Tanzania Education

Tanzania, United Republic of, republic, southeastern Africa, bounded on the north by Kenya and Uganda, on the east by the Indian Ocean, on the south by Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia, and on the west by Zaire, Burundi, and Rwanda. The country includes the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, and other offshore islands in the Indian Ocean. The total area of Tanzania is 945,087 sq km (364,900 sq mi), of which 942,453 sq km (363,882 sq mi) is on the mainland.

Land and Resources
The landscape of mainland Tanzania is generally flat and low along the coast, but a plateau at an average altitude of about 1220 m (about 4000 ft) constitutes the greater part of the country. Isolated mountain groups rise in the northeast and southwest. The volcanic Mount Kilimanjaro (5895 m/19,340 ft), the highest mountain in Africa, is located near the northeastern border. Three of the great lakes of Africa lie on the borders of the country and partially within it. Lake Tanganyika is located on the western border, Lake Victoria on the northwest, and Lake Malawi (Nyasa) on the southwest. Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika lie in the Rift Valley, a tremendous geological fault system extending from the Middle East to Mozambique.
Zanzibar, separated from the coast of the mainland by a channel some 32 km (some 20 mi) wide is about 90 km (about 55 mi) long and covers an area of approximately 1650 sq km (approximately 637 sq mi). It is the largest coral island off the coast of Africa. Pemba, some 40 km (some 25 mi) northwest of Zanzibar, is about 68 km (about 42 mi) long and has an area of approximately 984 sq km (380 sq mi). Both Zanzibar and Pemba are mostly low-lying.

Climate
On the coastal strip along the Indian Ocean, the climate of mainland Tanzania is warm and tropical, with temperatures averaging 26.7° C (80° F) and rainfall varying from 1016 to 1930 mm (40 to 76 in). The inland plateau is hot and dry, with rainfall averaging from 508 to 762 mm (20 to 30 in). The semitemperate highlands in the southwest are better watered.
The climate on the islands is generally tropical, but the heat is tempered by a sea breeze throughout the year. The annual mean temperature for the city of Zanzibar is 29.2° C (84.5° F) maximum, and 24.7° C (76.5° F) minimum; for Wete in Pemba, 30.3° C (86.5° F) maximum and 24.5° C (76.1° F) minimum.

Natural Resources
Diamonds are by far the most important of the minerals currently being exploited in Tanzania. Large deposits of coal and iron ore are known to exist in the southern region. Forestland constitutes one of the most substantial natural resources of the country. Among the many hardwoods found are mahogany and camphorwood. The country abounds in wildlife, including the following: antelope, zebra, elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, giraffe, lion, leopard, cheetah, and monkey.

Population
The population of Tanzania consists mostly of numerous black African groups, the majority of which speak a Bantu language. The largest single ethnic group is the Sukuma. Other major ethnic groups include the Nyamwezi, Haya, Ngonde, Chagga, Gogo, Ha, Hehe, Nyakyusa, Nyika, Ngoni, Yao, and Masai. The population also includes people of Indian, Pakistani, and Goan origin, and small Arab and European communities. Most of the people live in rural areas. About one-third of the population follows traditional religions. Islam is the religion of about one-third of the people and is dominant on Zanzibar. Roman Catholicism is the largest Christian denomination of Tanzania with some 5 million adherents. Swahili and English are the official languages of Tanzania, but many persons continue to use the language of their ethnic group.

Population Characteristics
The population (1978 preliminary) of Tanzania was 17,527,560; the estimate for 1993 was 27,286,363. The overall density in 1993 was about 28 persons per sq km (about 74 per sq mi), but about two-thirds of the population lives in the one-third of the country north of the central railroad. Since 1972 the government has established rural communal villages (ujamaa villages), in which by 1980 about 90% of the rural population had been resettled.
The largest city and seat of government, Dar-es-Salaam, has a population of 1,300,000 (1988 estimate). Other major cities are Mwanza (population, 1985 estimate, 252,000), a port on Lake Victoria, and Tanga (172,000), an industrial center and seaport. Zanzibar (population, 1978, 110,669) is the largest city on the island. Dodoma (45,703) has been designated as the eventual capital of Tanzania.

