Tanzania

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Country in east Africa, bounded to the north by Uganda and Kenya; south by Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia; west by the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Burundi, and Rwanda; and east by the Indian Ocean.

Government
Tanzania has a federal limited presidential multiparty political system. The president, who is head of state, is directly elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term, with a limit of two terms. The president appoints two vice-presidents, one of whom is prime minister. The president also appoints a cabinet, in consultation with the prime minister, and presides over it. The legislature is the single-chamber national assembly comprising 295 members, 231 directly elected by universal suffrage, 48 appointed women, five elected by the Zanzibar house of representatives, 10 nominated members and the attorney general. The assembly serves a five-year term. Zanzibar's house of representatives has jurisdiction over non-union matters.

History
The Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania has yielded some of the earliest known hominid remains, dating from some 2 million years ago. Bantu-speaking peoples from western Africa migrated into the Tanganyika area (the mainland part of what is now Tanzania) in the earlier part of the 1st millennium AD, bringing with them ironworking technology. There were trading contacts between the coast and Arabia (and possibly even India) from the beginning of the millennium, and there were Arab settlements along the coast throughout medieval times, introducing Islam.

From around the 16th century Arab domination of the coast was challenged by the Portuguese. Zanzibar emerged as an important port in the 18th century and Arab traders penetrated the interior in search of slaves and ivory. In the early 19th century, they opened up the great slave route from Bangamoyo on the Indian Ocean to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika. The British explorer Richard Burton first entered the territory in 1856, and was soon followed by John Speke, David Livingstone, and Henry Morton Stanley. In 1873, the British fleet forced the Zanzibar sultan to declare an end to the slave trade, although a reduced illegal slave trade continued.

German colonization
Tanganyika was visited in 1884 by the German Karl Peters, who concluded several treaties with the local chiefs. This enabled establishment of a German protectorate, as agreed at the Berlin Conference of 1885 when East Africa was partitioned between Germany and Britain (which held Kenya). German Christian missionaries entered the area, attempts were made to destroy local tribal structures and traditions, and there was forced labour for cotton plantations. This provoked African revolts in 1889, 1902, and 1905. The last, known as the Maji Maji rebellion, was crushed with great cruelty, and African casualties were enormous.

During World War I, British and South African forces attempted to take the colony, but the Germans were not finally defeated until November 1918 (in the East Africa Campaign), after great loss of life. In 1920 the League of Nations awarded to Britain a mandate to govern virtually the whole of German Tanganyika. The mandate was turned into a United Nations (UN) trusteeship in 1946.

British rule in Tanganyika
Under the terms of the League of Nations mandate, Britain was obliged to develop the political life of the territory. The British established many Africans in the lower ranks of the administration. This led to the emergence – earlier than elsewhere in eastern Africa – of a politicized class of Africans, who formed the Tanganyika African Association (TAA). To counter this tendency, the British unsuccessfully attempted to introduce indirect rule through traditional chiefs.

In 1926, a legislative council was established to advise the governor, and spending on hospitals and disease eradication increased.

However, African nationalist aspirations continued to develop. Concerns over the economic situation of African peasant farmers, and resentment of the privileges enjoyed by white settlers (a small minority of the population), encouraged the formation of the Tanganyikan African National Union (TANU) in 1954, under the leadership of Julius Nyerere.

Independence
Tanganyika achieved autonomy in September 1960 and became a fully independent state within the Commonwealth in December 1961, with Nyerere as premier. In December 1962, when Tanganyika became a republic, he became the nation's first president. There were communist-inspired army mutinies in January 1964 but these were quelled with British assistance. In April 1964 Zanzibar united with Tanganyika, and in October 1964 the composite state changed its name to the United Republic of Tanzania.

