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The two most important factors influencing the regional pattern of human settlement are precipitation and the incidence of the tsetse fly. The tsetse, which thrives on wild game in miombo woodlands, is the carrier of Trypanosoma, a blood parasite that causes sleeping sickness in cattle and people. Tsetse infestation makes human settlement hazardous in areas of moderate precipitation, so areas of low and unreliable precipitation are more densely populated than would otherwise be the case. The insect does not pose a threat to areas of high precipitation.
Population is concentrated in the highlands of the Mbeya Range, Kilimanjaro, and the Bukoba area west of Lake Victoria, on the cultivation steppe south of Lake Victoria, in the moderately high-precipitation region of Mtwara on the southern coast, and in the urban area of Dar es Salaam—areas all located on the perimeter of the country. The influence of the central rail line is clearly evident in the corridor of moderate population density extending from Dar es Salaam to Lake Victoria. Areas of especially sparse population include the Rukwa region, situated along a portion of Lake Tanganyika in the west, and the two large tsetse-infested areas centred around Tabora north of Rukwa in the west and Lindi and Songea in the south.
Regional variations in agricultural productivity are strongly related to the pressure of population on the land. Shifting cultivation, which involves rotating crops annually and leaving some fields to lie fallow for 20 years or more, was traditionally the means of renewing the fertility of the soil, except in the more fertile and densely populated highland areas. A settlement pattern of widely dispersed isolated farmsteads resulted from this practice. As the rural population expanded, however, fallow periods became shorter, and soil fertility and crop yields consequently suffered. In order to raise productivity, during the 1960s and ’70s the government tried to bring about the use of improved agricultural methods, equipment, and fertilizer through the nucleation of rural settlements. First, the ujamaa (or “familyhood”) policy of the 1960s supported collectivized agriculture in a number of government-sponsored planned settlements. These settlements were overreliant on government finance and gradually dwindled in number. On a much larger scale, the “villagization” program of the 1970s moved millions of people into nucleated villages of 250 households or more, and by 1978 there were more than 7,500 villages, in comparison with only about 800 in 1969. Villagization was aimed not at collectivizing agriculture but at facilitating the distribution of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and improved seeds as well as making social services more accessible to the rural population.
Almost one-third of the population lives in urban areas, and more than one-tenth of the urban population resides in Dar es Salaam. Bagamoyo and Tabora, old towns connected with the 19th-century Arab slave trade, have stagnated. The fortunes of Tanga, the second largest city during the British colonial period, have been tied to the export of sisal; as that has declined, the growth of the city has slowed. Arusha, Mbeya, and Mwanza have thrived as trading centres remote from Dar es Salaam, and the growth of Morogoro and Moshi reflects their rich agricultural hinterlands.
Demographic trends
Tanzania’s population growth rate is lower than the world average and below that of many of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. More than two-fifths of Tanzanians are under the age of 15. Life expectancy, at about 50 years, is above average for the subcontinent. Beginning in the early 1960s, Tanzania witnessed a gradual decline in infant mortality; in the early 21st century, infant mortality dropped below the average rate for sub-Saharan Africa.
Zanzibar and Pemba
Ethnic groups
There are several groups of Africans present on the islands. Indigenous Bantu groups, consisting of the Pemba in Pemba and the Hadimu and Tumbatu in Zanzibar, have absorbed the settlers who moved from Persia in the 10th century. These groups and some of the descendants of slaves call themselves Shirazi. There are also small enclaves of Comorians and Somalis. Arab settlements were also established early, and intermarriage with the local people took place. Arab arrivals in the 18th and 19th centuries were from Oman and constituted an elite. The Omani immigrants in the early 20th century tended to be less affluent. Asians form a very small minority.
Languages
Swahili is the principal language in Zanzibar and Pemba. The classical dialect is Kiunguja. Arabic is also important, because of long-established Islamic tradition, past Arab influence, and the presence of a large Arabic-speaking minority. Among the Asian communities, the chief languages are Gujarati, Kutchi, and Hindustani. English, taught in schools, is widely used.
Religion
Almost the whole of the Arab and the African peoples of Zanzibar profess the Islamic faith. Traditional African beliefs also exist in conjunction with Islam. Among Muslims, the Sunni sect is adhered to by many of the indigenous people.
Settlement patterns
The rural settlements—and life in them—changed drastically after the nationalization of land in 1964 and subsequent agricultural reforms. By 1970, large plantations of cloves and coconuts, once almost exclusively the property of fewer than 50 Arab families, had been redistributed. The production of food crops, especially rice, is being encouraged. Fishing villages are still important in the east.
The city of Zanzibar is still primarily a Muslim town, although the distinctive mode of life and culture, reminiscent of an Eastern commercial centre, has almost disappeared since the downfall of the Arab oligarchy in 1964. The hub of civic life is moving from Stone Town with its narrow lanes to a new town with modern buildings and amenities at Ngambo, the former African quarter. Kilimani, Bambi, and Chaani are being developed into new rural towns; a similar change is taking place in Pemba at Mkoani, Chake Chake, and Wete.
