Portal:Tanzania

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

edit

The Tanzania Portal

Flag of Tanzania Coat of Arms of Tanzania

Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania. According to the 2022 national census, Tanzania has a population of nearly 62 million, making it the most populous country located entirely south of the equator.

Many important hominid fossils have been found in Tanzania, such as 6-million-year-old Pliocene hominid fossils. In the Stone and Bronze Age, prehistoric migrations into Tanzania included Southern Cushitic speakers who moved south from present-day Ethiopia; Eastern Cushitic people who moved into Tanzania from north of Lake Turkana about 2,000 and 4,000 years ago; and the Southern Nilotes, including the Datoog, who originated from the present-day South Sudan–Ethiopia border region between 2,900 and 2,400 years ago. These movements took place at about the same time as the settlement of the Mashariki Bantu from West Africa in the Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika areas. In the late 19th century, the mainland came under German rule as German East Africa, and this was followed by British rule after World War I when it was governed as Tanganyika, with the Zanzibar Archipelago remaining a separate colonial jurisdiction. Following their respective independence in 1961 and 1963, the two entities merged in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. Tanganyika joined the British Commonwealth and Tanzania remains a member of the Commonwealth as a unified republic.

Tanzania is mountainous and densely forested in the north-east, where Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single free-standing mountain above sea level in the world, is located. Three of Africa's Great Lakes are partly within Tanzania. To the north and west lie Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake, and Lake Tanganyika, the continent's deepest lake, known for its unique species of fish. To the south lies Lake Malawi. The eastern shore is hot and humid, with the Zanzibar Archipelago just offshore. The Menai Bay Conservation Area is Zanzibar's largest marine protected area. The Kalambo Falls, located on the Kalambo River at the Zambian border, is the second-highest uninterrupted waterfall in Africa. Tanzania is one of the most visited tourist destinations for safaris.

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output div:not(.notheme)>.tmp-color,html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output p>.tmp-color,html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output table:not(.notheme) .tmp-color{color:inherit!important}@media(prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output div:not(.notheme)>.tmp-color,html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output p>.tmp-color,html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output table:not(.notheme) .tmp-color{color:inherit!important}}show another

Geographic-administrative extent of Swahili. Dark: native range (the Swahili coast). Medium green: Spoken by a majority alongside indigenous languages. Light green: Spoken by a minority.

Swahili, also known by its local name Kiswahili, is a Bantu language originally spoken by the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent littoral islands). The number of current Swahili speakers, be they native or second-language speakers, is estimated to be over 200 million, with Tanzania known to have most of the native speakers.

Swahili has a significant number of loanwords from other languages, mainly Arabic, as well as from Portuguese, English and German. Around fifteen percent of Swahili vocabulary consists of Arabic loanwords, including the name of the language (سَوَاحِلي sawāḥilī, a plural adjectival form of an Arabic word meaning 'of the coasts'). The loanwords date from the era of contact between Arab traders and the Bantu inhabitants of the east coast of Africa, which was also the time period when Swahili emerged as a lingua franca in the region. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

General images - show another

The following are images from various Tanzania-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A 1.8-million-year-old stone chopping tool discovered at Olduvai Gorge and on display at the British Museum (from Tanzania)
Image 2Louis and Mary Leakey (from History of Tanzania)
Image 3The semi-autonomous Zanzibar Archipelago (from Tanzania)
Image 4Location of Zanzibar within Tanzania (from History of Tanzania)
Image 5A Tanzanian woman cooks Pilau rice dish wearing traditional Kanga. (from Tanzania)
Image 6International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha (from Tanzania)
Image 7East African Legislative Assembly in Arusha (from Tanzania)
Image 8Researchers (HC) in Southern Africa per million inhabitants, 2013 or closest year (from Tanzania)
Image 9A carved door with Arabic calligraphy in Zanzibar (from Tanzania)
Image 10Traditional Tanzanian food consisting of pilau kuku (seasoned rice with chicken), mishkaki (grilled meat), ndizi (plantain), maharage (beans), mboga (vegetables), chapati (flatbread) and pili pili (hot sauce) (from Culture of Tanzania)
Image 11Farmers using a rice harvester to harvest rice in Igunga District, Tanzania (from Tanzania)
Image 12One of the main trunk roads (from Tanzania)
Image 13Zanzibar harbour (from Tanzania)
Image 14Historical development of real GDP per capita in Tanzania, since 1950 (from Tanzania)
Image 15Wildebeest migration in the Serengeti (from Tanzania)
Image 16St Joseph's Catholic cathedral, Zanzibar (from Tanzania)
Image 17The Arusha Declaration Monument (from Tanzania)
Image 18A Ramadan dinner in Tanzania (from Culture of Tanzania)
Image 19Tea fields in Tukuyu (from Tanzania)
Image 20A Tingatinga painting (from Culture of Tanzania)
Image 21Tanzanian Ngoma group (from Culture of Tanzania)
Image 22A 1572 depiction of the city of Kilwa, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (from Tanzania)
Image 23Domestic expenditure on research in Southern Africa as a percentage of GDP, 2012 or closest year. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), figure 20.3. (from Tanzania)
Image 24The Hadza live as hunter-gatherers. (from Tanzania)
Image 25High Court Building in Kigoma (from Tanzania)
Image 26Nyerere Bridge in Kigamboni, Dar es Salaam (from Tanzania)
Image 27A Tingatinga painting (from Tanzania)
Image 28Battle during the Maji Maji Rebellion against German colonial rule in 1905 (from Tanzania)
Image 29Stamp of British East Africa with portrait of Queen Elizabeth II (from History of Tanzania)
Image 30Tanzanian Ngoma group (from Tanzania)
Image 31Scientific publications per million inhabitants in SADC countries in 2014. Source: UNESCO Science Report (2015), data from Thomson Reuters' Web of Science, Science Citation Index Expanded. (from Tanzania)
Image 32The Masai giraffe is Tanzania's national animal. (from Tanzania)
Image 33Development of life expectancy (from Tanzania)
Image 34Lemon and ginger tea. (from Culture of Tanzania)
Image 35Tanzanian Embassy in West End, Washington, D.C. (from Tanzania)
Image 36Example of a World Food Programme parcel (from Tanzania)
Image 37Tanzanian women harvesting tea leaves (from Tanzania)
Image 38Olduvai Gorge site also known as "The Cradle of Mankind" (from History of Tanzania)
Image 39National Stadium in Dar es Salaam. (from Culture of Tanzania)
Image 40Tanzania map of Köppen climate classification (from Tanzania)
Image 41National Stadium in Dar es Salaam (from Tanzania)
Image 42Julius Nyerere demanding political independence for Tanganyika in 1961. (from History of Tanzania)
Image 43Regions of Tanzania (from Tanzania)
Image 44Nkrumah Hall at the University of Dar es Salaam (from Tanzania)
Image 45The snowcapped Uhuru Peak (from Tanzania)
Image 46FIB Tanzanian special forces during training (from Tanzania)
Image 47Barbecued beef cubes and seafood in Forodhani Gardens, Zanzibar (from Culture of Tanzania)