Zanzibar to 1964
The island of Zanzibar was settled by Arab traders in the 7th century, and under Portuguese control during the 16th and 17th centuries, whereupon it became a sultanate. In 1822 it was united with the nearby island of Pemba. It was a British protectorate from 1890 to 1963, when it became an independent sultanate again. A left-wing revolution followed, and the sultan was overthrown in 1964, paving the way for union with mainland Tanganyika. Zanzibar continued for many years to follow its own policies, including close relations with the communist countries of the Soviet bloc.

Nyerere's quiet revolution
Nyerere dominated the nation's politics for more than two decades, remaining president until 1985 and leader until 1990 of the ruling Revolutionary State Party (the CCM, which had been formed in 1977 through merger of TANU and the Afro-Shirazi Party of Zanzibar). Known throughout Tanzania as Mwalimu (‘teacher’), he established himself as a Christian socialist attempted to put into practice a philosophy that he believed would secure his country's future. In his 1967 Arusha Declaration (Arusha is a northern Tanzanian town where he made his historic statement) he made a commitment to build a socialist state for the millions of poor peasants through a series of village cooperatives (ujamas). By 1973, 8 million people were living in ujama villages.

Tanzania had to rely largely on its own resources for development, and on aid from the communist countries, especially China. This was because it received little aid from the USA, Germany, or Britain because of its perceived closeness to the Soviet bloc and Nyerere's demand that Britain crush Ian Smith's white-minority regime in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). In the final years of his presidency, economic pressures, domestic and international, forced Nyerere to compromise his ideals and accept a more capitalistic society than he would have wished, but his achievements included the best public health service on the African continent (according to UN officials) and a national primary-school system.

Tanzania's role in Africa
Tanzania gave firm support to the liberation movements in Mozambique and Rhodesia, and assisted Zambia by cooperating in building a railway linking Zambia to the Indian Ocean.

However, relations with its neighbours have been variable. In 1967 an East Africa Community of Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda was formed, but this broke up in 1977, and relations between Tanzania and the more capitalistic Kenya became uneasy. Tanzania also had a very uneasy relationship with Uganda following the attempted overthrow of President Idi Amin in 1972 by supporters of ex-President Milton Obote based in Tanzania, and Amin continued to accuse Tanzania of threatening invasion. In 1979 Nyerere sent troops to support the Uganda National Liberation Front in its bid to overthrow President Amin. This enhanced Nyerere's reputation but damaged his country's economy. However, in 1999, the East Africa Community agreement with Kenya and Uganda was revived, with the intention of creating a common market similar to that of the European Union.

Outside Africa, during the early 1970s there was a gradual restoration of the relationship with Britain, and substantial British development aid began to flow to Tanzania again in 1975.

Tanzania after Nyerere
In 1985 the Revolutionary Party of Tanzania (CCM) chose Ali Hassan Mwinyi, the president of Zanzibar, to replace Nyerere as state president and in 1990 as party chair. (Nyerere was to die in 1999). Mwinyi faced growing calls for an end to the one-party system that had been in force in Tanzania since independence. He accepted this and the 1992 constitution allowed for multiparty politics. However, the CCM comfortably won the country's first multiparty elections, in October 1995, and its candidate, Benjamin Mkapa, was elected president.

In 1998, Tanzania was the site of the terrorist bombing of the US embassy in Dar es Salaam.

Under Mkapa, the economy improved, with foreign investment increasing nine-fold 1995–2000, average incomes growing 1% per annum and inflation falling from 30% to 6%. This provided the springboard for his re-election as president in October 2000 and for the CCM to increase its absolute majority in the national assembly. However, in Zanzibar, the results were disputed and after calls by the Civic United Front (CUF) for a fresh poll, 37 people were killed in January 2001 violence between the police and demonstrators, and 1,000 people fled to Kenya.

In December 2005, the former foreign minister and CCM candidate, Jakaya Kikwete, was elected the new state president. In June 2006, he also replaced Mkapa as CCM leader.

A condor, poised to attack enemies, protects the nation under its wings. Blue symbolizes independence from Spain. Yellow recalls the Federation of Greater Colombia. Red stands for courage. Effective date: 7 November 1900. >>