Mazinde | |
|---|---|
 View from Irente View Point on the Usambara Mountains, looking down on the Mazinde sisal plantation | |
  Mazinde | |
| Coordinates: 4°48′26″S38°12′43″E / 4.807327°S 38.211841°E Coordinates: 4°48′26″S38°12′43″E / 4.807327°S 38.211841°E | |
| Country | Tanzania |
| Region | Tanga Region |
| District | Korogwe District |
| Elevation | 571 m (1,873 ft) |
| Population | |
| • Total | 20,534 |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (EAT) |
Mazinde is a community in the Korogwe District of the Tanga Region of Tanzania.
Mazinde lies in the Maasai plains to the west of the West Usambara Mountains. The community is on the main road between Moshi and Dar es Salaam. [1] The cliffs rise almost vertically behind the village to the Irente viewpoint, 800 metres (2,600 ft) above. [2]
Johann Jakob Erhardt recorded the repulse of a Maasai raid in 1853 at Mazinde by an allied army of Shambaa under Semboja, son of Kimweri ye Nyumbai, and of Wazigua, Parakuyo and "Arabs" (most likely Swahili). [3] One of Kimweri's junior sons, Semboja, was made chief of Mazinde, which lay on the northern caravan route between the coast and the interior. [4] He later allied himself with the Maasai. [5] Semboja followed coastal architecture in the design of the buildings at Mazinda, dressed as an Arab and ate Arab-style food. [6] However, the language at his trading post was Zigula rather than Swahili. [7]
After Kimweri died, the Shambaa kingdom split up. Semboja retained authority at Mazinde, while his son Kimweri Maguvu reigned as a puppet in Vugha. In 1885 Kimweri Maguvu signed a treaty with a German agent, but Semboja did not at first support the arrangement. After an unsuccessful attempt to persuade his rivals to unite against the Germans, in February 1890 Semboja received a German force at Mazinde and agreed to raise their flag in return for recognition of his authority. [8]
The Mazinde estate, owned by Major William Lead in 1930, was a major sisal plantation. In face of strong global competition, he organized East African sisal producers in Tanganyika into Tanganyikan Sisal Grower's Association (TSGA) that year, and reduced wages by 50%. [9] Starting on 25 November 1958 the estate was the scene of a 68-day strike against the TSGA. The government was forced to intervene, and appointed a commission that recommended appointing representative for the plantation workers and establishing a new agreement between the union and the employers. [10] While other sisal estates were nationalized by the post-colonial government, the Mazinde estate remained privately owned by a British national until being sold to M/s Mohammed Enterprises (T) Limited a few years before 2008. [11]
The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting northern, central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are among the best known local populations internationally due to their residence near the many game parks of the African Great Lakes, and their distinctive customs and dress. The Maasai speak the Maa language, a member of the Nilotic language family that is related to the Dinka, Kalenjin and Nuer languages. Except for some elders living in rural areas, most Maasai people speak the official languages of Kenya and Tanzania, Swahili and English. The Maasai population has been reported as numbering 1,189,522 in Kenya in the 2019 census, compared to 377,089 in the 1989 census.
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania.
The African Great Lakes nation of Tanzania dates formally from 1964, when it was formed out of the union of the much larger mainland territory of Tanganyika and the coastal archipelago of Zanzibar. The former was a colony and part of German East Africa from the 1880s to 1919’s when, under the League of Nations, it became a British mandate. It served as a British military outpost during World War II, providing financial help, munitions, and soldiers. In 1947, Tanganyika became a United Nations Trust Territory under British administration, a status it kept until its independence in 1961. The island of Zanzibar thrived as a trading hub, successively controlled by the Portuguese, the Sultanate of Oman, and then as a British protectorate by the end of the nineteenth century.
Zanzibar is an autonomous region of Tanzania. It is composed of the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25–50 kilometres (16–31 mi) off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands and two large ones: Unguja and Pemba Island. The capital is Zanzibar City, located on the island of Unguja. Its historic centre is Stone Town, a World Heritage Site.