Education
Primary education is compulsory in Tanzania, but not enough schools are available to accommodate all of the children. About 85% of persons over the age of 15 are literate. In the late 1980s government schools were attended annually by some 3.2 million elementary pupils and 91,600 secondary students. In addition, many children attended private schools, which were mostly run by religious groups. Institutions of higher education enrolled about 3400 students per year. Major schools included the University of Dar es-Salaam (1961) and Sokoine University of Agriculture (1984), in Morogoro.

Culture
Tanzanian culture is a product of African, Arab, European, and Indian influences. Traditional African values are being consciously adapted to modern life.
Among the libraries in Tanzania are the National Central Library, the British Council Library, and the American Center Library, all in Dar es-Salaam. The University of Dar es-Salaam has an important library, and a lending service at the Dar es-Salaam Technical College (1956) circulates books by mail throughout the country. Zanzibar has several community and school libraries in addition to the Museum Library and the Zanzibar National Archives. The National Museum of Tanzania is located at Dar es-Salaam. The Zanzibar Government Museum is located in the city of Zanzibar.

Economy
The economy of Tanzania is primarily agricultural. More than 80% of the economically active population is engaged in farming, and agricultural products account for about 75% of the annual exports. The country is the largest producer in the world of sisal and cloves. Per capita income is less than $200 a year, and the economy shrank by an annual rate of 0.5 percent from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s. Government programs call for a form of socialism, and most banks were nationalized in 1967. A series of development plans has stressed growth of the agricultural cash economy and a reduction in dependence on imports for manufactured goods. The estimated annual national budget in the late 1980s included revenue of $950 million, and expenditure of $980 million.

Agriculture
Most of the world production of cloves comes from Zanzibar and Pemba islands. Coffee, cloves, cotton, tobacco, tea, and sisal are the main export crops, and cashews and peppers are also exported. The principal food crops for domestic consumption include cassava, corn, rice, sorghum, millet, sweet potatoes, and plantains. The livestock population includes about 13.5 million cattle, 6.6 million goats, 4.7 million sheep, and 30 million chickens.

Forestry and Fishing
Yearly timber production in Tanzania in the late 1980s totaled about 24.8 million cu m (about 876 million cu ft), more than 90% of which was used as fuel. Timber includes camphor, podo, and African mahogany. The annual fish catch in the late 1980s was about 313,500 metric tons, more than three-quarters of which was caught in inland waters, especially Lake Victoria. Sardines and tuna were caught in the Indian Ocean.

Mining
Tanzania is rich in diamonds. Deposits of gold, mica, salt, coal, lead, iron ore, tin, tungsten, pyrochlore, kaolin, phosphates, and magnesite are also located in the country. Annual diamond production in the late 1980s was about 150,000 carats.

Manufacturing
Most manufacturing in Tanzania consists of the processing of raw materials, including coffee, grain, sisal, kapok, jute, and coir. In the 1970s basic industries, such as vehicle assembling, were begun, and cement and tannery facilities were expanded. Approximately 70% of Tanzania's electricity is produced in hydroelectric plants; major facilities are on the Pangani River. Total annual electricity output in the late 1980s was about 874 million kwh.

Currency and Foreign Trade
The currency unit is the Tanzanian shilling, which replaced the East African shilling in 1966 (475.194 Tanzanian shillings equal U.S.$1; 1993). In 1967, Tanzania nationalized most banks, amalgamating them into the National Bank of Commerce. The bank of issue is the Bank of Tanzania (1966).
In the late 1980s the imports of Tanzania were valued at about $1.2 billion annually, and exports totaled about $372 million. Coffee, cotton, diamonds, tobacco, tea, and sisal made up the bulk of exports. Main imports were petroleum, machinery, transportation equipment, iron and steel and other metals, and food and live animals. Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Italy, Iran, Denmark, and the Netherlands are the leading trade partners. Considerable foreign exchange is also derived from tourists, about 65,000 of whom visited Tanzania annually in the mid-1980s, mostly to see Mount Kilimanjaro and Serengeti National Park. Tanzania was a member of the East African Community, an economic alliance with Uganda and Kenya that collapsed in 1977.

