Tanzania

Tanzania County Facts At-a-Glance

Country Facts

Geography:
Tanzania is located in East Africa, bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The terrain consists of highlands in the north and south, plains along the coast, and a plateau in the center with large wildlife preserves throughout the country.

Capital City:
Dodoma

Population:
64.9 million (2023 est.)

Languages:
Swahili, English (education and government), Arabic

Religions:
Mainland: Christian 61.4%, Muslim 35.2%, folk religion 1.8%, other and unaffiliated 1.6%
Zanzibar: almost entirely Muslim

Ethnic Groups:
Mainland: African 99% (of which 95% are Bantu consisting of more than 130 tribes), other 1% (consisting of Asian, European, and Arab)
Zanzibar: Arab, African, mixed Arab and African

Life Expectancy:
67 years

Literacy Rate:
77.9% (2020 est.)

Source:
CIA World Factbook

Government Facts

Government:
Democratic republic

Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal

Current Head of State:
President Samia Suluhu Hassan (since March 19, 2021). The president and vice president are elected on the same ballot by popular vote for five-year terms and are eligible for a second term.

Independence:
April 26, 1964 (Zanzibar became independent on December 19, 1963, from the United Kingdom; Tanganyika united with Zanzibar on April 26, 1964, to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. It was renamed United Republic of Tanzania on October 29, 1964.)

Currency:
Tanzanian shilling (TZS)

GDP per Capita:
$2,800 USD (2023 est.)

Unemployment Rate:
9.5% (2022 est.)

GDP – Composition by Sector:

• Agriculture 25.8% — coffee, sisal, tea, cotton, cashew nuts, tobacco, cloves, corn, wheat, fruits, vegetables, cattle, sheep, goats
• Industry 28.7% — agricultural processing (sugar, beer, cigarettes, sisal twine), mining (diamonds, gold, iron), salt, soda ash, cement, oil refining, shoes, apparel, wood products, fertilizer
• Services 45.5%

Source:CIA World Factbook

Country Basics 

Tanzania is located in East Africa, bordered by the Indian Ocean, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique. The country has a population of over 65 million people. The capital city was moved to Dodoma in 1996.

The terrain consists of highlands in the north and south, plains along the coast, and plateau in the center with large wildlife preserves throughout the country.

Tanzania has over 21 national parks, including Serengeti National Park which has a massive annual wildebeest and zebra migration. The park is home to one of the most productive ecosystems on earth, sustaining the largest number of hoofed animals and the highest concentration of large predators in the world, including lions, leopards, cheetahs and spotted hyenas.

The impressive wildlife and the snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro brings many tourists to Tanzania each year. Mount Kilimanjaro has an elevation of 5,895 meters (19,340 feet) above sea level, making it the largest free-standing mountain in the world.

Brief History 

Archaeologists have found evidence that the world’s oldest hominid settlements began in the Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania. The gorge was settled about 10,000 years ago by hunter-gatherer tribes and later settled by Bantu tribes migrating from West Africa.

The Portuguese first laid claim to Zanzibar in the 16th century, but the island was later claimed as a Sultanate of the Oman Arabs. Both Germany and Britain claimed “spheres of influence” over Tanganyika in the late 1800s. After World War I, the first League of Nations officially gave the territory to Britain. Tanganyika gained independence from British rule in 1961 and joined with Zanzibar in 1964 to form present-day Tanzania.

After independence, a one-party government under Julius Nyere of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi Revolutionary Party (CCM) ruled Tanzania under a republican constitution and a socialist economic policy called Ujamaa. Tanzania now holds multi-party elections, although CCM has continued to dominate national politics.

Cultural Expectations 

While in Tanzania, you can expect… 

the local people to treat you with interest, curiosity, and kindness, and the kids to hold your hand and touch your hair.

While in Tanzania, locals will expect you…

to be interested in their artwork, to play as hard as you work, and to cover your shoulders.

Cultural Icon

Freddie Mercury was born Farouk Bulsara in Stone Town, Zanzibar. Freddie moved to England and rose to world-wide fame as the lead singer of the rock band Queen.

Food

When in Tanzania, you will feast on… 

• Wali (rice)
• Ugali (maize porridge)
• Chapatti (bread)
• Nyama choma (grilled meat)
• Mshikaki (marinated beef)
• Ndizi-nyama (plantains with meat)

Currency

The currency of Tanzania is the shilling which is subdivided into 100 cents. The Tanzanian shilling replaced the East African shilling in 1966.

Language 

Both Swahili (or Kiswahili) and English are the official languages of Tanzania. English is the primary language of commerce, government, and higher education. Arabic is widely spoken in Zanzibar.

