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Travel to Tanzania — Unbiased reviews and great
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United Republic of Tanzania
President: Jakaya Kikwete (2005)
Prime Minister: Mizengo Pinda
(2008)
Current government officials
Land area: 342,100 sq mi (886,039 sq km);
total area: 364,898 sq mi (945,087 sq km)1
Population (2007 est.): 38,139,640
(growth rate: 1.8%); birth rate: 37.3/1000; infant mortality rate:
94.5/1000; life expectancy: 46.1; density per sq mi: 111
Capital (2003 est.):
Dodoma, 164,500. Largest city (2003 est.):
Dar es Salaam, 2,489,800
Monetary unit: Tanzanian shilling
Languages:
Swahili, English (both official); Arabic; many
local languages
Ethnicity/race:
mainland: native African 99% (includes 95%
Bantu, consisting of well over 100 tribes), Asian, European, and
Arab 1%; Zanzibar: Arab, native African, mixed
Religions:
mainland: Christian 30%, Islam 35%, indigenous
35%; Zanzibar: more than 99% Islam
Literacy rate: 78% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007
est.): $48.94 billion; per capita $1,300. Real growth rate:
7.3%. Inflation: 7%. Unemployment: n.a. Arable
land: 5%. Agriculture: coffee, sisal, tea, cotton,
pyrethrum (insecticide made from chrysanthemums), cashew nuts,
tobacco, cloves, corn, wheat, cassava (tapioca), bananas, fruits,
vegetables; cattle, sheep, goats. Labor force: 20.04 million;
agriculture 80%, industry and services 20% (2002 est.).
Industries: agricultural processing (sugar, beer, cigarettes,
sisal twine); diamond, gold, and iron mining, salt, soda ash;
cement, oil refining, shoes, apparel, wood products, fertilizer.
Natural resources: hydropower, tin, phosphates, iron ore,
coal, diamonds, gemstones, gold, natural gas, nickel.
Exports: $1.581 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): gold, coffee,
cashew nuts, manufactures, cotton. Imports: $2.391 billion
f.o.b. (2005 est.): consumer goods, machinery and transportation
equipment, industrial raw materials, crude oil. Major trading
partners: India, Spain, Netherlands, Japan, UK, China, Kenya,
South Africa, UAE, U.S. (2004).
Member of Commonwealth of Nations
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 127,000 (1998); mobile cellular: 30,000 (1999). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 12, FM 11, shortwave 2 (1998).
Radios: 8.8 million (1997). Television broadcast
stations: 3 (1999). Televisions: 103,000 (1997).
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 6 (2000). Internet
users: 300,000 (2002).
Transportation: Railways: total: 3,690
km (2002). Highways: total: 88,200 km; paved: 3,704 km;
unpaved: 84,496 km (1999 est.). Waterways: Lake Tanganyika,
Lake Victoria, Lake Nyasa. Ports and harbors: Bukoba, Dar es
Salaam, Kigoma, Kilwa Masoko, Lindi, Mtwara, Mwanza, Pangani, Tanga,
Wete, Zanzibar. Airports: 123 (2002).
International disputes: disputes with
Malawi over the boundary in Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) and the
meandering Songwe River remain dormant.
1. Including Zanzibar.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Tanzania is in East Africa on the Indian Ocean. To the north are Uganda
and Kenya; to the west, Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo; and to the south,
Mozambique, Zambia, and Malawi. Its area is three times that of New
Mexico. Tanzania contains three of Africa's best-known lakes—Victoria in
the north, Tanganyika in the west, and Nyasa in the south. Mount
Kilimanjaro in the north, 19,340 ft (5,895 m), is the highest point on the
continent. The island of Zanzibar is separated from the mainland by a
22-mile channel.
Government
Republic.
History
Arab traders first began to colonize the area in 700. Portuguese
explorers reached the coastal regions in 1500 and held some control until
the 17th century, when the sultan of Oman took power. With what are now
Burundi and Rwanda, Tanganyika became the colony of German East Africa in
1885. After World War I, it was administered by Britain under a League of
Nations mandate and later as a UN trust territory.
Although not mentioned in old histories until the 12th century,
Zanzibar was always believed to have had connections with southern Arabia.
The Portuguese made it one of their tributaries in 1503 and later
established a trading post, but they were driven from Oman by Arabs in
1698. Zanzibar was declared independent of Oman in 1861 and, in 1890, it
became a British protectorate.
Tanganyika became independent on Dec. 9, 1961; Zanzibar on Dec. 10,
1963. On April 26, 1964, the two nations merged into the United Republic
of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. The name was changed to Tanzania six months
later.
An invasion by Ugandan troops in Nov. 1978 was followed by a
counterattack in Jan. 1979, in which 5,000 Tanzanian troops were joined by
3,000 Ugandan exiles opposed to President Idi Amin. Within a month,
full-scale war developed. Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere kept troops
in Uganda in open support of former Ugandan president Milton Obote,
despite protests from opposition groups, until the national elections in
Dec. 1980.
In Nov. 1985, Nyerere stepped down as president. Ali Hassan Mwinyi, his
vice president, succeeded him. Running unopposed, Mwinyi was elected
president in October. Shortly thereafter plans were announced to study the
benefits of instituting a multiparty democracy, and in Oct. 1995 the
country's first multiparty elections since independence took place.
On Aug. 7, 1998, the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam was bombed by
terrorists, killing ten. The same day an even more devastating explosion
destroyed the U.S. embassy in neighboring Kenya.
President Benjamin William Mkapa (1995–2005) sought to increase
economic productivity while dealing with serious pollution problems and
deforestation. With more than one million people infected with HIV, AIDS
care and prevention have been major public health issues. On foreign
policy, Tanzania has taken a leading diplomatic role in East Africa,
hosting peace talks for the factions fighting in neighboring Burundi. The
UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is located in the
town of Arusha. In Oct. 2000, Mkapa was easily reelected. In 2002,
opposition leaders and foreign donors criticized the president's costly
new $21 million personal jet.
In 2005 presidential elections, foreign minister Jakaya Kikwete of the
Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) Party won with 80% of the vote.
Prime Minister Lowassa resigned in February 2008 over a scandal
involving an American energy company, Richmond Development, which was
hired to provide Tanzania with generators to supply electricity to the
country during a power shortage. The company never began the operation,
yet Lowassa urged the government to renew the contract. Mizengo Pinda
replaced Lowassa as prime minister.
See also Encyclopedia: Tanzania.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Tanzania
National Bureau of Statistics http://www.tanzania.go.tz/statistics.html
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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