Tanzania is the oldest residential area of mankind. Mary and Louis Leakey discovered the skull of a 1.75 million-year-old human fossil in the Oldupai Gorge, which turned out to belong to the Southwestern Monkey. In the 7th century, Islam and Swahili-language culture came to the coast and islands with Arab merchants. When the race for the colonies really began in the late 19th century, the British managed to get the Zanzibar Islands from the Sultan of Oman and later, after World War I, also the inland known to the Germans as Tanganyika. Tanganyika and Zanzibar formed a common state in Tanzania in 1964. The fragmented tribal map of the country has been united by a voluntary socialist idea of Ujamaa that seeks to develop poor villages. Agriculture employs the majority of the people of tropical Tanzania.
The safari trip to Tanzania is finally spiced with a beach holiday in the Sultans of Zanzibar, where pristine white sand beaches invite you to relax. The influence of Arab culture and Islam is great, especially in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Stone Town Old Town. Its bazaars smell of cinnamon and cloves; prayer invitations echo from mosques. Traditional dhows carry stuff and people between the island and the mainland.
The border between Tanzania and Kenya is guarded by Africa’s highest volcano, Kilimanjaro. Its snowy law, rising to nearly 6,000 meters, has fascinated people for centuries. The mountain was born three million years ago in crustal upheavals and is still alive. This “cold-producing devil,” as the local people once called the mountain, offers its hiker great variation: in a few days, the climber will move from the heat of the tropics to the winter glacier. Along the way are mountain forests and a “cloud forest” growing ferns, where orchids and vines curl up through tree trunks. Within three kilometers begins the heathland and the forest zone of tall villas. The four-kilometer-high alpine plateau leaves only lichens of vegetation. In a five-kilometer peak zone, the land is covered with ice. The rise is slow, when getting used to moving in high air. Overnight stays in modest huts, where meals are taken care of by local helpers. They also help carry the goods. For many hikers, the conquest of Kilimanjaro is a unique “once in a lifetime” story.
- ABBREVIATIONFINDER: Click to see the meanings of 2-letter acronym and abbreviation of TZ in general and in geography as Tanzania in particular.
Yearbook 2008
Tanzania. In February, a suspected corruption deal forced the entire government to resign. According to a parliamentary inquiry, both Prime Minister Edward Lowassa and a couple of his union ministers and several senior officials had joined in the procurement of an energy project and unduly favored an American company.
Mizengo Pinda was appointed new Prime Minister, a lawyer who was most recently Minister of Local Government and also played a key role in the Prime Minister’s Office. He was endorsed by Parliament by an overwhelming majority and formed a government with far fewer ministers and deputy ministers than the former.
During the year, the country was shaken by a wave of albino murders. About twenty people with pigment deficiencies were killed in the belief that their body parts would turn around and protect against sorcery. In October, President Jakaya Kikwete ordered intensified police efforts to put an end to the killings that tarnished the country’s reputation.
Population 2008
According to Countryaah reports, the population of Tanzania in 2008 was 44,346,414, ranking number 30 in the world. The population growth rate was 2.890% yearly, and the population density was 50.0638 people per km2.