Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only €10,99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Insight Guides Tanzania & Zanzibar (Travel Guide eBook)
    Insight Guides Tanzania & Zanzibar (Travel Guide eBook)
    Insight Guides Tanzania & Zanzibar (Travel Guide eBook)
    Ebook651 pages6 hours

    Insight Guides Tanzania & Zanzibar (Travel Guide eBook)

    By Insight Guides

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Insight Guide to Tanzania & Zanzibar is a pictorial travel guide in a magazine style providing answers to the key questions before or during your trip: deciding when to go to Tanzania & Zanzibar, choosing what to see, from exploring Stone Town to discovering Ruaha National Park or creating a travel plan to cover key places like Mount Kilimanjaro, Serengeti National Park. This is an ideal travel guide for travellers seeking inspiration, in-depth cultural and historical information about Tanzania & Zanzibar as well as a great selection of places to see during your trip. 

     

    The Insight Guide Tanzania & Zanzibar covers: Dar es Salaam, The North Coast and Usambara, Arusha and Kilimanjaro, The Northern Safari Circuit, Western and Central Tanzania, Southern Parks and Tanzam Highway, Mbeya and Lake Nyasa, The South Coast, Zanzibar and Pemba.

     

    In this travel guide you will find: 

     

    IN-DEPTH CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL FEATURES  

    Created to explore the culture and the history of Tanzania & Zanzibar to get a greater understanding of its modern-day life, people and politics. 

     

    BEST OF

    The top attractions and Editor’s Choice highlighting the most special places to visit around Tanzania & Zanzibar.

     

    CURATED PLACES, HIGH QUALITY MAPS

    Geographically organised text cross-referenced against full-colour, high quality travel maps for quick orientation in Pemba, Dar es Salaam and many more locations in Tanzania & Zanzibar.

     

    COLOUR-CODED CHAPTERS 

    Every part of Tanzania & Zanzibar, from Usambara to Lake Nyasa has its own colour assigned for easy navigation.

     

    TIPS AND FACTS

    Up-to-date historical timeline and in-depth cultural background to Tanzania & Zanzibar as well as an introduction to Tanzania & Zanzibar’s Food and Drink and fun destination-specific features.   

     

    PRACTICAL TRAVEL  INFORMATION 

    A-Z of useful advice on everything from when to go to Tanzania & Zanzibar, how to get there and how to get around, as well as Tanzania & Zanzibar‘s climate, advice on tipping, etiquette and more.   

     

    STRIKING PICTURES

    Features inspirational colour photography, including the stunning Kilwa Kisiwani and the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater.

     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInsight Guides
    Release dateFeb 1, 2022
    ISBN9781839052613
    Insight Guides Tanzania & Zanzibar (Travel Guide eBook)
    Author

    Insight Guides

    Insight Guides wherever possible uses local experts who provide insider know-how and share their love and knowledge of the destination.

    Read more from Insight Guides

    Related to Insight Guides Tanzania & Zanzibar (Travel Guide eBook)

    Titles in the series (52)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Africa Travel For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      48 Hours in Bangkok

      Apr 7, 2017

      48 Hours in Bangkok
      4 min read

    • Article

      Top 10 regions

      Dec 3, 2019

      Top 10 regions
      8 min read

    • Article

      Essentials

      Mar 3, 2022

      Essentials
      1 min read

    • Article

      Philadelphia

      Apr 4, 2024

      Philadelphia
      3 min read

    • Article

      Northern Thailand

      Sep 17, 2020

      Capital: Bangkok Population: 70 million Languages: Thai and its northern dialect Găm Méuang. Karen, Lahu, Akha and other ethnic minority languages are also spoken in numerous dialects. English is widely understood in the cities. Time: GMT +7 Inte

