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Tanzania flag Tanzania
Tanzania
Quick Facts
Region:
Africa
Full Name:
United Republic of Tanzania
Capital City:
Dar es Salaam
Language Spoken:
Kiswahili or Swahili (official),
Kiunguja (name for Swahili in Zanzibar),
English (official,
primary language of commerce,
administration,
and higher education),
Arabic (widely spoken in Zanzibar),
many local languages note: Kiswahili (Swahili) is the mother tongue of the Bantu people living in Zanzibar and nearby coastal Tanzania; although Kiswahili is Bantu in structure and origin,
its vocabulary draws on a variety of sources,
including Arabic and English,
and it has become the lingua franca of central and eastern Africa; the first language of most people is one of the local languages
Personnel risk: MODERATE
Evacuation risk: MODERATE
Shortly after achieving independence from Britain in the early 1960s, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation of Tanzania in 1964. One-party rule came to an end in 1995 with the first democratic elections held in the country since the 1970s. Zanzibar's semi-autonomous status and popular opposition have led to two contentious elections since 1995, which the ruling party won despite international observers' claims of voting irregularities.