Country Info : Tanzania

Tanzania borders Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia.

In the northeast, the country is characterized by high mountains, here is also the Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. In the north and west are Tanzania's largest lakes, Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa, and Lake Tanganyika, the deepest lake in Africa. In the center is the flat country, directly in front of the east coast is Zanzibar with the two main islands Unguja and Pemba.

Tanzania has a large number of important games and nature parks, in which many typical African animals and plants can be found.

The distribution of the population in Tanzania is extremely uneven, so the population density varies between 1 inhabitant per km² in arid areas over 52 inhabitants per km² in the highlands up to 134 inhabitants per km² in Zanzibar. More than 80% of the population lives in rural areas.

More than 120 ethnic groups are native to Tanzania, the Sukuma and Nyamwezi are the largest in number and descend from the Bantu. Some Arabs, Indians, Pakistani, Europeans, and Asians also live in Tanzania.

There are no current statistics in Tanzania dealing with the country's beliefs because rivalries between religious groups are to be avoided. Demonstrating a belief as predominant is seen as a threat to political stability. Officially, all directions are roughly evenly distributed: 1/3 Christians, 1/3 Muslims and 1/3 followers of indigenous beliefs. However, these numbers are based on estimates.

Zanzibar is about 97% Islamic and most mainland Muslims are on the coast.

Tanzania is one of the few African countries where a local language (Swahili) has prevailed and English, the language of the former colony, is no longer the official language. Nevertheless, English is considered the second national language and is very common. A large number of indigenous Bantu languages are still spoken, especially in rural areas, of which Swahili serves as the unifying local language for all tribes.

The native language of the Tanzanians is usually that of the local tribe, Swahili and English are learned as second and third languages.

Tanzania's climate is tropical, but temperatures vary by geographic area.

In the highlands, temperatures fluctuate between 10 and 20 ° C depending on the season, in the rest of the country it rarely gets cooler than 20 ° C. Between November and February it is warmest with up to 31 ° C, and coolest from May to August (15-20 ° C).

Tanzania has been trading by sea since the beginning of the Christian era, and a few hundred years later Islamic settlers from the Swahili culture settled.

Trade fell sharply due to the occupation of the Portuguese in the 16th century, in 1885 Tanzania became a part of the German colony, after the First World War Germany lost the colony and Tanzania was occupied by Belgium and later by England.

In 1961 Tanzania became independent from England. The island of Zanzibar became Tanzanian territory.

The country's first president was Julius Nyerere, who was unable to implement his educational plans and quickly resigned.

Only since 1995 have there been democratic elections in Tanzania.

Almost 90% of the population of Tanzania live in poverty. Despite the country's richness in oil, gas and precious materials, hardly any investors are interested in Tanzania and the fight against poverty is making slow progress.

Economy:

The transport and energy infrastructure is poorly developed, which also hampers economic development. About 1/3 of the state budget is donor-financed, Tanzania is strongly supported by non-governmental organizations. Gross domestic product growth has been very encouraging in recent years at up to 7%.

The most important sector is the agricultural sector, which accounts for almost 1/3 of GDP. Almost 80% of the population works in the agricultural sector. Above all, raw products are exported because there is no financial means for the processing. The income from exports is kept relatively low.

Political situation:

Zanzibar is largely independent of the mainland, the islands have their own president and parliament. The 26 regions of Tanzania are getting more and more autonomy.

While Tanzania is officially a multi-party government, one party (CCM) remains the strongest

President Magufuli is now the 5th President of Tanzania. With his politics, he wants to fight corruption, nepotism, and waste of taxpayers' money.

Corruption still plays a role in Tanzania's politics - former Prime Minister Lowassa, for example, forced by parliament to resign due to numerous corruption cases.

Human rights situation: There is freedom of the press, the right to demonstrate has often been restricted, the judiciary is independent but not yet well developed. The conditions of detention are very bad; the last time the death penalty was used was in 1995.