Tanga is both the name of the most northerly

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

city of

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa 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 ...

on the west of the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

, and the capital of

Tanga Region Tanga Region (''Mkoa wa Tanga'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Burundi. The regional capital is the mun ...

. It had a population of 273,332 in 2012. The name ''Tanga'' means "

sail A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may ...

" in Swahili. The city of Tanga sits on the

, and is the capital of

. The city is also the capital of

Tanga District Tanga is one of eleven administrative districts of Tanga Region in Tanzania. The District covers an area of . Tanga district is bordered to the north by Mkinga District, to the east by the Indian Ocean, to the south and west by Muheza District. T ...

Economy

Major exports from the port of Tanga include

sisal Sisal (, ) (''Agave sisalana'') is a species of flowering plant native to southern Mexico, but widely cultivated and naturalized in many other countries. It yields a stiff fibre used in making rope and various other products. The term sisal ma ...

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

, and

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

. Tanga is also an important railroad terminus, connecting much of the northern Tanzanian interior with the sea via the

Tanzania Railways Corporation The Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) is a state-owned enterprise that runs one of Tanzania's two main railway networks. When the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation was dissolved in 1977 and its assets divided between Kenya, Tan ...

's Link Line and Central Line. Tanga is linked to the

African Great Lakes The African Great Lakes ( sw, Maziwa Makuu; rw, Ibiyaga bigari) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh water lake in the ...

region and the Tanzanian economic capital of

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

. The city is served by

Tanga Airport Tanga Airport is a small domestic airport located in Tanga Region, Tanzania. The airport is based in the regional capital city of Tanga. It is west of the city, off the A14 trunk road. The airport has scheduled flights to Arusha, Dar es S ...

. The harbour and surrounding is the centre of life in Tanga. It has several markets in several neighbourhoods.

History

Early history

The earliest documentation about Tanga comes from the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

. A trading post was established by the Portuguese as part of their East African coastal territory and controlled the region for over 200 years between 1500 and 1700. The

Sultanate of Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

battled the Portuguese and gained control of the settlement by mid-1700 along with

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

Pemba Island Pemba Island ( ar, الجزيرة الخضراء ''al-Jazīra al-khadrā'', literally "The Green Island"; sw, Pemba kisiwa) is a Tanzanian island forming part of the Zanzibar Archipelago, lying within the Swahili Coast in the Indian Ocean. Geog ...

and Kilwa Kisiwani. The town continued to act as a trading port for

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...

and slaves under the sultan's rule. Tanga continued to be a prosperous trading hub for slaves with the Arab world up until 1873 when the European powers abolished the slave trade.

German East Africa

Bundesarchiv Bild 105-DOA0850, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Tanga, Markstraße

In the 19th Century, growing interests by Europeans for the

Scramble for Africa The Scramble for Africa, also called the Partition of Africa, or Conquest of Africa, was the invasion, annexation, division, and colonisation of Africa, colonization of most of Africa by seven Western Europe, Western European powers during a ...

brought the Germans to Tanga. The Germans bought the coastal strip of mainland Tanzania from the

Sultan of Zanzibar The sultans of Zanzibar ( ar, سلاطين زنجبار) were the rulers of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which was created on 19 October 1856 after the death of Said bin Sultan, who had ruled Oman and Zanzibar as the sultan of Oman since 1804. The ...

in 1891. This takeover designated Tanga into a township and was the first establishment in

German East Africa German East Africa (GEA; german: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Mozam ...

. The town became the centre of German colonial administration before the establishment of

in the early 20th century. Tanga was chosen in 1889 as a military post of German East Africa, and it became a district office in 1891. The town saw rapid expansion and planned growth under the German occupation. A tram line was built in the city for domestic transport and a port was also built for exports. In 1896 the construction of the

Usambara Railway The Usambara Railway (german: Usambarabahn) was the first railway to be built in German East Africa and what is today Tanzania. History German East-Africa A railway company was created in 1891 with the aim of connecting the port of Tanga at ...

began and was extended to Moshi by 1912. Roads, bridges and the railway enabled industrial growth in the region and many buildings and bridges that are still in operation today in the town are from the German colonial period. The local economy was based mainly on the production of

, which had been brought to the colony several years earlier, and population in the area grew rapidly.

