I | INTRODUCTION |
Tanzania, republic in East Africa, on the Indian
Ocean. A diverse country in which close to 100 different languages are spoken,
Tanzania was formed by the federation of the nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar
in 1964. The country’s name is a combination of the first syllables of the
component territories’ names.
Tanzania is bounded on the north by Kenya and
Uganda; on the east by the Indian Ocean; on the south by Mozambique, Malawi, and
Zambia; and on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi,
and Rwanda. The country includes the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, and other
offshore islands in the Indian Ocean. The total area of Tanzania is 945,100 sq
km (364,900 sq mi). Dar es Salaam is the executive capital and largest city; the
smaller city of Dodoma is now the legislative center of Tanzania and has been
designated as the eventual capital.
II | LAND AND RESOURCES |
The landscape of mainland Tanzania is
generally flat and low along the coast, but a plateau at an average altitude of
about 1,200 m (about 4,000 ft) constitutes the greater part of the country.
Isolated mountain groups rise in the northeast and southwest. The volcanic
Kilimanjaro (5,895 m/19,341 ft), the highest mountain in Africa, is located near
the northeastern border. Three of the great lakes of Africa lie on the borders
of the country and partially within it. Lake Tanganyika is located on the
western border, Lake Victoria on the northwest, and Lake Malawi on the
southwest. Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika lie in the Great Rift Valley, a
tremendous geological fault system extending from the Middle East to
Mozambique.
Zanzibar, separated from the coast of the
mainland by a channel some 40 km (25 mi) wide, is about 90 km (about 55 mi) long
and covers an area of 1,660 sq km (641 sq mi). It is the largest coral island
off the coast of Africa. Pemba, some 40 km (some 25 mi) northwest of Zanzibar,
is 68 km (42 mi) long and has an area of 982 sq km (379 sq mi). Both Zanzibar
and Pemba are mostly low-lying.
A | Climate |
Elevation and distance from the sea control
the climate of Tanzania. On the mainland coastal strip along the Indian Ocean,
the climate is warm and tropical, with temperatures averaging 27°C (80°F) and
rainfall varying from 750 to 1,400 mm (30 to 55 in). The inland plateau is hot
and dry, with annual rainfall averaging as little as 500 mm (20 in). The
semitemperate highlands in the southwest are better watered.
The climate on the islands is generally
tropical, but the heat is tempered by a sea breeze throughout the year. The
annual mean temperature for the city of Zanzibar is 35°C (95°F) maximum, and
16°C (61°F) minimum; for Wete in Pemba, 34°C (93°F) maximum and 17°C (63°F)
minimum. Most rain falls from December through May. Tanzania also can experience
substantial fluctuations in rain amounts from one year to the next.
B | Plant and Animal Life |
The mainland plateau is savanna land, with
light vegetation varying from grass and thorny shrubs to open woodland.
Evergreen forests cover some mountain areas and rain forests are found near Lake
Victoria. Mangrove forests line the coastal river mouths. The vegetation of the
islands is characterized by brush and savanna, with rain forests in the most
humid areas.
Tanzania has an abundant wildlife except
on the central plateau, parts of which are infested with the tsetse fly, which
transmits sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in animals. The savanna uplands
are inhabited by several species of antelope, as well as lions, leopards,
zebras, elephants, and giraffes. Monkeys are plentiful; apes include chimpanzees
and gorillas. Hippopotamuses and crocodiles live along the rivers. The most
numerous birds are swimmers and waders, though ostriches are occasionally seen
in the uplands. Poisonous snakes include black mambas and puff adders.
C | Natural Resources |
Tanzania contains rich deposits of gold,
diamonds, and other precious gemstones, as well as large amounts of coal and
salt. Forestland constitutes one of the most substantial natural resources of
the country. Among the many hardwoods found are mahogany and camphorwood.
D | Environmental Issues |
A large country with diverse habitats,
Tanzania has built a successful tourist industry around its plentiful wildlife.
There are many environmental threats, however, spurred by the country’s rapidly
growing population. The need for fuel and farmland has caused extensive
deforestation, and the expansion of agricultural land into arid and semiarid
regions threatens many areas with soil loss and desertification. Dynamite
fishing has destroyed a large proportion of the country’s extensive offshore
coral reefs. Programs to combat the tsetse fly are controversial because they
use pesticides that harm wildlife. Finally, poaching, especially for elephant
ivory and rhinoceros horn, remains a serious problem.
