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 (executive), Dodoma (legislative), Major metropolises--Arusha, Mwanza, Mbeya, Mtwara, Stonetown in Zanzibar.
Terrain: Varied.
Climate: Varies from tropical to arid to temperate.
People
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Tanzanian(s); Zanzibari(s).
Population: Mainland--41.8 million (2010 est.). Zanzibar--1.3 million (est.).
Religions: Muslim 35.0%, Christian 63.0%, other (traditional, Sikh, Hindu, Baha'i) 2.0%.
Language: Official--Kiswahili and English; national--Kiswahili.
Education: Attendance--73.2% mainland (primary), 71.4% Zanzibar. Literacy--females 67.0% mainland, 76.8% Zanzibar; males 79.9% mainland, 86.0% Zanzibar.
Health: Infant mortality rate--68/1,000. Life expectancy--52.4 years (2010 est.).
Work force: Agriculture--80.0%; industry, commerce, government--20.0%.
Government
Type: Republic.
Independence: Tanganyika 1961, Zanzibar 1963. Union formed in April 1964.
Constitution: 1982.
Branches: Executive--president (chief of state and commander in chief), vice president, and prime minister. 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, and primary courts; Zanzibar: High Court, people's district courts, kadhis court (Islamic courts).
Political parties: 1. Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), 2. The Civic United Front (CUF), 3. Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA),
4. Union for Multiparty Democracy (UMD), 5. National Convention for Construction and Reform (NCCR-Mageuzi), 6. National League for Democracy (NLD), 7. National Reconstruction for Alliance (NRA), 8. Tanzania Democratic Alliance Party (TADEA), 9. Tanzania Labour Party (TLP), 10. United Democratic Party (UDP), 11. Demokrasia Makini (MAKINI), 12. United Peoples' Democratic Party (UPDP), 13. Chama cha Haki na Ustawi (CHAUSTA), 14. The Forum for Restoration of Democracy (FORD), 15. Democratic Party (DP), 16. Progressive Party of Tanzania (PPT-Maendeleo), 17. Jahazi Asilia, 18. Sauti ya Umma (SAU).
Suffrage: Universal at 18.
Administrative subdivisions: 30 regions (25 on mainland, 3 on Zanzibar, 2 on Pemba).
Economy
GDP (2010 est.): $23.3 billion.
Real GDP growth annual percentage (2010 est.): 6.4%.
GDP per capita (2010): $552.
Natural resources: Hydroelectric potential, coal, iron, gemstones, gold, natural gas, nickel, diamonds, crude oil potential, forest products, wildlife, fisheries.
Agriculture (2010 est.): 26.6% of GDP. Products--coffee, cotton, tea, tobacco, cloves, sisal, cashew nuts, maize, livestock, sugar cane, paddy, wheat, pyrethrum.
Industry/manufacturing (2010 est.): 22.6% of GDP. Types--textiles, agro-processing, light manufacturing, construction, steel, aluminum, paints, cement, cooking oil, beer, mineral water and soft drinks.
Trade (2010 est.): Exports--$3.8 billion (merchandise exports): coffee, cotton, tea, sisal, cashew nuts, tobacco, cut flowers, seaweed, cloves, fish and fish products, minerals (diamonds, gold, and gemstones), manufactured goods, horticultural products; services (tourism services, communication, construction, insurance, financial, computer, information, government, royalties, personal and other businesses). Major markets--U.K., Germany, India, Japan, Italy, China, Bahrain, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia. Primary imports--petroleum, consumer goods, machinery and transport equipment, used clothing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals. Major suppliers--U.K., Germany, Japan, India, Italy, U.S., United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, Kenya.
PEOPLE
Tanzania’s population is concentrated along the coast and isles, the fertile northern and southern highlands, and the lands bordering Lake Victoria. The relatively arid and less fertile central region is sparsely inhabited. So too is much of the fertile and well watered far west, including the shores of Lake Tanganyika and Lake Nyasa (Malawi). About 80% of Tanzanians live in rural communities.
Zanzibar, population about 1.3 million (3% of Tanzania’s population), consists of two main islands and several small ones just off the Tanzanian coast. The two largest islands are Unguja (often referred to simply as Zanzibar) and Pemba. Zanzibaris, together with their socio-linguistic cousins in the Comoros Islands and the East Africa coast from modern-day southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, created Swahili culture and language, which reflect long and close associations with other parts of Africa and with the Arab world, Persia, and South Asia.
Tanzanians are proud of their strong sense of national identity and commitment to Swahili as the national language. There are roughly 120 ethnic communities in the country representing several of Africa’s main socio-linguistic groups.
HISTORY
Consensus scientific opinion places human origins in the Great Rift Valley, which dominates the landscape of much of East Africa. Northern Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge has provided rich evidence of the area's prehistory, including fossil remains of some of humanity's earliest ancestors.
Interior Tanzania’s great cultural and linguistic diversity is due to the various histories of migrations from elsewhere in the region. In some instances, groups of migrants separated, leading to different cultural developments. In other cases, various groups merged, creating new cultural identities and languages. Most Tanzanians are aware of their cultural origins and the traditional histories of the ethnic community with which they identify. The peoples of the interior traded with coastal communities, which in turn traded with all the countries bordering the Indian Ocean. Long standing patterns of political organization, economic production, and trade were disrupted by the violent escalation of the Arab-led slave and ivory trades in the 18th and 19th centuries. Bagamoyo on the coast and Zanzibar town were major slave ports serving markets for slave labor mostly in the Arab world. These societies, already severely stressed by the violence of the slave trade, came under further pressure once European explorers (mostly military, some missionary) opened the way to European conquest (first by semi-private European companies, later by European states) from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century.
Coastal and island Tanzania organized into city-states around 1,500 years ago. The Swahili city-states traded with the peoples of the interior and the peoples of the Indian Ocean and beyond (including China). Many merchants from these trading partner nations (principally from inland Africa, the Arab world, Persia and India) established themselves in these coastal and island communities, which became cosmopolitan in flavor.
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 settle the area (except for a few forts) or explore the interior. Instead, they violently enforced a monopoly on Indian Ocean trade, denying the Swahili city-states their main means of livelihood. The Portuguese also demanded tribute, bombarding and looting communities that refused to pay protection money. The coastal peoples rose up against the Portuguese in the late 1700s. Their resistance was assisted by one of their main trading partners, the Omani Arabs. By the early 19th century the Portuguese were forced out of coastal East Africa north of the Ruvuma River and the Omanis moved in.
Based in Zanzibar, the Omani Sultanate maintained close trade and diplomatic relations with the major trading powers, including the United States as of 1837. They also maintained close relations with some states in the interior with whom they were partners in the ivory and slave trades. European exploration of the interior began soon after the Omanis had consolidated their control of the coast and Zanzibar. Two German missionaries reached Mt. Kilimanjaro in the 1840s. British explorers Richard Burton and John Speke crossed the interior to Lake Tanganyika in 1857, with Speke going on to Lake Victoria. 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 American journalist-explorer, who had been commissioned by the New York Herald to locate him.
