Background Notes: Tanzania
PA/PC
Source: Office of Public Communication, Bureau of Public
Affairs
Date: May 15, 19925/15/92
Category: Country Data
Region: Subsaharan Africa
Country: Tanzania
Subject: Travel, History, International Organizations,
Trade/Economics
[TEXT]
Official Name: United Republic of Tanzania
PROFILE
People
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Tanzanian(s); Zanzibari(s).
Population: 26 million. Annual growth rate: 3.5%. Ethnic groups:
More than 130. Religions: Muslim 33% (Zanzibar is predominantly
Muslim), animist 33%, Christian 33%. Languages: Kiswahili
(official), English. Education: Attendance--86% (primary). Literacy
(1990): 79%. Health: Infant mortality rate--106/1,000. Life
expectancy--49 yrs. (male), 54 yrs. (female). Work force:
Agriculture--90%. Industry, commerce, and government--10%.
Geography
Area: Mainland--942,623 sq. km. (363,950 sq. mi.); slightly smaller
than New Mexico and Texas combined. Zanzibar--1,658 sq. km. (640
sq. mi.). Cities: Capital--Dar es Salaam (1.4 million); Dodoma
(future capital--159,000), Zanzibar Town (110,000), Tanya
(176,000), Mwanza (160,000), Arusha (95,000). Terrain: Varied.
Climate: Varies from tropical to arid to temperate.
Government
Type: Republic. Independence: Tanganyika 1961, Zanzibar 1963;
union formed 1964. Constitution: 1984.
Branches: Executive--president (chief of state and commander in
chief), two vice presidents (one of whom is also President of
Zanzibar), prime minister, and deputy prime minister. Legislative--
unicameral National Assembly (for the union), House of
Representatives (for Zanzibar only). Judicial--(mainland) High
Court, Court of Appeals, high courts, resident magistrate courts,
district courts, primary courts; (Zanzibar) High Court, people's
district courts, Islamic courts.
Political party: Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM--Revolutionary Party).
Suffrage: Universal over 18.
Administrative subdivisions: 25 regions (20 on mainland, 3 on
Zanzibar, 2 on Pemba).
Defense: 4% of GDP.
Flag: Diagonal yellow-edged black band; green field at upper left,
blue field at lower right.
Economy
GDP: $5.9 billion. Annual growth rate: 4.3%. Per capita income:
$240.
Natural resources: Hydroelectric potential and largely unexploited
natural gas, iron, coal, nickel, gemstone, and gold deposits.
Agriculture (47% of GDP): Products--cashew nuts, cloves, coconut,
coffee, cotton, corn, pyrethrum, rice, sisal, sugar, tea, tobacco.
Industry (8% of GDP): Types--textiles, agricultural processing,
light manufacturing, oil refining, cement, fertilizer.
Trade (1989): Exports--$380 million: cashews, cloves, coffee,
cotton, sisal, tea, tobacco. Major markets--UK, Germany, Japan,
Singapore, Italy. Imports--$1.2 billion: petroleum, manufactured
goods, textiles, machinery and transport equipment, foodstuffs.
Major suppliers--UK, Germany, Japan, US.
Official exchange rate (1992): 300 Tanzanian shillings=US$1.
US economic aid received (1970-92): more than $400 million.
PEOPLE
Population distribution in Tanzania is extremely uneven.
Density varies from 1 person per square kilometer (3/sq. mi.) in
arid regions to 51 per square kilometer (133/sq. mi.) in the
mainland's well-watered highlands and 134 per square kilometer
(347/sq. mi.) on Zanzibar. More than 80% of the population is rural.
Dar es Salaam is the capital and largest city; Dodoma, located in the
center of Tanzania, has been designated to become the new capital.
The African population consists of more than 130 ethnic
groups, of which only the Sukuma has more than 1 million members.
The majority of Tanzanians, including such large tribes as the
Sukuma and the Nyamwezi, are of Bantu stock. Groups of Nilotic or
related origin include the nomadic Masai and the Luo. Two small
groups speak languages of the Khoisan family unique to the Bushman
and Hottentot peoples. Cushitic-speaking peoples, originally from
the Ethiopian highlands, reside in a few areas.
Although much of Zanzibar's African population came from the
mainland, one group known as Shirazis traces its origins to the
island's early Persian settlers. Non-Africans residing on the
mainland and Zanzibar account for 1% of the total population.
Asians, including Hindus, Sikhs, and Goans number 50,000 on the
mainland and 4,000 on Zanzibar. An estimated 70,000 Arabs and
10,000 Europeans reside in Tanzania.
