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BACKGROUND NOTES:  TANZANIA
PUBLISHED BY THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

MAY 1994
Official Name:  United Republic of Tanzania

PROFILE

Geography
Area:  Mainland--945,000 sq.  km.  (378,000 sq.  mi.); slightly smaller than
New Mexico and Texas combined.  Zanzibar--1,658 sq.  km.  (640 sq.  mi.).
Cities:  Capital--Dar es Salaam (pop.  2 million); Dodoma (future
capital--200,000), Zanzibar Town (160,000), Tanga (190,000), Mwanza (225,000),
Arusha (140,000).  Terrain:  Varied.  Climate:  Varies from tropical to arid
to temperate.

People
Nationality:  Noun and adjective--Tanzanian(s); Zanzibari(s).  Population:
Mainland--25 million.  Zanzibar-- 800,000.  Ethnic groups:  More than 120.
Religions:  Muslim 35%, indigenous beliefs 35%, Christian 30%.  Languages:
Kiswahili (official), English.  Education:  Attendance--86% (primary).
Literacy--90%.  Health:  Infant mortality rate--110/1,000.  Life
expectancy--53 yrs.  Work force:  Agriculture--85%.  Industry, commerce, and
government--15%.

Government
Type:  Republic.  Independence:  Tanganyika 1961, Zanzibar 1963, union formed
1964.  Constitution:  1982.  Branches:  Executive--president (chief of state
and commander in chief), prime minister, first vice-president, and second
vice-president (also president of Zanzibar).  Legislative-- unicameral
National Assembly (for the union), House of Representatives (for Zanzibar
only).  Judicial--mainland:  Court of Appeals, High Courts, Resident
Magistrate Courts, district courts, primary courts.  Zanzibar:  High Court,
people's district courts, kadhis courts (Islamic courts).  Political parties:
Chama Cha Mapinduzi -- Revolutionary Party, Party for Democracy and
Development, Mageuzi National Convention for Construction and Reform, Civic
United Front, Union for Multi-party Democracy, National League for Democracy.
Suffrage:  Universal at 18.  Administrative subdivisions:  25 regions (20 on
mainland, 3 on Zanzibar, 2 on Pemba).  Flag:  Diagonal yellow-edged black band
from lower left to upper right; green field at upper left, blue field at lower
right.

Economy
GDP (1992):  $3.6 billion.  Annual growth rate:  3.6% (est.  1991).  Per
capita income:  $260.  Natural resources:  Hydroelectric potential, coal,
iron, gemstone, gold, natural gas, nickel, diamonds.  Agriculture (60% of
GDP):  Products--coffee, cotton, tea, tobacco, cloves, sisal, cashew nuts,
maize.  Industry (9% of GDP):  Types--textiles, agribusiness, light
manufacturing, oil refining, construction.  Trade:  Exports--$440 million:
coffee, cotton, tea, sisal, diamonds, cashew nuts, tobacco and cloves.  Major
markets--U.K., Germany, India, Japan, Italy, and Far East.  Imports--$1.4
billion:  petroleum, consumer goods, machinery and transport equipment, used
clothing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals.  Major suppliers-- U.K., Germany, Japan,
India, Italy, U.S.  Official exchange rate:  335 Tanzanian shillings=U.S.$1.


PEOPLE
Population distribution in Tanzania is extremely uneven.  Density varies from
1 person per square kilometer (3/sq.  mi.) in arid regions to 51 per square
kilometer (133/sq.  mi.) in the mainland's well-watered highlands and 134 per
square kilometer (347/sq.  mi.) on Zanzibar.  More than 80% of the population
is rural.  Dar es Salaam is the capital and largest city; Dodoma, located in
the center of Tanzania, has been designated to become the new capital by the
end of the decade.

The African population consists of more than 120 ethnic groups, of which the
Sukuma, Haya, Nyakyusa, Nyamwezi, and Chaga have more than 1 million members.
The majority of Tanzanians, including such large tribes as the Sukuma and the
Nyamwezi, are of Bantu stock.  Groups of Nilotic or related origin include the
nomadic Masai and the Luo, both of which are found in greater numbers in
neighboring Kenya.  Two small groups speak languages of the Khoisan family
peculiar to the Bushman and Hottentot peoples.  Cushitic-speaking peoples,
originally from the Ethiopian highlands, reside in a few areas of Tanzania.

Although much of Zanzibar's African population came from the mainland, one
group known as Shirazis traces its origins to the island's early Persian
settlers.  Non-Africans residing on the mainland and Zanzibar account for 1%
of the total population.  The Asian community-- including Hindus, Sikhs, Shi'a
and Sunni Muslims, and Goans--has declined by 50% in the past decade to 50,000
on the mainland and 4,000 on Zanzibar.  An estimated 70,000 Arabs and 10,000
Europeans reside in Tanzania.

