Tabora

History

In the early 1830s, coastal traders increasingly settled in the region to take advantage of the ivory and slave caravan trade. Swahili and Omani traders established Kazeh, near present-day Tabora, in the 1850s. By 1870, Tabora was home to a population of 5,000-10,000 people living in roughly fifty large square houses. These homes accommodated up to several hundred people each and had inner courtyards, adjacent garden plots, store rooms, servant quarters, and outbuildings for slaves. The town was surrounded by Nyamwezi villages, whose people provided produce and caravan labor. In this period the Sultan of Zanzibar appointed a representative there. It was part of the Kingdom of Unyanyembe. Tabora was a center of trade for traders from as far North as the Buganda Kingdom. By August 1871, one-quarter of the town was burned when the forces of the Nyamwezi ruler Mirambo sacked it. Although the German East Africa protectorate was proclaimed over the region in 1885, as late as 1891 travellers reported it to be a lawless town. The German colonial administration did not gain control of it until later that year. As a major station on the Central Line, it became the most important administrative centre of central German East Africa. In 1916 the colonial garrison had an emergency mint at Tabora, making some gold pieces as well as large numbers of crude copper and brass German East African rupie minor coins, Mint marked with a "T". During the Tabora Offensive in the East African Campaign of World War I, colonial armed forces of the Belgian Congo (Force Publique) under the command of General Charles Tombeur captured the town on 19 September 1916 after 10 days and nights of heavy fighting.

Most-observed species

• Common Bulbul

  Pycnonotus barbatus (Desfontaines, 1789) · Aves
  18
• Ring-necked Dove

  Streptopelia capicola (Sundevall, 1857) · Aves
  18
• Pied Crow

  Corvus albus Statius Muller, 1776 · Aves
  17
• Little Bee-eater

  Merops pusillus P.L.S.Müller, 1776 · Aves
  15
• Black-headed Heron

  Ardea melanocephala Children & Vigors, 1826 · Aves
  15
• African Jacana

  Actophilornis africanus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  15
• Marabou Stork

  Leptoptilos crumenifer (R.P.Lesson, 1831) · Aves
  15
• Fork-tailed Drongo

  Dicrurus adsimilis (Bechstein, 1794) · Aves
  14