Transportation and Communications
Tanzania has some 2580 km (some 1605 mi) of railroad, including lines linking Dar es-Salaam to Lake Tanganyika, with branches to Mwanza, Mpanda, and Arusha. The Tanzania-Zambia Railway (Tazara), opened in 1975, provides a link between Dar es-Salaam and Zambia; the 1987-91 development plan allocated more than $110 million to rehabilitate the line. Of some 82,100 km (about 51,000 mi) of roads, less than 5% are paved. Steamships and airlines link the mainland with Zanzibar. The major seaports are Dar es-Salaam and Mtwara. Airports serving Dar es-Salaam, Zanzibar city, and elsewhere provide interterritorial services and international connections. The national airline is Air Tanzania.
Tanzania has a national radio network; in 1973 color television service began in Zanzibar. Three daily newspapers are published. Influential dailies include Uhuru and the Daily News, both published in Dar es-Salaam.

Labor
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing are the main sources of employment in Tanzania. The main labor organization is the Union of Tanzania Workers, with about 350,000 members.

Government
The United Republic of Tanzania was formed on April 26, 1964, by the adoption of an Act of Union between Tanganyika, on the mainland, and the island of Zanzibar. The nation is governed under a constitution of 1977, as amended. The internal affairs of Zanzibar are administered under a constitution of 1985.

Executive
The chief executive of Tanzania is a president, who is popularly elected to a 5-year term. The president appoints a vice president (who must represent Zanzibar if the president comes from the mainland, and vice versa) and a prime minister and cabinet.

Legislature
The legislature of Tanzania is the unicameral National Assembly. It has 244 members, 169 of whom (119 from the mainland and 50 from Zanzibar) are popularly elected to terms of up to 5 years. Most of the rest of the members are either appointed, represent statutory organizations, or sit by virtue of being commissioners of the country's regions.

Judiciary
The highest tribunals in Tanzania are the court of appeal and the high court. Lesser courts include district and primary courts. People's courts function in Zanzibar.

Local Government
The mainland is divided into 20 regions, Zanzibar into 3 regions, and Pemba into 2 regions. The governments of the regions are headed by regional commissioners. The 1985 constitution of Zanzibar provides for a popularly elected president and a 75-member house of representatives (50 elected, 25 appointed).

Political Parties
The country's leading political party is the Revolutionary Party of Tanzania (Chama Cha Mapinduzi). It was formed in 1977 by the amalgamation of the Tanganyika African National Union and Zanzibar's Afro-Shirazi party. Opposition parties were legalized in 1992.

Health and Welfare
The government of Tanzania has undertaken several programs to improve educational, working, and health conditions.

Defense
In the late 1980s the armed forces of Tanzania had 46,700 members—45,000 in the army, 1000 in the air force, and 700 in the navy. Paramilitary groups in the country included the 100,000-member Citizens' Militia.

History
Tanzania was formed by the federation of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964. The histories of the two areas are very different.

Zanzibar
As early as the 8th century AD, Zanzibar and other islands off the coast of East Africa became bases for Arab merchants trading with the mainland, which they called the Land of Zenj (Arabic, “blacks”), or Azania. In the course of time some of these—including Zanzibar and Kilwa—became independent Muslim sultanates with mixed Arab and African populations. In the 16th and 17th centuries they were dominated by the Portuguese, and in the 18th century, Zanzibar and Pemba were subject to the sultans of Muscat and Oman. In 1832 the Omani sultan Sayyid Said established his residence on Zanzibar, where he promoted the production of cloves and palm oil and carried on an active slave trade with the interior. His domain, which included parts of the mainland, was a commercial rather than a territorial empire. His successors did not have a legal claim to the lands they controlled commercially, and did not have the power to keep the Germans and British from annexing them when the European nations began dividing up Africa later in the century. Zanzibar was declared a British protectorate in 1890; the sultan was retained for ceremonial purposes, but most major decisions were made by the British resident. Sultan Khalifa ibn Harub used his influence to support British rule. At the time of his death, Britain was divesting itself of its African colonies, and Zanzibar, troubled by political factionalism, was granted independence in December 1963. A few weeks later its conservative government was overthrown in a bloody revolution and replaced by a leftist regime under Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume.

