Yearbook 1999
Tanzania. Following the mediation of the Commonwealth, the Citizens United Front (CUF) suspended its four-year boycott of the Zanzibar Parliament following the promise of political reform. Visit Countryaah official website to get information about the capital city of Tanzania. The ruling CCM had cheated in the local presidential election in 1995. The suspicions of electoral fraud had prompted donors to suspend their support for the already poor Zanzibar. Despite the agreement, 18 CUF members who were brought to trial in March were not released on charges of attempting to overthrow the government.
- Also see Abbreviationfinder.org to see the acronym of TZA which stands for Tanzania and other definitions of this 3-letter abbreviation.
Tanzania’s first president, Julius Nyerere, passed away on October 14, aged 77. He was buried in the birth village of Butiama near Lake Victoria.
Federal Republic, within the Commonwealth, constituted (see below) by the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar (see Tanganyika ; Zanzibar, in this App.). According to the Constitution of Tanganyika, which (modified in order to reserve legislative and administrative autonomy for Zanzibar, as well as adequate representation in federal bodies) was adopted as a provisional constitution, the Tanzania is a presidential republic. She was a member of the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity and the Economic Community of East Africa.
Area and population. – Covering an area of 938,828 km2, the Tanzania has a population of 17,500,000 residents (according to the 1978 census); the average density is 20.7 residents per km 2. It is estimated that about 13 million residents reside in the countryside, where the dominant settlement structure is made up of village communities (ujamaa) which after independence were reorganized on a socialist-cooperative basis, derived from the tribal collectivist tradition. The urban network is weak and disjointed: the only cities of a certain demographic consistency are the capital Dār es-Salāām (870,000 residents in the aforementioned 1978 census) and Zanzibar (68,380 residents), on the island of the same name. It is to these two urban centers that the most modern and dynamic economic activities belong. The Indo-Pakistani minority (about 100,000 units), socially privileged, maintains a certain consistency, while the Arabs, descended from Muslim settlers, are about 30,000. The population growth coefficient is around an average of 2.7% per year.
Economic conditions. – Agriculture constitutes two-fifths of the gross national product and four-fifths of exports. The agricultural productions destined for foreign markets remain the traditional ones: coffee (q 550,000 in 1976), cotton (680,000 q of fiber and 1,300,000 q seeds) and sisal (i million q). The climatic adversities determine strong fluctuations in production, which are also recorded in crops destined for internal consumption.
Typical subsistence crops are millet (1.3 million q in 1976), sorghum (4.6 million), maize (16.2 million), yams and wheat. The industrial sector is in a phase of continuous expansion, but its overall incidence remains modest (12% of the gross national product, and about 15% of the active population). The recent development of the iron and coal deposits located in the southern part of the country has allowed the planting of a steel complex, built with Chinese technical and financial assistance. Diamond mining is also recovering (896,000 carats in 1975). Electricity production reached 636 million kWh in 1975. The main manufacturing activities concern the sugar factory (1,030,000 q of sugar in 1976), the manufacture of tobacco and textile industry. Some basic industry plants (oil refinery, chemical industries, cement plant) are located in Dār es-Salāām.
Communications and commerce. – The most important recent construction in the field of transport infrastructure is the Tan zam railway, which connects Dār es-Salāām to Lusaka (Zambia). Foreign trade takes place mainly with Great Britain and the United States. Trade with other countries of the East African Economic Community (Kenya and Uganda) has gradually contracted, and Tanzania is currently tending to intensify trade with its southern neighbors (Zambia and Mozambique).
December
Unity government on Zanzibar
December 6
A coalition government is formed in Zanzibar between the ruling CCM and the opposition ACT-Wazalendo. ACT-Wazalendo has previously questioned the election results on the island, but now says the party must help take the country out of the crisis. CCM won the presidential election in Zanzibar and 46 of the 50 seats in the island’s parliament.
November
Cooperation with Mozambique against terrorism
November 21st
Tanzania and Mozambique enter into a cooperation agreement to assist each other in the fight against militant Islamists who have killed more than 2,000 people and forced half a million to flee, especially in Mozambique. The agreement, which was concluded by the countries’ highest police chiefs at a meeting in the Tanzanian city of Mtwara, specifies how the cooperation will actually take place. This includes the exchange of information and intelligence, and that more than 500 suspected perpetrators arrested in Tanzania must be handed over to the neighboring country. The Islamists are primarily terrorizing the oil-rich Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, which borders Tanzania. In Cabo Delgado, jihadists have been fighting for an Islamist caliphate since 2017, but in recent months they have also raided the border with Tanzania.
Tundu Lissu leaves the country
11 November
Chadema’s presidential candidate Tundu Lissu leaves Tanzania and returns to Belgium, where he previously lived. Lissu sought protection at the German embassy in Dar es Salaam a week earlier after receiving death threats, according to the British BBC. Several of the opposition’s top leaders have been arrested for incitement or for planning illegal demonstrations.
UN: at least 150 opposition figures arrested before the election
November 10
The head of the UN Human Rights Council, Michelle Bachelet, says at least 150 members of the opposition were arrested ahead of election day. At least 18 of them remain in police custody, according to Bachelet.
Chademas leader grips
November 1
The leaders of the two opposition parties, Chadema and ACT-Wazalendo, are urging their supporters to take part in peaceful demonstrations to protest the election result and call for new elections. Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe and six other Chadema politicians were arrested by the police for planning violent protests. The Tundu Lissu is also temporarily arrested but released shortly thereafter. Freeman Mbowe and other Chadema politicians are released a few days later. No demonstrations were held as police threatened to intervene with force against street protests. A delegation from the East African Community (EAC) says that the election was conducted correctly, while the United States expresses concern about the electoral process.
