Moshi, Tanzania

Coordinates: 3°20′05.58″S 37°20′25.37″E / 3.3348833°S 37.3403806°E / -3.3348833; 37.3403806
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Moshi
Jiji la Moshi (
Kilimanjaro
Division
21 wards
  • Rau
  • Shirimatunda
  • Soweto
    • Government
     • TypeMunicipality
     • MayorZuberi Kidumo
     • Municipal DirectorRashid Gembe
    Area
    UTC+03 (East Africa Time)
    Postcode
    251
    Area code027
    WebsiteMunicipal website
    Moshi CBD as seen from Lower Moshi rice fields.

    Moshi is a municipality and the capital of Kilimanjaro region in the north eastern Tanzania. As of 2017, the municipality has an estimated population of 201,150 and a population density of 3,409 persons per km2 .[2] In the last official census of 2022, the municipality had a population of 221,733.[3] The municipality is situated on the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, a dormant volcano that is the highest mountain in Africa. The name Moshi has been reported to refer to the smoke that emanates from the nearby mountain.[4] The municipality covers about 59 square kilometres (23 sq mi) and is the smallest municipality in Tanzania by area.[5]

    History and administration

    Germany established a military camp in Moshi (Neumoschi) in August 1893.[6]: page 101  The northern line railroad reached Moshi in 1912.[6]: page 136 

    Moshi attained the status of a town in 1956.[5] In 1988, it became a municipality under Tanzanian law, but as of 31 October 2014, the process for submitting its application to become a city was in its final stages.[7] Moshi is administratively divided into 21 wards and then subdivided into 60 hamlets.[5]

    Economy

    As the capital of the region, it is the center of government activities, trade, finance, and tourism. In the first half of the 20th century, Moshi was traditionally an important railway town, center of banana agriculture, and commercial producer of pyrethrum.[4]

    Tourism

    Moshi is one of tourism centers in the northern safari circuit of Tanzania. The closest tourism spots include Kilimanjaro National Park, Mkomazi National Park, Lake Jipe, and Lake Chala. There are also several waterfalls, natural springs, and tropical forests. Tours can also be arranged from Moshi to other areas such as Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Arusha National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, and Tarangire National Park. The city has several hotels and recreation centers.

    There is annual fair, KiliFair, organized to be an international tourism & industry fair, promoting and presenting companies based in the Kilimanjaro region. The fair has the character of a business networking event for the tourism industry, in combination with a community fair to attract local people, families & expats.[8] Recently, Karibu Fair (TATO) and Kilifair, both well-known tourism fairs decided to join into one and create by far the largest and most important Tourism Trade Fair in East Africa. The newly formed “Karibu/KiliFair” is expecting to host 350+ exhibitors from East and Central Africa, 300+ international hosted and semi-hosted buyers, as well as approximately 4000 trade visitors during the days of the fair. The fair will annually alternate between Moshi and Arusha starting 2018 event.

    • Timing: At the beginning of June every year (from 2015).
    • Venue(s): Ushirika Stadium in Moshi and Friedkin Recreation Center – TGT in Arusha
    • Coming Event: 2019, June 7 – 9 (to be held in Arusha)

    Manufacturing

    Moshi is the home to one of the three Coca-Cola bottlers in Tanzania, Bonite Botters Ltd. Serengeti Breweries, an East African Breweries company, also has a manufacturing plant in Moshi. Just south of the city, there is a sugar production facility by TPC Ltd which owns one of the largest and oldest sugar cane plantation in the country. There are several small and medium scale manufacturing facilities in dairy and food packaging sector.

    Agriculture

    Moshi's lower altitude and drier climate mean that the main crops grown on the higher slopes of

    Mt Kilimanjaro, coffee[9] and bananas,[10] do not thrive there. The surrounding areas in Moshi district are known for extensive farms of maize and beans, grown once per year during the long rainy season (known as "masika" in Kiswahili). In addition, the Tanganyika Planting Company operates a very large sugar cane plantation and company town 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of Moshi.[11]

    Roman Catholic missionaries introduced

    Chagga coffee growers to compete on equal terms in world markets with European growers.[12] KNCU collects coffee from 96 village societies, representing over 150,000 small-scale farmers.[9] KNCU handles between 50 and 70 percent of the coffee grown in the area and trades over 5,250 tons of Arabica coffee, or about 11 percent of national production.[9]