Adolfo C. MascarenhasEconomy of Tanzania
The Tanzanian economy is overwhelmingly agrarian. The country’s preoccupation with agricultural production, which increased in the 1970s and ’80s, is a reflection of the government’s commitment at that time to socialist development and central planning, as outlined in the Arusha Declaration of 1967. The declaration also resulted in the nationalization of a number of industries and public services. In the long term, however, the centrally planned economy contributed to a marked economic decline.
Beginning in 1979 and continuing into the 1980s, the relatively high international oil price, the country’s declining terms of trade, and the sluggishness of the domestic economy brought about rapid inflation and the emergence of an unofficial market (consisting of the smuggling of goods abroad in order to avoid taxes and price controls). Despite attempts to cut imports to the barest minimum, the trade deficit widened to an unprecedented level, and the balance-of-payments problem became so acute that development projects had to be suspended. This economic crisis forced the government to secure a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1986. The loan’s conditions required the elimination of subsidies and price controls as well as some social services and staff positions in state-run enterprises. In the 1990s and 2000s, the government continued to implement measures intended to create a mixed economy and reduce the extent of the untaxable unofficial markets.
Frank Matthew ChitejiAgriculture, forestry, and fishing
Some two-fifths of the country’s population is engaged in agricultural production (working as independent producers or salaried farm labourers), and agriculture accounts for approximately the same proportion of the country’s gross domestic product. The major food crops are corn (maize), rice, sorghum, millet, bananas, cassava (manioc), sweet potatoes, barley, potatoes, and wheat. Corn and rice are the preferred cereals, whereas cassava and sweet potatoes are used as famine-prevention crops because of their drought-resistant qualities. In some areas food crops are sold as cash crops. Agriculturalists in the Ruvuma and Rukwa regions, for example, have specialized in commercial corn production, and in riverine areas, especially along the Rufiji, rice is sold.
Export cash crops are a source of foreign exchange for the country. Coffee and cotton are by far the most important in this respect, but other exports include cashew nuts, tea, tobacco, and sisal. Once the source of more than nine-tenths of the world’s cloves, Zanzibar now produces only about one-tenth of the international supply.
The villagization program of the mid-1970s was followed by government efforts to distribute improved seed corn and fertilizers through the new village administrations, but timely distribution of such agricultural inputs was largely thwarted by the logistical problems of transporting them to the villages. Nevertheless, increased yields, attributed to the use of chemical fertilizers, have been achieved in corn production in the southern and southwestern regions.
Tanzania’s native forests are primarily composed of hardwoods, but softwood production is increasing. A large pulp and paper mill at Mufindi is supplied by the extensive softwood forest nearby at Sao Hill.
Several lakes, especially Lake Victoria, are important sources of fish. Prawns are commercially fished in the Rufiji River delta, but coastal fishery is primarily of an artisanal nature.
Resources and power
Diamonds, gold, kaolin, gypsum, tin, and various gemstones, including tanzanite, are mined in Tanzania. Gold is an important resource and the country’s most valuable export. There are large exploitable deposits of coal in the southwest, phosphate deposits in Arusha, and nickel in the Kagera region. Natural gas has been discovered at Songo Songo Island. Several international companies have been involved in onshore and offshore petroleum exploration.
Imported petroleum, hydroelectric power, and coal are the main sources of commercial energy. Firewood and charcoal are the major domestic fuels, contributing to a growing concern about deforestation. Many Tanzanians are unable to access the main power grid. The majority of those connected reside in urban areas, and plans to take electricity to villages are intended to have the added benefit of also slowing deforestation there.
Manufacturing
Tanzania’s industry is based on the processing of its agricultural goods and on import substitution—that is, the manufacture (often from imported materials and parts) of products that were once purchased from abroad. The principal industries are food processing, textiles, brewing, and cigarette production. Production of cement, clothing, footwear, tires, batteries, and bottles takes place as well. There are a number of steel mills and a large pulp and paper mill. Bicycles are also manufactured.
A strategy to lay the foundation for the rapid growth of such basic industries as steel, chemicals, rubber, and textiles was thwarted by the national economic crisis of the 1980s. The large amounts of imported materials, parts, and capital equipment necessary to implement such a policy could not be paid for, owing to the country’s lack of foreign exchange. Standby credit facilities from the IMF provided the capital investment needed to initiate a rehabilitation of industry. Difficulty in obtaining adequate power supply (a large proportion of the country is not linked to the main electricity grid) remained an obstacle to the development of manufacturing capabilities in the early 21st century.
Finance
All private banks were nationalized between 1967 and 1992, but since then private banks (including branches of foreign-owned banks) have been allowed to open. The state-run Bank of Tanzania operates as the central bank; it manages the country’s finances and issues its currency, the Tanzanian shilling. A stock exchange was incorporated in Dar es Salaam in 1996; trading began two years later.
