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Although a Tanzanian gorge recently yielded a few bits of our old
mate, Homo erectus, little is known about the country's really early
history. Recorded history begins around 1800, when the Masai warrior
tribes were migrating from Kenya to Tanzania. While the country's
coastal area had long witnessed maritime squabbles between Portuguese
and Arabic traders, it wasn't until the middle of the 18th century
that Arab traders and slaves dared venture into Masai territory in
the country's wild interior. European explorers began arriving in
earnest in the mid-19th century, the most famous being Stanley and
Livingstone. The famous phrase 'Dr Livingstone, I presume', stems
from the duo's meeting at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika.
As the 20th century loomed, Germany got busy colonising Tanganyika
- as the mainland was then known - by building railways and going
commerce crazy. If not for the pesky little tsetse fly, the area
could have become one vast grazing paddock for the fatherland.
But losing
the war didn't help the German cause much either, and the League
of Nations soon mandated the territory to the British. The
Brits had
already grabbed the offshore island of Zanzibar, which for centuries
had been the domain of Arab traders.
Nationalist organisations sprang up after WWII, but it wasn't
until Julius Nyerere founded the Tanganyika African National
Union (TANU)
in 1954 that they became effective. Tanganyika won independence
in 1961 with Nyerere as the country's first president. Zanzibar
was stuck
with its British stiff upper lip for another two years, after
which the mainland forged a union comprising Zanzibar and the
nearby island
of Pemba. Thus Tanzania was born.
But unity and a charismatic first president weren't enough to
overcome the country's basic lack of resources. Nyerere's secret
ingredient
was radical socialism, a brave concept considering the communist
paranoia of potential aid donors such as the USA. Under the
leader's Chinese-backed
reforms, the economy was nationalised, as were great swathes
of rental properties, and the better-off were taxed heavily
in an
attempt to
redistribute wealth. The early 1960s saw Tanzania, Kenya and
Uganda linked in an unlikely economic threesome, sharing
a common airline,
telecommunication facilities, transportation and customs. Their
currencies became freely convertible and there was free and
easy movement across
borders. But predictable political differences brought such
cosiness to a halt in 1977, leaving the Tanzanians worse
off than ever.
Many factors have contributed to the woes of modern Tanzania,
and not all have been self-inflicted - it is, after all, one
of the world's
poorest countries. Even the incorporation of Zanzibar, once
one of Africa's richest countries, has only created new problems.
Adopting
a multi-party political system doesn't seem to have helped
much either. Zanzibar and the neighbouring island of Pemba
have experienced
violent
unrest and political scare-mongering ever since an election
stalemate
on Zanzibar divided the islands. Meanwhile, the mainland -
under President Benjamin Mkapa - has had to cope with a
flood of Rwandan
refugees
fleeing fighting in their homeland. In late 1996 the Mkapa
government issued a statement backed by the United Nations
declaring that
Rwandan refugees were to leave Tanzania. Amid reports of excessive
force and
rape, thousands still remain in Tanzania. In August 1998,
terrorists bombed the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and
Nairobi, killing
over 250 people and injuring more than 5000.
Such tensions have not helped a country already destabilised
by long-standing tribal friction, particularly among the Chagga
(Mt
Kilimanjaro region).
It's unlikely Tanzania will dissolve into the tribal conflicts
which have haunted neighbouring Rwanda and Kenya over the
last few years
- certainly not if Mkapa, who was re-elected president in
October 2000, has anything to say about it - but political
paralysis
and deep rifts between minorities look set to stay with Tanzania
for
a long
time yet.
(Text
courtesy of Lonely Planet) |