      2 min read

    • Article

      DENMARK copenhagen

      Dec 14, 2021

      DENMARK copenhagen
      4 min read

    • Article

      15 Epic Walking Trails

      Aug 19, 2021

      15 Epic Walking Trails
      9 min read

    • Article

      6 Phuket, Thailand

      Dec 16, 2020

      6 Phuket, Thailand
      2 min read

    • Article

      Phuket, Thailand

      Oct 7, 2021

      Phuket, Thailand
      1 min read

    • Article

      SOUTH AFRICA karoo

      Dec 14, 2021

      SOUTH AFRICA karoo
      1 min read

    • Article

      Ideas Bank: Great Wildlife Parks

      Dec 31, 2021

      With the plethora of national parks and game reserves available across Africa for wildlife-watching, you’re spoiled for choice. Each has its own characteristics, and every one of us has different interests and experiences, so it’s impossible to say i

      8 min read

    • Article

      Combination Conundrums

      Oct 7, 2022

      Kenya can be a revelation to wildlife safari enthusiasts who haven’t previously visited: its megafauna is extraordinarily rich and diverse. Stay at a lodge on the outskirts of Nairobi and explore the city’s magnificent national park – with its easter

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Call Of The Wild

      May 27, 2022

      The Call Of The Wild
      6 min read

    • Article

      Favourite

      May 11, 2023

      Favourite
      14 min read

    • Article

      10 Kilimanjaro

      Dec 1, 2024

      10 Kilimanjaro
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Insight Guides Tanzania & Zanzibar (Travel Guide eBook)

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Insight Guides Tanzania & Zanzibar (Travel Guide eBook) - Insight Guides

      How To Use This E-Book

      Getting around the e-book

      This Insight Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration for your visit to Tanzania and Zanzibar, as well as comprehensive planning advice to make sure you have the best travel experience. The guide begins with our selection of Top Attractions, as well as our Editor’s Choice categories of activities and experiences. Detailed features on history, people and culture paint a vivid portrait of contemporary life in Tanzania and Zanzibar. The extensive Places chapters give a complete guide to all the sights and areas worth visiting. The Travel Tips provide full information on getting around, activities from culture to shopping to sport, plus a wealth of practical information to help you plan your trip.

      In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

      Maps

      All key attractions and sights in Tanzania and Zanzibar are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

      Images

      You’ll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Tanzania and Zanzibar. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

      About Insight Guides

      Insight Guides have more than 40 years’ experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.

      Insight Guides are written by local authors, whose expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. Each destination is carefully researched by regional experts to ensure our guides provide the very latest information. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide you to the best places to eat, go out and shop, so you can be confident that when we say a place is special, we really mean it.

      © 2022 Apa Digital AG

      License edition © Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

      49617.jpg

      Table of Contents

      Tanzania & Zanzibar’s Top 10 Attractions

      Editor’s Choice

      Introduction: The Stuff of Legends

      People

      Decisive Dates

      The Earliest Inhabitants

      Swahili Traders

      Imperial Ambitions

      The Colonial Era

      Independence

      Music, Dance and Art

      The Lie of the Land

      Safari

      Mammals

      Insight: Endangered and endemic wildlife

      Birds

      Tanzania’s Reptiles

      Introduction: Places

      Introduction: Dar ES Salaam

      Introduction: The North Coast and Usambara

      Introduction: Arusha and Kilimanjaro

      Introduction: The Northern Safari Circuit

      Insight: Maasai: nomads of the plains

      Introduction: Western and Central Tanzania

      Introduction: Southern Parks and Tanzam Highway

      Introduction: Mbeya and Lake Nyasa

      Introduction: The South Coast

      Introduction: Zanzibar and Pemba

      Insight: The Swahili

      Transportation

      A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information

      Language

      Further Reading

      TANZANIA & ZANZIBAR’s Top 10 Attractions

      Top Attraction 1

      Serengeti National Park. Arguably East Africa’s finest game reserve, this is the main setting for the Great Migration, where some 8 million hooves – mostly belonging to wildebeest and zebra – pound the plains in search of fresh grass. For more information, click here.