The Omani Sultanate, which had been heavily engaged in selling African slaves principally to the Arab world, outlawed the slave trade in 1876. British influence over the Sultanate steadily increased in the 1880s until Zanzibar formally became a British Protectorate in 1890.
German colonial interests were first advanced in 1884. Karl Peters, who formed the Society for German Colonization, concluded a series of agreements of dubious validity with "leaders" of questionable standing purporting to accept German "protection" for their inland African states. 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.
German rule, which featured "hut taxes" and conscript labor to fund administration and infrastructure that benefitted German settlers at the great disadvantage of African communities, provoked African resistance. The Maji Maji rebellion of 1905-07 united the peoples of the Southern Highlands in a struggle to expel the German administration. The German military killed 120,000 Africans in suppressing the rebellion.
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 school teacher who was then one of only two Tanganyikans educated abroad at the university level (University of Edinburgh, Scotland), organized a political party--the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). TANU 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. Julius Nyerere, then age 39, was elected President when Tanganyika became a republic within the Commonwealth a year after independence. Tanganyika was the first East African state to gain independence.
Zanzibar: Sultanate/British Protectorate to Independence, Revolution, and Union
Under the Sultanate, the Arab population comprised the ruling class and landed aristocracy. Arabs, primarily from Oman, seized large tracts of land on Unguja (except in the less fertile far north of the island) to set up highly profitable spice plantations. Dispossessed indigenous Zanzibaris (known as Shirazis) became agricultural workers, sharecroppers, or semi-serfs. The plantations were also worked by slaves or former slaves, originating from the mainland. There was also significant mainland migration to the islands, especially Unguja, to work menial jobs during the boom years of the spice trade. The Afro-Shirazi population of Unguja mostly resented their Omani and British rulers.
Shirazis from the northern tip of Unguja, the nearby island of Tumbatu, and Pemba enjoyed symbiotic commercial relations with the Arab new arrivals and their Sultanate. They were not dispossessed of their lands. They mostly prospered under the Omanis. Pemban and far northern Ungujan Shirazis tended to identify their interests with the Sultanate.
The British ruled Zanzibar on behalf of the Sultan, not on behalf of his subjects. Their policies explicitly favored Arabs and Asians over Shirazis and mainland Africans (in that order). A series of pre-independence elections revealed two camps: the anti-Sultanate, Africa-oriented, and secular Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) with a stronghold in the densely populated areas of Unguja; and the pro-Sultanate, Arab World-oriented, and explicitly Islamic Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP) and its Pemban ally (the Zanzibar and Pemban People's Party - ZPPP), which was supported by most Arabs, Asians, far northern Ungujans, Pembans, and those who worked for the state. The ASP consistently received a larger share of the popular vote (though not by much), but the ZNP and its ally received more seats because they predominated in more constituencies. At independence, the British handed power to the two parties friendliest to the Sultanate and the status quo: the ZNP and ZPPP.
In January, 1964, 1 month after independence from Britain, Zanzibar (specifically Unguja) experienced a bloody uprising against the institutions of the Sultanate, the ZNP/ZPPP government, the Arab and Asian communities, and any Shirazis considered friendly to the state (such as ZNP members and Pembans). Although specific figures vary, several thousand Arabs were killed. Rape and other atrocities were widespread. Arabs were expelled or fled in large numbers. Asian shops were looted. Property was expropriated and re-distributed to ASP supporters. After a period of confusion, the ASP leadership and its allies assumed control under a "Supreme Revolutionary Council" and extended their control to Pemba (which had not participated in the uprising). Pemba was ruled by "Commissars" who used floggings, forced labor, and public humiliation to enforce their will over a hostile population. After a few months, the ASP leadership opted to accept an offer of union with Tanganyika (forming the nation of Tanzania), both to prevent a counter-revolution and to buttress the political position of the ASP leaders among other members of the Supreme Revolutionary Council. The Union Agreement (signed April 26, 1964) granted wide-ranging autonomy for Zanzibar. This date is observed in Tanzania as Union Day. It is Tanzania's official national day.
United Republic of Tanzania
The Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar adopted the name "United Republic of Tanzania" on April 26, 1964. In order to create a single ruling party in both parts of the union, Nyerere merged TANU (mainland) with the ASP (Zanzibar) to form the CCM (Chama Cha Mapinduzi-CCM, Revolutionary Party) in 1977. As the sole legal political party for all of Tanzania, CCM had the role of directing the population in all significant political and economic activities. In practice, Party and State were one. On February 5, 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.
Nyerere instituted social policies that proved successful in forging a strong Tanzanian national identity, which to this day takes priority in the hearts of the great majority of Tanzanians over ethnic, regional or linguistic identities. Observers are nearly unanimous in attributing Tanzania's unbroken record of political stability to Nyerere's social policies. Nyerere's economic policies were ruinous. They were gradually reversed after he left power, but many in the state bureaucracy remain opposed to modern, market economics.
President Nyerere stepped down from office and was succeeded as President by Ali Hassan Mwinyi in 1985. Nyerere retained his position as Chairman of the ruling CCM party for 5 more years. He remained influential in Tanzanian politics until his death in October 1999. The current President, Jakaya Kikwete, was elected in December 2005 and re-elected on October 31, 2010. Tanzania's constitution limits presidents to two terms in office.
In Zanzibar, where past elections were marked by violence and widespread irregularities, the 2010 elections proceeded peacefully. After years of intense debates between Civic United Front (CUF) and CCM, the two political parties finally reached a power-sharing agreement. On January 29, 2010, the unicameral Zanzibar House of Representatives adopted as law a bill that outlined the parameters of a government of national unity and called for a popular referendum on the plan. On July 31, 2010, Zanzibari voters gave their approval in the first-ever referendum to amend the constitution to allow for a unity government in Zanzibar. Ali Mohamed Shein, the immediate past Union Vice President, was elected President of Zanzibar on October 31, 2010.
GOVERNMENT
Tanzania's president and Parliament members are elected concurrently by direct popular vote for 5-year terms. The president appoints a prime minister who serves as the government's leader in the Parliament. The president selects his cabinet from among Parliament members. The constitution also empowers the president to nominate 10 non-elected members of Parliament, who also are eligible to become cabinet members. Elections for president and all parliamentary seats were last held in October 2010. The next presidential and parliamentary elections will be in 2015.
The unicameral Parliament has up to 357 members: the Attorney General; the Speaker; five members elected from and by the Zanzibar House of Representatives; 102 special women's seats apportioned among the political parties based on their election results; 239 constituent seats (including 50 from Zanzibar); and 10 members nominated by the president. Although Zanzibar accounts for only 3% of Tanzania's population, it is guaranteed over 15% of seats in the Union Parliament. The ruling party, CCM, holds almost 80% of the seats in the Parliament. The Tanzanian Union Parliament legislates on all union matters (foreign affairs, defense, police, etc.) and non-union matters for the mainland. Laws passed by the Parliament are valid for Zanzibar only in specifically designated union matters.
