Chipinge is a town in southeastern Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

 in the province of Manicaland

Manicaland

Manicaland is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of and a population of approximately 1.6 million . Mutare is the capital of the province. -Background:...

 near the Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

 border. The town lies in a valley in the southern Eastern Highlands. One of Zimbabwe's most famous landmarks, the Birchenough Bridge

Birchenough Bridge

Birchenough Bridge is the name for both a bridge across the Save River and a village next to the bridge. Birchenough Bridge is located 62 km from Chipinge in the Manicaland province of Zimbabwe linking Mutare with Masvingo. The bridge was funded and planned by the Beit Trust, a foundation...

 is located on the Sabi River 62 km from Chipinge. The hot climate and high rainfalls (1 105 mm ave annual rainfall) is well suited to agriculture and the local farmers grow tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

, coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

 and macadamia nuts. In fact this was the first place to grow tea in Zimbabwe, when Grafton and Florence Phillips smuggled seeds from Assam

Assam

Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...

 in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 in 1924. The surrounding mountain slopes are covered with pine

Pine

Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...

 and wattle

Acacia

Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...

 plantations. According to the 1992 Population Census, the town has a population of 11,582.

A white settlement began here with the arrival of Thomas Moodie's trek in 1893 and was called South Melsetter (Melsetter being his family home in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

). In 1903 a police outpost was built here and by 1909 a school was built. The settlement was renamed Chipinga after a local chief in 1907 and in 1946 Chipinga got town status. Dairy farming was established early in the 1900s and by 1931 there was 2 cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

 factories in operation. In 1945 a third cheese factory was open in the town but the same year saw the 3 factories been amalgamated into one and production continued until 1976. Tea was introduced in 1924 while coffee was introduced on a small scale but was not successful until 1950 when a coffee experiment farm was established.

The ZANU - Ndonga

Zimbabwe African National Union - Ndonga

Zimbabwe African National Union – Ndonga is a small political party in Zimbabwe.The Zimbabwe African National Union was a political party during the struggle for Rhodesia's independence, formed as a split from the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union...

 political leader Ndabaningi Sithole

Ndabaningi Sithole

Ndabaningi Sithole founded the Zimbabwe African National Union, a militant organization that opposed the government of Rhodesia, in July 1963. A member of the Ndau ethnic group, he also worked as a Methodist minister. He spent 10 years in prison after the government banned ZANU...

was from Chipinge, and was elected to represent it in parliament in 1995 and 2000.