Forests, mostly open, relatively dry
woodlands, cover 37 percent of Tanzania. Wetlands, including coastal mangrove
swamps as well as inland systems such as lakeshores, floodplains, and swamps,
make up about 6 percent of the land. Tanzania’s relatively well-organized
protected land system has received substantial foreign logistical support and
aid. The main elements are forest reserves, game reserves, and national parks,
including Serengeti National Park. Tanzania has cooperative wildlife protection
agreements with neighboring Kenya.
III | POPULATION |
The population of Tanzania consists mostly of
members of more than 120 black African groups, the majority of which speak a
Bantu language. The largest ethnic groups are the Sukuma and the Nyamwezi. Other
groups of significant size include the Haya, Ngonde, Chagga, Gogo, Ha, Hehe,
Nyakyusa, Nyika, Ngoni, Yao, and Masai. The population also includes people of
Indian, Pakistani, and Goan origin, and small Arab and European communities.
People living in rural areas make up 62 percent of the population. About 45
percent of Tanzanians are Christians; Roman Catholicism is the largest
denomination. Islam is the religion of about one-third of the people on the
mainland and is dominant on Zanzibar. Less than one-fifth of the population
follows traditional religions. Swahili and English are the official languages of
Tanzania, but many people continue to use the language of their ethnic
group.
A | Population Characteristics |
The population of Tanzania (2008 estimate)
is 40,213,162, giving the country an overall population density of 45 persons
per sq km (118 per sq mi). Yet the population distribution is irregular, with
high densities found near fertile soils around Kilimanjaro and the shores of
Lake Malawi, and comparatively low density throughout much of the interior of
the country. In the late 1960s and 1970s the Tanzanian government resettled most
of the rural population in collective farming villages as part of its socialist
agenda. The country’s population growth rate is 2.07 percent (2008).
The largest city, Dar es Salaam, has a
population (2002) of 2,497,940. Other major cities are Mwanza (population, 1988;
233,013), a port on Lake Victoria, and Tanga (187,634), an industrial center and
seaport. Zanzibar (157,634) is the largest city on the island. Dodoma (155,000)
has been designated as the eventual capital of Tanzania.
B | Education |
Primary education is free and compulsory
in Tanzania, but not enough schools are available to accommodate all of the
children, and only 84 percent of primary school-aged children are enrolled. It
is estimated that 80 percent of people over the age of 15 are literate.
Institutions of higher education in Tanzania include the University of Dar es
Salaam (1961); the Open University of Tanzania (1992), also in Dar es Salaam;
and Sokoine University of Agriculture (1984), in Morogoro.
C | Culture |
Tanzanian culture is a product of African,
Arab, European, and Indian influences. Traditional African values are being
consciously adapted to modern life.
The country’s main libraries are located
in Dar es Salaam, including the library of the University of Dar es Salaam, the
National Archives, and the British Council Library. A lending service at the Dar
es Salaam Technical College (1956) also circulates books by mail throughout the
country. Zanzibar has several community and school libraries in addition to the
Museum Library and the Zanzibar National Archives. The National Museum of
Tanzania is located at Dar es Salaam. The Zanzibar Government Museum is located
in the city of Zanzibar.
IV | ECONOMY |
The economy of Tanzania is primarily
agricultural. Some 82 percent of the economically active population is engaged
in farming, forestry, or fishing, and agricultural products account for a
significant share of annual exports. The country is one of the world’s largest
producers of sisal and cloves.
With an estimated per capita income of $324 a
year, Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. From the late 1960s
through the 1970s the government pursued a form of “African socialism,” aimed at
reviving and modernizing precolonial African social and economic structures. The
government nationalized most banks and industries in 1967. In the mid-1980s,
after a decade of economic decline, Tanzania began moving away from socialist
policies and adopted an economic recovery program. Agricultural production
increased, as did financial support from donor nations. Since the mid-1990s the
government has privatized many industries and banks, and has adopted financial
restraints recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The estimated
national budget in 1996 included $733 million in revenues and $768 million in
expenditures.
A | Agriculture |
Much of the world production of cloves
comes from Zanzibar and Pemba islands, and cloves are the islands’ principal
export. For the country as a whole, chief exported crops are cashews, tobacco,
and coffee. Cotton, tea, and sisal are also exported. The principal food crops
for domestic consumption include corn, cassava, sorghum, rice, millet, sweet
potatoes, and plantains. The livestock population includes cattle, goats, sheep,
and poultry.