Under the Union Agreement, Zanzibar has extensive autonomy within Tanzania. Zanzibar has its own President, legislature and bureaucracy ("the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar" led by "the Revolutionary Council") that presides over all non-union matters. The constitutional changes endorsed in the July 31, 2010 referendum provide for a government of national unity which establishes the positions of the first and second vice presidents, the former to be selected from the lead opposition party and the latter from the ruling party. Ministers must be selected from among the members of Zanzibar's House of Representatives. The cabinet must reflect the proportion of seats held by each political party.
There are currently 81 members in the House of Representatives in Zanzibar: 50 elected by the people; 10 appointed by the president of Zanzibar, two of whom must be from the opposition; five ex officio members; an attorney general appointed by the president; and 20 special seats allocated to women. Zanzibar's House of Representatives can make laws for Zanzibar without the approval of the union government as long as it does not involve union-designated matters. The terms of office for Zanzibar's president and House of Representatives are 5 years. The semi-autonomous status of Zanzibar under the Union is frequently debated, both by mainlanders and by Zanzibaris.
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 from the high courts to the Court of Appeals. District and resident court magistrates are appointed by the Chief Justice, except for judges of the High Court and Court of Appeals, who are appointed by the president. The Zanzibari court system parallels the legal system of the union. 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. A commercial court was established on the mainland in September 1999 as a division of the High Court.
For administrative purposes, Tanzania is divided into 30 regions--25 on the mainland, three on Unguja (Zanzibar), and two on Pemba (Zanzibar's second isle). District councils (also referred to as local government authorities) act at the most local level. There are 114 councils operating in 99 districts; 22 urban, 92 rural. The 22 urban units are classified further as city (Dar es Salaam and Mwanza), municipal (Arusha, Dodoma, Iringa, Kilimanjaro, Mbeya, Morogoro, Shinyanga, Tabora, and Tanga), and town councils (the remaining 11 communities).
Principal Government Officials
President--Jakaya Kikwete
Vice President--Mohamed Gharib Bilal
Prime Minister--Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda
President of Zanzibar--Ali Mohamed Shein
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Bernard Membe
Ambassador to the United States--Mwanaidi Sinare Maajar
Tanzania maintains an embassy in the United States at 1232 22nd St NW, Washington, DC 20037 (tel. 202-939-6125).
POLITICAL CONDITIONS
Tanzania held its fourth multi-party general elections on October 31, 2010. The ruling CCM party faced its most serious competition in the multi-party era. President Kikwete was re-elected with 61.7% of the vote, reduced from 80% in 2005. The Chadema party was for the first time the recipient of the most opposition votes. Chadema's presidential candidate, Willibrod Slaa, took 27% of the vote, while CUF's Ibrahim Lipumba received 8%. Voter turnout, at 42%, was by far the lowest in Tanzanian history; previously, at least 70% of registered voters had cast ballots. Although the elections were conducted without major disturbances or irregularities, Chadema officials raised concerns about voting and tabulation procedures and about the constitutional prohibition on challenging presidential election results following their formal announcement.
CCM retained its absolute majority in Parliament, with nearly 80% of the seats. With a total of 47 seats--24 elected and 23 "special seats" for women--Chadema for the first time displaced CUF as the official opposition and selected its Chairman, Freeman Mbowe, as opposition leader. The new Parliament selected Anne Makinda as Tanzania’s first woman Speaker of Parliament. Makinda, a member of Parliament since 1975 and former minister, had served as Deputy Speaker since 2005.
Self-governing Zanzibar (3% of Tanzania’s population) has long been the tempestuous exception to mainland Tanzania's peaceful politics. Serious irregularities and sporadic violence have marred every election in Zanzibar since 1964. However, after years of abortive negotiations the main opposition party, Civic United Front (CUF), and the ruling party were able to reach a power-sharing agreement. The outcome of the July 31, 2010 referendum set the stage for peaceful general elections on October 31 in Zanzibar. The power-sharing deal eliminated the winner-take-all system, giving the losing side one of two vice president slots and ministerial positions in proportion to the seats it holds in the House of Representatives. On October 31, Zanzibar CCM presidential candidate Ali Mohamed Shein won with 50.1% of the vote, while runner-up Civic United Front (CUF) presidential candidate Seif Sharif Hamad received 49.1%. Shein selected Hamad as his First Vice President and Seif Ali, the former Union Deputy Foreign Minister, as his Second Vice President.
ECONOMY
After independence, Tanzania adopted socialist economic policies, resulting in severe economic decline. The state controlled the economy and owned all of the major enterprises. The exchange rate and pricing policies were based on non-market mechanisms, creating low export and real GDP growth, high inflation, and widespread shortages. Agricultural production, the mainstay of the economy, declined steadily.
In 1986, Tanzania began to liberalize its economy and make partial market-oriented economic reforms. Although the government liberalized the agricultural marketing system and domestic prices and initiated financial system reform, economic growth was slow between 1986 and 1995.
Since 1996, Tanzania has taken aggressive steps toward macroeconomic stabilization and structural reforms. The emergence of a strong Ministry of Finance, supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other development partners, was instrumental in accelerating fiscal reforms and fostering a turnaround in fiscal performance. Overall, real GDP growth has averaged about 6% a year over the past 7 years, which was higher than the annual average growth of less than 5% in the late 1990s. Total debt service payments for 2010 were $85 million. The IMF’s most recent Debt Sustainability Analysis indicates that debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative combined with sound macroeconomic policies place it at low risk of debt distress. Public external debt service was approximately 1% of GDP in 2009 and expected to remain so for 2010 and 2011.
However, economic growth has not translated to significantly improving the lives of average Tanzanians. The economy remains overwhelmingly donor-dependent; 30% of the budget is dependent upon donor assistance. The global financial crisis significantly affected the tourism industry, one of Tanzania's top foreign-exchange earners; however, Tanzania was able to maintain relatively strong growth in 2010. Continued high food prices since a spike in 2008 have contributed to a rise in inflation to over 10%, a substantial increase from more moderate inflation earlier in the decade.
Agriculture constitutes the most important sector of the economy, providing about 27% of GDP and 80% of employment. Cash crops--including coffee, tea, cotton, cashews, sisal, cloves, and pyrethrum--account for the vast majority of export earnings. While the volume of major crops--both cash and goods marketed through official channels--have increased in recent years, large amounts of produce never reach the market. Poor pricing and unreliable cash flow to farmers continue to frustrate the growth of the agricultural sector.
Accounting for about 22.6% of GDP, Tanzania's industrial sector is one of the smallest in Africa. The main industrial activities are dominated by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) specializing in food processing including dairy products, meat packing, preserving fruits and vegetables, production of textile and apparel, leather tanning, and plastics. A few larger factories manufacture cement, rolled steel, corrugated iron, aluminum sheets, cigarettes, beer and bottling beverages, fruit juices, and mineral water. Other factories produce raw materials, import substitutes, and processed agricultural products. Poor water and electricity infrastructure systems continue to hinder manufacturing. In general, Tanzania's manufacturing sector targets primarily the domestic market with limited exports of manufactured goods. Most of the industry is concentrated in Dar es Salaam.
