Tanzania: Location, History, Size, Population, & Government

About the location, size, population, and government of the country Tanzania.

TANZANIA

NITTY GRITTY

Location--Where Stanley met Livingstone; East Africa, just south of the equator; with Uganda and Kenya to the north; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia to the south; Zaire, Burundi, and Rwanda to the west.

How Created--From the union of the (British) Trust Territory of Tanganyika and the Protectorate of Zanzibar (the 2 small islands of Pemba and Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean 22 mi. from the Tanzanian mainland).

Size--364,945 sq. mi. (945,203 sq. km.).

Population--15 million: Sukuma, 12.6%; Makonde, 4%; Chagga, 3.6%; Haya, 3.4%; Nyamwezi, 3.4%; over 120 other African groups, 70.1%; Asian, 0.7%; Arab, 0.7%; other, 1.4%. 34.6% Animist, 30.6% Christian, 30.5% Muslim, 4.3% other religion or no religion.

Who Rules--Executive: President and 2 Vice-Presidents whom the President appoints from elected members of the National Assembly. The 1st Vice-President is also the President of Zanzibar. Legislature: The National Assembly of 204 members--107 elected by universal suffrage on the mainland; 10 nominated by the President; 15 nominated by national organizations; 20 are regional commissioners; 20 are of the Zanzibar Revolutionary Council; and 20 are nominated by the President and (Zanzibari) 1st Vice-President.

Who REALLY Rules--Presently governed under an interim constitution which incorporated the constitution of the Tanganyika African Nation Union party of President Julius Nyerere, the TANU. Tanzania is essentially a one-party state: The TANU under Julius Nyerere rules on the mainland while the Afro-Shirazi party, the ASP, rules on Zanzibar.

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