Tanzania, United Republic of (tahn-zah-NEE-ah), republic (364,898 sq mi/945,087 km; 1994 estimated population 28,265,000; 2004 estimated population 36,588,225), E Africa; (cap.) Dodoma. Formed October 29, 1964, by the union of the republics of Tanganyika (became independent December 9, 1961) and Zanzibar (became independent December 10, 1963).
Geography
Zanzibar, which includes the island of Zanzibar and Pemba, retains a measure of autonomy within the union. Tanzania also includes Mafia Islands and several smaller islands in the Indian Ocean off its coast. Mainland Tanzania is bordered on S by Mozambique; SW by Malawi (boundary formed in part by Lake Nyasa) and Zambia; W by Congo (boundary formed by Lake Tanganyika), Burundi, and Rwanda; N by Uganda and Kenya (boundaries meet in Lake Victoria); E by the Indian Ocean. Dar es Salaam, on the coast, is Tanzania’s largest city, main business center, primary transportation center, and, until the early 1990s, was traditional capital. Other major towns on the mainland include Arusha, Iringa, Kigoma, Morogoro, Mbeya, Moshi,Mtwara, Mwanza, Tabora, and Tanga.
Tanzania falls into three major geographical zones—a narrow lowland coastal strip along the Indian Ocean, with several inland river extensions; a vast interior plateau; and several scattered mountain ranges, especially in the S. The coastal zone (10 mi/16 km–40 mi/60 km wide) receives considerable rainfall and has growths of palm, mangrove, and other tropical trees. The plateau (elevation 3,500 mi/1,070 m–4,500 ft/1,370 m) extends over most of the interior and is cut in two places by branches of the Great Rift Valley. The W branch extends to Lake Tanganyika, the E branch extends through central Tanzania; the two branches merge just N of Lake Nyasa. Another branch, the Rukwa Rift Valley, extends NW from Lake Nyasa. The plateau includes the Southern Highlands in SW center, Masai Steppe in NW center, and the Serengeti Plain in the N; it is semiarid and supports natural grasses, subsistence and commercial crops, livestock, and, in protected areas, large herds of wildlife. Serengeti National Park, a large wildlife reserve, is in N; also in the N are Tarangire National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Other Tanzanian national parks are Gombe Stream and Mahale Mountains national parks, both on Lake Tanganyika, in the W; Katavi Plains National Park, also in the W; and Ruaha, Udzangwa Mountains, and Mikumi national parks in the center.
There are numerous game reserves, where hunting and subsistence farming are allowed, especially Selous Game Reserve, among the largest in the world, in the SE center. Lake Rukwa is in the SW, lakes Natron, Eyasi, and Manyara are in the N; they are all salt lakes and have no outlets. The mountainous regions include Mount Meru (in Arusha National Park; elevation 14,979 ft/4,566 m) and Kilimanjaro (in Mount Kilimanjaro National Park; elevation 19,340 ft/5,895 m, the highest point in Africa) in the N; the Usambara and Pare Mountains in the NE; Nguru, and Uluguru Mountains in the E; the Livingstone Mountains and Kipengere Range near Lake Nyasa in the SW; and the Makari Mountains (Mahale Hills) in the W. The mountainous areas are generally zones of higher rainfall and in some places have the most fertile soils of the country with coffee, tea, and other crops. Tanzania’s rivers include the Pangani, Rufiji, and Ruvuma (forms part of Mozambique border), which flow into the Indian Ocean; the Malagarasi, which flows W into Lake Tanganyika; and the Kagera, which forms the Rwanda border.
The republic is divided into twenty-five administrative regions: Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Iringa, Kagera, Kigoma, Kilimanjaro, Lindi, Mara, Mbeya, Morogoro, Mtwara, Mwanza, Pemba North, Pemba South, Pwani, Rukwa, Ruvuma, Shinyanga, Singida, Tabora, Tanga, Zanzibar North, Zanzibar South, and Zanzibar West; most regions are further divided into districts.
Population
Tanzania’s languages include Bantu, of which there are over one hudnred dialects, and Kiswahili, the official language; English is widely spoken. Of special interest is the Khoisan language of the Sandawe and Hadza, which is characterized by clicks much as Chinese and other Asian languages are characterized by tones. There are approximately one hundred and twenty tribes and ethnic groups coexisting in Tanzania. People of Indian descent and those of Arab descent, concentrated mostly in Zanzibar and Pemba, constitute approximately 1% of the population. The Bantu-speaking peoples include the Sukuma (the republic’s largest ethnic group with c.1,000,000), Bena, Chagga, Gogo, Ha, Haya, Hehe, Luguru, Makua, Makonde, Ngoni, Nyakyusa, Nyamwezi, and Nyaturu. In addition, the Maasai, in the N, speak a Nilotic language; the Iraqw, near Lake Manyara, speak a Cushitic language. About 20% follow traditional religions; about 35% are Muslim; and about 45% are Christian, mostly Roman Catholic. Zanzibar is, however, 99% Muslim. Tanzania was one of the least urbanized countries in Africa, but the urban population is now growing rapidly.