Generally, Tanzania has a favorable attitude toward foreign direct investment (FDI) and has made efforts to encourage foreign investment. Government steps to improve the business climate include redrawing tax codes, floating the exchange rate, licensing foreign banks, and creating an investment promotion center to cut red tape. However, Tanzania still must overcome the legacy of socialism. The most common complaint of investors, foreign and domestic, is the hostile bureaucracy and the weak judiciary system.
Zanzibar's economy is based primarily on the production of cloves (90% grown on the island of Pemba), the principal foreign exchange earner. Exports have suffered with the downturn in the clove market. Tourism is a promising sector with a number of new hotels and resorts having been built in recent years. A prolonged electricity shortage from December 2009 to March 2010 delivered a blow to Zanzibar’s economy, severely affecting tourism and causing a rapid increase in commodity prices.
The island's manufacturing sector is limited mainly to import substitution industries, such as cigarettes, shoes, and processed agricultural products. In 1992, the government designated two export-producing zones and encouraged the development of offshore financial services. Zanzibar still imports much of its staple requirements, petroleum products, and manufactured articles.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
After achieving independence, Tanzania's leadership emphasized supporting the efforts of other African nations to gain independence. It supported the struggle against the apartheid government of South Africa, championed some form of political union of African states, and promoted a non-aligned stance toward the Cold War antagonists. To these ends, Tanzania played an important role in regional and international organizations. Tanzania's first president, Julius Nyerere, was one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement. Additionally, Tanzania played an active role in the anti-apartheid front-line states, the G-77, and the Organization of African Unity (OAU). One of Africa's best-known elder statesmen, Nyerere was personally active in many of these organizations, and served as chairman of the OAU (1984-85) and chairman of the six front-line states. Nyerere's death, in October 1999, is solemnly observed each year.
Tanzania enjoys good relations with its neighbors in the region. Tanzania has long promoted efforts to resolve chronic conflicts, especially in the Great Lakes region. Tanzania helped to broker peace talks to end the conflict in Burundi. In March 1996, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya revived discussion of economic and regional cooperation. These talks culminated with the signing of an East African Cooperation Treaty in September 1999. The East African Community (EAC) customs union came into effect January 1, 2005 and its Common Market Protocol entered into force on July 1, 2010. Rwanda and Burundi joined the EAC as full members in 2007. Tanzania is the only country in East Africa which also is a member of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). Tanzania was a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council from 2005-2006. President Kikwete chaired the African Union for a 1-year term in 2009-2010. In March 2008, the Tanzanian military led an African Union-authorized force to restore government authority on one of the islands of the Comoros archipelago. Long a host to substantial refugee populations, in 2009 Tanzania granted citizenship to 162,000 Burundi refugees. Tanzania's participation in UN peacekeeping missions includes deployments to Lebanon and Sudan.
U.S.-TANZANIAN RELATIONS
The strong bilateral relations between the United States of America and the United Republic of Tanzania began over 50 years ago with the friendship between former presidents John F. Kennedy and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and continue to this day. While diplomatic coordination between the two countries was limited during the Cold War and security cooperation was even more limited, coordination and cooperation improved sharply after al-Qaeda bombed the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam on August 7, 1998. In February 2008, President George W. Bush made an official 4-day visit to Tanzania, returning in December 2011 to make appearances in Dar es Salaam on the occasion of World Aids/HIV day. President Kikwete has visited the United States several times, including an official visit to Washington in August 2008, and became the first African president to be received by President Barack Obama at the White House in May 2009. Secretary Clinton visited the country in June 2011 on a tour of the region to underscore strong relations between the two countries.
The U.S. has provided development assistance to Tanzania since independence, contributing $700 million in 2011, mainly on development and capacity building to promote transparency, address health and education issues, and target development indicators to sustain progress. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided over $340 million in 2011 towards improving public health and quality of basic education, biodiversity conservation, and natural resource management. Feed the Future, launched by Secretary Clinton in June 2011, provided $61.5 million this year to boost agricultural growth and productivity, promote market development and trade expansion along with equitable rural economic growth, invest in global innovation and research, and address mother and child malnutrition.
Through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the United States partners with the Tanzanian Government on the largest international health commitment ever by any nation dedicated to a single disease. Since 2004, over $1.8 billion in PEPFAR funds have supported national, international, and civil society organizations in Tanzania in the areas of HIV and AIDS care and treatment, prevention, impact mitigation, and health systems strengthening. As a result, over 300,000 Tanzanians living with HIV infection have received anti-retroviral medications while millions have received HIV testing and counseling and benefited from information about how to avoid HIV infection. Every year, hundreds of thousands of pregnant women receive HIV testing during pregnancy and, if found to have HIV infection, are given medications to prevent HIV transmission to their babies.
Launched in 2005, the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) is an expansion of U.S. Government resources to reduce malaria and poverty in 17 African countries. Since 2006, PMI has dedicated $210 million toward fighting malaria in Tanzania. Funding supports many activities nationwide that have reduced malaria prevalence in Zanzibar to less than 1%, and helped the Mainland to achieve universal bed-net coverage to prevent malaria.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assists the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of the Government of Tanzania in responding to emerging public health threats and infectious disease outbreaks such as H1N1, Rift Valley Fever, measles, and Avian Influenza. Through CDC, over 80 new modern HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Centers (CTC) have opened across the country providing free life saving AIDS treatment services with Anti-Retroviral Drugs (ARV) where well-trained and skilled medical staff provide not only medications but also lab tests, counseling, and social support
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) granted Tanzania a five year $698 million Compact signed in 2008, the largest in MCC's history, to address critical transport, energy and water infrastructure needs. Prior to that, MCC provided Tanzania a two year $11.15 million Threshold Program that helped curb corruption in public procurement, strengthen the rule of law for good governance, and trained over 300 journalists in investigative reporting to support a free media essential to democratic development and transparency.
Peace Corps launched the first volunteers to Tanzania in 1962. Over 2,000 volunteers have served and continue to serve in Tanzania as math and science teachers in secondary schools and teacher trainers in information and communication technology. They lead health education projects that increase basic health knowledge and improve health attitudes and behaviors, and lead environment projects addressing basic village-level needs for sustaining natural resources.
Several exchange programs welcome Tanzanians to the United States through the Fulbright, Humphrey, and English Language program educational grants at the graduate and post-graduate levels. Other exchange programs promote artists, journalists, writers, civil servants, young leaders, musicians, and students. In Zanzibar, the U.S. has sponsored English teaching programs and provided over 600,000 science books to secondary students.
The Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation program has provided over $870,579 since 2002 for restoration projects, including the historic ruins at Kilwa Kisiwani.
