Tanzania
POPULATION 37,187,939
CHRISTIAN 40 percent
MUSLIM 39 percent
AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS 20 percent
OTHER (HINDU, SIKH) 1 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
Tanzania lies on the East African coast, just south of the equator. It shares borders with Kenya, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda. The Tanzanian mainland is dominated by vast plains and plateaus and contains numerous lakes, including Lake Tanganyika, one of the world's deepest. Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, rises in the northeast near the border with Kenya. Tanzania's territory also includes several coastal islands, the largest of which are Mafia, Pemba, and Zanzibar. In 1964 Zanzibar, Pemba, and other islands joined the mainland state of Tanganyika to form the United Republic of Tanzania.
Tanzanians were a highly spiritual people before the arrival of the world's major religions, and they continue to be so, as is exemplified by the contemporary situation in the country. The churches on the predominantly Christian mainland (the former Tanganyika) and the mosques on the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, where the population is 99 percent Muslim, overflow with the faithful on a regular basis. These local representations of Islam and Christianity are also extremely dynamic, engendering both syncretic and new forms of spiritual expression.