      Dreamstime

      Top Attraction 2

      Mount Kilimanjaro. The world’s tallest freestanding mountain, and the highest peak anywhere in Africa, snow-capped ‘Kili’ is spectacular; it is one of the highest walkable summits on the planet. For more information, click here.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Top Attraction 3

      Ngorongoro Crater. This vast and immensely scenic caldera supports around 25,000 large animals, including the world’s densest population of lions and spotted hyenas, several massive old tuskers, and some of East Africa’s last black rhinos. For more information, click here.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Top Attraction 4

      Stone Town, Zanzibar. With its wealth of 19th-century Omani architecture and laid-back Swahili atmosphere, the historic Stone Town on the legendary Spice Island of Zanzibar is Tanzania’s most relaxed urban destination. For more information, click here.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Top Attraction 5

      Chimp tracking (Mahale/Gombe). There is no better place in Africa to track man’s closest relative than these two parks on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika; researchers have studied the chimp communities here since the 1960s. For more information, click here.

      Shutterstock

      Top Attraction 6

      Selous Game Reserve. Dominated by the sluggish brown Rufiji, a riverine wilderness inhabited by immense numbers of hippo, crocodiles and water birds, Africa’s largest game reserve offers excellent opportunities for game viewing from a boat or on foot. For more information, click here.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Top Attraction 7

      Kilwa Kisiwani. Once home to the most important medieval trading centre along the East African coast, the island of Kilwa is studded with impressive ruins of abandoned mosques, palaces and other Swahili buildings. For more information, click here.

      Dreamstime

      Top Attraction 8

      Lake Natron and Ol Doinyo Lengai. Bordering Kenya, Natron is the largest and most remote of the lakes that line the floor of Tanzania’s eastern Rift Valley, overlooked by Ol Doinyo Lengai, the Maasai ‘Mountain of God’ and the region’s most active volcano. For more information, click here.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Top Attraction 9

      East coast beaches, Zanzibar. There is no shortage of superb beaches along the coast of mainland Tanzania and the islands, but none surpass the east coast of Zanzibar for dazzling white sand and impossibly blue sea. For more information, click here.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Top Attraction 10

      Ruaha National Park. Game viewing in this remote reserve begins as soon as you arrive, with the banks of the Ruaha River supporting elephants, lions, leopards and antelopes – including the localised sable and greater kudu. For more information, click here.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Editor’s Choice

      Image.jpg

      On an elephant safari.

      Manyara Ranch Conservancy

      Best outdoor activities

      Balloon safari. Flights take off as dawn breaks over the Serengeti, illuminating the amazing natural habitat of the world’s most famous game reserve. For more information, click here.

      Equestrian safaris. Galloping alongside a herd of zebra or wildebeest is a lifelong dream for many horse riders. For more information, click here.

      Climbing Kilimanjaro. Requiring a minimum of five days, the ascent to the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro is among the world’s most iconic climbs. For more information, click here.

      Diving and snorkelling off the Swahili Coast. The best dive sites are Mnemba Atoll, Mafia Marine Park and Misali Island. These and several other sites also offer great snorkelling, with hundreds of species of colourful reef fish on display. For more information, click here.

      Hiking the Usambara. Wonderful scenery, interesting local culture and plenty of rare forest wildlife make this a great budget alternative to a Kili hike. For more information, click here.

      Image.jpg

      Camping on Mount Kilimanjaro.