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 (executive), Dodoma (legislative), Major metropolises--Arusha, Mwanza, Mbeya, Mtwara, Stonetown in Zanzibar.
Terrain: Varied.
Climate: Varies from tropical to arid to temperate.
People
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Tanzanian(s); Zanzibari(s).
Population: Mainland--41.8 million (2010 est.). Zanzibar--1.3 million (est.).
Religions: Muslim 35.0%, Christian 63.0%, other (traditional, Sikh, Hindu, Baha'i) 2.0%.
Language: Official--Kiswahili and English; national--Kiswahili.
Education: Attendance--73.2% mainland (primary), 71.4% Zanzibar. Literacy--females 67.0% mainland, 76.8% Zanzibar; males 79.9% mainland, 86.0% Zanzibar.
Health: Infant mortality rate--68/1,000. Life expectancy--52.4 years (2010 est.).
Work force: Agriculture--80.0%; industry, commerce, government--20.0%.
Government
Type: Republic.
Independence: Tanganyika 1961, Zanzibar 1963. Union formed in April 1964.
Constitution: 1982.
Branches: Executive--president (chief of state and commander in chief), vice president, and prime minister. 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, and primary courts; Zanzibar: High Court, people's district courts, kadhis court (Islamic courts).
Political parties: 1. Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), 2. The Civic United Front (CUF), 3. Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA),
4. Union for Multiparty Democracy (UMD), 5. National Convention for Construction and Reform (NCCR-Mageuzi), 6. National League for Democracy (NLD), 7. National Reconstruction for Alliance (NRA), 8. Tanzania Democratic Alliance Party (TADEA), 9. Tanzania Labour Party (TLP), 10. United Democratic Party (UDP), 11. Demokrasia Makini (MAKINI), 12. United Peoples' Democratic Party (UPDP), 13. Chama cha Haki na Ustawi (CHAUSTA), 14. The Forum for Restoration of Democracy (FORD), 15. Democratic Party (DP), 16. Progressive Party of Tanzania (PPT-Maendeleo), 17. Jahazi Asilia, 18. Sauti ya Umma (SAU).
Suffrage: Universal at 18.
Administrative subdivisions: 30 regions (25 on mainland, 3 on Zanzibar, 2 on Pemba).
Economy
GDP (2010 est.): $23.3 billion.
Real GDP growth annual percentage (2010 est.): 6.4%.
GDP per capita (2010): $552.
Natural resources: Hydroelectric potential, coal, iron, gemstones, gold, natural gas, nickel, diamonds, crude oil potential, forest products, wildlife, fisheries.
Agriculture (2010 est.): 26.6% of GDP. Products--coffee, cotton, tea, tobacco, cloves, sisal, cashew nuts, maize, livestock, sugar cane, paddy, wheat, pyrethrum.
Industry/manufacturing (2010 est.): 22.6% of GDP. Types--textiles, agro-processing, light manufacturing, construction, steel, aluminum, paints, cement, cooking oil, beer, mineral water and soft drinks.
Trade (2010 est.): Exports--$3.8 billion (merchandise exports): coffee, cotton, tea, sisal, cashew nuts, tobacco, cut flowers, seaweed, cloves, fish and fish products, minerals (diamonds, gold, and gemstones), manufactured goods, horticultural products; services (tourism services, communication, construction, insurance, financial, computer, information, government, royalties, personal and other businesses). Major markets--U.K., Germany, India, Japan, Italy, China, Bahrain, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia. Primary imports--petroleum, consumer goods, machinery and transport equipment, used clothing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals. Major suppliers--U.K., Germany, Japan, India, Italy, U.S., United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, Kenya.
PEOPLE
Tanzania’s population is concentrated along the coast and isles, the fertile northern and southern highlands, and the lands bordering Lake Victoria. The relatively arid and less fertile central region is sparsely inhabited. So too is much of the fertile and well watered far west, including the shores of Lake Tanganyika and Lake Nyasa (Malawi). About 80% of Tanzanians live in rural communities.
Zanzibar, population about 1.3 million (3% of Tanzania’s population), consists of two main islands and several small ones just off the Tanzanian coast. The two largest islands are Unguja (often referred to simply as Zanzibar) and Pemba. Zanzibaris, together with their socio-linguistic cousins in the Comoros Islands and the East Africa coast from modern-day southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, created Swahili culture and language, which reflect long and close associations with other parts of Africa and with the Arab world, Persia, and South Asia.
Tanzanians are proud of their strong sense of national identity and commitment to Swahili as the national language. There are roughly 120 ethnic communities in the country representing several of Africa’s main socio-linguistic groups.
HISTORY
Consensus scientific opinion places human origins in the Great Rift Valley, which dominates the landscape of much of East Africa. Northern Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge has provided rich evidence of the area's prehistory, including fossil remains of some of humanity's earliest ancestors.
Interior Tanzania’s great cultural and linguistic diversity is due to the various histories of migrations from elsewhere in the region. In some instances, groups of migrants separated, leading to different cultural developments. In other cases, various groups merged, creating new cultural identities and languages. Most Tanzanians are aware of their cultural origins and the traditional histories of the ethnic community with which they identify. The peoples of the interior traded with coastal communities, which in turn traded with all the countries bordering the Indian Ocean. Long standing patterns of political organization, economic production, and trade were disrupted by the violent escalation of the Arab-led slave and ivory trades in the 18th and 19th centuries. Bagamoyo on the coast and Zanzibar town were major slave ports serving markets for slave labor mostly in the Arab world. These societies, already severely stressed by the violence of the slave trade, came under further pressure once European explorers (mostly military, some missionary) opened the way to European conquest (first by semi-private European companies, later by European states) from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century.
Coastal and island Tanzania organized into city-states around 1,500 years ago. The Swahili city-states traded with the peoples of the interior and the peoples of the Indian Ocean and beyond (including China). Many merchants from these trading partner nations (principally from inland Africa, the Arab world, Persia and India) established themselves in these coastal and island communities, which became cosmopolitan in flavor.
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 settle the area (except for a few forts) or explore the interior. Instead, they violently enforced a monopoly on Indian Ocean trade, denying the Swahili city-states their main means of livelihood. The Portuguese also demanded tribute, bombarding and looting communities that refused to pay protection money. The coastal peoples rose up against the Portuguese in the late 1700s. Their resistance was assisted by one of their main trading partners, the Omani Arabs. By the early 19th century the Portuguese were forced out of coastal East Africa north of the Ruvuma River and the Omanis moved in.
Based in Zanzibar, the Omani Sultanate maintained close trade and diplomatic relations with the major trading powers, including the United States as of 1837. They also maintained close relations with some states in the interior with whom they were partners in the ivory and slave trades. European exploration of the interior began soon after the Omanis had consolidated their control of the coast and Zanzibar. Two German missionaries reached Mt. Kilimanjaro in the 1840s. British explorers Richard Burton and John Speke crossed the interior to Lake Tanganyika in 1857, with Speke going on to Lake Victoria. 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 American journalist-explorer, who had been commissioned by the New York Herald to locate him.
