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National holiday:

Union Day on 26 April.

Climate: Tanzania has a tropical climate on the coast and a moderate climate in highly situated areas. In the East and South of the country there is a lot of rain, but towards the North-East there is less rain. The rain season takes place from November until May and the dry season from June until October.

Type of state: constitutional republic with a parliamentary democracy. The parliament consists of one chamber and counts 274 members. 232 of these members are elected and 37 (only women) are appointed by the president. The five other members represent Zanzibar. The president and vice-president are elected as well. The president is the head of the government as well as the head of the state. In Tanzania everybody of 18 years old and more has the right to vote. Zanzibar has its own elected president and vice-president. The president leads a government which can arrange all domestic affairs in Zanzibar. Zanzibar also has its own parliament with elected members. Five members of this parliament are seated in Tanzania’s parliament.

History
After the beginning of the Christian era Bushmen lived in Tanzania, amongst other tribes. From the South, Bantoes invaded the country. From the 8th century onwards Arabs invaded the country from the North and in the 13th century farmers from North-Africa, seafarers and tradesmen from Persia and India started inhabiting the coast. Zanzibar then became an important transfer point for international trade.

In 1498 the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrived in the area. The Portugese then gained control over the coastal area. In the 18th century the Arabs, with the Sultan of Oman as their leader, drove the Portuguese out of the country. From 1841 onwards they planted clove plantations in Zanzibar. After that the Indian people got more and more control over the trade in cloves (and other herbs).

Subsequently Germany and England tried to get control over Tanzania (and its neighbouring areas). Eventually Germany got control over the area. However, Zanzibar and the coastal area of Tanganyika remained in the hands of the Sultan of Oman. By a communal attack of Germany and England this ended and Zanzibar and another island, Pemba, became English possessions.

The German governors constructed a rail track in Tanganyika from the coast to the Kilimanjaro, in order to liberate the area. They also developed coffee and sisal plantations. The latter is a crop which can be used to produce rope and fibres (meanwhile sisal has been replaced by nylon and other artificial fibres). They forced the farmers to work on these plantations. In the South the governers forced the farmers to grow cotton. This led to the Maji Maji uprising among the inhabitants (maij = water).

During the First World War England and Germany fought against each other, also in Tanganyika (and other parts of East-Africa). England won the war and got control of Tanganyika. During the Second World War the English governers forced the farmers to grow rubber and sisal. England needed these raw materials for the war. The farmers started to resist this. Townsmen from Dar es Salaam, amongst other places, started to resist the English governors.

After the war the resistance grew. In 1954 one of the resistance heroes, Julius Nyerere, established the political party Tanganyika African National Union of TANU. In 1960 the English governors agreed to hold elections in Tanganyika. These were won by TANU and Nyere became the leader of Tanganyika. On 9 December 1961 he declared Tanganyika’s independence. Zanzibar became independent on 19 December 1963. On 26 April 1964 Zanzibar and Tanganyika were merged into the current Tanzania. However, Zanzibar stayed autonomous to the greatest extent.

Nyere inherited a country where Indian, Arabic and white plantation holders let their employers work hard for poor wages. He wanted to end this by implementing African socialism.

In order to achieve this, he saw to it that the famous Ujamaa villages were established. ‘Ujaamaa’ is Swahili for ‘sense of family’. These were communities of people who lived and worked together, took care of each other and thereby earned their own living. They had their own schools, hospitals and other social provisions. These villages were a continuation of the family community wherein Africans all had their own tasks and took care of the land and other possessions of the community together.

Nyerere also nationalized banks and other companies in Tanzania.

The policy failed, which led to economic failure. One of the reasons was that farmers in small villages were not prepared to move to a larger Ujamma village, because they did not want to leave their native land. In order to get the economy going again, Tanzania tried to earn more and more foreign currencies by growing and exporting coffee, cotton, tobacco and other export products. Because of the bad economic situation Nyerere decided to step down in 1985. His successors increasingly introduced free trade, urged by the IMF and the World Bank. They also sold state companies. The economic situation improved.

