Tanzania
Culture

Tanzania is home to over 120 culturally diverse tribes but shares a common official language of Swahili. Apart from this linguistic bond, each tribe is unique. Their manners of worship, local government, and rituals—even their systems of trade and wealth—vary greatly from tribe to tribe.

One of Tanzania’s major tribes, the Masai, dominates the northern portion of Tanzania. Residing in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, tribe members constantly seek new grazing areas for their cattle. Cattle are of great importance to the Masai, providing not only a source of food, but also serving as a symbol of wealth and prestige for their owners. The Masai wear a single toga-like piece of clothing, usually a bright red or blue color, and cover their bodies in ochre.
Geography and Climate

“In the midst of a great wilderness, full of wild beasts…I fancied I saw a summit…covered with a dazzlingly white cloud (qtd. in Cole 56). This is how Johann Krapf, the first outsider to witness the splendor of Africa’s highest mountain, described Kilimanjaro. The peak was real, though the white clouds he “fancied” he saw were the dense layer of snow that coats the mountain.

Tanzania is primarily a plateau that slopes gently downward into the country’s five hundred miles of Indian Ocean coastline. Nearly three-quarters of Tanzania is dry savannah, so much so that the Swahili word for the central plateau is nyika, meaning “wasteland.” Winding through these flatlands is the Great Rift Valley, which forms narrow and shallow lakes in its long path. Several of these great lakes form a belt-like oasis of green vegetation. Contrasting with the severity of the plains are the coastal areas, which are lush with ample rainfall. In the north the plateau slopes dramatically into Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Some of Tanzania’s most distinguishing geographical features are found in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The park is composed of many craters and gorges, as well as lakes, forest, and plains. Among these features is the area’s namesake, the Ngorongoro Crater. The Crater is a huge expanse, covering more than one hundred square miles. On the Crater’s floor, grasslands blend into swamps, lakes, rivers, and woodland. Also within the Conservation Area’s perimeter is the Olduvai Gorge, commonly referred to as the “Cradle of Mankind,” where in 1931 the stone tools of prehistoric man were found. This find subsequently led to the discovery of the remains of humans who lived 1.75 million years ago.
Serengeti Plain

Adjacent to the western edge of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is the Serengeti Plain. Its area is approximately 5,700 square miles, and its central savanna supports many grazing animals with plentiful water and lush grasses. Its southern portion is dry, receiving an average of only twenty inches of rainfall annually. The north is wooded grassland with watercourses and tributaries to larger rivers. Only two seasons occur on the Serengeti: dry and wet. The dry season occurs between June and October and the wet season between November to May.
Animal Life

Africa is well known for its native wildlife, and there are few places it is more robust than in the great grass plains of the Tanzanian wilderness. Here you will find herds of zebra, wildebeest and gazelle, cheetahs, lions, leopards, elephants and ostriches. With such variety, Tanzania is indeed an “inventory from the ark” (Camerapix 252).

The Ngorongoro Crater is rich with wildlife, including the densest predator population in Africa. The crater is home to up to 25,000 large mammals, mainly grazers - gazelle, buffalo, eland, hartebeest, and warthog. Many of the world’s flamingos live in the alkaline lakes of the Crater’s floor.

The Serengeti contains an estimated 3 million large animals, making it one of the last great wildlife preserves in the world. These animals take part in a phenomenal seasonal migration, an incredible concentration of moving animals. As the dry season approaches, the herbivores—mainly wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle—gather and move together to seek out new grazing lands and water. Following closely are the animals of prey. The cycle of migration repeats endlessly each year as the wet season gives way to dry.
retrieved from: CIS research
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