Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a tropical parasitic disease caused by the protist Trypanosoma cruzi. It is spread mostly by insects known as Triatominae, or "kissing bugs". The symptoms change over the course of the infection. In the early stage, symptoms are typically either not present or mild, and may include fever, swollen lymph nodes, headaches, or local swelling at the site of the bite. After 8–12 weeks, individuals enter the chronic phase of disease and in 60–70% it never produces further symptoms. The other 30–40% of people develop further symptoms 10–30 years after the initial infection, including enlargement of the ventricles of the heart in 20–30%, leading to heart failure. An enlarged esophagus or an enlarged colon may also occur in 10% of people.
Arusha is a city in north eastern Tanzania and the capital of the Arusha Region, with a population of 416,442 plus 323,198 in the surrounding Arusha District. Located below Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the eastern branch of the Great Rift Valley, Arusha has a temperate climate. The city is close to the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Lake Manyara National Park, Olduvai Gorge, Tarangire National Park, Mount Kilimanjaro, and Arusha National Park on Mount Meru.
Ogiek is a Southern Nilotic language cluster of the Kalenjin family spoken or once spoken by the Ogiek peoples, scattered groups of hunter-gatherers in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania. Most if not all Ogiek speakers have assimilated to cultures of surrounding peoples: the Akiek in northern Tanzania now speak Maasai and the Akiek of Kinare, Kenya now speak Gikuyu. Ndorobo is a term considered derogatory, occasionally used to refer to various groups of hunter-gatherers in this area, including the Ogiek.
Central Kilimanjaro, or Central Chaga, is a Bantu language of Tanzania spoken by the Chaga people.
Maasai (Masai) or Maa is an Eastern Nilotic language spoken in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania by the Maasai people, numbering about 800,000. It is closely related to the other Maa varieties: Samburu, the language of the Samburu people of central Kenya, Chamus, spoken south and southeast of Lake Baringo ; and Parakuyu of Tanzania. The Maasai, Samburu, il-Chamus and Parakuyu peoples are historically related and all refer to their language as ɔl Maa. Properly speaking, "Maa" refers to the language and the culture and "Maasai" refers to the people "who speak Maa."
The Maa languages are a group of closely related Eastern Nilotic languages spoken in parts of Kenya and Tanzania by more than a million speakers. They are subdivided into North and South Maa. The Maa languages are related to the Lotuko languages spoken in South Sudan.
Arusha Region is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. Its capital and largest city is the city of Arusha. The region is bordered by Kajiado County and Narok County in Kenya to the north, the Kilimanjaro Region to the east, the Manyara and Singida regions to the south, and the Mara and Simiyu regions to the west. Major towns include Monduli, Namanga, Longido, and Loliondo to the north, Mto wa Mbu and Karatu to the west, and Usa River to the east. The region is comparable in size to the combined land and water areas of the United States state of Maryland.
Chaga, also Kichaga or Kichagga, is a Bantu dialect continuum spoken by the Chaga people of northern Tanzania, south of Mount Kilimanjaro. They also speak 9 different dialects which are Kivunjo, Kimarangu, Kirombo, Kimachame, Kisiha, Kikibosho, Kiuru, Kioldimoshi and Kingassa.
The Rombo language, or Kirombo, is a Bantu language of Tanzania spoken by the Chaga people, in the Chaga area of the Kilimanjaro region. Rombo forms a dialect continuum with other Chaga languages.
Sonjo, or Temi, is a Bantu language spoken in northern Tanzania, 30–40 miles west of Lake Natron. Ethnolinguistically, it is a displaced member of Guthrie’s E50 group, most other members of which are found in Central Kenya. Within that group, it is most closely related to Gikuyu. The Sonjo people number about 30,000 ; many of them are bilingual in Swahili, the local language of education. Sonjo is largely undescribed.
Loliondo village is situated in Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region in Northern Tanzania. Together with neighbouring Wasso village, it hosts the district offices and forms the commercial centre of Loliondo division. Loliondo is the seat of the current District Commissioner for Ngorongoro.
The Mbugwe are a Tanzanian ethnic and linguistic group based in the Babati District of Manyara Region and in south western Arusha Region. The Mbugwe are said to have originated from the Rangi and they speak a language that is related to Rangi. In 1999, the Mbugwe population was estimated to number 24,000.
Gweno is a Bantu language spoken in the North Pare Mountains in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. The people known as the Gweno are a Chaga ethnic and linguistic group. Since the Chaga people are Bantu speakers, the adopted language contains dialects similar to that of the Kenyan language Kamba. Gweno shares about 54% to 56% of its vocabulary with other Chaga dialects and 46% with Taita dialects. However, a large percentage of its vocabulary is not seen in the other dialects. Also at the start of the 11th century, the Chaga people descended and migrated from the Bantu group in which they migrated to the foothills of mount Kilimanjaro. The Gweno language is today spoken mostly by older adults, with younger generations having shifted to Asu and Swahili. Ethnologue considers Gweno to be moribund; the language is not being passed down because children have not been exposed to Gweno since the 1970s. The generational shift from Gweno to either Asu or Swahili has certainly created shifts in dialect, however Gweno speakers do not see this as a threat.
The Arusha (Waarusha) people are an ethnic, indigenous and linguistic group based in Arusha Region in northern Tanzania. The Arusha people are not to be confused by Arusha residents who are Tanzanian people of different ethnic backgrounds that are born and reside within the borders of Arusha Region.
The Northeast Bantu languages are a group of Bantu languages spoken in East Africa. In Guthrie's geographic classification, they fall within Bantu zones E50 plus E46 (Sonjo), E60 plus E74a (Taita), F21–22, J, G60, plus Northeast Coast Bantu. Some of these languages share a phonological innovation called Dahl's Law that is unlikely to be borrowed as a productive process, though individual words reflecting Dahl's Law have been borrowed into neighboring languages.
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. The Bantu Swahili language 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.
Taita is a Bantu language spoken in the Taita Hills of Kenya. It is closely related to the Chaga languages of Kenya and Tanzania. The Saghala variety is distinct enough to be considered a language separate from the Daw'ida and Kasigau dialects.
West Kilimanjaro, or West Chaga, is a Bantu language of Tanzania spoken by the Chaga people.