Tanganyika
Tanganyika, populated by many Bantu groups, such as the Chagga, Hehe, Gogo, Yao, and Nyamwezi, and by the Masai and other Nilotic peoples, was defined by a series of treaties between European states in the decade after 1886. These ignored the claims of the sultan of Zanzibar, giving the Germans control over the vast reaches of Tanganyika and reserving Kenya and Uganda for Britain. After putting down African resistance to their rule, the Germans invested heavily in Tanganyika, hoping to convert the northern part into profitable coffee and tea plantations. The onset of World War I ended these plans. German East Africa became a major theater of operations, in which General Paul von Lettow-Vorbecktied down about a quarter of a million British and colonial troops with a makeshift force of 12,000 Africans and 4000 Germans before finally capitulating in 1918. Tanganyika then became a mandate of the League of Nations under British tutelage. The actions of the British governors in the 1920s kept European colonization to a minimum; thus, unlike neighboring Kenya, Tanganyika did not develop a race problem. The results of this enlightened attitude were evident in the transition period before independence. The major party, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), led by Julius Nyerere, was a moderate organization; its appeal cut across ethnic and national lines. Nyerere became prime minister when Tanganyika was granted independence in December 1961; one year later the new nation adopted a republican constitution, with Nyerere as its president.

Tanzania Under Nyerere
In January 1964 Nyerere survived an abortive military coup; later, in an effort to strengthen his government against revolutionary violence, he opened discussions with Prime Minister Karume of Zanzibar that led to the formation of Tanzania in April.

The Nature of the Federation
The agreement arose from mutual need. Zanzibar received aid from the mainland, and Nyerere could legally act to moderate the Zanzibar revolution. He became president of the union, and Karume was its first vice president. Each area retained its own legislature and legal system pending an agreement on more complete integration. Integration, however, proved to be difficult, and the differences between the two areas remained great. The Zanzibar government was far more radical and doctrinaire than that of Tanganyika. Many elections had been held in Tanganyika, but none on the island. Until 1977 TANU was the only recognized political party on the mainland, but several different candidates normally stood for election for any given seat in the legislature. TANU merged with Zanzibar's one party to form the Revolutionary Party of Tanzania, but the merger was more cosmetic than real. In 1970 the entire legal system on Zanzibar was reorganized to give power to three-member people's courts that permitted no defense attorneys; meanwhile, the courts of Tanganyika continued to follow the general practices inherited from the British. Mainland courts refused to extradite prisoners to Zanzibar because of the vast differences in their systems. Thus, despite the change in name, the two areas that constitute the federation remained fundamentally separate.

The Economy
From the beginning, Tanzania was a poor state, with few exportable minerals, little industry, and an agricultural system dominated by ideas of tribal self-sufficiency. To counteract a deteriorating economic situation, Nyerere made some major changes in 1967. The state gradually extended its control over all areas of business life. Banks and all private companies were nationalized and state corporations created to provide goods and services for the population. This experiment in socialism received a tremendous blow with the increases in the price of petroleum in the 1970s, which wiped out Tanzania's reserves. Nyerere's ujamaa (“familyhood”) program, designed to revitalize village agriculture by combining modern technology with African ideas of cooperation, was hampered by world economic developments, government inefficiency, and resistance from local village and district heads.

Foreign Policy
During the 1970s and the early 1980s, Tanzania's leaders were in the forefront of African liberation movements. Mozambique nationalists were allowed to use Tanzanian territory for training and attack bases during their rebellion against the Portuguese. In Uganda, Tanzanian troops helped overthrow the regime of Idi Amin in 1979 and occupied the country until 1981. President Nyerere was also one of the major African representatives in the negotiations for ending white rule in Zimbabwe. Although it maintained good relations with the West, Tanzania moved closer in philosophy and practice to the Communist-bloc countries; China was particularly helpful with aid.
In November 1985, Nyerere retired and was succeeded in the presidency by Ali Hassan Mwinyi; however, Nyerere retained the chairmanship of the Revolutionary Party of Tanzania until August 1990. The nation began moving toward a multiparty system in the early 1990s.