All ethnic groups have their own language, but the national
language is Kiswahili, a Bantu-based tongue with strong Arabic
borrowings.
HISTORY
Tanganyika
Northern Tanganyika's famed Olduvai Gorge has provided rich
evidence of the area's prehistory, including fossil remains of some
of humanity's earliest ancestors. The discoveries made by Dr. and
Mrs. L.S.B. Leakey and others strongly suggest East Africa as the
site of human origin.
The coastal area first felt the impact of non-African influence
as early as the 8th century, with the arrival of Arab traders. By the
12th century, traders and immigrants came from as far away as
Persia (now Iran) and India. They built a series coastal cities and
trading states, including Kilwa, a settlement of Persian origin that
lasted until the Portuguese destroyed it in the early 1500s.
The Portuguese navigator, Vasco da Gama, touched the East
African coast in 1498 on his voyage to India. By 1506, the
Portuguese claimed control over the entire coast. This control was
nominal, however, for the Portuguese did not attempt to colonize
the interior. By the early 18th century, Arabs from Oman drove out
the Portuguese from the area north of the Ruvuma River. They
established their own garrisons at Zanzibar, Pemba, and Kilwa and
carried on a lucrative trade in slaves and ivory.
Little is known of the history of Tanganyika's interior during
the early centuries of the Christian era. It is believed to have been
inhabited originally by groups using a click-tongue language similar
to that of Southern Africa's Bushmen and Hottentots. Although
remnants of these early tribes still exist, most were gradually
displaced by Bantu farmers migrating from the west and south and
by Nilotes and related northern peoples. Some of these groups had
well-organized societies and controlled extensive areas when the
Arab and European slavers, traders, explorers, and missionaries
penetrated the interior in the first half of the 19th century.
European exploration of Tanganyika's interior began in the mid-
19th century. Two German missionaries reached Mt. Kilimanjaro in
the 1840s. British explorers Richard Burton and John Speke crossed
the interior to Lake Tanganyika in 1857.
German colonial interests were first advanced in 1884, when
Karl Peters, who formed the Society for German Colonization,
concluded a series of treaties by which tribal chiefs in the interior
accepted German protection. Prince Otto von Bismarck's
government backed Peters in the subsequent establishment of the
German East Africa Company. In 1886 and 1890, Anglo-German
agreements were negotiated that delineated the British and German
spheres of influence in the interior of East Africa and along the
coastal strip previously claimed by the Omani Sultan of Zanzibar. In
1891, the German Government took over direct administration of
the territory from the German East Africa Company and appointed a
governor with headquarters at Dar es Salaam.
Although the German colonial administration brought cash
crops, railroads, and roads to Tanganyika, its harshness provoked
African resistance, culminating in the Maji Maji rebellion of 1905-
07. The rebellion temporarily united a number of southern tribes
and ended only after an estimated 120,000 Africans had died from
fighting or starvation,
German colonial rule of Tanganyika ended with World War I.
Control of most of the territory passed to the United Kingdom under
a League of Nations mandate. After World War II, Tanganyika
became a UN trust territory administered by the United Kingdom.
In the following years, Tanganyika moved gradually toward self-
government and independence. In 1954, Julius K. Nyerere, a
schoolteacher, organized the Tanganyika African National Union
political party (TANU). TANU-supported candidates were victorious
in the Legislative Council elections of September 1958 and February
1959. In December 1959, the United Kingdom agreed to establish
internal self-government following general elections in August
1960. Nyerere was named chief minister of the subsequent
government.
In May 1961, Tanganyika became autonomous, and Nyerere
became Prime Minister under a new constitution. Full independence
was achieved on December 9, 1961. Mr. Nyerere was elected
President a year later. On April 26, 1964, Tanganyika united with
Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar,
renamed the United Republic of Tanzania, on October 29.
In 1977, TANU and the Afro-Shirazi Party of Zanzibar merged
into a single party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) (Revolutionary
Party), and the union was ratified in a new constitution later that
year. The merger was reinforced by principles enunciated in the
1982 union constitution and reaffirmed in the 1984 constitution.
Zanzibar
An early Arab/Persian trading center, Zanzibar fell under
Portuguese domination in the 16th and early 17th centuries but was
retaken by Omani Arabs in the early 18th century. The height of
Arab rule came during the reign of Sultan Seyyid Said (1804-56).
