About the CBI
 

 September 2005

Background Note: Tanzania

Flag of Tanzania is divided diagonally by yellow-edged black band from lower
hoist-side corner; upper triangle - hoist side - is green and lower triangle
is blue.

PROFILE

OFFICIAL NAME:
United Republic of Tanzania

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--Dodoma (legislative), Dar es Salaam (executive). Major
metropolises--Arusha, Mwanza, Dodoma, Mbeya, Mtwara, Stonetown, Zanzibar.
Terrain: Varied.
Climate: Varies from tropical to arid to temperate.

People
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Tanzanian(s); Zanzibari(s).
Population: Mainland--34.57 million. Zanzibar--1 million (est.).
Religions: Muslim 45%, Christian 45%, indigenous beliefs 10%.
Language: Kiswahili (official), English.
Education: Attendance--74% (primary). Literacy--67%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--98/1,000. Life expectancy--50 years.
Work force: Agriculture--80%; industry, commerce, government--20%.

Government
Type: Republic.
Independence: Tanganyika 1961, Zanzibar 1963. Union formed 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.
Suffrage: Universal at 18.
Administrative subdivisions: 26 regions (21 on mainland, 3 on Zanzibar, 2 on
Pemba).

Economy
GDP (2003): GDP was $9.45 billion.
Average growth rate: 6.0% in 2003, up from 5.9% in 2002.
Per capita income: $270.
Natural resources: Hydroelectric potential, coal, iron, gemstone, gold,
natural gas, nickel, diamonds.
Agriculture (48% of GDP): Products--coffee, cotton, tea, tobacco, cloves,
sisal, cashew nuts, maize.
Industry (8.3% of GDP): Types--textiles, agribusiness, light manufacturing,
oil refining, construction.
Trade: Exports--coffee, cotton, tea, sisal, diamonds, cashew nuts, tobacco,
flowers, seaweed, fish, and cloves. Major markets--U.K., Germany, India,
Japan, Italy, and the Far East. 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
Population distribution in Tanzania is extremely uneven. Density varies from
1 person per square kilometer (3 per sq. mi.) in arid regions to 51 per
square kilometer (133 per sq. mi.) in the mainland's well-watered highlands
to 134 per square kilometer (347 per 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 the new
capital and the Parliament sits there, although action to move the capital
has stalled.

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 Kibaha, 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 (l804-56) 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 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's 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 school teacher 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 l961, 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 U.S. 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 nongovernmental 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. 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, this was renamed the United Republic of
Tanzania on October 29, 1964.

United Republic of Tanzania
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.

To form a sole ruling party in both parts of the union Nyerere merged TANU
with the Zanzibar ruling party, the Afro-Shirazi Party (ASP) of Zanzibar to
form the CCM (Chama cha Mapinduzi-CCM Revolutionary Party), on February 5,
1977. 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. 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.

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 party for 5 more years and was influential in Tanzanian politics until
his death in October 1999. The current President, Benjamin Mkapa, was elected
in 1995 and re-elected for a second five-year term in 2000. Zanzibar
President Amani Abeid Karume, the son of Zanzibar's first president, was
elected in 2000, in general elections that were marked by widespread
irregularities throughout the Isles. His predecessor, Salmin Amour, was first
elected in single-party elections in 1990, then re-elected in 1995 in
Zanzibar's first multi-party elections. These elections also were tainted by
widespread irregularities on Zanzibar.

GOVERNMENT
Tanzania's president and National Assembly 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 National Assembly. The
president selects his cabinet from among National Assembly members. The
Constitution also empowers him to nominate 10 non-elected members of
Parliament, who also are eligible to become cabinet members. Elections for
president and all National Assembly seats will be held in October 2005.

The unicameral National Assembly elected in 2000 has 295 members. These 295
members include the Attorney General, five members elected from the Zanzibar
House of Representatives to participate in the Parliament, the special
women's seats which are made up of 20% of the seats a particular party has in
the House, 181 constituents seats of members of Parliament from the mainland,
and 50 seats from Zanzibar. Also in the list are 48 appointed for women and
the seats for the 10 nominated members of Parliament. At present, the ruling
CCM holds about 93% of the seats in the Assembly. Laws passed by the National
Assembly are valid for Zanzibar only in specifically designated union
matters.

