A Local Life In Tanzania : Where is Tanzania located? Tanzania is located in the eastern part of Africa just south of the equator and covers about 945,000 square kilometers. It’s approximately one and a half times the size of Texas! Tanzania has about 65.49 million people by 2022 census amongst which there are 120 tribal ethnic groups all living together in harmony. Most of this population is concentrated in big cities namely Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, Mwanza, Tabora, and Arusha in addition to Kilimanjaro which is a fairly growing city given its top-notch tourist attraction, the Great Mount Kilimanjaro.
What is particularly unique about the Tanzania country?
Tanzania is a united republic country given birth after the union between Tanganyika, the mainland, and an off-shore archipelago Zanzibar. A union motivated by the similarities in the culture between the two nations but also solidified by their similar struggles prior to their independence and during the slave trade where the mainlanders would meet the Islanders at the port before being deported.
Their geographic strategic location also provides a very suitable convenience for their reunion given their inter-dependence geographically and economic-trade and transportation-wise.
A Local Life In Tanzania : Is Tanzania a safe country to live in?
Tanzania has therefore strong nationalism and cohesion amongst its citizens, while the neighboring nations struggle with frequent uncalled-for and catastrophic civil wars fueled by political stands or/and tribalism, Tanzania prides herself on her thriving peace and diplomatic ways of solving issues without resorting to violence united by their common language Swahili.
Tanzania is termed as the safest country to live in across the region, naturally, there are incidences of theft snatching, and robbery that one can avoid by being extra careful and time-conscious while alone in the street, especially at night. Busy cities have had more incidences than others. Incidences of gunshots are extremely rare, only the defense force and police possess arms alongside a few others who have to go a strict scrutiny to be allowed with a permit.
Tanzanians are extremely polite, even more so to a visitor and foreigner, they usually put group need first before that of an individual.
A Local Life In Tanzania : Social economic status
Despite being rich in all kinds of natural resources and wildlife wealth, Tanzania still struggles as one of the poorest economies in the world. Most of her citizens still live in subsistence sustaining below a 2USD per capita. Some of the southern highlands regions in Tanzania have a multidimensional level of poverty given the high prevalence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic that has crippled the society’s productivity and progress from a milestone to another, given the vicious struggle to poverty and disease. Some of the coastal regions are also affected by poverty living in absolute poverty with the severing culture of early marriage, female genital circumcision, and superstitious beliefs.
However, there are efforts to improve the whole situation given the level of access to clean water, and education, Electricity and beyond subsistence production.
A Local Life In Tanzania : A typical day in Tanzania
Most families in Tanzania live either in a shared family hut for those living in the rural areas typically a mud brick house roofed with iron sheets for the fortunate or grass for a struggling class within the population. The urban population would usually have a rented shared bedroom for a family or a single bedroom for a small family (husband, wife, and child). These families would share outside washrooms which are usually two bathroom doors with a bucket of water.
The many families would share a cleaning roster, throughout the week including taking turns to refill the water in the bucket for cleaning.
Typical mornings comprise of women’s busy activities of preparing kids for school and themselves for their daily activity usually going to the market for vegetables in bulk and vending in retail to make ends meet. You hear the chicken choir early in the morning and the cricket sounds at night; the houses and establishments are usually not very well planned and so are squashed together; a regular meal is made of ugali (stiff porridge), beans, and a vegetable side and sometimes meat on a good day;
Meals are usually eaten with a bare hand influenced by an Arab culture but also due to the level of poverty too severing to afford many utensils;
The house decoration is usually one that covers the many items placed in the same room to at least bring a sense of appeal. Usually, the decorations are by the famous fabric called khanga or kitenge which is often a colorful patterned fabric with wisdom words written in one of its breadths.
Commuting and transport
Only a few middle incomes can afford a privately owned car, and most of the population lives on public transport. The population in Dar es Salaam is fortunate to have rapid bus transport at their disposal which is a newly established initiative to curb the transport issue in the busiest city in Tanzania.
The public transport usually runs for a whole day and some parts of the night. They have an affordable price for one to get by around the city. However, the public transport may be too overcrowded and you may need to scramble to get it. Sometimes you may not have a seating space so you may have to stand.
Technology has been growing equally in this part of the world, as there online taxis are available on request in the big cities. These are relatively more convenient although they may be a bit pricier than the usual public transport for the same commuting distance.