Dhow is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with settee or sometimes lateen sails, used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Historians are divided as to whether the dhow was invented by Arabs or Indians. Typically sporting long thin hulls, dhows are trading vessels primarily used to carry heavy items, such as fruit, fresh water, or other heavy merchandise, along the coasts of Eastern Arabia, East Africa, Yemen and coastal South Asia. Larger dhows have crews of approximately thirty, smaller ones typically around twelve.
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the eastern subregion of the African continent, defined by geography. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 19* territories make up Eastern Africa:
The Usambara Mountains of northeastern Tanzania in tropical East Africa, comprise the easternmost ranges of the Eastern Arc Mountains. The ranges of approximately 90 kilometres (56 mi) long and about half that wide, are situated in the Lushoto District of the Tanga Region. They were formed nearly two million years ago by faulting and uplifting, and are composed of Precambrian metamorphic rocks. They are split into two sub-ranges; the West Usambaras being higher than the East Usambaras, which are nearer the coast and receive more rainfall.
The Shambaa people, also called the Sambaa, Shambala, Sambala or Sambara, are a Bantu ethnic group. They are found in the Usambara Mountains of northeastern Tanzania and in the Kilimanjaro and Manyara regions. The word Shamba means "farm", and these people live in one of the most fertile Tanzanian region. In 2001, the Shambaa population was estimated to number 664,000.
The Ha, also called Waha or Abaha, are a Bantu ethnic group found in Kigoma Region in northwestern Tanzania bordering the Lake Tanganyika. In 2001, the Ha population was estimated to number between 1 and 1.5 million, making them one of the large ethnic groups in ethnically diverse Tanzania.
Pangani is a town in northeast Tanzania that lies 45 km south of Tanga, at the mouth of the Pangani River. It is the headquarters of Pangani District.
This is a timeline of Tanzanian history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Tanzania and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Tanzania. See also the list of Presidents of Tanzania.
Tanzania is a multilingual country. There are many languages spoken in the country, but no one language is spoken natively by a majority or a large plurality of the population. Swahili and English, the latter of which was inherited from colonial rule, are widely spoken as lingua francas. They serve as working languages in the country, with Swahili being the official national language. There are more speakers of Swahili than of English in Tanzania.
Muhammad bin Khalfan bin Khamis al-Barwani, commonly known as Rumaliza, was an Arab trader of ivory active in Central and East Africa in the last part of the nineteenth century. He was a member of the Arabian Barwani tribe. With the help of Tippu Tip he became Sultan of Ujiji. At one time he dominated the trade of Tanganyika, before being defeated by Belgian forces under Baron Francis Dhanis in January 1894.
Kimweri ye Nyumbai was the ruler of the Shambaa people of the Usambara Mountains in what is now Tanzania between around 1815 and 1862. Under his rule the kingdom reached its greatest extent. However, disruptions caused by the introduction of firearms and the slave trade caused the kingdom to fall apart after his death.
Kimweri Mputa Magogo was a traditional leader of the Shambaa people of the Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. He was the last of his dynasty to be recognized as having authority, which was removed in 1962.
, or John James Erhardt, was a German missionary and explorer who worked in East Africa and India. Although he remained on or near the coast of East Africa, he contributed to European knowledge of the interior through gathering descriptions from local people who had traveled there. His map of the region stimulated dispatch of the expedition of Burton and Speke.
Lake Uniamési or the Uniamesi Sea was the name given by missionaries in the 1840s and 1850s to a huge lake or inland sea they supposed to lie within a region of Central East Africa with the same name.
Malangali Secondary School was one of the leading academic institutions in colonial Tanganyika. It retained its reputation for academic excellence after Tanganyika won independence from Britain in December 1961.
Sisal production in Tanzania began in the late 19th century by the German East Africa Company. Sisal was continually produced during the German administration and the British administration and was the colony's largest export highly prized for use in cordage and carpets worldwide. At the time of independence in 1961, Tanzania was the largest exporter of Sisal in the world and the industry employed over 1 million farmers and factory workers.
The Kilindi dynasty is a royal family that has reigned over the Shambaa people of north-eastern Tanzania for most of the 18th to 20th centuries.
Citations
Sources