Introduction

Tanzania: The Land and Its People

Author: John Ndembwike

Paperback: 172 pages

Publisher: New Africa Press (13 November 2006)

ISBN-10: 0980253446

ISBN-13: 978-0980253443

Introduction

THIS book is intended to introduce Tanzania to people around the world who don't know much about this East African country.

It's also looks at life in Tanzania in contemporary times including the period after independence when the country underwent radical transformation in the seventies and eighties following the adoption of socialism as a sate ideology in February 1967.

A general historical background is also provided to put Tanzania in its proper historical context and show how it evolved into a nation as we know it today.

The geography of the country is also examined in detail. Included in this is a survey of all the provinces or regions of Tanzania and the people of different tribes who live in those areas. Also covered are the natural resources of the country.

Also included in the book are the nation's ethnic and racial groups.

The book can help tourists, students and other people going to Tanzania for the first time or anybody who just wants to learn some basic facts about this country.

Many people know about Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. But there are many things about Tanzania which many people don't know about.

In fact, some people don't even know that the snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania. They think or have been misled, sometimes deliberately, to believe that it is in Kenya, a neighbouring country.

Also, probably most people, including Tanzanians themselves as well as other Africans, don't know that Tanzania has more inland waters than any other African country.

It also has the greatest variation in altitude on the continent from sea level to the peaks of Kilimanjaro and other mountainous areas especially on the mainland.

And it is not just a land of large national parks and game reserves which attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to this "garden of Eden" from all over the world every year.

It is true we have Serengeti, known worldwide and made even more famous by John Wayne in his film "Hatari," which means danger in Kiswahili, shot when the famous American actor and his crew came to Tanganyika in 1962.