    Education

    Like all of Tanzania, Moshi has universal primary education. According to the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey 2010, the Kilimanjaro Region, which includes Moshi, had the second highest female

    literacy rate and the third highest male literacy rate among Tanzania's then-existing 26 regions.[13] According to the Tanzania Poverty and Human Development Report 2005, the Moshi urban district had the highest literacy rate for persons over 15 years of age when compared to any of the 128 other districts in Tanzania.[14]

    Moshi hosts a number of higher education facilities,which include the

    Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College (KCMCo), the Stefano Moshi Memorial University College (SMMUCo), the Mwenge Catholic University (MWECAU), the Moshi Co-operative University (MoCU), the College of African Wildlife Management
    (CAWM), the Kilimanjaro School of Pharmacy (KSP), and the Tanzania Training Centre for Orthopaedic Technologists (TATCOT).

    Moshi also has several secondary schools. The government schools are Mawenzi Secondary School, Moshi Technical School, Moshi Secondary School, and J. K. Nyerere Secondary School. The private schools are Majengo Secondary School, Northern Highland Secondary School, United World College East Africa, and Kibo Secondary School. In addition, each ward of Moshi has a community-established secondary school, such as Rau Secondary School and Kiboriloni Secondary School.

    • Mawenzi Secondary School started as the Indian School of Moshi in 1956. It is now a thriving school of 1,100 pupils. All A-Level students are female boarders and come from all over Tanzania. The school specialises at A-Level in Kiswahili, geography, history, and English. The school operates a double shift system for junior pupils (Form 1–4). All subjects are taught in English, apart from Kiswahili and French. Mawenzi School has had a link with Buckie High School in Scotland since 1987. Pupils and teachers have travelled between Tanzania and Scotland many times.
    • The United World College East Africa, formerly known as the International School Moshi (ISM), was established in 1969 to serve the needs of the expatriate and local communities. The school has about 600 students from nearly 40 different nationalities on two campuses in Moshi and Arusha.[15] The Moshi campus has about 190 students, including 90 boarders, from 25 nationalities and offers a full range of courses from early childhood to the International Baccalaureate Diploma.[16] The school has been an International Baccalaureate World School since 1977, and was the first school to offer the IB in Africa.[17] ISM is one of only two world schools in Tanzania to offer the primary years, middle years, and diploma programmes.[18] In August 2019 ISM became the 18th United World College in the world, adopting the name UWC East Africa.[19][20]

    There are also various English medium schools with pre-primary, primary, and secondary education, such as the Eden Garden schools.

    Moshi Town Panorama.

    Medical care

    The main private hospital in the area is the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC), a zonal referral hospital. This complex has more than 450 beds and serves a population of over 11 million individuals. The Good Samaritan Foundation of Tanzania founded KCMC in March 1971.[21]

    Next to KCMC is the Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO), which was founded in 2001 and is co-directed by Dr. Paul Courtright and Dr. Susan Lewallen. A new three-story building for KCCO was finished in 2007, funded by several individuals and non-governmental organizations.[22] The KCCO is "dedicated to the elimination of avoidable blindness through programmes, training, and research focusing on the delivery of sustainable and replicable community ophthalmology services".[23] The KCCO has an "official memorandum of understanding ... with the Department of Ophthalmology and Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College under which the KCCO assumes or shares responsibility (subject to specific funding grants) for many teaching activities, running workshops and seminars, supervising the ... [Ophthalmic Resource Centre for Eastern Africa], serving in an advisory capacity for planning Eye Department services, conducting epidemiologic and clinical research in prevention or treatment of vision loss or related fields, and serves on committees".[24]

    Moshi also hosts the

    Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute (KCRI), which is the research arm of KCMC. KCRI evolved from the Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Centre (KCRC) in 2009. KCRC was established in 2006 with the support of the Dutch government through the Netherlands-African partnership for Capacity development and Clinical interventions Against Poverty-related disease (NACCAP).[25][26]

    The primary public hospital in Moshi is the

    physiotherapy
    students in their second and third years come as short term apprentices.

    Transportation

    Roads

    Bus in Moshi.
    Kilimanjaro International Airport.

    Moshi is connected to other cities in Tanzania by Tanroads highway T2.[28] Several bus companies operate intercity routes from Moshi. There are also local buses for the intracity travel.