The Omani Sultanate, which had been heavily engaged in selling African slaves principally to the Arab world, outlawed the slave trade in 1876. British influence over the Sultanate steadily increased in the 1880s until Zanzibar formally became a British Protectorate in 1890.
German colonial interests were first advanced in 1884. Karl Peters, who formed the Society for German Colonization, concluded a series of agreements of dubious validity with "leaders" of questionable standing purporting to accept German "protection" for their inland African states. 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.
German rule, which featured "hut taxes" and conscript labor to fund administration and infrastructure that benefitted German settlers at the great disadvantage of African communities, provoked African resistance. The Maji Maji rebellion of 1905-07 united the peoples of the Southern Highlands in a struggle to expel the German administration. The German military killed 120,000 Africans in suppressing the rebellion.
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 school teacher who was then one of only two Tanganyikans educated abroad at the university level (University of Edinburgh, Scotland), organized a political party--the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). TANU 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. Julius Nyerere, then age 39, was elected President when Tanganyika became a republic within the Commonwealth a year after independence. Tanganyika was the first East African state to gain independence.
Zanzibar: Sultanate/British Protectorate to Independence, Revolution, and Union
Under the Sultanate, the Arab population comprised the ruling class and landed aristocracy. Arabs, primarily from Oman, seized large tracts of land on Unguja (except in the less fertile far north of the island) to set up highly profitable spice plantations. Dispossessed indigenous Zanzibaris (known as Shirazis) became agricultural workers, sharecroppers, or semi-serfs. The plantations were also worked by slaves or former slaves, originating from the mainland. There was also significant mainland migration to the islands, especially Unguja, to work menial jobs during the boom years of the spice trade. The Afro-Shirazi population of Unguja mostly resented their Omani and British rulers.
Shirazis from the northern tip of Unguja, the nearby island of Tumbatu, and Pemba enjoyed symbiotic commercial relations with the Arab new arrivals and their Sultanate. They were not dispossessed of their lands. They mostly prospered under the Omanis. Pemban and far northern Ungujan Shirazis tended to identify their interests with the Sultanate.
The British ruled Zanzibar on behalf of the Sultan, not on behalf of his subjects. Their policies explicitly favored Arabs and Asians over Shirazis and mainland Africans (in that order). A series of pre-independence elections revealed two camps: the anti-Sultanate, Africa-oriented, and secular Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) with a stronghold in the densely populated areas of Unguja; and the pro-Sultanate, Arab World-oriented, and explicitly Islamic Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP) and its Pemban ally (the Zanzibar and Pemban People's Party - ZPPP), which was supported by most Arabs, Asians, far northern Ungujans, Pembans, and those who worked for the state. The ASP consistently received a larger share of the popular vote (though not by much), but the ZNP and its ally received more seats because they predominated in more constituencies. At independence, the British handed power to the two parties friendliest to the Sultanate and the status quo: the ZNP and ZPPP.
In January, 1964, 1 month after independence from Britain, Zanzibar (specifically Unguja) experienced a bloody uprising against the institutions of the Sultanate, the ZNP/ZPPP government, the Arab and Asian communities, and any Shirazis considered friendly to the state (such as ZNP members and Pembans). Although specific figures vary, several thousand Arabs were killed. Rape and other atrocities were widespread. Arabs were expelled or fled in large numbers. Asian shops were looted. Property was expropriated and re-distributed to ASP supporters. After a period of confusion, the ASP leadership and its allies assumed control under a "Supreme Revolutionary Council" and extended their control to Pemba (which had not participated in the uprising). Pemba was ruled by "Commissars" who used floggings, forced labor, and public humiliation to enforce their will over a hostile population. After a few months, the ASP leadership opted to accept an offer of union with Tanganyika (forming the nation of Tanzania), both to prevent a counter-revolution and to buttress the political position of the ASP leaders among other members of the Supreme Revolutionary Council. The Union Agreement (signed April 26, 1964) granted wide-ranging autonomy for Zanzibar. This date is observed in Tanzania as Union Day. It is Tanzania's official national day.
United Republic of Tanzania
The Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar adopted the name "United Republic of Tanzania" on April 26, 1964. In order to create a single ruling party in both parts of the union, Nyerere merged TANU (mainland) with the ASP (Zanzibar) to form the CCM (Chama Cha Mapinduzi-CCM, Revolutionary Party) in 1977. As the sole legal political party for all of Tanzania, CCM had the role of directing the population in all significant political and economic activities. In practice, Party and State were one. On February 5, 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.
Nyerere instituted social policies that proved successful in forging a strong Tanzanian national identity, which to this day takes priority in the hearts of the great majority of Tanzanians over ethnic, regional or linguistic identities. Observers are nearly unanimous in attributing Tanzania's unbroken record of political stability to Nyerere's social policies. Nyerere's economic policies were ruinous. They were gradually reversed after he left power, but many in the state bureaucracy remain opposed to modern, market economics.
President Nyerere stepped down from office and was succeeded as President by Ali Hassan Mwinyi in 1985. Nyerere retained his position as Chairman of the ruling CCM party for 5 more years. He remained influential in Tanzanian politics until his death in October 1999. The current President, Jakaya Kikwete, was elected in December 2005 and re-elected on October 31, 2010. Tanzania's constitution limits presidents to two terms in office.
In Zanzibar, where past elections were marked by violence and widespread irregularities, the 2010 elections proceeded peacefully. After years of intense debates between Civic United Front (CUF) and CCM, the two political parties finally reached a power-sharing agreement. On January 29, 2010, the unicameral Zanzibar House of Representatives adopted as law a bill that outlined the parameters of a government of national unity and called for a popular referendum on the plan. On July 31, 2010, Zanzibari voters gave their approval in the first-ever referendum to amend the constitution to allow for a unity government in Zanzibar. Ali Mohamed Shein, the immediate past Union Vice President, was elected President of Zanzibar on October 31, 2010.
GOVERNMENT
Tanzania's president and Parliament members are elected concurrently by direct popular vote for 5-year terms. The president appoints a prime minister who serves as the government's leader in the Parliament. The president selects his cabinet from among Parliament members. The constitution also empowers the president to nominate 10 non-elected members of Parliament, who also are eligible to become cabinet members. Elections for president and all parliamentary seats were last held in October 2010. The next presidential and parliamentary elections will be in 2015.
The unicameral Parliament has up to 357 members: the Attorney General; the Speaker; five members elected from and by the Zanzibar House of Representatives; 102 special women's seats apportioned among the political parties based on their election results; 239 constituent seats (including 50 from Zanzibar); and 10 members nominated by the president. Although Zanzibar accounts for only 3% of Tanzania's population, it is guaranteed over 15% of seats in the Union Parliament. The ruling party, CCM, holds almost 80% of the seats in the Parliament. The Tanzanian Union Parliament legislates on all union matters (foreign affairs, defense, police, etc.) and non-union matters for the mainland. Laws passed by the Parliament are valid for Zanzibar only in specifically designated union matters.