edit

This month in Tanzanian history

1 April 2005: Paul Bomani, former Tanzanian politician and ambassador to the United States and Mexico, died at the age of 80.
2 April 1885: The German East Africa Company was formed by Karl Peters to govern German East Africa.
6 April 1861: Zanzibar and Oman were split into two separate principalities with Majid bin Said becoming the first Sultan of Zanzibar.
11 April 1972: Following the assassination of Abeid Karume, Aboud Jumbe became the second President of Zanzibar and Vice President of Tanzania.
11 April 1979: The Uganda-Tanzania War ended.
26 April 1964: The Republic of Tanganyika and the Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba united to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

... More anniversaries

edit

Wildlife of Tanzania - show another

Credit: Haplochromis

The African buffalo, affalo or cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is a large African bovid. It is not closely related to the slightly larger wild Asian water buffalo, but its ancestry remains unclear. Owing to its unpredictable nature which makes it highly dangerous to humans, it has not been domesticated, unlike its Asian counterpart, the domestic Asian water buffalo.

More selected wildlife

More...

edit

Did you know ...

...that Sonjo, a Bantu language of northern Tanzania, has been spoken for centuries in an isolated enclave in Maasai territory?

... that the recent persecution of albinos in Tanzania and Burundi is based on the belief that their body parts have magical power and impart prosperity?

... that Kihaule's mouse shrew is named after the medical-entomological technician who collected the type specimen from the Udzungwa Mountains in Tanzania?

More did you know

edit

WikiProjects

WikiProject Tanzania

WikiProject Africa

edit

Recognised content

Featured Articles: Anglo-Zanzibar War
Zanzibar Revolution

Featured Lists: List of Sultans of Zanzibar

Good Articles: 2008 invasion of Anjouan, Freddie Mercury, Lloyd Mathews

edit

Selected panorama - show another

Credit: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

Mikumi National Park, a national park in Mikumi, near Morogoro, Tanzania. The park was established in 1964, currently covers an area of 3230 km² and is the fourth largest in the country. The landscape of Mikumi is often compared to that of the Serengeti. The road that crosses the park divides it into two areas with partially distinct environments. The area north-west is characterized by the alluvial plain of the river basin Mkata. The vegetation of this area consists of savannah dotted with acacia, baobab, tamarinds, and some rare palm. In this area, at the furthest from the road, there are spectacular rock formations of the mountains Rubeho and Uluguru. The southeast part of the park is less rich in wildlife, and not very accessible.

More selected panoramas...

More...

Uganda–Tanzania War - show another

Articles here focus upon aspects of the Uganda–Tanzania War. These are all Good articles that meet a core set of high editorial standards.

The Battle of Lira was one of the last battles in the Uganda–Tanzania War, fought by Tanzania and its Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) allies, against Uganda Army troops loyal to Idi Amin on 15 May 1979. The Tanzanian-led forces easily routed Lira's garrison of Amin loyalists, and then intercepted and destroyed one retreating column of Uganda Army soldiers near the town.

Idi Amin had seized power in Uganda in 1971 and established a brutal dictatorship. Seven years later he attempted to invade neighbouring Tanzania to the south. The attack was repulsed, and the Tanzanians launched a counter-attack into Ugandan territory. After a number of battles, Amin's regime and military largely collapsed, whereupon Tanzania and its Ugandan allies of the UNLF began to mop up the last pro-Amin holdouts in Uganda's east and north. One of these was the town of Lira, whose capture was entrusted to a force consisting of the Tanzanian 201st Brigade and the UNLF's Kikosi Maalum force. (Full article...)

List of Uganda–Tanzania War articles
Battle of Entebbe Battle of Bombo Battle of Jinja Battle of Karuma Falls Battle of Lukaya Battle of Bondo Battle of Masaka Air campaign of the Uganda–Tanzania War Battle of Mutukula Battle of Tororo