World War, prosperity and population growth revived, as the city became an industrial powerhouse, peaking during the Federal years as new markets opened in Malawi and Zambia. However, Bulawayo trailed the development of other cities notably, Johannesburg, Harare and Cape Town during the same period. In 1940, the Royal Air Force (RAF) launched the Empire Air Training Scheme, and facilitated the construction of multiple bases of the Rhodesian Air Training Group. Bulawayo had ideal conditions, which included having overall flat terrain and being 1,200 meters high in elevation, which made it malaria-free. Three RAF Stations were subsequently established, which included RAF Heany, RAF Kumalo, and RAF Induna, and were all equipped with a hangar and landing ground. Additionally, two bombing ranges were established in the outskirts of Bulawayo, and were named Miasi and Myelbo. In 1943, Bulawayo received city status.

By 1992, population decline and slow growth were beginning to occur which disproportionately affected heavy industry. In response, Bulawayo sought to re-invent itself as a 'heritage city', with its wide main streets refurbished and its Victorian architecture and industrial heritage preserved. Institutions such as the Bulawayo Railway Museum and Nesbitt Castle were restored. The city was also recognised as a centre of excellence in tertiary education and research, as the National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe was formed and expanded and other colleges growth also accelerated.

Since the late 20th century, Bulawayo has suffered a sharp fall in living standards coinciding with the protracted economic crisis affecting the country. The main challenges the city faces include underinvestment, declining infrastructure, de-industrialisation and the effects of corruption and nepotism. Much of the city's educated workers have migrated south to neighbouring South Africa or further afield to the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Public service concerns have become steadily more acute, with particular concern in the health sector from a growing shortage of experienced doctors and nurses. As a result, the city faced an avoidable cholera outbreak in 2008. Though the city is the centre of the southern population generally categorized as the Matebele, the population includes various ethnicities, as well as a small number of expats, mostly from neighbouring countries.

The Central Business District has the widest roads. These were designed to accommodate the ox-drawn carts, and to allow them to make a turn in the street, that were used as a primary means of transport when the town was planned and erected.

Bulawayo is nicknamed the "City of Kings" or "kontuthu ziyathunqa"—a Ndebele phrase for "smoke arising". This name arose from the city's historically large industrial base. The large cooling towers of the coal-powered electricity generating plant situated in the city centre once used to exhaust steam and smoke over the city.

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