He encouraged the development of clove plantations by using the
forced labor of the island's indigenous population. Zanzibar also
became the base for the Arab slavers, whose raids depopulated
much of the Tanganyikan interior. By 1840, Said had transferred his
capital from Muscat to Zanzibar and established a ruling Arab elite.
The island's commerce fell increasingly into the hands of traders
from the Indian sub-continent whom Said encouraged to settle on
the island.
Zanzibar's spices attracted ships from as far away as the
United States. A US consulate was established on the island in
1837. The United Kingdom's early interest in Zanzibar was
motivated by commerce and British determination to end the slave
trade. In 1822, the British signed the first of a series of treaties
with Sultan Said to curb slavery. The sale of slaves was finally
prohibited in 1876.
In carrying out its policies, the United Kingdom gained a
supremacy that was formally recognized in the Anglo-German
agreement of 1890, making Zanzibar and Pemba a British
protectorate. British rule through the sultan remained largely
unchanged from the late 19th century until after World War II.
Zanzibar's political development began in earnest after 1956,
when provision was first made for the election of six non-
government members to the Legislative Council. Two parties were
formed: the Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP), representing the
dominant Arab and Arabized minority, and the Afro-Shirazi Party
(ASP), led by Abeid Karume and representing the Shirazis and the
African majority.
The first elections were held in July 1957, and the ASP won
three of the six elected seats, with the remainder going to
independents. The ZNP polled only a small percentage of the total
votes. Following the election, the ASP split; some of its Shirazi
supporters left to form the Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party
(ZPPP). The January 1961 election resulted in a deadlock between
the ASP and a ZNP-ZPPP coalition.
The elections that followed the granting of self-government in
June 1963 produced similar results. Zanzibar received its
independence from the United Kingdom on December 19, 1963, as a
constitutional monarchy under the sultan. On January 12, 1964, the
African majority revolted against the sultan and a new government
was formed, with the ASP leader, Abeid Karume, as President of
Zanzibar and Chairman of the Revolutionary Council. The Zanzibar
Government retained considerable local autonomy under the terms
of its political union with Tanganyika in April 1964.
Abeid Karume was named first Vice President of the union
government, a post he held until his assassination in April 1972.
Aboud Jumbe, also a member of the ASP and the Revolutionary
Council, was appointed to succeed Karume. In 1981, 32 persons
were selected to serve in the Zanzibar House of Representatives.
The election was the first since the 1964 revolution. In 1984,
Jumbe resigned and was replaced by Ali Hassan Mwinyi as both
President of Zanzibar and First Vice President of Tanzania. In the
election of 1985, Mwinyi was elected President of the United
Republic of Tanzania; Idris Wakil was elected President of Zanzibar
and Second Vice President of Tanzania.
GOVERNMENT
Tanzania is a de jure single-party state with a strong central
executive. The president is assisted by two vice presidents, one of
whom serves as prime minister. The prime minister must be chosen
from among the members of the National Assembly and is the
government leader in the National Assembly. The president and the
assembly are elected concurrently by direct popular vote for 5-year
terms. Julius Nyerere, who had served as President since the
Tanzanian union was established in 1964, was succeeded by Ali
Hassan Mwinyi, Union Vice President and President of Zanzibar, in
1985. Idris Wakil, speaker of the Zanzibari House of
Representatives, was chosen to run for President of Zanzibar and
ex-officio second vice president of the union. Under the Tanzanian
constitution, the president and the first vice president cannot both
be from either the mainland or Zanzibar. If the president dissolves
the assembly, he or she must stand for election as well. The
president must select the cabinet from among National Assembly
members but has the power to appoint up to 15 assembly members.
The unicameral assembly has 244 members, 169 of whom are
elected from the mainland and Zanzibar. All must be members of
the CCM. Two candidates, both approved by the CCM Party, compete
in each district. The remaining members are appointed by the
government and various "mass organizations" associated with the
party. Assembly actions are valid for Zanzibar only in specifically
designated union matters. Zanzibar's own House of Representatives
has jurisdiction over all non-union matters.
Tanzania has a five-level judiciary, combining the
jurisdictions of tribal, Islamic, and British common law. Appeal is
from the primary courts through the district courts and resident
magistrate courts to the high courts and the Court of Appeals.
Judges are appointed by the chief justice, except those for the
Court of Appeals and the High Court, who are presidential
appointees. Although Zanzibar has its own constitution, it is
subject to the provisions of the union constitution. The Zanzibari
court system parallels the legal system of the union, and all cases
tried in Zanzibari courts, except for those involving constitutional
issues and Islamic law, can be appealed to the Court of Appeals of
the union.
