Tanzania
Stats & Facts Physical Economy History
Lonely Planet - Map of Tanzania
Lonely Planet - Map of Tanzania
Tanzania is a country in East Africa, consisting of the former republic of Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar.
Statistics & Facts
Capital : Dar es Salaam
Area : 945,037 km2 (364,881 sq. mi.)
Population : 28.072 million (1995)
Currency : 1 Tanzanian shilling = 100 cents
Religions : Christian 34.0%; Muslim 33.0%; traditional beliefs and other 33.0%
Ethnicity : Nyamwezi and Sukuma 21.1%; Swahili 8.8%; Hehet and Bena 6.9%; Makonde 5.9%; Haya 5.9%
Languages : Swahili, English (both official); Sukuma; local languages
International Organizations : UN; OAU; Commonwealth; Non-Aligned Movement; SADC
Physical
Tanzania is bounded by Kenya and Uganda on the north, Rwanda,
Burundi, and Zaire on the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique on
the south. It has a coast on the Indian Ocean and several islands;
Pemba and Zanzibar islands both have a degree of autonomy. A hot, wet
coastal plain rises through thick forest and areas planted with sisal
to a warm plateau. Here it is drier, and the soil is poor; but to the
north is Mount Kilimanjaro, below which the soil is volcanic and coffee
can be grown. In the extreme north is Lake Victoria, round which cotton
is cultivated, diamonds are found, and animals roam in the Serengeti
National Park. Lake Tanganyika lies along the western border, and Lake
Malawi in the south, both in the western arm of the Great Rift Valley.
Economy
In recent years Tanzania has shifted from socialist principles in
economic planning to IMF-backed liberalization policies, and is making
the transition to a multi-party system. Agriculture is the mainstay
of the economy, which is dependent on foreign aid, but export cash
crops of coffee, cotton, tea, sisal, cashew-nuts, and cloves have
all been adversely affected by drought and falling commodity prices.
Cassava and maize are the main staple crops. Mineral resources
include diamonds, gold, iron ore, coal, oil, and phosphates; there
are unexploited natural gas reserves. Industry, mostly state-owned,
is limited, with food-processing, textiles, oil- and metal-refining
the principal sectors.
History
In the first millenium BC northern mainland Tanzania was
inhabited by Caucasoid peoples, probably from Egypt. Bantu-speaking
peoples from western Africa moved into the region and were established
there by about 500 AD. Arab slave merchants settled along the coast,
clashing occasionally with Portuguese explorers, who first arrived in
the late 15th century. German missionaries went to Tanganyika (mainland
Tanzania) in the 1840s and were followed by German colonists. By 1907
Germany had taken full control of the country. Tanganyika became a
British mandate after World War I, and a trust territory, administered
by Britain, after World War II. It became independent in 1961, followed
by Zanzibar in 1963. The two countries united in 1964 to form the
United Republic of Tanzania under its first President, Julius Nyerere.
In the Arusha Declaration of 1967 Nyerere stated his policy of equality
and independence for Tanzania. In 1975 the Tan-Zam railway line was
completed. Tanzania helped to restore democracy in Uganda in 1986 and
gave strong support to political exiles from Zimbabwe, Angola, and
Namibia. Nyerere was succeeded by President Ndugu Ali Hassan Mwinyi,
who was re-elected in 1990 and whose years in office saw a marked revival
of the economy with its very considerable potential. In June 1992 he
ended twenty-seven years of one-party rule by the legalization of
opposition parties. During 1994 and 1995, some 800,000 refugees from
civil war and ethnic violence in the neighbouring countries of Rwanda
and Burundi fled to Tanzania; some Tanzanian politicians called for
their repatriation. Internal tensions also grew in this period,
particularly in Zanzibar, where the ruling party encountered growing
opposition from Islamic fundamentalists. Multi-party elections, held
in November 1995, saw the Party for the Revolution retain power, with
Benjamin Mkapa becoming the country's new President.