Economy
The economy of Tanzania is overwhelmingly agricultural; plantations centered near major towns grow cash crops, including coffee, tea, pyrethrum, sisal, rice, peanuts, tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, copra, cashews, and cloves (Zanzibar and Pemba). The remainder of the agricultural sector is engaged mainly in subsistence farming, which includes field crops (corn, wheat, millet), vegetables, bananas, cassava, and sorghum. Livestock includes cattle, sheep, and goats, with poultry being raised near urban areas. Vast parts of the central plateau continue to be plagued by the tsetse fly, limiting cattle raising in those areas. Timber is important, especially in the NE, and includes mahogany, teak, ebony, camphorwood, and mangrove. Manufacture is largely limited to food processing, coffee and tea processing, farm implements, edible oil milling, beverages, paper, and basic consumer items. Also, refined petroleum, chemicals, aluminum goods, and construction materials, especially cement, are produced. Coal, gold, salt, gypsum, phosphates, and kaolin are mined in limited quantities. There is a growing gemstone production. The Williamson Diamond Mine, NE of Shinyanga, has declined, but continues to produce one of Tanzania’s best-known exports; the Tanzanite gemstone is also produced in this region. There are also tin mines in the NW corner of Tanzania and iron-ore deposits E of Lake Nyasa. Tanzania has limited road and railroad network. The main railraod lines run from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma, with spurs to Mwanza and Mpanda, and to Tanga, Moshi, and Arusha. The Tanzam (or Tazara) railroad, built in the 1970s by the Chinese, connects Tanzania with Lusaka, Zambia, affording landlocked Zambia with an alternative route to the sea. Tanzania has a growing trade deficit, exacerbated by nationalization policies. Primary exports are agriculture goods and diamonds and gemstones. Principal imports are consumer goods, machinery, transportation equipment, foodstuffs, refined petroleum, and chemicals. The leading trade partners are Japan, India, the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Kenya, South Africa, China, Zambia, and India. Tanzania is an associate member of the EU.
History to 1498
In 1959, Dr. L.S.B. Leakey, a British anthropologist, discovered at Olduvai Gorge in NE Tanzania the fossilized remains of what he called Homo habilis, who lived about 1.75 million years ago. Tanzania was later the site of Paleolithic cultures. By the beginning of the first millennium A.D., scattered parts of the country, including the coast, were thinly populated. At this time, overseas trade seems to have been carried out between the coast and NE Africa, SW Asia, and India. By about 900, traders from SW Asia and India had settled on the coast, exchanging cloth, beads, and metal goods for ivory. They also exported small numbers of Africans as slaves. By about 1200, Kilwa Kisiwani (situated on an island) was a major trade center, handling gold exported from Sofala (on the coast of modern Mozambique) as well as goods (including ivory, beeswax, and animal skins) from the near interior of Tanzania. By about 1000 the migration of Bantu-speakers into the interior of Tanzania from W and S was well under way, and the population there had been greatly increased.
History - 1498 to 1880
In 1498, Vasco da Gama, the Portugese explorer, became the first European to visit the Tanzanian coast; in 1502, on his second visit there, he made Kilwa a tributary. In 1505, Kilwa was sacked by Francisco d’Almeida, another Portugese explorer, and by 1506 Portugal controlled most of the coast of E Africa. Toward the end of the 16th century, the Zimba, a group from SE Africa, moved rapidly up the coast, causing considerable damage; in 1587 they sacked Kilwa and killed about 3,000 persons (roughly 40% of its inhabitants). In 1698 the Portuguese were expelled from the E African coast (except for a brief return in 1725) with the help of Arabs from Oman. In the early 18th century, the Omanis showed interest in the commerce of E Africa. Oman’s commercial activity was centered on Zanzibar (and, to a lesser extent, at Mombasa), from where it controlled the overseas trade of E Afica. By the early 19th century numerous towns on the Tanzanian coast had been founded or revived; these included Tanga, Pangani, Bagamoyo, Kilwa Kivinje (situated on the mainland near Kilwa Kisiwani), Lindi, and Mikandani. Sayyid Said, the great Bu Saidi ruler, took a great interest in E Africa and in 1841 permanently moved his capital from Muscat, in Oman, to Zanzibar. He brought with him many Arabs, who settled in the mainland towns as well as on Zanzibar. About the same time, new caravan routes into the far interior were opened up. As a result, the Swahili language (a blend of Bantu grammar and a considerable Arabic vocabulary) and culture gained new adherents. In the middle of the 19th century several European missionaries and explorers visited various parts of Tanzania, notably Mount Kilimanjaro, Tabora, Lake Victoria, and Lake Nyasa.
