Tanga

History

The first communities that called Tanga their home were the Digo people and the Swahili states of the 11th to 16th Centuries. However, the earliest documentation about Tanga comes from the Portuguese. During their disruption of the previous trading links Tanga settlement remained a small trading post for the colonists during their occupation of the East African coast for 200 years between 1500 and 1700 when they were ousted. The Sultanate of Oman battled the Portuguese and gained control of the settlement by mid-1700 along with Mombasa, Pemba Island and Kilwa Kisiwani. The town continued to act as a trading port for ivory and slaves under the sultan's rule. Tanga continued to be a prosperous trading hub for slaves with the Arab world until 1873 when the European powers intervened in order to abolish the slave trade that was helping to maintain the Islamic elites. The town became the centre of German colonial administration before the establishment of Dar es Salaam 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 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 sisal, which had been brought to the colony several years earlier, and population in the area grew rapidly. As the coastal town closest to British East Africa, Tanga was on the…

Geography

Due to close proximity to the equator and the warm Indian Ocean, the city experiences tropical climatic conditions similar to all Tanzanian coastal cities. The city experiences hot and humid weather throughout much of the year and has a tropical wet and dry climate (Köppen: 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.

Most-observed species

• House Crow

  Corvus splendens Vieillot, 1817 · Aves
  39
• Common Bulbul

  Pycnonotus barbatus (Desfontaines, 1789) · Aves
  23
• Curlew Sandpiper

  Calidris ferruginea (Pontoppidan, 1763) · Aves
  21
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  21
• Black Kite

  Milvus migrans (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  20
• Pied Crow

  Corvus albus Statius Muller, 1776 · Aves
  19
• African Pied Wagtail

  Motacilla aguimp Temminck, 1820 · Aves
  19
• African woollyneck

  Ciconia microscelis G.R.Gray, 1848 · Aves
  17

Most recent

• M 4.7 — 2023-02-08
  Kenya
• M 4.9 — 2020-03-13
  20 km N of Maramba, Tanzania
• M 4.5 — 2017-02-05
  18 km ENE of Tanga, Tanzania
• M 4.5 — 2008-02-14
  19 km SSW of Shimoni, Kenya