Each ethnic group has its own language, but the national language is
Kiswahili, a Bantu-based tongue with strong Arabic borrowings.


HISTORY
Tanganyika/Tanzania Northern Tanganyika's famed Olduvai Gorge has provided
rich evidence of the area's prehistory, including fossil remains of some of
humanity's earliest ancestors.  Discoveries suggest that East Africa may have
been the site of human origin.

Little is known of the history of Tanganyika's interior during the early
centuries of the Christian era.  The area is believed to have been inhabited
originally by ethnic groups using a click-tongue language similar to that of
Southern Africa's Bushmen and Hottentots.  Although remnants of these early
tribes still exist, most were gradually displaced by Bantu farmers migrating
from the west and south and by Nilotes and related northern peoples.  Some of
these groups had well-organized societies and controlled extensive areas by
the time the Arab slavers, European explorers, and missionaries penetrated the
interior in the first half of the 19th century.

The coastal area first felt the impact of foreign influence as early as the
8th century, when Arab traders arrived.  By the 12th century, traders and
immigrants came from as far away as Persia (now Iran) and India.  They built a
series of highly developed city and trading states along the coast, the
principal one being Kilwa, a settlement of Persian origin that held ascendancy
until the Portuguese destroyed it in the early 1500s.

The Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama explored the East African coast in 1498
on his voyage to India.  By 1506, the Portuguese claimed control over the
entire coast.  This control was nominal, however, because the Portuguese did
not colonize the area or explore the interior.  Assisted by Omani Arabs, the
indigenous coastal dwellers succeeded in driving the Portuguese from the area
north of the Ruvuma River by the early 18th century.  Claiming the coastal
strip, Omani Sultan Seyyid Said (1804-1856) moved his capital to Zanzibar in
1841.

European exploration of the interior began in the mid-19th century.  Two
German missionaries reached Mt.  Kilimanjaro in the 1840s.  British explorers
Richard Burton and John Speke crossed the interior to Lake Tanganyika in 1857.
David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary-explorer who crusaded against the
slave trade, established his last mission at Ujiji, where he was "found" by
Henry Morton Stanley, an Anglo- American journalist-explorer, who had been
commissioned by the New York Herald to locate him.

German colonial interests were first advanced in 1884.  Karl Peters, who
formed the Society for German Colonization, concluded a series of treaties by
which tribal chiefs in the interior accepted German "protection." Prince Otto
von Bismarck's government backed Peters in the subsequent establishment of the
German East Africa Company.

In 1886 and 1890, Anglo-German agreements were negotiated that delineated the
British and German spheres of influence in the interior of East Africa and
along the coastal strip previously claimed by the Omani sultan of Zanzibar.
In 1891, the German Government took over direct administration of the
territory from the German East Africa Company and appointed a governor with
headquarters at Dar es Salaam.

Although the German colonial administration brought cash crops, railroads, and
roads to Tanganyika, European rule provoked African resistance, culminating in
the Maji Maji rebellion of 1905-07.  The rebellion, which temporarily united a
number of southern tribes and ended only after an estimated 120,000 Africans
had died from fighting or starvation, is considered by most Tanzanians to have
been one of the first stirrings of nationalism.

German colonial domination of Tanganyika ended after World War I when control
of most of the territory passed to the United Kingdom under a League of
Nations mandate.  After World War II, Tanganyika became a UN trust territory
under British control.  Subsequent years witnessed Tanganyika moving gradually
toward self-government and independence.

In 1954, Julius K.  Nyerere, a schoolteacher who was then one of only two
Tanganyikans educated abroad at the university level, organized a political
party--the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU).  TANU-supported
candidates were victorious in the Legislative Council elections of September
1958 and February 1959.  In December 1959, the United Kingdom agreed to the
establishment of internal self-government following general elections to be
held in August 1960.  Nyerere was named chief minister of the subsequent
government.

In May 1961, Tanganyika became autonomous, and Nyerere became prime minister
under a new constitution.  Full independence was achieved on December 9, 1961.
Mr.  Nyerere was elected President when Tanganyika became a republic within
the Commonwealth a year after independence.

Zanzibar
An early Arab/Persian trading center, Zanzibar fell under Portuguese
domination in the 16th and early 17th centuries but was retaken by Omani Arabs
in the early 18th century.  The height of Arab rule came during the reign of
Sultan Seyyid Said, who encouraged the development of clove plantations, using
the island's slave labor.

The Arabs established their own garrisons at Zanzibar, Pemba, and Kilwa and
carried on a lucrative trade in slaves and ivory.  By 1840, Said had
transferred his capital from Muscat to Zanzibar and established a ruling Arab
elite.  The island's commerce fell increasingly into the hands of traders from
the Indian subcontinent, whom Said encouraged to settle on the island.