      Bigstock

      Best exclusive camps & lodges

      &Beyond Klein’s Camp. Superlative guided game drives on a large private concession bordering the Serengeti are matched by the beautiful hillside cottages. www.andbeyond.com/kleins-camp

      Manyara Ranch. In a wildlife corridor linking Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Parks, this exclusive camp offers excellent guided game walks and night drives. www.manyararanch.com

      Sayari Camp. This stylish and wonderfully sited small camp in the Northern Serengeti is ideal to catch wildebeest crossings of the Mara in migration season. www.asiliaafrica.com

      Lamai Serengeti. This ultra-luxurious lodge straddles a group of well-wooded rocky outcrops in a part of the northern Serengeti famed for its large lion prides. www.nomad-tanzania.com

      &Beyond Ngorongoro Crater Lodge. The last word in over-the-top decor, this extraordinary lodge on the edge of the magnificent Ngorongoro Crater brings Baroque to the African bush. www.andbeyond.com

      Chumbe Island. Combines a bush-lodge feel with a beach setting on a small private island whose offshore reefs offer some of the finest snorkelling in East Africa. www.chumbeisland.com

      Greystoke Mahale. Chimp tracking is the main attraction at this exclusive lodge on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. www.nomad-tanzania.com.

      Image.jpg

      Elephants and baobab tree at sunset, Tarangire National Park.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Best for birdwatching

      Amani Nature Reserve. At the top birding spot in the Usambara, you’re likely to see the likes of green-headed oriole and half-a-dozen Eastern Arc endemics in the head­quar­ters’ gardens. For more information, click here.

      Udzungwa and Kilombero. The biodiverse Udzungwa Mountains, partially protected within a national park and nearby Kilombero Valley are home to numerous local endemics. For more information, click here.

      Lake Manyara National Park. Best known for its famous tree-climbing lions, this gem of a park on the northern safari circuit also hosts a dazz­ling array of raptors and water birds. For more information, click here.

      Arusha National Park. Highland forest special­ities such as the gaudy Hartlaub’s turaco can be seen here alongside flam­in­gos and other water birds. For more information, click here.

      Best off-the-beaten-track safaris

      Tarangire National Park. Huge herds of elephants rival this underrated park’s ancient baobab trees as its most promi­nent feature. For more information, click here.

      Katavi National Park. The most remote and least visited of East Africa’s major safari reserves is home to profligate numbers of hippo, buffalo, elephants and lions. For more information, click here.

      Saadani National Park. Billed as the reserve where the bush meets the beach, oft-neglected Saadani is the last place in East Africa where ele­phants and lions might be seen on the Indian Ocean shore. For more information, click here.

      Singita Grumeti. This game reserve abutting the Serengeti’s western corridor comes into its own in June and July, when hundreds of thousands of northbound wildebeest cross the Grumeti River. For more information, click here.

      Image.jpg

      Balloon safari over the wildebeest migration in Serengeti National Park.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Best culture & history

      Hadza at Lake Eyasi. Walk with Tanzania’s last Hadza hunter-gatherers, armed with bows and arrows, honey-gathering and looking for healing plants and food. For more information, click here.

      Oldupai Gorge. Ground-breaking palaeontological discoveries here include fossil remains of hominids dating back 1.75 million years, and numerous extinct animals. For more information, click here.

      Bagamoyo and Kaole ruins. Once the mainland centre of the slave and ivory trade to Zanzibar, the historic 19th-century port of Bagamoyo lies close to the ruined medieval city of Kaole. For more information, click here.

      Kondoa Rock-Art Site. Tanzania’s least-publicised Unesco World Heritage Site is a treasury of prehistoric rock art decorating the granite faces of north-central Tanzania. For more information, click here.

      Maasai Manyatta. Several manyattas – the family homesteads of the charismatic Maasai pastoralists – in the vicinity of Manyara and Ngorongoro are open to visits. For more information, click here.

      Mwaka Kogwa. This four-day celebration of the Shirazi New Year takes place at the end of July in the southern Zanzibari village of Makunduchi. For more information, click here.

      Tingatinga. The best Tingatinga painting is vibrant and appealing in its depictions of Tanzania’s animals and people, sometimes with political undertones. For more information, click here.

