Tanga Tourism Guide_2011.pdf

Includes the Usambara Mountains

( Lushoto )

Usambara Mountains

Foreword

its historic heritage to become a major

tourist attraction on Mainland Tanzania.

The Regional

Commissioner,

Tanga Region

As a newcomer on the international

and regional tourism map Tanga takes

the opportunity to get it right from the

start. The emerging tourism industry

in Tanga Region is led by a cooperation

between local private and public tourism

stakeholders. They are determined to

help residents and local governments to

recognise, preserve and use the tourism

potential of the immense beauty of

Tanga Region: the natural environment

and diverse ecosystems of the Indian

Ocean coast, islands, mountains and

the Maasai Steppe that all form part of

Tanga Region.

Captured by the term “Geotourism” by

National Geographics Traveller, exciting

new forms of travel are developing

in the world that sustain and enhance

the unique character of a destination

- its environment, culture, heritage,

aesthetics and the well-being of its

residents.

Traditional Dhow

Geotourism includes Ecological, Nature,

Cultural and Heritage Tourism. What

they all have in common is that they

offer visitors a wider range of authentic

experiences off the beaten track, in

addition to and beyond the traditional

wildlife viewing and beach holidays.

In addition, Tanga Region also has

signiicant, valuable and unique built

heritage in its historical area. Nowhere

in East Africa exist historical buildings

of heritage architecture and in large

numbers as found in Tanga. And nowhere

is this historical area so well planned and

developed as in Tanga City.

By enhancing a geographic location

with its nature, history and culture, and

involving local residents as hosts rather

than servants, Geotourism creates a

win-win situation. These new forms of

tourism help local people recognise and

preserve the immense value of their own

local environment, unique cultures and

historical heritage, by carefully developing

them into tourism products that generate

considerable additional income.

Let us all work together and develop the

signiicant tourism potential of Tanga

Region in order to preserve and make use

of marine and terrestrial environments

and historical heritage!

Ushongo Beach

Maj. Gen. (rtd) Said Said Kalembo

Regional Commissioner, Tanga Region

Recent examples of successful

Geotourism in East Africa include

Zanzibar, where tourism has helped

immensely to save the famous World

Heritage site Historic Stone Town.

Bagamoyo is now also following the

same path and has started restoring

Tanga City

In the scramble for Africa over the

last decades of the 19th century,

German commercial interests and

later the German government

conquered the inland, bought the

coastal strip from the Sultan and

developed the colony as ‘German

East Africa’. With its protected port

and fertile hinterland, especially

in the Usambara mountains,

Tanga became a centre of

German colonization and also an

administrative centre up to 1890

when Dar es Salaam was made the

capital of the emerging colony.

Usambara Mountains reach up

to 2,000 meters above sea level

and are part of the international

biodiversity hotspot “Eastern Arc

Mountains” with their rich endemic

lora and fauna. Particularly famous

are the “African Violets” (called

“Usambara Violets” in Germany).

Other attractions include Maasai

and Paré settlements in Handeni

and Korogwe and the famous Tanga

sisal estates.

Tanga Region

History

Tanga on the Tanzanian northern

coast close to the Kenyan border has

a fascinating history as one

of the oldest settlements

along the East African

coast. The word “Tanga”

means “sail” in the Kiswahili

language, an indication that

the protected Tanga Bay has

over many centuries offered

a safe haven for local ishers

and the thriving Indian Ocean

trade along the East African

coast. Another translation of

“Tanga” refers to the Bondei

word “farm”.

History, natural,

cultural & built

sandbanks. They are bordered by a

range of uninhabited islands - some

with historical lighthouses and ruins

such as Ulenge Island and Toten

Island. Some offer accommodation

in small resorts.

heritage

Tanga Region covers 27,348 km2

(3% of the total area of the country)

and has an estimated population

of nearly two million inhabitants,

with at least 300.000 living in

Tanga City. While most people in

the hinterland are small farmers

and livestock keepers, the coastal

rural inhabitants live off ishing

and small-scale farming. Others are

engaged in trades, boat building,

salt harvesting and charcoal making.

Tanga has the second largest port of

Tanzania.

The many interesting destinations

to visit in and around Tanga Region

include: historic Tanga City centre,

off-shore islands - Toten, Ulenge,

Yambe and Karange, Maziwe Island

off Pangani, nearby Amboni Caves,

Gallanos Hot Springs and Tongoni

Ruins.

Lushoto (formerly Wilhelmsthal)

Rapid colonial infrastructural and

economic development followed

from 1889 after the end of the

bloody ‘Bushiri war’ - an uprising of

local Arab rulers (accused of being

slave-traders by the Germans) and

their followers against the German

occupation and the sale of the

coast by the Sultan. To open up the

hinterland and especially the fertile

and cool Usambara mountains

for economic development and

In 1631, people from the area joined

the Mazrui dynasty of Mombasa in

their ight against Portuguese rule

and remained under their inluence

thereafter. Tanga and Pangani

became important trading centres

for slaves and ivory when the Sultan

of Muskat and Oman moved to

Zanzibar in 1832 and controlled a

coastal strip of 10 miles inland of

the East African coast.