For administrative purposes, Tanzania is divided into 25
regions--20 on the mainland, 3 on Zanzibar, and 2 on Pemba. Since
1972, a decentralization program on the mainland has worked to
increase the authority of the regions. In 1983, the government
reinstated 99 district councils to further increase the power of
local authorities. Of the 99 councils operating in 86 districts, 19
are urban and 80 are rural. The 19 urban units are classified
further as city (Dar es Salaam), municipal (Arusha, Dodoma, Tanga),
and town councils (the remaining 15 communities).
On the mainland, regional commissioners are also ex-officio
members of the National Assembly. The regional and area
commissioners are assisted by appointed development directors and
other functional managers, who, in turn, form a council charged
with administering the region or district in close collaboration
with CCM party officials. Regional and district party secretaries
assist in coordinating activities between the party and the political
jurisdictions.
Principal Government Officials
President--Ali Hassan Mwinyi
First Vice President--John Malecela
Second Vice President and President of Zanzibar--Salmin Amour
Prime Minister--John Malecela
Foreign Affairs Minister--Benjamin Mkapa
Ambassador to the United States--Charles Musama Nyirabu
Ambassador to the United Nations--Wilbert Chagula
Tanzania maintains an embassy in the United States at 2139 R
Street NW, Washington, DC 20008 (tel. 202-939-6125).
POLITICAL CONDITIONS
The Revolutionary Party (CCM) is, in theory, the primary source
of policy in the social, political, and economic fields. It provides
nearly all top government leaders and plays a leading role in the
government's nation-building plans. The party's control structure is
closely interwoven with the government's.
Tanzania has sought to achieve political and economic
development within an egalitarian framework. Since 1962, Nyerere
has used the Kiswahili word ujamaa (familyhood) to describe the
kind of communal cooperation his government seeks to foster.
Tanzanian goals were set forth in more conventional socialist
terms in the TANU constitution and reaffirmed in February 1967 in
a party document, the Arusha Declaration, which enunciated the
principles of "socialism and self-reliance." The declaration "asked
the government to consolidate its control over the means of
production, prepare development plans that Tanzania could carry out
without depending on foreign assistance, and place greater
emphasis on improving rural living standards."
The declaration prescribed a code of conduct for party and
government leaders. The code prohibited receiving more than one
salary, directorships in private firms, ownership of rental
properties, or shares in any private company. Ministerial and civil
service salaries had been reduced earlier in a move toward a more
equitable distribution of income.
Shortly after the declaration, Nyerere announced the full or
partial nationalization--with compensation--of various private
interests, including all commercial banks; a number of food-
processing, manufacturing, and trading firms; and some of
Tanzania's leading sisal estates. On the third anniversary of the
declaration, the president nationalized Tanzania's privately owned
English-language newspaper and began transferring the remaining
private import-export firms and all wholesale businesses to the
public sector. In 1971, the government nationalized all rental
property valued at more than $14,000.
Cooperatives, which once numbered more than 2,000, were
abolished in 1972. However, in an effort to stimulate agricultural
production and collect goods more efficiently in Tanzania's
decentralized markets, cooperatives were reapproved in 1982. The
national education system was also revamped to provide basic
agricultural training for primary- school-aged children.
ECONOMY
Agriculture provides about 47% of the gross domestic product
(GDP) and 90% of employment. Lack of water and diseases borne by
insects, particularly the tse tse fly, limit agriculture. In addition
to some diamond mining, coffee, cotton, sisal, tea, cashews, meat,
tobacco, coconut products, pyrethrum, and cloves accounted for
$380 million in export earnings in 1989.
The industrial sector is one of the smallest in Africa. It grew
only 1.9% annually in the 1970s and declined in the 1980s to
constitute less than 8% of the GDP. Main industrial activities
include textiles, oil refining, cement, fertilizer, producing raw
materials for the industrial sector, manufacturing import
substitutes, and processing agricultural commodities.
The government pursues a policy of socialism and self-
reliance. Producer prices are set nationally, and surplus
commodities are purchased and marketed through state
corporations. Many manufacturing enterprises are state controlled.
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, external events--including
oil price shocks, the collapse of the East African Community (in
1977), a war with Uganda, and drought--aggravated domestic
economic problems caused by inefficient domestic economic
policies. A foreign-exchange crisis occurred because agricultural
export earnings waned, food imports mounted, and industrial
expansion stagnated, due to shortage of raw materials, spare parts,
and equipment.