Zanzibar's spices attracted ships from as far away as the United States.  A
U.S.  consulate was established on the island in 1837.  The United Kingdom's
early interest in Zanzibar was motivated by both commerce and the
determination to end the slave trade.  In 1822, the British signed the first
of a series of treaties with Sultan Said to curb this trade, but not until
1876 was the sale of slaves finally prohibited.

The Anglo-German agreement of 1890 made Zanzibar and Pemba a British
protectorate.  British rule through a sultan remained largely unchanged from
the late 19th century until after World War II.

Zanzibar's political development began in earnest after 1956, when provision
was first made for the election of six non-government members to the
Legislative Council.  Two parties were formed:  the Zanzibar Nationalist Party
(ZNP), representing the dominant Arab and Arabized minority, and the
Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP), led by Abeid Karume and representing the Shirazis
and the African majority.

The first elections were held in July 1957, and the ASP won three of the six
elected seats, with the remainder going to independents.  Following the
election, the ASP split; some of its Shirazi supporters left to form the
Zanzibar and Pemba People's Party (ZPPP).  The January 1961 election resulted
in a deadlock between the ASP and a ZNP-ZPPP coalition.

On April 26, 1964, Tanganyika united with Zanzibar to form the United Republic
of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, renamed the United Republic of Tanzania on October
29.

United Republic of Tanzania
TANU and the Afro-Shirazi Party of Zanzibar were merged into a single party,
Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM Revolutionary Party), on February 5, 1977.  On April
26, 1977, the union of the two parties was ratified in a new constitution.
The merger was reinforced by principles enunciated in the 1982 union
constitution and reaffirmed in the constitution of 1984.

The elections that followed the granting of self-government in June 1963
produced similar results.  Zanzibar received its independence from the United
Kingdom on December 19, 1963, as a constitutional monarchy under the sultan.
On January 12, 1964, the African majority revolted against the sultan, and a
new government was formed with the ASP leader, Abeid Karume, as president of
Zanzibar and chairman of the Revolutionary Council.  Under the terms of its
political union with Tanganyika in April 1964, the Zanzibar Government
retained considerable local autonomy.

Abeid Karume was named First Vice President of the union government, a post he
held until his assassination in April 1972.  Aboud Jumbe, a fellow member of
the ASP and the Revolutionary Council, was appointed to succeed Karume.  In
1981, 32 persons were selected to serve in the Zanzibar House of
Representatives.  The election marked the first poll since the 1964
revolution.  In 1984, Jumbe resigned and was replaced by Ali Hassan Mwinyi as
both President of Zanzibar and First Vice President of Tanzania.  In the
election of 1985, Mwinyi was elected President of the United Republic of
Tanzania; Idris Wakil was elected President of Zanzibar and Second Vice
President of Tanzania.  In 1990, Wakil retired and was replaced as President
of Zanzibar by Salmin Amour.

In 1977, Nyerere merged TANU with the Zanzibar ruling party, the ASP, to form
the CCM as the sole ruling party in both parts of the union.  The CCM was to
be the sole instrument for mobilizing and controlling the population in all
significant political or economic activities.  He envisioned the party as a
"two- way street" for the flow of ideas and policy directives between the
village level and the government.

President Nyerere handed over power to his successor, President Ali Hassan
Mwinyi, in 1985.  Nyerere retained his position as Chairman of the ruling
party for five more years, but in 1990, this post also was passed on to
Mwinyi, who started his last five-year term at that time.  Nyerere retired
from formal politics but remains influential behind the scenes.

In 1990, in response to the currents of democracy sweeping much of the world,
Tanzania began making substantial changes to its political system (see below).


GOVERNMENT
Tanzania is changing from a single-party state with a strong central executive
to a more democratic multi-party system.  Currently, the president is assisted
by two vice-presidents.  One of the vice- presidents serves as prime minister
and carries an administrative portfolio.  Selected from the National Assembly
body, this vice-president is the government's leader in the National Assembly.
The other vice-president functions as President of Zanzibar and must be a
Zanzibari citizen.  The president and the National Assembly are elected
concurrently by direct popular vote for five- year terms.  If the president
dissolves the assembly, he or she must stand for election as well.  The
president indicated in his New Year's Eve speech on December 31, 1991, that
the current parliament would serve out its term, due to expire in 1995.  The
president must select the cabinet from among National Assembly members but has
the power to appoint up to 15 members of the assembly.

The unicameral National Assembly has 255 members, 180 of whom are elected from
the mainland and Zanzibar.  At present, all are members of the CCM.  The
remaining members were appointed by the government and various "mass
organizations" associated with the party.  Assembly actions are valid for
Zanzibar only in specifically designated union matters.  Zanzibar's own
elected House of Representatives has jurisdiction over all non-union matters.

