Tanzania

Tanzania is an East African country on the Indian Ocean, made up of the mainland and the islands of the Zanzibar Archipelago. Its neighbors include Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique.

Dodoma is the capital, while Dar es Salaam keeps most government offices and serves as the main port. No language is official by law, but Swahili is the national language. Bantu farmers from West Africa settled near Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika, and the Haya people west of Lake Victoria forged carbon steel more than 1,500 years ago. Zanzibar was a leading Swahili trading town by the end of the 10th century, and Kilwa grew rich on the gold trade and minted its own coins.

Zanzibar City became the seat of the Omani ruler Said bin Sultan in 1840. Germany took the mainland in 1885 as part of German East Africa, and after World War I Britain governed it as Tanganyika. Julius Nyerere founded the Tanganyika African National Union in 1954, and Tanganyika became independent on 9 December 1961. Zanzibar followed in 1963, and the two joined in 1964 as the United Republic of Tanzania, a name formed from both. It is a presidential constitutional republic, and Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous state with its own institutions.

The land covers 947,403 km2 (365,794 sq mi) and holds Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest point at 5,895 m (19,341 ft). Wildebeest and zebra migrate across the Serengeti plain, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area lies on the same northern circuit. Farms grow sugar, cotton, cashew nuts, tobacco, coffee and sisal, while gold leads mineral exports and gemstones include tanzanite. Edward Said Tingatinga founded a school of bright enamel painting, Shaaban Robert is called the father of Swahili literature, and its music styles include taarab and bongo flava.