B | Forestry and Fishing |
Timber production in Tanzania in 2006
totaled 24.2 million cu m (856 million cu ft), nearly all of which was used as
fuel. Timber includes camphor, podo, and African mahogany. Fish and fish
products are important Tanzanian exports. The fish catch in 2005 was 354,351
metric tons, most of which was caught in inland waters, especially Lake
Victoria. Sardines and tuna are caught in the Indian Ocean.
C | Mining |
Tanzania is rich in minerals and its
mining sector is expanding. Diamonds, the top mineral export for decades, were
surpassed in importance by gold in the late 1990s. Gold is by far Tanzania’s top
export earner. Many other precious gemstones are found in Tanzania, including
rubies, sapphires, and tanzanite, which is found nowhere else in the world.
Coal, limestone, tin, salt, lead, iron ore, and tungsten are also mined in the
country.
D | Manufacturing and Energy |
Most manufacturing in Tanzania involves
the processing of raw agricultural materials into products such as beer, sugar,
cigarettes, and sisal twine. The government has also encouraged non-agricultural
manufacturing, and Tanzania exports cement, textiles, metal products, and other
goods to neighboring countries. Some 91 percent of Tanzania’s electricity is
produced in hydroelectric plants; major facilities are on the Pangani and Great
Ruaha rivers.
E | Currency and Foreign Trade |
The currency unit is the Tanzanian
shilling (1,251.90 Tanzanian shillings equal U.S.$1; 2006 average). Tanzania
nationalized most banks in 1967, but the state-owned Bank of Tanzania (1966)
began allowing privately owned banks to operate in the mid-1990s.
In 2003 the imports of Tanzania were
valued at $2.2 billion, and exports totaled $1,218 million. Gold, cashews,
tobacco, coffee, cotton, tea, diamonds, cloves, and sisal made up the bulk of
exports. Main imports were petroleum, machinery, transportation equipment, iron
and steel and other metals, and food and live animals. Principal trading
partners for exports are the United Kingdom, France, India, Japan, and
Netherlands; chief partners for imports are South Africa, Japan, Australia, the
United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. Tanzania is also a member of the
five-nation East African Community (EAC) and its customs union, which means that
Tanzania enjoys duty-free trading with the other member nations. Considerable
foreign exchange is also derived from tourists, some 622,000 of whom visited
Tanzania in 2006. Most come to see Kilimanjaro and Serengeti National Park.
F | Transportation and Communications |
Tanzania has 4,582 km (2,847 mi) of
railroad, including lines linking Dar es Salaam to Lake Tanganyika, with
branches to Mwanza, Mpanda, and Arusha. The Tanzania-Zambia Railway (Tazara),
opened in 1975, provides a link between Dar es Salaam and Zambia. All these
lines were rehabilitated and expanded in the 1990s. Tanzania’s road network is
generally poor. Only 9 percent (2003) of roads are paved. Ferries link the
mainland with Zanzibar and the other major islands. The major seaports are Dar
es Salaam and Mtwara. Airports serving Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, and elsewhere
provide domestic and international connections. The national airline is Air
Tanzania.
Tanzania has a national radio network and
several local radio and television stations. Among the country’s daily
newspapers are the influential Uhuru and the Daily News, both
published in Dar es Salaam.
V | GOVERNMENT |
The United Republic of Tanzania was formed on
April 26, 1964, by the adoption of an Act of Union between Tanganyika, on the
mainland, and the island of Zanzibar. The nation is governed under the
constitution of 1977, as amended. The internal affairs of Zanzibar are
administered under a constitution of 1985.
A | Executive |
The chief executive of Tanzania is a
president, who is popularly elected to a five-year term. The president appoints
a vice president, prime minister, and cabinet.
B | Legislature |
The legislature of Tanzania is the
unicameral National Assembly. It has 274 members, 232 of whom are popularly
elected to five-year terms. Most of the rest of the members are either elected
by the National Assembly, appointed by the president, or sit by virtue of being
commissioners of the country’s regions.
C | Judiciary |
The highest tribunals in Tanzania are the
Court of Appeal and the High Court. Lesser courts include district and primary
courts. People’s courts function in Zanzibar.
D | Local Government |
The mainland is divided into 21 regions,
Zanzibar into 3 regions, and Pemba into 2 regions. The governments of the
regions are headed by regional commissioners. The 1985 constitution of Zanzibar
provides for a popularly elected president and a 75-member house of
representatives (50 elected, 25 appointed).