Despite its past record of political stability, Tanzania has
attracted little foreign investment. The government is willing to
consider joint ventures with foreign concerns in areas where
private technical and managerial expertise are needed. US private
investment has been limited to refining and processing primary
commodities. One US firm has entered into a minority partnership
with the government on the management of gas reserves and
petroleum marketing facilities.
In the early 1970s, China was the largest single aid donor to
Tanzania. Most of China's $400 million aid was dedicated to
building and equipping the Tazara Railroad between Dar es Salaam
and Zambia's copper belt. In recent years, major donors have
included the World Bank, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United
Kingdom, and Germany.
In 1986, the government announced a recovery program
stressing food, shelter, drinking water, education, and health care
at the village level. This produced significant increases in
agricultural production and financial support by bilateral donors.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have provided
funds to rehabilitate basic economic infrastructure.
Zanzibar
Zanzibar's economy and foreign exchange are dependent largely
on the production of cloves, grown mostly on Pemba. A recent
decline in demand for cloves has reduced foreign-exchange earnings
needed to support Zanzibar's development programs.
Zanzibar is determined to reduce its dependence on cloves and
has sought international help in diversifying export crops and
lessening its reliance on imported food. It still imports much of its
staple requirements, petroleum products, and manufactured
articles. Manufacturing on the island is limited to import
substitution, such as cigarettes and shoes, and processed
agricultural products. All industries are government-owned. After
the revolution in 1964, the government took over large Arab-owned
estates and distributed small plots to Africans.
DEFENSE
More than 40,000 personnel participate voluntarily in the
Tanzanian People's Defense Forces (TPDF). The majority are in the
army; Tanzania's air force and navy are very small. Paramilitary
forces consist of a police marine unit, the police field force, and a
large citizen's militia.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
Tanzania bases its foreign policy on the concept of
nonalignment. It has long supported majority rule and self-
determination for all of southern Africa and has been a principal
supporter of liberation groups there.
Tanzania enjoys particularly close ties with neighboring
Uganda, Zambia, and Mozambique. In 1977, the partnership of Kenya,
Tanzania, and Uganda in the East African Community, established 10
years earlier, was dissolved. The breakup resulted in suspension of
nearly all trade between Tanzania and Kenya and closure of the
border to most tourist travel. The border was reopened in 1984, and
relations with Kenya have improved significantly.
US-TANZANIAN RELATIONS
The United States enjoys friendly relations with the United
Republic of Tanzania and has historically sought to assist
Tanzania's economic and social development through bilateral and
regional programs administered by the US Agency for International
Development (AID). From 1953 to 1982, total US economic
assistance was about $348 million in loans, grants, and PL 480
Title II (Food for Peace) funds. The program continues to provide
food assistance.
In the 1970s, AID focused on strengthening national
institutions in agriculture and, to a lesser degree, in health. Food
crops and livestock were emphasized, as was training for improving
the health of children and mothers. Training in general has
remained an important part of the AID program, and more than 1,857
Tanzanians have received either long-term or short-term training,
primarily in the United States.
The Peace Corps program, reintroduced in 1979, provides
assistance in fisheries, forestry, agriculture extension, education,
and health.
Principal US Officials
Ambassador--Edmond DeJarnette, Jr.
Deputy Chief of Mission--Victor L. Tomseth
Director, AID Program--Thomas H. Reese III
Public Affairs Officer (USIS)--Donna Marie Oglesby
The US Embassy in Tanzania is located at 36 Laibon Road, Dar
es Salaam.
Further Information
Available from the Superintendent of Documents, US Government
Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402:
American University. Tanzania, A Country Study.
For information on economic trends, commercial development,
production, trade regulations, and tariff rates, contact the
International Trade Administration, US Department of Commerce,
Washington, DC 20230.
TRAVEL NOTES
Travel: Visas and inoculations against cholera and yellow fever
are required for entry. Health requirements change; check latest
information.
Climate and clothing: Lightweight, tropical clothing is worn
year-round, although in the cooler season (June-September), a light
wrap is useful in the evenings. Due to cultural sensitivities,
conservative dress is recommended.
Health: Community sanitation controls are generally enforced.
Tapwater is not potable. Water should be boiled and filtered and
fruits and vegetables carefully prepared. Malaria suppressants are
recommended.
Telecommunications: Direct-dial telephone and cable services
are available to the UK, US, and other parts of the world. 220V
electric current. Tanzania is eight standard time zones ahead of
eastern standard time and does not observe daylight-saving time.
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