British invasion and rule

As the coastal town closest to

British East Africa East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was an area in the African Great Lakes occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day Kenya from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Controlled by Britai ...

, Tanga was on the front line of the East African campaign at the beginning of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. On 4 November 1914 a landing by British and Empire forces was repelled in the

Battle of Tanga The Battle of Tanga, sometimes also known as the Battle of the Bees, was the unsuccessful attack by the British Indian Expeditionary Force "B" under Major General A. E. Aitken to capture German East Africa (the mainland portion of present-day T ...

. On 13 June 1916 the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

and

protected cruiser Protected cruisers, a type of naval cruiser of the late-19th century, gained their description because an armoured deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers re ...

s and bombarded Tanga. On 7 July the protected cruiser and

monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West ...

entered Manza Bay and put troops ashore who occupied the town. After the War, Britain gained control of

Tanganyika Tanganyika may refer to: Places * Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state * Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania * Tanzania Main ...

and continued to develop Tanga and exploit its agricultural potential. In 1919 Tanga was the country's fourth largest city, but at independence it was the second largest city after

Post-independence

In the early stages of independence, the

Port of Tanga The Port of Tanga (''Bandari ya Tanga'' in Swahili) is the second largest port in Tanzania. It is located in Central ward of Tanga District of Tanga Region. History Historically the port city part of the Portugese and Arab gateway for the Sl ...

continued to be a gateway for the export of

from the region. However, following the adopting of the

Ujamaa Ujamaa ( in Swahili) was a socialist ideology that formed the basis of Julius Nyerere's social and economic development policies in Tanzania after it gained independence from Britain in 1961. More broadly, ujamaa may mean "cooperative economics ...

policy, agriculture in the region collapsed and the city lost its value. With the government controlling the agriculture trade and the depreciation in the world prices of Sisal the port began to lose revenue.

Economy

Tanga Cement is one of the major industries.

Transport

Air connectivity

Tanga has a small airport and is currently served by only two regional airlines

Auric Air Auric Air Services Limited is a small privately owned airline based in Tanzania, Operating from Mwalimu Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) Dar-es-salaam, Arusha Airport and Mwanza Airport. The Company offers scheduled flights to 42 desti ...

and

Coastal Aviation Coastal Aviation is an airline that operates out of Julius Nyerere International Airport, Terminal 1, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It services many areas in Tanzania, but also operates regionally to neighboring countries, including Kenya and Rw ...

providing scheduled services to

and

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...

. In 2014 the airport served less than 30,000 passengers. There are also a small number of private airstrips in the surrounding area around the city that facilitate the private estates and surrounding industries.

Road connectivity

Tanga city lies approximately 250 km from Chalinze on the A14 highway that runs from Chalinze to

. The town is 75 km away from Segera which is a junction linking the A14 and the B1. The B1 highway is a bypass that links Moshi and the northern corridor to Tanga.

Port of Tanga

The port is historically the oldest operating harbour in the nation and its roots date back to around the 6th century. The Port of Tanga is the second largest port in Tanzania and is a vital part to the city's initial development and economy. The port operates at 90% of its installed capacity and its main cargo is

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

for the cement industry and is a new gate way for crude oil products. The ports authority has major plans to upgrade the port increase capacity and provide an alternative route for cargo flowing into the country.

Rail connectivity

Tanga is the starting point of the narrow gauge northern railway network that ends in

Arusha Arusha City is a Tanzanian city and the regional capital of the Arusha Region, with a population of 416,442 plus 323,198 in the surrounding Arusha District Council (2012 census). Located below Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the eastern bran ...

. Construction of this line was started in the 19th century by the Germans. In 2018, the Government of Tanzania invested 5.7 billion Tanzanian Shillings to rehabilitate the line. As of July 2019, diesel powered cargo trains are leaving Tanga Railway Station again and passenger transport between Tanga and Arusha is set to start in September 2019.