    Air

    Hai District
    approximately 40 km along the Moshi-Arusha Highway. There is also a small airport nearby (Moshi Airport) approximately 5 km from the city center. The airport serves mostly chartered and private flights.

    Rail

    Tanga Line
    passes through Moshi. The line carries cargo mostly cement from Tanga to Moshi and Arusha. There is regular passenger service to Arusha and Dar Es Salaam.

    Sports and Events

    The Askari monument in Moshi.

    Running races

    Moshi hosts the Kilimanjaro Marathon, Tanzania's largest sport event, held annually at the end of February or beginning of March since 2002. The race is a member of the

    International Association of Athletics Federations.[29]

    In 2015, 313 persons finished the 42.2 kilometres (26.2 mi) full marathon,[30] and 2,593 persons finished the 21.1 kilometres (13.1 mi) half marathon.[31] The race also includes a 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) fun run.

    Hockey

    Moshi has one field hockey pitch, formerly known as Sikh Club and it is home to well known hockey teams from Moshi like Moshi Khalsa and Kili Vijana. Hockey is an active sport in Moshi and it holds tournaments as well such as the annual Nyerere Cup hosted by the Sikh Community.

    Football

    Moshi has several football pitches where players from different ethnicities and backgrounds come together to enjoy the sport. The Ushirika Stadium is the only full - sized pitch where many official league matches have been played including the Tanzanian Premier League. Other pitches include the Hindu Mandal ground and the Moshi Club.

    Golf

    Moshi has two golf courses, Moshi Golf Course operated by Moshi Gymkhana Club (MGC) and TPC Moshi Golf Course operated by TPC Club. The clubs host various national and regional events, annually, coordinated by the Tanzania Golf Union.[32][33]

    Climate

    Moshi has a

    tropical wet and dry climate. Its weather is dominated year round by monsoonal flow. The northeast monsoon prevails December through March and is accompanied by the highest temperatures of the year. The southeast monsoon prevails from June through September. Unique among the world's monsoons, both monsoons in Tanzania are divergent in the low levels, shallow (averaging only 2 kilometres or 1.2 miles in depth), and capped by inversion and dry, subsiding air. These factors result in light or insignificant rainfall year-round except during the transitional periods between the monsoons.[34][35]

    Moshi's altitude keeps temperatures lower than surrounding cities, even without the maritime effects that a coastal city enjoys. Nighttime temperatures are relatively consistent throughout the year, averaging from 15 to 17 degrees Celsius. Moshi has noticeably warmer daytime temperatures from October through March, when average high temperatures exceed 30 degrees Celsius, and noticeably cooler daytime temperatures from May through August, when average high temperatures are 25 to 26 degrees Celsius.

    Moshi's wettest months are March through May, when around 71 percent of its annual rainfall occurs.

    Climate data for Moshi
    Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
    Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 33
    (91)     		33
    (91)     		32
    (90)     		29
    (84)     		26
    (79)     		25
    (77)     		25
    (77)     		26
    (79)     		28
    (82)     		31
    (88)     		31
    (88)     		32
    (90)     		29
    (85)
    Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 17
    (63)     		17
    (63)     		18
    (64)     		19
    (66)     		18
    (64)     		16
    (61)     		15
    (59)     		15
    (59)     		15
    (59)     		16
    (61)     		17
    (63)     		17
    (63)     		17
    (62)
    Average rainfall mm (inches) 30
    (1.2)     		50
    (2.0)     		110
    (4.3)     		350
    (13.8)     		230
    (9.1)     		30
    (1.2)     		20
    (0.8)     		10
    (0.4)     		10
    (0.4)     		20
    (0.8)     		60
    (2.4)     		50
    (2.0)     		970
    (38.4)
    Source: Weatherbase[36]

    Politics

    Moshi has been the base of opposition politics since the struggle for independence.

