Roofing in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe takes its name from stone: the Shona word zimbabwe is usually translated as "house of stone", after the walled capital of Great Zimbabwe. Inside those walls, however, people lived in earthen (daga) huts, and the round house with mud walls and a conical thatched roof remained the rural norm for centuries. Today most homes are roofed with sheet materials, and Zimbabwe stands out in the region for the large share of asbestos-cement roofs.

Climate and hazards

Most of the country is high plateau with a single summer rainy season, when heavy thunderstorms fall on roofs, followed by a long dry season. Granaries were traditionally raised to keep grain away from damp, insects and rodents, and roofs had to shed intense seasonal rain.

Roofing history

Farming, iron-working communities of the Gokomere or Ziwa cultures occupied the area of Great Zimbabwe from around the 4th to 7th centuries CE but built no stone structures. Stone building at Great Zimbabwe began in the 11th century and continued for over 300 years; the city flourished between about 1100 and 1450, and the capital was abandoned around 1450. The site covers almost 800 ha (about 1,980 acres), of which the city itself occupies nearly 80 ha (about 200 acres).

UNESCO describes the Great Enclosure, built of cut granite blocks in regular courses in the 14th century, as containing a series of daga-hut living quarters, with huts built within the enclosure walls. Daga bricks were made from granitic sand mixed with clay, and each family area typically had a kitchen, two living huts and a court. Most of the population lived outside the walls in mud houses on timber frames, while the ruling group built thicker daga houses, a change that advanced quickly in the 13th century. The Great Enclosure walls stand up to 11 m (36 ft) high and are built without mortar.

European influence introduced rectangular buildings with concrete walls and corrugated iron roofs.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Shona homestead: circular huts around a courtyard, with a central kitchen hut and a separate, often decorated, sleeping hut. Walls are mud on a frame of sticks and roofs are conical grass thatch.
• Granaries: built high off the ground to keep out damp, insects and rodents.
• Storage huts: lighter structures of branches and sticks.

Roofing today

In the unweighted 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) sample, 11,091 households recorded a roof material. Unweighted shares of those records are:

Main roof material (HC5)	Share of sampled households
Asbestos	50.6%
Metal / tin	25.9%
Thatch / palm leaf	19.6%
Ceramic tiles	2.1%
Cement	0.7%
Other (mat, wood, shingles, no roof)	1.1%

Asbestos-cement sheet is therefore the most common recorded roof in the survey sample, ahead of metal sheet, while thatch remains significant on rural homesteads.

Codes, standards and regulation

Great Zimbabwe has been legally protected since 1893.

Notable roofs

• Great Zimbabwe National Monument (UNESCO 1986): daga huts within dry-stone enclosures; the Conical Tower is 5.5 m (18 ft) in diameter and 9 m (30 ft) high.
• Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (opened 31 May 1996): a conical tower referencing Great Zimbabwe, with a conical roof to throw off rain.
• Kingdom Hotel: a domed roof incorporating grass, with timber roof beams in a traditional idiom.

Local roofing terms

• daga: earthen building material of sand and clay, used for bricks, floors and plaster.
• zimbabwe (Shona): house of stone.

Sources and gaps

No national roofing standard was identified.

MICS figures are unweighted sample counts. Detailed Shona or Ndebele thatching terminology, ZIMSTAT 2022 census roof tables and information on asbestos-cement manufacture in Zimbabwe: published information is limited.