Under the Union Agreement, Zanzibar has extensive autonomy within Tanzania. Zanzibar has its own President, legislature and bureaucracy ("the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar" led by "the Revolutionary Council") that presides over all non-union matters. The constitutional changes endorsed in the July 31, 2010 referendum provide for a government of national unity which establishes the positions of the first and second vice presidents, the former to be selected from the lead opposition party and the latter from the ruling party. Ministers must be selected from among the members of Zanzibar's House of Representatives. The cabinet must reflect the proportion of seats held by each political party.
There are currently 81 members in the House of Representatives in Zanzibar: 50 elected by the people; 10 appointed by the president of Zanzibar, two of whom must be from the opposition; five ex officio members; an attorney general appointed by the president; and 20 special seats allocated to women. Zanzibar's House of Representatives can make laws for Zanzibar without the approval of the union government as long as it does not involve union-designated matters. The terms of office for Zanzibar's president and House of Representatives are 5 years. The semi-autonomous status of Zanzibar under the Union is frequently debated, both by mainlanders and by Zanzibaris.
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 from the high courts to the Court of Appeals. District and resident court magistrates are appointed by the Chief Justice, except for judges of the High Court and Court of Appeals, who are appointed by the president. The Zanzibari court system parallels the legal system of the union. 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. A commercial court was established on the mainland in September 1999 as a division of the High Court.
For administrative purposes, Tanzania is divided into 30 regions--25 on the mainland, three on Unguja (Zanzibar), and two on Pemba (Zanzibar's second isle). District councils (also referred to as local government authorities) act at the most local level. There are 114 councils operating in 99 districts; 22 urban, 92 rural. The 22 urban units are classified further as city (Dar es Salaam and Mwanza), municipal (Arusha, Dodoma, Iringa, Kilimanjaro, Mbeya, Morogoro, Shinyanga, Tabora, and Tanga), and town councils (the remaining 11 communities).
Principal Government Officials
President--Jakaya Kikwete
Vice President--Mohamed Gharib Bilal
Prime Minister--Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda
President of Zanzibar--Ali Mohamed Shein
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Bernard Membe
Ambassador to the United States--Mwanaidi Sinare Maajar
Tanzania maintains an embassy in the United States at 1232 22nd St NW, Washington, DC 20037 (tel. 202-939-6125).
POLITICAL CONDITIONS
Tanzania held its fourth multi-party general elections on October 31, 2010. The ruling CCM party faced its most serious competition in the multi-party era. President Kikwete was re-elected with 61.7% of the vote, reduced from 80% in 2005. The Chadema party was for the first time the recipient of the most opposition votes. Chadema's presidential candidate, Willibrod Slaa, took 27% of the vote, while CUF's Ibrahim Lipumba received 8%. Voter turnout, at 42%, was by far the lowest in Tanzanian history; previously, at least 70% of registered voters had cast ballots. Although the elections were conducted without major disturbances or irregularities, Chadema officials raised concerns about voting and tabulation procedures and about the constitutional prohibition on challenging presidential election results following their formal announcement.
CCM retained its absolute majority in Parliament, with nearly 80% of the seats. With a total of 47 seats--24 elected and 23 "special seats" for women--Chadema for the first time displaced CUF as the official opposition and selected its Chairman, Freeman Mbowe, as opposition leader. The new Parliament selected Anne Makinda as Tanzania’s first woman Speaker of Parliament. Makinda, a member of Parliament since 1975 and former minister, had served as Deputy Speaker since 2005.
Self-governing Zanzibar (3% of Tanzania’s population) has long been the tempestuous exception to mainland Tanzania's peaceful politics. Serious irregularities and sporadic violence have marred every election in Zanzibar since 1964. However, after years of abortive negotiations the main opposition party, Civic United Front (CUF), and the ruling party were able to reach a power-sharing agreement. The outcome of the July 31, 2010 referendum set the stage for peaceful general elections on October 31 in Zanzibar. The power-sharing deal eliminated the winner-take-all system, giving the losing side one of two vice president slots and ministerial positions in proportion to the seats it holds in the House of Representatives. On October 31, Zanzibar CCM presidential candidate Ali Mohamed Shein won with 50.1% of the vote, while runner-up Civic United Front (CUF) presidential candidate Seif Sharif Hamad received 49.1%. Shein selected Hamad as his First Vice President and Seif Ali, the former Union Deputy Foreign Minister, as his Second Vice President.
ECONOMY
After independence, Tanzania adopted socialist economic policies, resulting in severe economic decline. The state controlled the economy and owned all of the major enterprises. The exchange rate and pricing policies were based on non-market mechanisms, creating low export and real GDP growth, high inflation, and widespread shortages. Agricultural production, the mainstay of the economy, declined steadily.
In 1986, Tanzania began to liberalize its economy and make partial market-oriented economic reforms. Although the government liberalized the agricultural marketing system and domestic prices and initiated financial system reform, economic growth was slow between 1986 and 1995.
Since 1996, Tanzania has taken aggressive steps toward macroeconomic stabilization and structural reforms. The emergence of a strong Ministry of Finance, supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other development partners, was instrumental in accelerating fiscal reforms and fostering a turnaround in fiscal performance. Overall, real GDP growth has averaged about 6% a year over the past 7 years, which was higher than the annual average growth of less than 5% in the late 1990s. Total debt service payments for 2010 were $85 million. The IMF’s most recent Debt Sustainability Analysis indicates that debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative combined with sound macroeconomic policies place it at low risk of debt distress. Public external debt service was approximately 1% of GDP in 2009 and expected to remain so for 2010 and 2011.
However, economic growth has not translated to significantly improving the lives of average Tanzanians. The economy remains overwhelmingly donor-dependent; 30% of the budget is dependent upon donor assistance. The global financial crisis significantly affected the tourism industry, one of Tanzania's top foreign-exchange earners; however, Tanzania was able to maintain relatively strong growth in 2010. Continued high food prices since a spike in 2008 have contributed to a rise in inflation to over 10%, a substantial increase from more moderate inflation earlier in the decade.
Agriculture constitutes the most important sector of the economy, providing about 27% of GDP and 80% of employment. Cash crops--including coffee, tea, cotton, cashews, sisal, cloves, and pyrethrum--account for the vast majority of export earnings. While the volume of major crops--both cash and goods marketed through official channels--have increased in recent years, large amounts of produce never reach the market. Poor pricing and unreliable cash flow to farmers continue to frustrate the growth of the agricultural sector.
Accounting for about 22.6% of GDP, Tanzania's industrial sector is one of the smallest in Africa. The main industrial activities are dominated by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) specializing in food processing including dairy products, meat packing, preserving fruits and vegetables, production of textile and apparel, leather tanning, and plastics. A few larger factories manufacture cement, rolled steel, corrugated iron, aluminum sheets, cigarettes, beer and bottling beverages, fruit juices, and mineral water. Other factories produce raw materials, import substitutes, and processed agricultural products. Poor water and electricity infrastructure systems continue to hinder manufacturing. In general, Tanzania's manufacturing sector targets primarily the domestic market with limited exports of manufactured goods. Most of the industry is concentrated in Dar es Salaam.