      Image.jpg

      Fishing dhows at low tide, Nungwi, Zanzibar.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Image.jpg

      African elephant browsing, Ngorongoro Crater.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Image.jpg

      Maasai herding camels in front of the active volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai, Lake Natron.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Introduction: The Stuff of Legends

      Tanzania – with vast swathes of stunning wilderness – is one of the most complex, romantic and friendly countries in Africa.

      Tanzania has some of the world’s finest game parks, two of Africa’s highest mountains, superb white-sand beaches and coral reefs, and delightfully friendly and hospitable people. The names are the stuff of legend: the great Serengeti plains; Lake Victoria, birthplace of the Nile; the towering bulk of Mount Kilimanjaro; the red-clad Maasai cattle herders; the spice islands of Zanzibar and Pemba. Traders sailing the East African coast named the Swahili people and provided the inspiration for the tales of Sinbad the Sailor, while Sultan Said built glamorous baths for his Persian wife. Inland, the great Victorian explorers, Burton, Speke, Livingstone and Stanley, led convoys of porters across the vast terrain. Imagination can run riot here; the reality more than matches the fantasy.

      Image.jpg

      Hadza girl, Lake Eyasi.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      The United Republic of Tanzania came into being in 1964 when the newly independent mainland nation of Tanganyika merged with offshore Zanzibar (the ‘tan’ and ‘zan’ in ‘Tanzania’ respectively). Little more than a century before that, much of the region fell under the influence of Zanzibar – which in turn was part of the vast Omani Empire. However, only the coast and islands were developed; the Swahili traders never tried to conquer or develop the hinterland, seeing it simply as a vast natural storehouse of their main cash crops – ivory and slaves.

      Since then, the balance of power has shifted, purely on weight of numbers: about 61 million people on the mainland to just over 1.3 million on the islands. There is still a great divide between the two main cultures, and the link remains fragile. Economic power remains in the east. Dusty little Dodoma is the official capital, chosen for its central location, but it is largely ignored – people prefer to hang out with the money in Dar es Salaam. But this may change as in 2019 the entire government was finally relocated to Dodoma.

      President Nyerere’s post-independence government gave Tanzania a true sense of nationhood: the country has more than 120 different tribal groups, each with its own language and traditions, but no one tribe is large enough to dominate the others. Tanzania has also strived to develop its tourism industry without destroying the natural beauty on which it is based. And while most tourists come to enjoy these fantastic natural assets, combining an exciting safari with downtime on the beaches, those who take the time to look further will discover a nation whose cultural wealth is matched by a rich history stretching back millions of years to man’s first upright steps.

      Introduction: People

      In an African success story, Tanzania’s many different tribes and cultures have developed a harmonious and hospitable way of life.

      A pair of Maasai warriors draped in red-checked togas, metal-tipped wooden spears clutched to their sides, stroll loose and languid down Arusha’s Sokoine Avenue, animatedly conversing in their Maa mother tongue. A bleeping sequence forms a half-recognisable tune as one of the warriors fumbles deep in his toga to pull out a mobile phone. He lifts it to his ear, presses a button and barks a colloquial KiSwahili greeting – ‘Mambo!’ – then, on recognising his caller, switches over to Tanzania’s second national language, English: ‘Me? Ah, I’m well, very well, thank you!’

      Maasai dance in a traditional manyatta.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      It is such mildly surreal encounters that subvert Western preconceptions about African modernity and traditionalism to reveal Tanzania’s true human essence. Superficially, the country can often come across as a mass of seemingly irreconcilable contradictions. This proudly unified nation is comprised of more tribes than any other African country and is a land where Islam and Christianity co-exist alongside ancient animist cultures, while its people are steeped in conservatism yet eager to embrace the latest technologies.

      Tanzania’s ‘safari capital’ of Arusha must surely have the highest concentration of four-wheel drives, internet cafés and satellite televisions in equatorial Africa. And yet, only 20km (12 miles) out of town, the road to the country’s renowned northern game reserves speeds through open plains where traditionally-attired herdsmen cling defiantly to a lifestyle little changed from that of their ancestors.