The TANU was the only political party. However, this could not be called an authoritarian government, as the civilians had a great deal of freedom to express themselves. In 1995 the country got a democratic government. For the first time more parties were allowed to take part in governing the country.

Production and trade
Tanzania is a member of the African Union, a counterpart of the European Union.
Moreover, Tanzania is a member of several other organizations that are related to production, agriculture and international trade:

• EAC (East African Community)
• Food and Agriculture Organisation (United Nations)
• Organisation of African States
• International Monetary Fund
• UNCTAD
• World Trade Organization WTO

The country mainly exports goods to China, India, the Netherlands (a EU country) and Germany (a EU country as well). The exported goods are gold, coffee, cashew nuts and cotton in particular.
Tanzania particularly imports goods from China, Kenya, South-Africa and India. The most important imported products are prepared products from factories, machines and means of transport.

Rich, but yet poor:
Tanzania has a lot of tin, phosphate, iron ore, coal, diamonds and other gems. A great deal of water power can be won from rivers, which can be used to enforce electricity. In particular the inlands of Tanzania are attractive for tourists. In nature reserves such as the Serengeti, they can see how elephants, lions and other animals live in the wild.
A famous attraction is the Kilimanjaro, which is situated near the Serengeti. It is a extinct vulcano of almost 6 kilometers high. Even though this mountain is close to the equator, its top is always covered with snow. Last, plenty of sweet water is present. Around the Kilimanjaro three of the largest sweet water lakes of the World are situated: the Victoria lake, the Tanganyika lake and the Nysa lake.



In spite of these attractions, there are hardly any countries in the world where people have lower average wages than in Tanzania. The IMF, the World Bank and donor countries are helping Tanzania to modernize its economy and fight poverty. One of the most important donor countries is the Netherlands.

Agriculture, the motor of the Tanzanian economy:
Tanzania has little land that is suitable for agriculture. The largest part of the country consists of savannah, which is suitable for extensive livestock farming. Farmers with their animals can be found in the Ngorongoro crater, amongst other places. Usually it is not difficult to get access to clean water of reasonably or good quality, because ground water is not found deep under the ground. People who live in the countryside, most of them men, build wells in order to get water out of the ground for their acres and for their families.
The government also has deeper wells built, with pumps to get the water out of the ground. These pumps will break down after some time. When that happens, there are no parts to repair them. Or the users of the pumps are not willing to have them repaired. In both cases, people who live in the countryside have to use water that is less clean and that can make them ill. Especially water from ponds and rivers is dangerous; people may get diarrhoea or other types of infection diseases.

To do something about this, the government has thought of the following: it encourages people who live in the countryside to become members of a Water Users Group. This is a group of 20-30 people who own a pump together. The members of this group pay for the water that the pumps gets out of the ground. The money for this water is put in a jar that belongs to the group. If the pump does not longer work, the group buys parts and repairs the pump itself or has a mechanic repair the pump.

Sometimes there is too little water because it has not rained much for a long period of time, or not at all. Meadows and acres become dry. Livestock farmers have to kill a part of their livestock in order to get food and because there is not enough food for all of their animals. However, there are also times where it rains so much during the rainy season, that floods arise, with a lot of negative consequences. In spite of the limitations and the whims of the climate, agriculture is the most important part of the economy.

As much as 80% earns a living out of it, and 27% of the Gross Domestic Product of the country comes from agriculture. Agricultural products make up 85% of the total export figure.

The most important products of agriculture are coffee, sisal, tea, cotton, cashew nuts, tobacco, mangos, cassava, bananas, fruit and vegetables. Mangos and cashew nuts are endemic, the others are not.

During the Nyerere government, farmers were given fixed low prices for their coffee, cotton and other agricultural products. This ended after he stepped down in 1985 and at the insistence of the IMF and the World Bank. The prices of the agricultural products became dependent on the supply and demand on the world market. It became more attractive for farmers to grow crops for the world market, which made them spend less time and means to produce food for their families. This led to a shortage of food in the countryside. Moreover, owners of plantations became richer and richer and small farmers became poorer.