E | Political Parties |
The country’s leading political party is
the Revolutionary Party of Tanzania (Chama Cha Mapinduzi, or CCM). It was formed
in 1977 by the amalgamation of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and
Zanzibar’s Afro-Shirazi Party. Opposition parties were legalized in 1992. The
Civic United Front (CUF) is a leading opposition party in Zanzibar.
F | Defense |
In 2004 the armed forces of Tanzania had
27,000 members—23,000 in the army, 3,000 in the air force, and 1,000 in the
navy.
VI | HISTORY |
Tanzania was formed by the federation of
Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964. The histories of the two areas are very
different.
A | Zanzibar |
As early as the 8th century ad, Zanzibar and other islands off the
coast of East Africa became bases for Arab merchants trading with the mainland,
which they called the Land of Zanj (Arabic for “blacks”), or Azania. In the
course of time some of these—including Zanzibar and Kilwa—became independent
Muslim sultanates with mixed Arab and African populations. In the 16th and 17th
centuries they were dominated by the Portuguese, and in the 18th century,
Zanzibar and Pemba were subject to the sultans of Masqaţ and Oman.
In 1832 Sayyid Sa‘īd ibn Sultan, the
sultan of Oman, established his residence on Zanzibar, where he promoted the
production of cloves and palm oil and carried on an active slave trade with the
interior. His domain, which included parts of the mainland, was a commercial
rather than a territorial empire. His successors did not have a legal claim to
the lands they controlled commercially, and did not have the power to keep the
Germans and British from annexing them when the European nations began dividing
up Africa later in the century.
Zanzibar was declared a British
protectorate in 1890; the sultan was retained for ceremonial purposes, but most
major decisions were made by the British resident. Sultan Khalifa ibn Harub used
his influence to support British rule. At the time of his death, Britain was
divesting itself of its African colonies, and Zanzibar, troubled by political
factionalism, was granted independence in December 1963. A few weeks later its
conservative government was overthrown in a bloody revolution and replaced by a
leftist regime under Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume.
B | Tanganyika |
Tanganyika, populated by many Bantu
groups, such as the Chagga, Hehe, Gogo, Yao, and Nyamwezi, and by the Masai and
other Nilotic peoples, was defined by a series of treaties between European
states in the decade after 1886. These ignored the claims of the sultan of
Zanzibar, giving the Germans control over the vast reaches of Tanganyika and
reserving Kenya and Uganda for Britain.
After putting down African resistance to
their rule, the Germans invested heavily in Tanganyika, hoping to convert the
northern part into profitable coffee and tea plantations. The onset of World War
I in 1914 ended these plans. German East Africa became a major theater of
operations, in which General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck tied down about a quarter
of a million British and colonial troops with a makeshift force of 12,000
Africans and 4,000 Germans before finally capitulating in 1918. Tanganyika then
became a mandate of the League of Nations under British tutelage.
The actions of the British governors in
the 1920s kept European colonization to a minimum; thus, unlike neighboring
Kenya, Tanganyika did not develop a race problem. The results of this
enlightened attitude were evident in the transition period before independence.
The major party, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), led by Julius
Nyerere, was a moderate organization; its appeal cut across ethnic and national
lines. Nyerere became prime minister when Tanganyika was granted independence in
December 1961; one year later the new nation adopted a republican constitution,
with Nyerere as its president.
C | Tanzania Under Nyerere |
In January 1964 Nyerere survived an
abortive military coup; later, in an effort to strengthen his government against
revolutionary violence, he opened discussions with Prime Minister Karume of
Zanzibar that led to the formation of Tanzania in April.
C1 | The Nature of the Federation |
The agreement arose from mutual need.
Zanzibar received aid from the mainland, and Nyerere could legally act to
moderate the Zanzibar revolution. He became president of the union, and Karume
was its first vice president. Each area retained its own legislature and legal
system pending an agreement on more complete integration. Integration, however,
proved to be difficult, and the differences between the two areas remained
great. The Zanzibar government was far more radical and doctrinaire than that of
Tanganyika. Many elections had been held in Tanganyika, but none on the island.
Until 1977 TANU was the only recognized political party on the mainland, but
several different candidates normally stood for election for any given seat in
the legislature. TANU merged with Zanzibar’s one party to form the Revolutionary
Party of Tanzania (known by its Swahili name Chama Cha Mapinduzi, or CCM), but
the merger was more cosmetic than real. In 1970 the entire legal system on
Zanzibar was reorganized to give power to three-member people’s courts that
permitted no defense attorneys; meanwhile, the courts of Tanganyika continued to
follow the general practices inherited from the British. Mainland courts refused
to extradite prisoners to Zanzibar because of the vast differences in their
systems. Thus, despite the change in name, the two areas that constitute the
federation remained fundamentally separate.