Geography

Climate

Due to close proximity to the equator and the warm

, the city experiences tropical climatic conditions similar to all

n coastal cities. The city experiences hot and humid weather throughout much of the year and has a tropical wet and dry climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

: ''Aw''). Annual rainfall is approximately 1,290 mm (51 in), and in a normal year there are two rainy seasons: "the long rains" in April and May and "the short rains" in November and December.

Healthcare

Tanga city medical institutions include: * Bombo Regional Hospital *National Institute of Medical Research Centre, Tanga *Amani Biomedical Research Laboratory *Tanga AIDS Working Group

Tourist sites

Nearby tourist attractions include

Amboni Caves The Amboni Caves are a limestone cave complex in East Africa. They are located 8 km north of Tanga City in Tanzania off the Tanga-Mombasa road. The reported length of the longest cave is 755m. The caves were formed about 150 million years a ...

, Galanos

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

s, Saadani

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

, Toten Island, URITHI Tanga Museum, war graves and memorials,

Tongoni Ruins The Tongoni Ruins (''Magofu ya kale ya Tongoni'' in Swahili language, Swahili) are a 15th century Swahili people, Swahili ruins of a mosque and forty tombs located in Tongoni, Tanga, Tongoni ward in Tanga District inside Tanga Region of Tanza ...

, Ndumi Village defense works, Mwarongo sand beaches and protected coastal

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

s. In Amboni caves, Tanga.jpg,

Tanga Bay.png, Toten Island Tongoni Ruins.jpg,

Magoroto lake.jpg, Magoroto lake near Tanga.

Sport

Tanga is represented in the

Tanzanian Premier League The Tanzania Mainland Premier League () is the top-level professional football league in Tanzania and is administered by the Tanzania Football Federation. History The league was first organised in 1921 in Dar es Salaam. By 1929, it had six part ...

by football clubs Coastal Union, JKT Mgambo, and African Sports (Wana Kimanumanu) from the 2015–2016 season.

Twin towns – sister cities

Tanga is twinned with: *

Eckernförde Eckernförde ( da, Egernførde, sometimes also , nds, Eckernför, sometimes also ) () is a German town in Schleswig-Holstein, Rendsburg-Eckernförde, on the coast of the Baltic Sea approximately 30 km north-west of Kiel. The population is ...

, Germany (1963) *

Kemi Kemi (; sme, Giepma ; smn, Kiemâ; sms, Ǩeeʹmm; Swedish (historically): ''Kiemi'') is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located very near the city of Tornio and the Swedish border. The distance to Oulu is to the south and to Rovani ...

, Finland (2007) *

Tifariti Tifariti (Berber: Tifariti, ar, تيفاريتي) is an oasis town located in north-eastern Western Sahara, east of the Moroccan Berm, from Smara and north of the border with Mauritania. It is part of what Polisario Front calls the '' Liberated ...

, Western Sahara * Toledo, United States (2001)

Gallery

Tanga, Tanzania, town centre.JPG, A

roundabout A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...

in the city centre, 2003. Bombo HospitC.JPG, The German built cliff block at the Bombo Hospital. Mosque in Ngamiani, Tanga.jpg, A

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

in Ngamiani. The Tanga Library.jpg, The Tanga Public

Library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

. Tanga bay sunset.JPG, A sunset in Tanga Bay. Tanga Railway Station.jpg, Tanga Railway Station. Urithi Tanga Museum.jpg, Urithi Tanga

Museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

, the Old German Boma.

References

Byron Farwell Byron Edgar Farwell (June 20, 1921 – August 3, 1999) was an American military historian, biographer, and politician. He was the mayor of Hillsboro, Virginia, for three terms, worked for Chrysler, and as an author completed 14 books and num ...

, ''The Great War in Africa, 1914-1918'' ( W. W. Norton, 1986)

External links

Tanga Tourist Guide
{{Authority control Swahili people Swahili city-states Swahili culture Cities in Tanzania Populated places in Tanga Region Regional capitals in Tanzania Port cities in Tanzania

Economy

History

Early history

German East Africa

British invasion and rule

Post-independence

Economy

Transport

Air connectivity

Road connectivity

Port of Tanga

Rail connectivity

Geography

Climate

Healthcare

Tourist sites

Sport

Twin towns – sister cities

Gallery

See also

References

External links