Tanzania has a five-level judiciary combining the jurisdictions of tribal,
Islamic, and British common law.  Appeal is from the primary courts through
the district courts, resident magistrate courts, to the high courts, and Court
of Appeals.  Judges are appointed by the Chief Justice, except those for the
Court of Appeals and the High Court, who are appointed by the president.  The
Zanzibari court system parallels the legal system of the union, and all cases
tried in Zanzibari courts, except for those involving constitutional issues
and Islamic law, can be appealed to the Court of Appeals of the union.

For administrative purposes, Tanzania is divided into 25 regions--20 on the
mainland, 3 on Zanzibar, and 2 on Pemba.  Since 1972, a decentralization
program on the mainland has worked to increase the authority of the regions.
On July 1, 1983, the government reinstated 99 district councils to further
increase local authority.  Of the 99 councils operating in 86 districts, 19
are urban and 80 are rural.  The 19 urban units are classified further as city
(Dar es Salaam), municipal (Arusha, Dodoma, Tanga), and town councils (the
remaining 15 communities).

On the mainland, regional commissioners are also ex-official members of the
National Assembly.  The regional and area commissioners are assisted by
appointed development directors and other functional managers, who form a
council charged with administering the region or district in close
collaboration with CCM party officials.  Following the 1982 Party Congress,
two new positions--regional and district party secretary--were created to
assist in coordinating the activities between the party and the political
jurisdictions.

Constitutional and legal changes due to multi- party politics may affect many
of the arrangements described above.

Principal Government Officials
President--Ali Hassan Mwinyi
First Vice-President and Prime Minister--John Samuel Malecela
President of Zanzibar and Second Vice-President--Dr. Salmin Amour
Deputy Prime Minister-- Augustine Mrema
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Joseph Rwegasira
Ambassador to the United States--Charles Nyirabu
Ambassador to the United Nations--vacant

Tanzania maintains an embassy in the United States at 2139 R Street NW,
Washington, DC 20008 (tel.  [phone]).


POLITICAL CONDITIONS
President Ali Hassan Mwinyi was elected for a second five-year term in 1990.
Salmin Amour became President of Zanzibar and second Vice President of the
Union.  In a 1990 cabinet shuffle, President Mwinyi replaced Prime Minister
Joseph Warioba with John Samuel Malecela, a former foreign minister and
diplomat.  Julius Nyerere retired from his post as CCM party chairman in 1990
and transferred that position to President Mwinyi.

In the beginning Tanzania sought to achieve political and economic development
within an authoritarian framework.  Since 1962, Nyerere had used the Kiswahili
word ujamaa (familyhood) to describe the ideal of communal cooperation his
government sought to foster.  Goals were set forth in more conventional
socialist terms in the TANU constitution and reaffirmed in February 1967 in a
party document, the Arusha Declaration.  The declaration, which enunciated the
principles of socialism and self-reliance, asked that the government
nationalize the means of production, prepare development plans that Tanzania
could carry out without depending on foreign assistance, and place greater
emphasis on improving rural living standards.

The CCM was granted political supremacy over the government by the
constitution of 1977 and still remains a primary source of policy in the
social, political, and economic fields.  Nearly all top government leaders
were provided by CCM, which plays a leading role in the government scheme of
nation-building and whose control structure is closely interwoven with the
government's.

In early 1986, however, Nyerere admitted that the party was moribund,
particularly at local levels, and began a campaign to inject new life into the
CCM.  These initiatives failed, and by 1989, when the East European socialist
regimes began to collapse, the party reluctantly conceded the need for
fundamental reforms.

Reforms of the political process met with considerable criticism.  Tanzania's
single- party politics made a mockery of democratic procedures through its
electoral practices.  No candidate was permitted to stand for office without
the approval of the senior leadership of the ruling party.  Voters were
expected merely to ratify the party's choices and coercive
measures--withholding ration allotments, for example--were commonly used to
"encourage" participation in registration and voting.  To address this
problem, President Mwinyi in 1991 appointed a special commission under Chief
Justice Francis Nyalali to examine and recommend fundamental reforms of the
political system.

At the end of 1991, Tanzania began another attempt at democratic and economic
reform in order to change its autocratic single-party state system.  Low pay
combined with obsessive secrecy and lack of accountability had led to massive
fraud, misfeasance, corruption, and a disregard for the leadership's code.
The Zanzibar Declaration of 1991 began reform in earnest primarily because the
problems could no longer be hidden.

In January and February 1992, the government decided to adopt multi-party
democracy.  Legal and constitutional changes led to the registration of 11
political parties.  Two parliamentary by-elections (won by the CCM) in early
1994, which were contested by most parties, were the first-ever multi-party
elections in Tanzanian history.  Local elections are planned for August 1994
and general elections for 1995.