      The peopling of Tanzania

      Where between these two opposite worlds does one locate the real Tanzania? Tanzania’s modern population – over 62 million – consists of at least 120 tribes (a word used widely within Tanzania) of diverse origin. The country’s oldest inhabitants, though numerically insignificant today, are the Hadza of Lake Eyasi (for more information, click here), the sole cultural heirs to the nomadic hunter-gatherers who once roamed much of the Tanzanian interior, leaving behind a rich artistic legacy in the form of numerous rock paintings scattered through the hills of Kondoa district. In about 1000 BC, the first agriculturists arrived in the region, Cushitic speakers represented today by the Iraqw, who live in the highlands around Karatu and Mbulu, and claim distant Arabian ancestry.

      A tailor in Pangani.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      The pivotal event in the populating of modern Tanzania was the arrival, some 2,000 years ago, of Iron Age Bantu-speaking agriculturists from West Africa. In most parts of the region, the Stone Age hunter-gatherers were displaced by, or absorbed into, these more technologically advanced migrant societies. Today, the country’s most populous tribes, such as the Sukuma of Lake Victoria, the Nyamwezi of Tabora, the Chagga of Kilimanjaro and the Hehe of Iringa, all speak languages of the Bantu family. While most such tribes have ancient roots within Tanzania, others are more recent arrivals – the Ngoni, for instance, are refugees from South Africa who settled around Songea in the 1850s.

      Boat in Bagamoyo.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      THE IRAQW

      The Iraqw, who inhabit fertile areas of Arusha province, are Tanzania’s last true Cushitic-speaking tribe, with an estimated population of 600,000. Their houses are built cave-style on hillsides, with thick wooden frameworks covered in mud planted with grass. Men sleep on one side and women and children on the other. Society is run by a series of councils for youths, women, men and elders, with the men’s council having the final say. Although regarded as equal, all tribe members are divided into black, red and white, according to their skin tone, with paler skin being viewed as equating to greater physical beauty.

      For visitors, the most romanticised of Tanzania’s people are its traditional pastoralists, in particular the Maasai of the northern Rift Valley and Ngorongoro Highlands, who many see as epitomising the soul of ancient Africa. Ironically, the Maasai are among the most recent arrivals to Tanzania, having crossed the modern-day border with Kenya in the late 18th century, at the end of an all-conquering southward migration through the Rift Valley. The Datoga of the central Rift Valley, like their Maasai neighbours, are dedicated cattle herders who speak a Nilotic tongue and migrated south from western Ethiopia, but they were resident in Tanzania hundreds of years before the Maasai.

      The coastal people

      The coast, like the interior, has been subject to numerous intra-African and local population movements over the centuries. But nearly 1,500 years of trade links with Arabia and Asia have also left their mark on the coastal Swahili. Over the centuries, merchants from all over the world settled in East Africa’s trade ports and intermarried with the indigenous African inhabitants. KiSwahili, the main coastal tongue, is a virtual linguistic mirror of this maritime history and trade: a Bantu language whose vocabulary is liberally spiced with words derived from Arabic and Hindi, and more recently Portuguese, German and English.

      Having spread along the coast as the lingua franca of medieval commerce, KiSwahili played a similar role along the 19th-century slave caravan routes into the interior. Today, it is the first official language of Tanzania, spoken as a first or second language by around 95 percent of the populace and a similar proportion of Kenyans, and it still performs its traditional role as a trade language in bordering parts of Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.

      Schoolgirls in Stone Town, Zanzibar.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Religion

      The most significant Arab implant in Tanzanian culture has been religious. Numerous ruined medieval mosques, some dating back to the 12th century, line the country’s coastline, while its modern ports have a deep and pervasive Islamic mood. In the 19th century, Islam followed KiSwahili along the caravan routes, taking root in important trade depots such as Ujiji and Tabora.

