Overview of Tanzania

Here comes another summary of an African country called Tanzania, again, it is a summary based on the information in our travel guide 'The Rough Guide to Tanzania':

Tanzania's history covers two tales: that of the coast (including Zanzibar and Mafia) and that of the hinterland (Tanganyika).

Mainland Tanzania has been inhabited since the dawn of mankind, some 3.75 million years ago. Most of ancient cultures have disappeared long ago, two exceptions being the Hadzabe and Sandawe tribes in central Tanzania. Sandawe abandoned their ancient way of life in 1950's, but Hadsabe persist. Both tribes speak languages characterized by click sounds (again!).

First Bantu people arrived to this land as early as 1000BC in search of fresh land due to overpopulation of their people in homeland. Over time the immigrants split into distinct tribes. Common element to most Bantu societies is the knowledge of iron work. Nowadays Bantu-speakers comprise all but a handful of Tanzania's 129 officially recognized tribes. Second largest and most traditional are Nilotes, includes the country's most famous tribe Maasai. Their origins lie in the Upper Nile valley of central Sudan, from where their ancestors started faming out as early as 2000 years ago. Cattle defines all Nilotic tribes providing everything from food to clothing and shelter as well as social standing.

The first non-Africans to visit Tanzania, about 2000BC, were Sumerian traders from Mesopotami, followed a millenium later by the Phoenicians. In later centuries the East African coast became part of a vast trading network that included China, Malaysia and Indonesia. First outsiders to establish a permanent presence in East Africa were the Persians. Intermarriage with Africans and later with Arabs created Swahili civilization, reaching it's peak in the 14th and 15th centuries when its city states controlled the flow of gold from mines located in Zimbabwe to the port of Sofala in Mozambique. The main legacy of Swahili civilization is its language - Kiswahili, now the official language of Tanzania and Kenya.

The growth and prosperity of the Swahili came to an abrupt end following the arrival of the Portuguese - first to visit was Vasco da Gama in 1498. Within a decade the Portuguese presence disrupted the ancient trading network so badly that entire region fell into decline, opening a door to a new power in 1606 - Oman, taking over power in the region. Portuguese held on to Unguja until 1652, the last Portuguese stronghold in East Africa. north of Mozambique, Mombasas's Fort Jesus fell to the new rulers in 1698.

Rival dynasty Marruis seized Pemba island in 1744 but were unsuccessful in their attempt to take Unguja island. In spite of the rivalry Zanzibar's trade flourished, the key to its wealth being slavery, demand for which rocketed after the establishment of sugar and clove plantations in European-owned Indian Ocean territories. In 1811 Stone Town's notorious slave market opened, trading over a million slaves in the following 60 years.

The first Europeans known to have traveled through Tanzania were the German missionaries Johann Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann in the 1840's. A train of other explorers and missionaries followed, many of them set out to locate the source of the Nile - whoever controlled the Nile's head waters would control Egypt and from 1869 also the Suez Canal. The "riddle of the Nile" was finally solved by John Hanning Speke who reached lake Victoria in 1858 and went to sail down the great river.

The partition of Africa was rendered official in a series of conferences and treaties in the 1880's, and in 1890 Germany took nominal control of Tanganyika, while Britain grabbed Kenya, Uganda and Zanzibar. German conquest wasn't easy, during first years they saw many uprisings that took up to 2 years to crush. Proper colonization began from about 1907.

1890 Zanzibar was declared a British Protectorate, the sultanate was allowed to continue in ceremonial capacity, but the decisions were made by British. At the end of World War I, the British were given control of Tanganyika. They continued to extend railway systems and installed a sewage system for Stone Town.

World War II was a major turning point in the history of Tanzania and in Africa as a whole. Opposition to colonial rule sprang up right across the continent, and with the new world order now dominated by US and the Soviet Union, change was inevitable.

In Tanganyika, the independence movement was headed by TANU (the Tanganyika African National Union). From 1954 it was led by Julius Kambarage Nyerere, who won the respect of the British, and became chief minister in 1960 free elections leading to Tanganyikan independence proclaimed on 6th of December 1961.

In Zanzibar the situation was more complicated, as there were effectively two colonial overloads: the British wielding political, judicial and military power and Omanis who owned most of the island's resources. 10th of December 1963, the Sultanate of Zanzibar came into being and a year later Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume declared himself Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Council of the People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba.

1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar were unified to form United Republic of Tanzania, Zanzibar retained political and economical autonomy. Nyerere became Union president and faced huge challenges as Tanzania was on of the poorest countries on Earth. His vision to the solution was self-reliant, non-Marxist "African socialism". In practice, those noble ideas translated into "villagization": the resettlement of rural households, who accounted for over 90% of the population, into collective villages (Ujamaa). It turned out to be economic disaster where vast areas of formerly productive land were left unattended. This process did however create access to clean water, health care and better education system, as well as a strong and peaceful sense of national identity.

By 1985 the economy had collapsed, agriculture barely sufficed and the country was saddled with a crippling dept - Nyerere resigned, it was time for change. 1985 Ali Hassan Mwinyi won elections and ruled for ten years, he dropped Nyerere's socialist policies and one-party political system.

Things could have not been different in Zanzibar with bitterly disputed elections, withdrawal of foreign aid, outbursts of violence and political repression. Tanzania remains heavily dependent on foreign aid and corruption has been a constant theme.