History - 1880 to World War I
As the scramble for African territory among the European powers intensified in the 1880s, Carl Peters and other members of the Society for German Colonization signed treaties with Africans (1884–1885) in the hinterland of the Tanzanian coast. By an agreement with Great Britain in 1886, Germany established a vague sphere of influence over mainland Tanzania, except for a narrow strip of land along the coast that remained under the suzerainty of the sultan of Zanzibar, who leased it to the Germans. The German East African Company (founded 1887) governed the territory, called German East Africa. The company’s aggressive conduct resulted in a major resistance movement along the coast by Arabs, Swahili, and other Africans that was only defeated with the help of the German government. A second Anglo-German agreement (1890) added Rwanda, Burundi, and other regions to German East Africa. Because the company had proved to be an ineffective ruler, the German government in 1891 took over the country (which by then included the coast) and declared it a protectorate. Under the Germans, several new crops (including sisal, cotton, and plantation-grown rubber) were introduced; the production and sale of other commodities (notably coffee, copra, sesame, and groundnuts) was encouraged, and railroads were built to Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika and to Moshi. In addition, many new Christian missions, which included rudimentary schools for the Africans, were established.
History - World War I to 1972
During World War I, Britsh and Belgian troops occupied (1916) most of German East Africa. In the postwar period the League of Nations made Tanganyika a Britsh mandate (part of British East Africa), and Ruanda-Urundi (later Rwanda and Burundi), a Belgian mandate; the Portuguese gained control of some land in the SE. After a slow start, the British developed the territory’s economy largely along the lines established by the Germans. Increasing numbers of Africans worked for a wage on plantations, especially after 1945, when economic growth began to accelerate. Also after 1945 Africans gradually gained more seats on the territory’s legislative council (which had been established in 1926). In 1954, Julius Nyerere and Oscar Kambona transformed the Tanganyika African Association (founded in 1929) into the more politically oriented Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). TANU easily won the general elections of 1958–1960, and when Tanganyika became independent on December 9, 1961, Nyerere became its first prime minister. In December 1962, Tanganyika became a republic within the British Commonwealth of Nations, and Nyerere was made president. On April 27, 1964, shortly after a leftist revolution in newly independent Zanzibar, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the republic of Tanzania on October 29, 1964. Nyerere became Tanzania's first president and Abeid Amani Karume, the chairman of the Zanzibar Revolutionary Council, its first vice president. Nyerere was overwhelmingly reelected president in 1965 and 1970.
History - 1972 to 1980
Karume, the leader of the dominant Afro-Shirazi party, headed the Zanzibar government until 1972, when he was assassinated. He was succeeded by Aboud Jumbe. In February 1967, Nyerere issued the Arusha Declaration, a major policy statement that called for egalitarianism, socialism, and self-reliance, promising, among other things, a decentralized government, the creation of cooperative farm villages (ujammus), and a program of rural development. Nyerere put some of the declaration’s principles into practice, but it was not clear whether or not power in Tanzania was, in fact, being decentralized. TANU was the mainland’s sole legal political party, and it was tightly controlled by Nyerere. In the early 1970s there was tension (and occasional border clashes) between Tanzania and Uganda; however, in 1973, Nyerere and General Idi Amin of Uganda signed an agreement to end hostilities. Zanzibar was allowed limited autonomy; the island administered its own government and had its own political party, while collaborating with the mainland on defense and foreign relations. However, in 1977, TANU and Zanzibar’s Afro-Shirazi party merged to form the Party of the Revolution (CCM). A new constitution was adopted the same year. Hostilities with Uganda resumed in 1978 when Ugandan military forces occupied about c.700 sq mi/1,800 sq km of N Tanzania and left only after having caused substantial damage. One month later, Tanzanian forces and Ugandan rebels staged a counterinvasion. Tanzania captured the Ugandan capital of Kampala in 1979 and drove Idi Amin from power. This campaign further depleted the country’s already scarce economic resources.
History - 1980 to Present
By the 1980s, it was clear that the economic policies set out by the Arusha Declaration had failed. The economy continued to deteriorate with cycles of alternating floods and droughts, which reduced agricultural production and exports. Tanzania maintained troops in Uganda after its victory and drew criticism from other African nations for its actions. In 1983, negotiations between Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda led to the reopening of the Kenyan border, which had been closed since 1977 after the collapse of the East African Community. After Nyerere resigned as promised in 1985, Ali Hassan Mwinyi became the head of the one-party government. In 1990, he was elected to a second term. A multiparty system was introduced in 1992, and was tested by elections in 1995, which were won by Benjamin Mkapa of the CCM. Some privatization of the economy occurred during the early- to mid-1990s. In 1997, 300,000 Hutu refugees from Burundi housed in the UN camps in Tanzania were joined by Hutu guerrillas when the Hutu refugee camps in the former Zaire were shut down by the rebel forces (mostly Tutsi), who had overthrown Zaire’s Mobutu regime and formed the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These guerrillas use the Tanzania camps as bases for border raids into Makamba Province in S Burundi to continue the civil war there.
Government
Tanzania has changed to a more democratic multiparty system. The president and National Assembly are elected by direct popular vote for five-year terms. One vice president serves as prime minister and the other must be a Zanzibar citizen and also serves as the president of Zanzibar. The National Assembly has 255 members—180 elected, the remainder appointed. The current chief of state is President Benjamin William Mkapa. The president is both chief of state and head of government. Zanzibar elects a president who is head of government for issues internal to Zanzibar. The position is held by Amani Abeid Karume.