Generally, Tanzania has a favorable attitude toward foreign direct investment (FDI) and has made efforts to encourage foreign investment. Government steps to improve the business climate include redrawing tax codes, floating the exchange rate, licensing foreign banks, and creating an investment promotion center to cut red tape. However, Tanzania still must overcome the legacy of socialism. The most common complaint of investors, foreign and domestic, is the hostile bureaucracy and the weak judiciary system.
Zanzibar's economy is based primarily on the production of cloves (90% grown on the island of Pemba), the principal foreign exchange earner. Exports have suffered with the downturn in the clove market. Tourism is a promising sector with a number of new hotels and resorts having been built in recent years. A prolonged electricity shortage from December 2009 to March 2010 delivered a blow to Zanzibar’s economy, severely affecting tourism and causing a rapid increase in commodity prices.
The island's manufacturing sector is limited mainly to import substitution industries, such as cigarettes, shoes, and processed agricultural products. In 1992, the government designated two export-producing zones and encouraged the development of offshore financial services. Zanzibar still imports much of its staple requirements, petroleum products, and manufactured articles.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
After achieving independence, Tanzania's leadership emphasized supporting the efforts of other African nations to gain independence. It supported the struggle against the apartheid government of South Africa, championed some form of political union of African states, and promoted a non-aligned stance toward the Cold War antagonists. To these ends, Tanzania played an important role in regional and international organizations. Tanzania's first president, Julius Nyerere, was one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement. Additionally, Tanzania played an active role in the anti-apartheid front-line states, the G-77, and the Organization of African Unity (OAU). One of Africa's best-known elder statesmen, Nyerere was personally active in many of these organizations, and served as chairman of the OAU (1984-85) and chairman of the six front-line states. Nyerere's death, in October 1999, is solemnly observed each year.
Tanzania enjoys good relations with its neighbors in the region. Tanzania has long promoted efforts to resolve chronic conflicts, especially in the Great Lakes region. Tanzania helped to broker peace talks to end the conflict in Burundi. In March 1996, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya revived discussion of economic and regional cooperation. These talks culminated with the signing of an East African Cooperation Treaty in September 1999. The East African Community (EAC) customs union came into effect January 1, 2005 and its Common Market Protocol entered into force on July 1, 2010. Rwanda and Burundi joined the EAC as full members in 2007. Tanzania is the only country in East Africa which also is a member of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). Tanzania was a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council from 2005-2006. President Kikwete chaired the African Union for a 1-year term in 2009-2010. In March 2008, the Tanzanian military led an African Union-authorized force to restore government authority on one of the islands of the Comoros archipelago. Long a host to substantial refugee populations, in 2009 Tanzania granted citizenship to 162,000 Burundi refugees. Tanzania's participation in UN peacekeeping missions includes deployments to Lebanon and Sudan.
U.S.-TANZANIAN RELATIONS
The strong bilateral relations between the United States of America and the United Republic of Tanzania began over 50 years ago with the friendship between former presidents John F. Kennedy and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and continue to this day. While diplomatic coordination between the two countries was limited during the Cold War and security cooperation was even more limited, coordination and cooperation improved sharply after al-Qaeda bombed the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam on August 7, 1998. In February 2008, President George W. Bush made an official 4-day visit to Tanzania, returning in December 2011 to make appearances in Dar es Salaam on the occasion of World Aids/HIV day. President Kikwete has visited the United States several times, including an official visit to Washington in August 2008, and became the first African president to be received by President Barack Obama at the White House in May 2009. Secretary Clinton visited the country in June 2011 on a tour of the region to underscore strong relations between the two countries.
The U.S. has provided development assistance to Tanzania since independence, contributing $700 million in 2011, mainly on development and capacity building to promote transparency, address health and education issues, and target development indicators to sustain progress. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided over $340 million in 2011 towards improving public health and quality of basic education, biodiversity conservation, and natural resource management. Feed the Future, launched by Secretary Clinton in June 2011, provided $61.5 million this year to boost agricultural growth and productivity, promote market development and trade expansion along with equitable rural economic growth, invest in global innovation and research, and address mother and child malnutrition.
Through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the United States partners with the Tanzanian Government on the largest international health commitment ever by any nation dedicated to a single disease. Since 2004, over $1.8 billion in PEPFAR funds have supported national, international, and civil society organizations in Tanzania in the areas of HIV and AIDS care and treatment, prevention, impact mitigation, and health systems strengthening. As a result, over 300,000 Tanzanians living with HIV infection have received anti-retroviral medications while millions have received HIV testing and counseling and benefited from information about how to avoid HIV infection. Every year, hundreds of thousands of pregnant women receive HIV testing during pregnancy and, if found to have HIV infection, are given medications to prevent HIV transmission to their babies.
Launched in 2005, the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) is an expansion of U.S. Government resources to reduce malaria and poverty in 17 African countries. Since 2006, PMI has dedicated $210 million toward fighting malaria in Tanzania. Funding supports many activities nationwide that have reduced malaria prevalence in Zanzibar to less than 1%, and helped the Mainland to achieve universal bed-net coverage to prevent malaria.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assists the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of the Government of Tanzania in responding to emerging public health threats and infectious disease outbreaks such as H1N1, Rift Valley Fever, measles, and Avian Influenza. Through CDC, over 80 new modern HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Centers (CTC) have opened across the country providing free life saving AIDS treatment services with Anti-Retroviral Drugs (ARV) where well-trained and skilled medical staff provide not only medications but also lab tests, counseling, and social support
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) granted Tanzania a five year $698 million Compact signed in 2008, the largest in MCC's history, to address critical transport, energy and water infrastructure needs. Prior to that, MCC provided Tanzania a two year $11.15 million Threshold Program that helped curb corruption in public procurement, strengthen the rule of law for good governance, and trained over 300 journalists in investigative reporting to support a free media essential to democratic development and transparency.
Peace Corps launched the first volunteers to Tanzania in 1962. Over 2,000 volunteers have served and continue to serve in Tanzania as math and science teachers in secondary schools and teacher trainers in information and communication technology. They lead health education projects that increase basic health knowledge and improve health attitudes and behaviors, and lead environment projects addressing basic village-level needs for sustaining natural resources.
Several exchange programs welcome Tanzanians to the United States through the Fulbright, Humphrey, and English Language program educational grants at the graduate and post-graduate levels. Other exchange programs promote artists, journalists, writers, civil servants, young leaders, musicians, and students. In Zanzibar, the U.S. has sponsored English teaching programs and provided over 600,000 science books to secondary students.
The Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation program has provided over $870,579 since 2002 for restoration projects, including the historic ruins at Kilwa Kisiwani.
No comments:
Post a Comment