Zanzibar's House of Representatives has jurisdiction over all non-union
matters. There are currently 76 members in the House of Representatives in
Zanzibar, including 50 elected by the people, 10 appointed by the president
of Zanzibar, 5 ex officio members, and an attorney general appointed by the
president. In May 2002, the government increased the number of special seats
allocated to women from 10 to 15, which will increase the number of House of
Representatives members to 81. Ostensibly, 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 also are 5
years. The semiautonomous relationship between Zanzibar and the union is a
relatively unique system of government.

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.
A commercial court was established in September 1999 as a division of the
High Court.

For administrative purposes, Tanzania is divided into 26 regions--21 on the
mainland, 3 on Zanzibar, and 2 on Pemba. Ninety-nine district councils have
been created to further increase local authority. These districts are also
now referred to as local government authorities. Currently there are 114
councils operating in 99 districts, 22 are urban and 92 are 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--Benjamin W. Mkapa
Vice President--Dr. Ali Mohamed Shein
Prime Minister--Frederick T. Sumaye
President of Zanzibar--Amani Abeid Karume
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Jakaya Kikwete
Ambassador to the United States--Andrew Daraja

Tanzania maintains an embassy in the United States at 2139 R Street NW,
Washington, DC 20008 (tel. 202-939-6125.)

POLITICAL CONDITIONS
From independence in 1961 until the mid-1980s, Tanzania was a one-party
state, with a socialist model of economic development. Beginning in the
mid-1980s, under the administration of President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Tanzania
undertook a number of political and economic reforms. In January and February
1992, the government decided to adopt multiparty democracy. Legal and
constitutional changes led to the registration of 11 political parties. Two
parliamentary by-elections (won by CCM) in early 1994 were the first-ever
multiparty elections in Tanzanian history.

In October 2000, Tanzania held its second multi-party general elections. The
ruling CCM party's candidate, Benjamin W. Mkapa, defeated his three main
rivals, winning the presidential election with 71% of the vote. In the
parliamentary elections, CCM won 202 of the 232 elected seats. In the
Zanzibar presidential election, Abeid Amani Karume, the son of former
President Abeid Karume, defeated CUF candidate Seif Sharif Hamad. The
election was marred by irregularities, especially on Zanzibar, and subsequent
political violence claimed at least 23 lives in January 2001, mostly on Pemba
island. Also, 16 CUF members were expelled from the Union Parliament after
boycotting the legislature to protest the Zanzibar election results.

In October 2001, the CCM and the CUF parties signed a reconciliation
agreement which called for electoral reforms on Zanzibar and set up a
Commission of Inquiry to investigate the deaths that occurred in January 2001
on Pemba. The agreement also led to President appointment of an additional
CUF official to become a member of the Union Parliament. Changes to the
Zanzibar Constitution in April 2002 allowed both the CCM and CUF parties to
nominate members to the Zanzibar Electoral Commission. In May 2003, the
Zanzibar Electoral Commission conducted by-elections to fill vacant seats in
the parliament, including those seats vacated by the CUF boycott. Observers
considered these by-elections, the first major test of the reconciliation
agreement, to be free, fair, and peaceful. President Mkapa, Vice President
Ali Mohamed Shein, Prime Minister Fredrick Sumaye, and National Assembly
members will serve until the next general elections, which have been set for
October 30, 2005. Similarly, Zanzibar President Karume and members of the
Zanzibar House of Representatives also will complete their terms of office in
2005.

ECONOMY
Significant measures have been taken to liberalize the Tanzanian economy
along market lines and encourage both foreign and domestic private
investment. Beginning in 1986, the Government of Tanzania embarked on an
adjustment program to dismantle state economic controls and encourage more
active participation of the private sector in the economy. The program
included a comprehensive package of policies which reduced the budget deficit
and improved monetary control, substantially depreciated the overvalued
exchange rate, liberalized the trade regime, removed most price controls,
eased restrictions on the marketing of food crops, freed interest rates, and
initiated a restructuring of the financial sector.

In July 2003, Tanzania's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)
arrangement with the International Monetary Fund was extended for an
additional three years; it will expire in July 2006. In June 2003, the
Tanzanian Government successfully completed a previous three-year PRGF, the
successor program to the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF). From
1996-1999, Tanzania had an ESAF agreement. Tanzania also embarked on a major
restructuring of state-owned enterprises. The program has so far divested 335
out of some 425 parastatal entities. Overall, real economic growth has
averaged about 4% a year, much better than the previous 20 years, but not
enough to improve the lives of average Tanzanians. Also, the economy remains
overwhelmingly donor-dependent. Moreover, Tanzania has an external debt of
$7.5 billion. The servicing of this debt absorbs about 40% of total
government expenditures. Tanzania has qualified for debt relief under the
enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Debts worth over
$6 billion were canceled following implementation of the Paris Club VII
Agreement.