      In general, however, the interior is essentially Christian in feel, the result of various missions established throughout the interior from the late 19th century onwards. Tanzanians of Islamic and Christian persuasion generally live side by side without noticeable rancour, though both are likely to express surprise, if not outright shock, at any visitor who professes to the unfamiliar concept of atheism.

      ETIQUETTE

      Tanzanian society is extremely polite, and you should attempt to follow local standards. Say hello (jambo) and smile at anyone who catches your eye. Take time for a full greeting before launching into your request when doing business. Public displays of affection or strong emotion are frowned upon.

      Although local Muslims are not generally very conservative, a degree of deference to their sensitivities is good manners. Keep swimwear for the beach and wear respectable clothes in town; don’t enter a mosque unless specifically invited to do so, and don’t touch food or shake hands with your left hand.

      In keeping with this atmosphere of religious tolerance, many practising Muslims and Christians in Tanzania adhere concurrently to apparently conflicting animist beliefs. Traditional healers and spiritualists are frequently consulted in times of ill health or misfortune; in the Islamic port of Tanga, the football team routinely prepares for a crunch match by leaving a sacrifice to the powerful spirits thought to inhabit the nearby Amboni Caves.

      Localised religions hold little sway among the pastoralists of the Rift Valley. However, the Maasai traditionally worship a dualistic deity, Engai, who resides in the tempestuous volcanic crater of Ol Doinyo Lengai near the Kenyan border (for more information, click here). Mount Hanang, in the central Rift Valley, is the home of Aseeta, the god of the Datoga, who has little influence over earthly affairs, but monitors them through his all-seeing eye, the sun.

      Of all Tanzania’s people, the Barabaig, a subgroup of the Datoga, have proved least mutable to evangelical persuasion – 99 percent of them adhere exclusively to their traditional beliefs.

      Collecting coconuts from a palm tree, Pangani.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Food

      For most Africans, the wide selection and easy availability of foodstuffs in Western societies is difficult to comprehend. In rural Tanzania, choice of food more or less amounts to whatever one can cultivate or lay one’s hands on – indeed, one of the first questions rural Tanzanians like to ask foreigners is what crops they grow in London, Paris, New York, or from wherever the visitor hails. Thus, in coastal areas and around lakes, the main source of protein is fish, while people living away from water generally herd cattle and goats, and keep poultry.

      In most parts of Tanzania, the main staple is ugali, a stiff porridge made from maize meal. Served in a large solid heap, the ugali is customarily hand-rolled into mouth-sized balls by the diner, then dunked into a bland, watery stew of meat, fish or beans, often accompanied by a local vegetable very similar to spinach. Until the European introduction of maize, the staple would have been millet, still regarded by the Iraqw as an ‘oath’ plant, used when making solemn vows, from marriage to curses.

      In moister and more fertile areas – parts of the Lake Victoria hinterland, for instance, and the slopes of Kilimanjaro – ugali is replaced by batoke, a dish made with cooked plantains. A popular snack throughout Tanzania, the local equivalent of a quick burger, is chipsi mayai (literally ‘chips eggs’), basically an omelette made with thick potato chips.

      More interesting to most foreign palates is traditional Swahili food. Fish and shellfish feature strongly, and rice becomes the main carbohydrate. Thanks to centuries of Arabic, Asian and Portuguese trade and influence, it is distinguished by the liberal use of spice (in particular peri-peri) and coconut milk.

      Swahili cooking is also permeated with the culinary influence of the many Indians who are settled along the coast, and in many instances the line between traditional Swahili and Indian dishes is blurred. Indians have also settled all over the Tanzanian interior, and tourists in need of a decent meal should always consider seeking out Indian eateries in smaller towns where there is not a huge choice of restaurants.

      The British colonial influence is discernible less perhaps in the ‘steak, chips and one vegetable’ style of menu favoured by many mid-range hotels than in the breakfast fry-ups offered by the majority of lodges.

