Tabora

Indian shops in the year 1906 during the day time.

Beginning in the 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 outhouses for slaves. The town was also surrounded by Nyamwezi villages, which provided produce and caravan labor. In this period the Sultan of Zanzibar appointed a representative there.[5] 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.[6] 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, and 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".[7] 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.[8]

Tabora and its people mainly rely on agricultural activities as either sustenance farmers or small-scale tobacco farmers. Tabora also hosts a ballast quarry.

Water supply is managed by the Tabora Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Authority (Tuwasa), sourced from Igombe and Kazima Dams.[9] The Igombe River is a tributary of the Malagarasi River and the Malagarasi-Muyovozi Wetlands.

Farmers using a Rice harvester to harvest rice in Igunga, Tabora, Tanzania

Tabora's streets are lined with century-old mango trees planted by Omani traders. Tabora is known as the fruit capital of Western Tanzania, and markets are often filled with local produce.

Tabora has many small local restaurants offering typical Tanzanian restaurant food like Ugali (a thick maize porridge), chips, or rice with beans, beef or chicken. For breakfast or lunch, there is usually chipsi-mayai (chips and egg), which is basically a couple of eggs fried together with some chips. Although the food is bland, it is usually served with Tanzanian chili sauce, which gives the meal some character.

A local specialty is pumpkin in peanut butter sauce. This goes with the rice pilau served widely throughout the region.

For snacks there are local sambusa (samosa), some goat meat on a stick or some freshly roasted corn of the cob, all widely available in Tabora. There is a choice of fruit in the large regional market of Tabora, including pineapples, watermelons, and bananas.

Tabora has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) with two seasons of approximately equal length. The wet season is from November to April and is followed by a dry season from May to October.

Tabora Airport

Tabora is small enough to walk from one side of town to the other. Bicycle taxis, motorbike taxis and regular taxis are available.

Tabora is home to a number of educational institutions, including:

• Railway stations in Tanzania
• Tabora Deaf-Mute Institute
• Transport in Tanzania

• Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition (at encyclopedia.com)
• Tabora Region Socio-Economic Profile, joint publication by The Planning Commission Dar es Salaam and Regional Commissioner's Office Tabora, 1998

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5°01′S 32°48′E