Harare: From a European Settler "Sunshine City" to a "Zhingzhong" African City

Fifteen years after Zimbabwe’s political independence and Black majority rule, Rakodi (1995) concluded that Harare, the capital city, remained quintessentially a settler colonial city. Then, Harare had not yet experienced the full impacts of ‘neo-liberalism’ as in Nairobi or the suburbanization of office and commercial development as in Johannesburg. In view of significant political economy transformations since the 1990s, this paper aims to provide a systematic interpretation of ongoing transitions that characterise the city. Informed by a systemic spatio-temporal and historical analysis it illustrates how ongoing post 1990s foundational restructuring of the economy centred on jambanja have transformed Harare from a settler colonial to a highly informalised ‘zhingzhong’ African city