C2 | The Economy |
From the beginning, Tanzania was a poor
state, with few exportable minerals, little industry, and an agricultural system
dominated by ideas of tribal self-sufficiency. To counteract a deteriorating
economic situation, Nyerere made some major changes in 1967. The state gradually
extended its control over all areas of business life. Banks and all private
companies were nationalized and state corporations created to provide goods and
services for the population. This experiment in socialism received a tremendous
blow with the increases in the price of petroleum in the 1970s, which wiped out
Tanzania’s reserves. Nyerere’s ujamaa (“familyhood”) program, designed to
revitalize village agriculture by combining modern technology with African ideas
of cooperation, was hampered by world economic developments, government
inefficiency, and resistance from local village and district heads.
C3 | Foreign Policy |
During the 1970s and the early 1980s,
Tanzania’s leaders were in the forefront of African liberation movements.
Mozambican nationalists were allowed to use Tanzanian territory for training and
attack bases during their rebellion against the Portuguese. In Uganda, Tanzanian
troops helped overthrow the regime of Idi Amin in 1979 and occupied the country
until 1981. President Nyerere was also one of the major African representatives
in the negotiations for ending white rule in Zimbabwe. Although it maintained
good relations with the West, Tanzania moved closer in philosophy and practice
to the Communist-bloc countries; China was particularly helpful with aid.
D | Tanzania Since Nyerere |
In November 1985 Nyerere retired and was
succeeded in the presidency by Ali Hassan Mwinyi; however, Nyerere retained the
chairmanship of the CCM until August 1990. Opposition parties were legalized in
1992. The first multiparty elections were held in October 1995, but logistical
problems caused the electoral commission to schedule a new round of elections
for November. Opposition parties accused the ruling CCM of fraud and withdrew
from the second elections, claiming irregularities in the voting procedures.
Benjamin Mkapa, a member of the CCM, was elected president, and the CCM won the
majority of the seats in the National Assembly. Multiparty elections were also
held in Zanzibar in October 1995, and President Salmin Amour, a member of the
CCM, was reelected. Opposition parties contested the results, however.
D1 | Regional Pressures |
In the early 1990s violence in the
countries bordering Tanzania led to an influx of refugees. In 1993 refugees from
Burundi crossed the border into Tanzania, fleeing the violence that followed a
coup attempt against the Burundian government. In Rwanda violence erupted
between the Hutu and the Tutsi in 1994, causing hundreds of thousands of
refugees to flee into Tanzania. A resurgence of violence in Burundi in 1995 sent
thousands more Burundian refugees into Tanzania. Tanzania closed its border with
Burundi in March. At that time Tanzania had about 60,000 refugees from Burundi
and more than 700,000 refugees from Rwanda. Representatives of Burundi, Rwanda,
Tanzania, Uganda, and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo or DRC)
met in November 1995 and agreed on a plan for the repatriation of refugees, but
many refugees refused to return to their countries. In many parts of Tanzania,
refugees significantly outnumbered local residents.
In 1995 the United Nations (UN) Security
Council established an international war crimes tribunal to try individuals
accused of participating in the genocide in Rwanda. The city of Arusha in
Tanzania was selected as the site for the tribunal. Trials began in May 1996.
D2 | Tension in Zanzibar |
Tensions between Zanzibar and mainland
Tanzania rose in the 1990s as Zanzibaris increasingly called for greater
autonomy from the national government. In late 2000 Mkapa was reelected as
president, and the CCM swept legislative elections in both Tanzania as a whole
and in Zanzibar. International observers noted serious irregularities in the
Zanzibar polling, and the Civic United Front (CUF), the main opposition party in
Zanzibar, charged the CCM with voter intimidation. Clashes between members of
the CUF and government forces rocked Zanzibar in 2000 and 2001. The CCM and CUF
signed accords in 2001 and 2002 to amend Zanzibari voting laws and electoral
procedures, quelling the violence.
D3 | Recent Developments |
In the presidential and legislative
elections of 2005, the CCM scored a crushing victory over the opposition. The
CCM’s presidential candidate, Jakaya Kikwete, formerly the foreign minister,
took 80 percent of the vote in winning the presidency. Mkapa was barred by the
constitution from running for a third term. The CCM also swept the legislative
elections, winning 206 of the 232 contested seats in the National Assembly.
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