Tanzania Guide

The official language is Kiswahili Tanzania. English is also widely used in Tanzania. Unlike Kenya is Kiswahili in Tanzania, however, not a means of communication across tribal boundary, but really a large part Native. It is therefore more and better than English is spoken. In villages in the country may also be that there is no English-speaking residents can attest. In both languages should be at least a basic vocabulary record. According to opinion of a Wikitravelautors also belongs to the welcome phrase “Jambo!” (read: dschambo) …

The word “Jambo” is really only welcome in the fixed phrase “Hujambo?” (How’s it going?) – “Sijambo!” (I’m fine!) Is used. Every now and then you can also Jambo from local to local listen (as with us ( “And?” For “And how’s it going?” Can stand) in the rule is “Jambo” But the ultimate greeting tourists. Whoever Safari tourists as superficial culture without interest outen wants installation, the user of “Jambo” warmly recommended. All other recommended “Kiswahili – word for word” by Christoph Friedrich ISBN: 3-89416-074-8 (still the best Kiswahili! )

Tanzania has considerable wildlife habitat, including much of the Serengeti plain, where the white-bearded wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus mearnsi) and other bovids participate in a large-scale annual migration. Up to 250,000 wildebeest perish each year in the long and arduous movement to find forage in the dry season. Tanzania is also home to 130 amphibian and over 275 reptile species, many of them strictly endemic and included in the IUCN Red Lists of different countries.

Tanzania has developed a Biodiversity Action Plan to address species conservation.

A tiny patch of pristine rainforest right in the centre of Zanzibar island, Jozani Forest is home to the extremely rare Red Colobus monkey, the Ader’s duiker antelope, and numerous bird species. There’s a mangrove boardwalk through the trees and a small education centre.

Tanzania can be visited during all seasons. The standard tourist seasons are in July-August, when the weather is cool, and dry season parks like Tarangire are at their prime; and again in December-January, when it’s hotter, but still quite bearable. But to catch the Serengeti at its best you want to avoid the height of the dry season when virtually all the animals go on holiday to Kenya. Be prepared if you’re heading into the big wet, as many roads – particularly on the south coast – can become too squishy to drive on.

Watch out for peak-season hotel prices around the Christmas-New Year holidays and during the July-August peak season.

Dodoma (translation: “It has sunk” in Gogo), officially Dodoma Urban District, population 324,347 (2002 census), is the national capital of Tanzania, third biggest city in the country, and also the capital of the Dodoma region. In 1973, plans were made to move the capital to Dodoma. Tanzania’s National Assembly moved there in February 1996, but many government offices remain in the previous national capital, Dar es Salaam (which remains the commercial capital). Dodoma is populated mainly by three tribes, with the majority being the Gogo or Wagogo; the Warangi; and the minority tribe of Sandawe whose language is related to that of the Kalahari Bushmen of southern Africa.

Tanzania /ˌtænzəˈniːə/,^[1] officially the United Republic of Tanzania (Swahili: Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda on the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique on the south. To the east it borders the Indian Ocean.

The country’s name is a portmanteau of Tanganyika, the large mainland territory, and Zanzibar, the offshore archipelago. The two former British colonies united in 1964, forming the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, which later the same year was renamed the United Republic of Tanzania.^[2]

In 1996 government offices were transferred from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma, making Dodoma the country’s political capital. Dar es Salaam remains the principal commercial city.