Masvingo, with a population of about 90,000, is a pleasant town at the crossroads between Mutare and Bulawayo, and between Harare and South Africa. This, coupled with its proximity to the Great Zimbabwe Ruins (the name Masvingo comes from the Rusvingo shona , which means a city wall), makes Masvingo a town that most travelers will pass through on their Zimbabwean journey. However, the majority of travelers do not stop in Masvingo, preferring to go directly to Great Zimbabwe. Although the town does not have many tourist attractions, it is pleasant, with a friendly population, wide boulevards lined with colonial buildings and markets. Masvingo was once one of the largest cities in Rhodesia. It all began in 1890 when white pioneers from the British South Africa Company (led by Frederick Courtney Selous) arrived in this part of Rhodesia in search of new gold. They established and fortified a camp that they called Fort Victoria, in honor of their queen (and as was the fashion at the time!). After a few days of festivities, the main part of the troop continued its advance, abandoning the fort, which was then built of earth, to a group of armed men. The latter quickly realized that there was no water supply nearby and decided to build a brick fort between the Shagashe and Mucheke rivers, a few kilometers from the previously chosen location. A few years later, Fort Victoria became an outpost on the road to the ruins of Mashonaland and even became, for a time, the largest city in Rhodesia. But the Matabele War quickly transformed this status. A Ndebele raid on Fort Victoria resulted in the death of many Shona, and the white settlers decided to retaliate by invading Bulawayo (which was an excellent excuse to take over the herds and farms of the Ndebele and at the same time to get closer to the gold areas of Matabeleland). The white settlers had no reason to return to Fort Victoria, which soon became a small provincial town, renamed Masvingo at independence, as they found much more valuable land around Bulawayo.

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