    The last Mangi Mkuu (Paramount Chief) of the Chagga,

    United Nations trust territory under British administration. In his speech to the United Nations Trusteeship Council on 17 June 1957, he said that Tanganyika could become self-governing within ten to fifteen years.[37] This speech occurred one day before Julius Nyerere addressed the same body.[38]

    In 2010, the unsuccessful Chadema presidential candidate,

    Chama cha Mapinduzi party.[39]

    In 2010, the Chadema parliamentary candidate, Philemon Kiwelu Ndesamburo, was elected to office with 62.3 percent of the vote.[40]

    As of May 2012, six of the seven special seats on the Moshi Municipal Council are held by Chadema party members.[41]

    In Literature

    In 1953, Journalist

    Somerset Maugham, if he ever wrote about Africa, might have invented."[4]

    See also

    References

    1. ^
      ISBN 9789211322187
      . Retrieved 2016-01-08.
    2. ^ a b [1] Archived May 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
    3. ^ Citypopulation.de Population of Moshi municipality
    4. ^
      ISBN 0836981979
      .
    5. ^ a b c "Moshi Municipal Council - Background". Moshimc.gov.tz. Archived from the original on 2016-01-31. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
    6. ^
      ISBN 9780521296113
      . Retrieved 2016-01-08.
    7. ^ [2] Archived November 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
    8. ^ "KILIFAIR Promotion Co. Ltd. - Home". kilifair-tanzania.com. Retrieved 2019-04-07.
    9. ^ a b c d [3] Archived August 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
    10. ^ a b [4] [dead link]
    11. ^ H Hellar; MA Kishimba. "PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN WATER FROM TPC SUGARCANE PLANTATIONS AND ENVIRONS, KILIMANJARO REGION, TANZANIA" (PDF). Ajol.info. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
    12. ^ a b c "Sadleir, Randal: Tanzania, Journey to Republic". Ntz.info. 2015-05-20. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
    13. ^ [5] Archived September 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
    14. ^ "Tanzania Poverty and Human Development Report 2005" (PDF). Repoa.or.tz. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
    15. ^ "International School Moshi". Ismoshi.org. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
    16. ^ "International School Moshi » Moshi Campus". Ismoshi.org. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
    17. ^ "International School Moshi (Moshi Campus)". International Baccalaureate®.
    18. ^ [6] Archived June 20, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
    19. ^ "UWC East Africa | the international school in Arusha & Moshi, Tanzania".
    20. ^ "UWC East Africa".
    21. ^ "Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre". Kcmc.ac.tz. 2013-05-14. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
    22. ^ "Donors and supporters of KCC". Archived from the original on 2012-09-07. Retrieved 2012-01-02.
    23. ^ "About KCCO". Archived from the original on 2012-08-03. Retrieved 2012-01-02.
    24. ^ "KCMC College/KCMC Eye Department and KCCO". Archived from the original on 2012-08-04. Retrieved 2012-01-02.
    25. ^ "History". Kcri.ac.tz. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
    26. ^ [7] Archived November 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
    27. ^ "Daily News | Theatre services suspended at Mawenzi Regional Hospital". Archived from the original on 2012-07-29. Retrieved 2012-01-02.
    28. ^ "Tanzania Road Neteork". geocities.ws/odysseygroup2007/images/proches/t-trunk-roads.jpg. April 8, 2019.
    29. ^ "The Annual Kilimanjaro Marathon Event | 42.2km Marathon event". Kilimanjaromarathon.com. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
    30. ^ "2015 Full Marathon Provisional Results" (PDF). Kilimanjaromarathon.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-02-25. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
    31. ^ "2015 Half Marathon Provisional Results" (PDF). Kilimanjaromarathon.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 February 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
    32. ^ "TGU Events | Tanzania Golf Union". Tgu.or.tz. Archived from the original on 15 February 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
    33. ^ "Golf Clubs | Tanzania Golf Union". Tgu.or.tz. Archived from the original on 15 February 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
    34. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). www.nrlmry.navy.mil. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 December 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
    35. S2CID 155673314. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
      )
    36. ^ "Weatherbase". Retrieved March 7, 2011.
    37. ISBN 978-3825880828
      .
    38. ^ "Chief Marealle II: Man who 'educated' Kilimanjaro". Archived from the original on 3 March 2007.
    39. ^ "Mwanzo ::Tume ya Taifa ya Uchaguzi". Nec.go.tz. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
    40. ^ "Mwanzo ::Tume ya Taifa ya Uchaguzi". Nec.go.tz. Archived from the original on 3 November 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
    41. ^ "Moshi Municipal Council - Councilors Contacts". www.moshimc.go.tz. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2022.

    External links

    Wikimedia Commons has media related to Moshi.
    Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Moshi.
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