Agriculture dominates the economy, providing more than 60% 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. The
volume of all major crops--both cash and goods, which have been marketed
through official channels--have increased over the past few years, but large
amounts of produce never reach the market. Poor pricing and unreliable cash
flow to farmers continue to frustrate the agricultural sector.

Accounting for only about 10% of GDP, Tanzania's industrial sector is one of
the smallest in Africa. It was hit hard during the 2002-2003 drought years by
persistent power shortages caused by low rainfall in the hydroelectric dam
catchment area, a condition compounded by years of neglect and bad management
at the state-controlled electric company. Management of the electric company
was contracted to the private sector in 2003.

The main industrial activities include producing raw materials, import
substitutes, and processed agricultural products. Foreign exchange shortages
and mismanagement continue to deprive factories of much-needed spare parts
and have reduced factory capacity to less than 30%.

Despite Tanzania's past record of political stability, an unattractive
investment climate has discouraged foreign investment. Government steps to
improve that climate include redrawing tax codes, floating the exchange rate,
licensing foreign banks, and creating an investment promotion center to cut
red tape. In terms of mineral resources and the largely untapped tourism
sector, Tanzania could become a viable and attractive market for U.S. goods
and services.

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 an increasingly
promising sector, and a number of new hotels and resorts have been built in
recent years.

The Government of Zanzibar has been more aggressive than its mainland
counterpart in instituting economic reforms and has legalized foreign
exchange bureaus on the islands. This has loosened up the economy and
dramatically increased the availability of consumer commodities. Furthermore,
with external funding, the government plans to make the port of Zanzibar a
free port. Rehabilitation of current port facilities and plans to extend
these facilities will be the precursor to the free port. The island's
manufacturing sector is limited mainly to import substitution industries,
such as cigarettes, shoes, and process 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
Tanzania's first president, Julius Nyerere also was one of the founding
members of the Non-Aligned Movement, and, during the Cold War era, Tanzania
played an important role in regional and international organizations, such as
the Non-Aligned Movement, the 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 chairman of the OAU (1984-85) and chairman of six front-line states
concerned with eliminating apartheid in Southern Africa. Nyerere's death, in
October 1999, is still commemorated annually.

Tanzania enjoys good relations with its neighbors in the region and in recent
years has been an active participant in efforts to promote the peaceful
resolution of disputes. Tanzania is helping to broker peace talks to end
conflict in Burundi and supports the Lusaka agreement concerning the conflict
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 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; a treaty establishing a Customs Union was signed in March
2004. The Customs Union went into effect January 1, 2005 and, in time, should
lead to complete economic integration. Tanzania is the only country in East
Africa which also is a member of the Southern Africa Development Community
(SADC). In January 2005, Tanzania became a non-permanent member of the UN
Security Council.

U.S.-TANZANIAN RELATIONS
The U.S. has historically enjoyed cordial relations with Tanzania. A new
chapter in that relationship was launched on August 7, 1998, when terrorists
bombed the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam. This act horrified Tanzanians and
Americans alike and also drew condemnation from around the world. In the
aftermath of the bombing, relations between the U.S. and Tanzania became even
closer, and cooperation broadened to include areas such as anti-terrorism and
law enforcement. President Benjamin Mkapa visited the U.S. in September 1999
with a delegation of business executives, reflecting the increased level of
cooperation on trade and investment issues and Tanzania's commitment to
economic liberalization. The U.S. Government provides assistance to Tanzania
to support programs in the areas of health, environment, democracy, and
development of the private sector. The U.S. Agency for International
Development's program in Tanzania averages about $20 million per year.

The Peace Corps program, revitalized in 1979, provides assistance in
education through the provision of teachers. Peace Corps also is assisting in
health and environment sectors. Currently, about 147 volunteers are serving
in Tanzania. First Lady Laura Bush visited Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar in
mid-July 2005.

Principal U.S. Officials
Ambassador--Michael L. Retzer
Deputy Chief of Mission--Daniel P. Delly
Director, USAID--Pamela White
Public Affairs Officer--John D. Haynes
Director, Peace Corps--Marily Knieriemen

The U.S. Embassy in Tanzania is located on Old Bagamoyo Road, Dar es Salaam.
The consulate on Zanzibar was closed on June 15, 1979.