Tanzania tourist information

Taarab Music is a fusion of Swahili tunes sung in rhythmic poetic style spiced with Arabic or, at times, Indian melodies. It is an extremely lively art form springing from a classical culture, still immensely popular with women, drawing all the time from old and new sources. Taarab forms a major part of the social life of the Swahili people along the coastal areas; especially Zanzibar, Tanga and even further in Mombasa and Malindi along the Kenya coast.

Wherever the Swahili speaking people travelled, Tarabu culture moved with them. It has penetrated to as far as Uganda. Rwanda and Burundi in the interior of East Africa, where taarab groups compete in popularity with other western-music inspired groups.

These days a taarab revolution is taking place and much heated debate continues about the music which has been changed drastically by the East African Melody phenomenon. Melody, as they are affectionately known by their mostly women fans, play modern taarab, which, for the first time, is 'taarab to dance to' and features direct lyrics, by- passing the unwritten laws of lyrical subtlety of the older groups such as Egyptian Musical Club and Al-Wattan Musical Club where meaning to their songs where only alluded to and never directly inferred.

Today taarab songs are explicit sometimes even graphic in sexual connotation. Much of the music, today, of groups like Melody and Muungano is composed and played on keyboards, increasing portability, hence the group is much smaller in number than 'real taarab' orchestras and therefore more readily available to tour and play shows throughout the region and beyond.

Mbaraka Mwinshehe was the most popular and original musician of Tanzania, also there is a greater influx of musicians from the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), who were entering the country as refugees and made residence in the country. But in recent years, mainly from the mid-nineties, new generation of musicians has emerged and are coming up with popular tunes which are Tanzanian in composition. Bands like Twanga Pepeta have managed to curve a new tune distinct from imported Zairean tunes and are competing with Zairean bands in popularity and audience acceptance.

The Tanzanian artistes have devised a new style going by the name of "Bongo Flava", which is blend of all sorts of melodies, beats, rhythms and sounds. The trend among the Tanzanian music consumers has started changing towards favouring products from their local artists who sing in Swahili, the national language.

The mushrooming of FM music stations and reasonable production studios has been a major boost to the music industry in the country. Contemporary artists like Juma Nature, Lady Jaydee, Mr. Nice, Mr. II, Cool James,[Dully Sykes] and many others command a huge audience of followers in the country and neighbouring countries.

Tanzania has an enormously high growth-rate for internet technologies, estimated at up to 500% per year. Because costs for computers are still quite high many users share connections at internet cafes or at work. naomba.com business directory, Movie and Sports information, Arusha locality information all are part of an increasing number of websites dedicated to the region.

From the 1880s until 1919, the area subsequently became a British trust territory from 1919 to 1961. It served as a military outpost during WWII and provided financial help as well as munitions. Julius Nyerere became Minister of British-administered Tanganyika in 1960 and continued as Prime Minister when Tanganyika became independent in 1961.

Tanganyika and neighbouring Zanzibar, which had become independent in 1963, merged to form the nation of Tanzania on 26 April 1964. Nyerere introduced African socialism, or Ujamaa, which emphasized justice and equality; it proved economically disastrous, leading to food shortages as collective farms failed.

In 1979, Tanzania declared war on Uganda after Uganda invaded and tried to annex the northern Tanzanian province of Kagera. Tanzania not only expelled Ugandan forces, but, enlisting the country's population of Ugandan exiles, also invaded Uganda itself. On April 11, 1979, Idi Amin was forced to quit the capital, Kampala. The Tanzanian army took the city with the help of the Ugandan and Rwandan guerrillas. Amin fled into exile.

Nyerere handed over power to Ali Hassan Mwinyi in 1985, but retained control of the ruling party, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), as Chairman until 1990, when he handed that responsibility to Mwinyi. In October 1995, one-party rule came to an end when Tanzania held its first ever multi-party election. However, CCM comfortably won the elections and its candidate Benjamin Mkapa was subsequently sworn in as the new president of the United Republic of Tanzania on 23 November 1995. In December 2005, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete was elected the 4th president for a five-year term.

One of the deadly 1998 U.S. embassy bombings occurred in Dar es Salaam; the other was in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2004, the undersea earthquake on the other side of the Indian Ocean caused tidal surges along Tanzania's coastline in which 11 people were killed. An oil tanker also temporarily ran aground in the Dar es Salaam harbor, damaging an oil pipeline.