Greetings 

• Hello: Hujambo 
• Reply to Hujambo: Sijambo 
• Hello (to an older person): Shikamoo
• Reply to Shikamoo: Marahaba 
• How are you? Habari gani?; Good: Nzuri/Safi 
• Good morning: Habari za asubuhi;Good afternoon: Habari za mchana; Good night: Usiku mwema 
• You are welcome: Karibu; You are all welcome: Karibuni 
• Goodbye: Kwaheri 

Etiquette 

• Please: Tafadhali; Thank you: Asante 
• Excuse me: Samahani 
• May I enter? Hodi? 
• Sorry: Pole

Conversational 

• What is your name? Jina lako nani?; My name is ___. Jina langu ___. 
• Where are you from? Unatoka wapi?; I am from ___. Ninatoka ___. 
• How old are you? Una miaka mingapi?; I am ___ years old. Mimi nina miaka. 
• Do you speak English? Unasema Kingereza?; I speak a little Swahili. Ninajua Kiswahili kidogo. 

Useful 

• Could you repeat that please? Tafadhali sema tena? 
• How do you say ___ in Swahili? Unasemaje ___ kwa Kiswahili? 
• I don’t understand. Sifahamu. 
• I want to go to ___. Ninataka kwenda ___. 
• Where is ___? Wapi ___? 
• I would like ___. Ninataka ___.
• How much is it? Ni bei gani? 

Swahili proverbs 

• Together for one goal: Pamoja kwa lengo moja 
• Slowly is the best course: Pole pole ndiyo mwendo
• Hurry has no blessing: Haraka haraka haina baraka 
• A person is people: Mtu ni watu (similar to “no man is an island”)
• Little by little fills up the measure: Haba na haba hujaza kibaba

Ethnic Groups

On the mainland 99 percent of the population is African. Of this, 95 percent are Bantu, consisting of over 130 tribes. The other one percent include Asian, European, and Arab ethnicities. The Zanzibar populations are primarily Arab, African, mixed Arab and African.

Religion

The breakdown in the country is:

63.1 percent Christian, 34.1 percent Muslim, 1.1 percent folk religion, less than one percent of people in other faiths such as Buddhist, Hindu and Jewish. The island of Zanzibar is almost entirely Muslim.

Hot Topic in Tanzania

• Tanzania has been one of the world’s largest asylums for refugees over the past four decades. Refugees primarily fled Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the 1990s due to instability in their respective countries. A number of former Burundian refugees who arrived in 1972 were naturalized as Tanzanian citizens in 2014. That year, the President of Tanzania created plans to naturalize over 160,000 refugees from Burundi to create a more permanent legal status for this population, with the assistance of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. The United States government also had plans to resettle 30,000 refugees from the DRC. In 2015, instability in Burundi caused a surge in arrivals to Tanzania, which has undertaken significant humanitarian efforts to ensure the safety, health, and security of its neighbors’ citizens.
• In March 2021, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn in as President of Tanzania following the death of President John Magufuli. She became the first female president in Tanzanian history. John Magufuli of the governing party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) had won the presidential election in November 2015, defeating a strong opposition candidate, former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa. This election was considered the closest and most unpredictable since Tanzania became a multi-party democracy in 1992. The election was generally without incident, and President Magufuli was sworn in on November 5, 2015, taking Samia Suluhu as the first female Vice President. In semi-autonomous Zanzibar, the election was annulled by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission. Ali Mohamed Shein of the CCM party took 91% of the vote during the re-election on March 20, 2016.
• In early 2023, Dr. Jane Goodall, whose famous research on chimpanzees made her a household name in the 1960s and who pioneered community-centered conservation, spent several weeks visiting Tanzania for the 30th anniversary of her Roots & Shoots organization. Starting with only 12 Tanzanian students in 1991, Roots & Shoots now covers over 130 countries and involves hundreds of thousands of youth making a difference every single day in their own communities.

Did You Know? 

• Tanzania is the largest country on the East African coast.
• Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa, the tallest free-standing mountain in the world, and one of only two mountains on the continent that has glaciers (the other is Mount Kenya).
• Tanzania is bordered by three of the largest lakes on the continent: Lake Victoria (the world’s second-largest freshwater lake) in the north, Lake Tanganyika (the world’s second deepest) in the west, and Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) in the southwest.
• Hakuna Matata, the popular phrase from Disney’s The Lion King, means “no worries” in Swahili. Simba is also Swahili for lion.
• The world’s earliest human skull was found in the Olduvai Gorge.
• Tanzania has the largest concentration of wildlife animals per square kilometer with more than 4 million wild animals and representatives of 430 species and subspecies.
• Jane Goodall did her research on chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park.
• Tanzania shares its national anthem with South Africa and Zimbabwe. It’s titled “Mungu Ibariki Afrika” (God Bless Africa) and was composed by Enock Sontonga.
• During a period of high corruption in Tanzania, people of the government were called Wabenzi, meaning “people of the Benz.”