Tanzania

Tanzania is almost twice as large as Kenya and lies in the southern hemisphere. The coast with palm trees in the area between beautiful bays, mountains such as the Usambara Mountains, Para Hills, Mount Meru and of course Africa’s highest mountain the world’s famous “Mount Kilimanjaro”. But most tourists come for the parks: The Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, Natron lake are the best known. Tanzania is a beautiful country with friendly people and well worth a visit. Tanzania is in the midst of Africa’s Great Lakes, with Lake Victoria, Tanganyika and Nyasa, south of the Equator. It covers a surface of 945.087 sqkm of which is 26.4% set aside for wildlife protection. Population: Tanzania has a population of about 30 million people. Is a country with no winter. Temperature varies between 15 to 28 degrees during the day 10 to 15 degrees at night. The long rainy season starts between April and June while the short rainy season in November. Administrative divisions Tanzania is divided into 26 regions and 127 districts. Politics Tanzania is a republic in which Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous status. The president, who is elected and re-elected only once for five years, usually comes from the mainland. The first vice president is the Prime Minister of Zanzibar, the second vice president, the prime minister of the country government. The parliament, the National Assembly has 156 members: 101 elected on the mainland and 55 in Zanzibar and Pemba. Until 1992, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), (Party of the Revolution), the only authorized party. The CCM was formed in 1977 after a merger of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) Julius Nyerere and the Afro-Shirazi Party Aboud Jumbe. The CCM held clear until 1992 a monopoly and most officials were also members of that party. However, the voters had a choice of several candidates of that party when it came to the representative bodies. At the executive functions the choice was limited to “yes” and “no.” The National Executive Committee (a kind of politburo) had the power, there was no freedom of the press, the Tanzanian economy was a centrally planned economy. In 1992, a multiparty system and a free market economy was introduced. The currency in Tanzania is the Tanzanian shilling. Economy Tanzania possesses large stocks of minerals and hard commodity such as gold, diamond, coal, iron, uranium, nickel, chromium, tin, platinum, and natural gas. Natural gas is used for the production of electricity. Tourism Sunset in the Serengeti Tengerumarkt near Arusha Makonde carvings Tanzania has several tourist attractions for game drives (the word safari means journey in Swahili). Ngorongoro: crater with a unique wild population Serengeti: Game Reserve, famous for the annual migration (shared with Kenya) Selous: game reserve in the south of the country, with the Rufiji River Tarangire: Nature Park in the north Lake Manyara: Game Reserve, famous for its flamingos Ruaha: wildlife sanctuary in the middle of the country Kilimanjaro: Africa’s highest mountain (5895 m), by tourists climbable