TANZANIA, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN

Formerly the regions of Tanganika and Zanzibar, the United Republic of Tanzania is located on the east coast of Africa, and is bound on the north by Kenya, on the east by the Indian Ocean, on the south by Mozambique and Malawi, on the southwest by Zambia, on the west by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda, and on the northeast by Uganda and Lake Victoria. Highlands in the north and south drop to a central plateau that

descends further to coastal plains in the east. Mount Kilimanjaro, south of the border with Kenya, is the highest point on the African continent. The climate varies with the terrain, shifting from temperate in the higher elevations to tropical near the coast. Tanzania includes the Zanzibar island group, 22.5 miles east of the Tanzanian mainland in the Indian Ocean, which contains Zanzibar, Pemba and Mafia. Natural resources include hydropower, tin, phosphates, iron ore, coal, diamonds and other gems, gold and nickel; agricultural products consist of coffee, sisal, tea, cotton, ground nuts, tobacco, corn, wheat, fruits, vegetables and livestock. Cloves are produced on the island of Zanzibar.

Both Tanganika and Zanzibar were governed as British mandates following World War I, having been British protectorates in the 19th century. Soon after Zanzibar gained its independence and proclaimed itself a republic on Jan. 12, 1964, it united with Tanganyika (independent in 1961) to form Tanzania under President Julius Nyerere. Mdugu Ali Hassan, who further stabilized the economy of the region, succeeded him. In 1992 multiple political parties were legalized and three years later the region held its first free democratic elections in two decades. The predominately Muslim population of Zanzibar included some 120 tribes, each with its distinctive dialect and customs, and by 2000 Islamic fundamentalism began to cause political discord on the island. In the late 1990s the mainland began to suffer economic stress due to the many refugees from Mozambique, Burundi and Rwanda that entered the country to avoid the violence in their respective countries.

History . Augustinian priests who accompanied Vasco da gama landed on the island of Zanzibar in 1499. The island remained Portuguese until the Arabs seized control and expelled all priests in 1698. Catholic missionary activity ceased from 1698 until 1860, when three priests and six sisters arrived. Zanzibar played an important role in the beginnings of the Church in East Africa because the first missionaries to Tanganyika and Kenya came from there. The holy ghost fathers who arrived on Zanzibar in 1863 formed the first Catholic mission in Tanzania five years later, and were entrusted with the region

in 1872. By 2000 Zanzibar was almost totally Muslim, while on the mainland Muslim influences were in a minority and remained in the northern regions.

The islands belonged to the Vicariate Apostolic of Zanzibar, erected in 1906, and then to the diocese of Mombasa and Zanzibar, created in 1955, whose bishop resided in Mombasa, Kenya. In 1953 the hierarchy of Tanzania was established with two metropolitan sees. In 1965 the archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam was made the apostolic administrator of Zanzibar and Pemba, where the Precious Blood Sisters had charge of a governmentowned home for the aged, tubercular patients and lepers, and ran a school in Zanzibar for children of all faiths.

By 2000 there were 769 parishes tended by 1,379 diocesan and 714 religious priests. Other religious included approximately 610 brothers and 6,700 sisters, many of whom operated the Church' nine primary and 172 secondary schools and cared for the large refugee populations to the north. While an active and vital Catholic Church worked to maintain friendly relations with Muslim leaders on both the mainland and the islands, an increase in Islamic fundamentalism and the imposition of Islamic law in certain regions caused increasing tensions between the two faiths by 2000. In April of 2000 a church was burned in a predominately Muslim region of Zanzibar, the second attempt on that property in three years. The constitution of April 25, 1977 (revised in October of 1984) respected freedom of religion and established Tanzania as a secular state. The government did grant the Church tax-exempt status, but discouraged proselytizing when offensive to other faiths.

Bibliography: Le missioni cattoliche: Storia, geographia, statistica (Rome 1950) 178–190. Bilan du Monde 2:827–833, 2:928–929. Annuario Pontificio has annual statistics on all dioceses.

[d. w. robinson/eds.]