Tanga taxi service

Tanga taxi Service : Welcome to Serengeti trips Tanzania, your trusted choice for reliable transportation in Tanzania and also beyond. If you’re looking for a dependable and practical Tanga taxi service, look no more. Established in 2016, Serengeti Trips Tanzania has actually been actually proudly offering the neighborhood for a long time, delivering a remarkable alternative to traditional Tanga taxi service.

Welcome to Tanga taxi service, your trusted choice for reliable transportation in Karatu and also beyond. If you’re looking for a dependable and practical Tanga taxi service, look no more. We been actually proudly offering the neighborhood for a long time, delivering a remarkable alternative to traditional Tanga taxi services.

Tanga Guide

The History of Tanga, Tanzania

When the British explorer Burton visited the settlement of Tanga in 1857 he described a collection of ‘thatch pent-roofed huts, built upon a bank overlooking the sea.’ He estimated the local population to be between 4 and 5 thousand people, including around fifteen Baluchis and twenty Indian merchants, all held in check by the Sultans troops under his appointed ‘Wali’, or governor.

So, when the German East Africa Company came here in 1888, following their success in persuading the Sultan to lease them a 16km wide strip along the coastline of Tanzania, Tanga was a relatively small fishing village that would have sustained a certain amount of commercial trade with Bagamoyo. The town sent annual caravans into the Usambara, Pare, Kilimanjaro and Maasai regions to return laden with ivory for sale.

Tribes of Tanga

There were a handful of Omani residents who chose a quieter life here north of the central port town, but in essence, this was a rural region occupied by a number of distinct and different tribes. These include the Digo people and the Bondei, whose name means ‘of the valley’, originally from Kenya but each squeezed south by their neighbors, and the Shambaa and the Pare people from the nearby Usambara and Pare mountains, also extending southwards.

Another migrant group was the Segeju, who are less in evidence today, probably as a result of intermarrying, but they are considered responsible for building a number of protective walled enclosures around the Tanga region, thought to have been built during the 19th century as a defense against the Maasai. Some of these, however, have angled spy holes similar to those at the ‘Gereza’ at Kilwa and Fort Jesus in Mombassa, which may indicate Arab influences in design and construction.

The Zigua people remained on their turf just south of Tanga, perhaps the original people of the Tanga region, and developed an impressive reputation for keeping themselves to themselves but responding with violent aggression when challenged. They have become a large tribe, taking many wives and remaining generally resistant to missionaries pushing for schooling in return for taking on the Christian faith.

All of these people and other neighbouring tribes were familiar with the commercial exchange provided by the proximity of the caravan routes, but perhaps none were prepared for the advent of the new German port.

The Port of Tanga

At the end of the 19th century the first colonial power had begun work to develop the small port of Tanga to accommodate their steam ships after the port of Bagamoyo proved too shallow, and soon after, in 1893, they completed a railway line from Moshi to Tanga.

In the same year, the first school in Tanzania was built and run initially by the German Colonial Society, and then soon after it was taken over by the government. The school developed quite a reputation for rigorous discipline, to the extent that it was meted out with canes and chains, but was evidently successful in organising a structure of education that focused on learning the German language, reading, writing and craft skills.

The fertile lands around Tanga and up into the Usambara mountains were very soon cultivated and proved profitable. Extensive sisal plantations were laid out, but further progression was thwarted by the outset of World War One.

First World War

Tanga was then the site of one of the most infamous military blunders in East Africa. Thousands of Allied Troops were dispatched to lay a surprise attack on the Germans along the Tanga coastline, although the surprise was theirs when they arrived to find the dense mangroves along the beaches almost impenetrable, and the German troops fully prepared for their arrival. They were repulsed further by an aggressive swarm of disturbed bees, and were forced to abandon crucial supplies and weapons in retreat.

An estimated 800 men died, with almost as many injured, in various ways. This episode and other events of the First World War on Tanzanian soil are excellently if imaginatively, recounted in William Boyd’s novel, The Ice-Cream War.

Sisal Plantations

In the years following the war, the population of Tanga was curiously altered as the German settlers moved away and the sisal plantations were taken over by a feisty contingent of Greek farmers. These developed a wild reputation for popular gambling sessions, during which entire estates might change hands, and enjoyed enormous prosperity from their sisal crops until the mid 1950s, when sisal prices crashed.

The crop has never really recovered as a result of the proliferation of manufactured fibres, although it is still worthwhile for many of the smaller, recently privatised farms, but the population of Tanga today is largely dependent on local dhow trade with the Tanzanian and Kenyan coast, and the cement and brick factories that are situated just west of the town.

Things to do in Tanga, Tanzania

The Tanga Ropeworks near the Post Office at the centre of town has examples of the various ropes made from sisal, once the lifeline for the town’s prosperity. This is opposite the old German-built Court House, which remains an imposing and good-looking structure that still functions as a ministration of law and order.

A walk along Independence Avenue, parallel to the sea front, leads past the Clock Tower erected in 1961, towards the Library, a substantial building in front of a pleasant arched courtyard that was opened by the British Governor Sir Edward Twining in the mid-1950s.

Just west of the Library along Independence Road brings you to the Old Boma, large, heavy and imposing, and situated in a prime position overlooking the old harbour.