'We Have A Tiger By The Tail': Continuities and Discontinuities in Zimbabwean City Planning and Politics

The development of urban settlements in Zimbabwe from the 1890s was obviously an essential element of the economic landscape as its territory was gradually transformed by the reach of metropolitan and white settler capital. Towns and cities are nodes of power, production and innovation which both structure and serve national space. In white settler states in sub-Saharan Africa their development was fraught with the tensions inherent in a political economy which required African labour in towns but deemed it imperative to restrict as far as possible the political voice of these urban workers. This led to major institutional controls on their mobility and urban housing, which were lifted in 1980. This article will discuss three of the different analytical strands which developed in the study of Zimbabwean urbanization and relate these to the discussions of urban issues in the new history of Rhodesia and Zimbabwe, Becoming Zimbabwe. First, the city as a site of control and restriction. Second, the city as a planned and planning space. Third, the city as a site of political disaffection. These are interconnected and have waxed and waned as events have unfolded.