      Traditional medicine

      Many Tanzanians depend on their surroundings as a source not only of food, but also of dawa (medicine). To outsiders, the relationship between Western and traditional medicine can be difficult to comprehend, especially as it varies regionally and from one individual to the next.

      But while Westernised clinics are increasingly visited to treat serious diseases such as malaria and HIV/Aids, traditional healers still play an important role, particularly in rural society, where many ailments are alleviated using medicine made from herbs, bark and other organic materials. In some areas, for instance, the bark of the striking sausage tree is boiled in water to cure cramps, while the stem is used to treat pneumonia. The bark of the whistling thorn – a common tree in the Serengeti – is said to alleviate diarrhoea, and throughout East Africa frayed ebony stems serve as handy organic toothbrushes for many people.

      Even insects are not safe from the cooking pot. Termites and flying ants are popular, eaten raw or fried in butter. Other edible insects include locusts, grasshoppers, mopane worms and lake flies.

      Prawns for sale at Kivukoni fish market, Dar es Salaam.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      A moderate nation

      Within East Africa, Tanzanians are regarded as egalitarian and peaceful people, not publicly demonstrative but imbued with a deeply ingrained sense of tolerance, justice and respect for other cultures. Without wishing to reinforce national stereotypes, few outsiders who have spent significant time here would strongly disagree with these sentiments. Tanzania’s transition to independence occurred with a unique absence of bloodshed, as did its subsequent evolution from benign dictatorship to full democracy. It is one of the few African countries to enter its sixth decade of independence without ever having experienced a coup, sustained civil unrest, or the rule of an unpopular leader who refused to stand down.

      A principled stance on international politics was reflected in staunch support of the ANC at the height of apartheid, and the strong denouncement and eventual overthrow of the bloodthirsty Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Tanzania, poor though it is, has long opened its arms to refugees fleeing regional conflicts, mainly in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. Their presence has caused little internal tension, although a recent influx of Burundian refugees (beginning in 2015) has seen Tanzania’s refugee population explode, resulting in the creation of two new refugee camps and putting immense strain on the system.

      MAASAI COWS

      The Maasai believe every cow in the world is theirs by godly ordain, and recognise cattle as the sole measure of material wealth. Since cows have no value once dead, they are slaughtered for eating only on special occasions. The traditional Maasai diet, a blend of fermented cow’s blood and milk, is no longer consumed regularly. The Maasai view tribes who hunt, fish or eat vegetables with contempt, and their proprietary claim on every last breathing cow has often made life difficult for neighbouring pastoralists. Such attitudes have mellowed, but intertribal cattle raids still occur occasionally on territorial boundaries.

      Tanzania’s pervasive sense of nationhood is generally attributed to two main factors. The first, ironically, is the country’s very cultural diversity. Elsewhere in Africa, national politics is often dominated by the jostle for supremacy between two numerically dominant tribes. In Tanzania, the most populous tribe accounts for just 16 percent of the populace, so that tribal self-interest plays no significant role in determining national affairs. The other factor is the guiding influence of first president Julius Nyerere – affectionately remembered by the name Mwalimu (Teacher) – whose actions, words and policies repeatedly stressed the importance of nationhood over more parochial concerns. Tanzanians generally hold their tribal roots in deep regard, but as a source of cultural pride rather than political divisiveness.

      Maasai woman.

      Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Apa Publications

      Economic ups and downs

      Nyerere, for all his virtues, was the instigator of the misguided Ujamaa (familyhood) scheme of centralised collective villages (for more information, click here), implemented in 1967. By the mid-1970s, some 85 percent of the rural population lived in Ujamaa villages. The result was a disaster, since many of the villages lay in areas without sufficient water or arable land to support a large community. Tanzania, already one of the least developed African colonies, retreated further into economic torpor, to be ranked among the world’s 10 poorest

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1