Tanga Regions hosts several protected

areas: Saadani and Mkomazi National

Parks, Amani Nature Reserve,

Coelacanth Marine Park and Maziwe

Island Marine Reserve.

The region offers a wide range of

beautiful places to visit: the long

Indian Ocean coastline with its

sheltered bays and lagoons, such

as Moa Bay, Manza Bay, Kwale Bay,

Tanga Bay and Mwambani Bay;

Kigombe, Pangani and Ushongo

have marvellous beaches - all with

fringing and offshore coral reefs and

The region also has lush mangrove

forests, pristine semi-arid forests

along the coast and on the islands.

Tropical rainforests of the scenic

trade, a railway was built from

Tanga to Moshi and a road network

developed, including the scenic

winding paved road from Mombo

up the mountains to the emerging

district centre Wilhelmsthal (now

Lushoto). Kiswahili was made the

oficial language of the colony and

African boys were offered education

in the (still existing) Tanga School to

join the lower ranks of the colonial

administration. Tropical diseases

were researched and a public health

system was introduced with large-

scale screening and early forms of

treatment of cholera, tuberculosis,

malaria and sleeping sickness among

others.

Throughout the colonial history, the

main source of Tanga’s economic

wealth was Sisal, which was

introduced from Florida, US in 1893

and soon turned Tanga Region into

the World’s main producer and

exporter of this proitable crop.

This lasted for half a century up to

Independence,whennationalization

resulted in the collapse of the

industry within a few years.

Sisal,

the economic base of Tanga’s ‘past glory’

Tanga’s wealth was for decades founded on Sisal (Agave sisalana),

the “white gold of Africa”. Sisal, a hard natural ibre is indigenous

to South and Central America, weighs about 150 kilograms when

fully grown and much resembles a giant pineapple. Sisal plants were

introduced from Florida to EastAfrica in 1893 by a German, Dr. Hindorf.

One thousand plants were sent but only 62 survived the journey

(reportedly smuggled in the folds of a large coloured umbrella). Sisal

is a very particular crop, which

is drought and disease resistant

and requires much sunlight and

a narrow range of moisture.

World War I brought a massive

disruption of the economic

development of the then prospering

colony. Germany and Britain fought

a long-drawn-out proxy war in

order to tie up each others’ forces

and keep them off the European

battlegrounds. In November 1914

Tanga made military history with the

famous “Battle of Tanga”:

with help of the newly built

railway the German colonel

von Lettow-Vorbeck shifted

overnight his troops of

settlers and Askari soldiers

to Tanga to defend the town

against British warships. The

Germans won this battle

even though British-Indian

troops outnumbered the German

forces 8 to 1. The British claimed

afterwards that the Germans were

helped by wild bees that got upset

by the shelling their nests in the

trees. They actually stung and

chased all troops on the ground.

Sisal Farm (1920’s)

The long spiky sisal leaves are

cut by hand, starting usually at

2 to 3 years after planting, and

then annually for up to 8 years, when the plant dies after producing

a long lowering pole that is used for low-cost rooing poles. The sisal

‘lowers’ are actually seedlings that can be planted directly into the

soil. Harvesting is an arduous task and workers have to be careful of

the sharp black spike at the end of each leaf. Fibres are removed

from the leaves in a factory by crushing and scraping. They are then

dried in the sun, graded and packed in bales for export. Sisal ibres

are turned into ropes, twines, cords, ishnets, mats and carpets, and

more recently, insulation in luxury cars. Modern biogas technology

allows using the waste from sisal production for power generation.

Tanga town was developed with a

range of public, commercial and

Katani House, Tanga City

The stem oozes a juice rich in starch and sugar, which the Mexicans

ferment into strong liquor called pulque, a practice not known in

East Africa.

residential buildings. At the end of

the 19th century Tanga already had

around 5,000 inhabitants. It was

an important centre for trade and

settlement together with Dar es

Salaam, Ujiji, Tabora, Bagamoyo,

Pangani and Kilwa Kivinje - the

latter ive being either slaving

ports or caravan crossings. By 1913,

Tanga was the fourth largest town

in Tanzania; by Independence in

1961 it was second.

By 1956, half the world’s sisal was produced in East Africa (225,000

tons), with roughly 186,000 of these from colonial Tanganyika. In

Tanga Region, sisal covered 5% of the land area. The sisal industry

was very labour-intensive and attracted workers from other regions,

in particular Tabora, Mtwara, and Morogoro. The thriving economy

and trade also brought a sizeable population of Europeans and Asians,

and turned Tanga into a tribal, religious and racial melting pot. The

town grew rapidly in the 1950s (at an annual rate of roughly 12%)

before settling down to its current level.

The British retaliated a year

later by bottling up and sinking

the legendary German warship

“Königsberg” in the Ruiji delta,

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: