Tanzania trivia: 46 questions and answers

Dodoma. Dodoma, in the centre of the country, is the official capital, where parliament meets. Dar es Salaam is the largest city and main port and still hosts many government offices.

5,895 m. Kilimanjaro reaches 5,895 m at Uhuru Peak. Mount Meru in Tanzania is 4,562 m, and Mount Kenya is 5,199 m.

Swahili. Swahili (Kiswahili) is the national language and is spoken almost everywhere, alongside more than 100 local languages. English is used in diplomacy, foreign trade and secondary schools and universities.

True. True. Tanganyika on the mainland and the islands of Zanzibar united in 1964, and Zanzibar still has its own president and parliament for local affairs.

Ibn Battuta. Ibn Battuta visited Kilwa in 1331, when it was the richest Swahili city-state on the coast. Marco Polo was Venetian, and Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer of the late 1400s. Zheng He was a Chinese admiral whose fleets reached East Africa in the 1400s.

Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika. Stanley found Livingstone at Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, near today's Kigoma, on 10 November 1871.

Britain. After the First World War, Britain ruled Tanganyika under a League of Nations mandate. Germany had ruled it before the war as part of German East Africa.

Ujamaa. Ujamaa means "familyhood" in Swahili. Harambee is Kenya's motto, ubuntu is a Southern African idea of shared humanity, and uhuru means freedom.

True. True. On 27 August 1896 British warships shelled the sultan's palace, and the war was over in 38 to 45 minutes, the shortest on record.

False. False. Tanganyika became independent on 9 December 1961 and Zanzibar on 10 December 1963. They united in 1964.

Eggs. Chipsi mayai means "chips and eggs": fried chips cooked into an omelette in the pan.

Meat, usually beef. Mtori is made of green cooking bananas cooked with meat, usually beef, and then mashed. It comes from the banana-growing slopes around Moshi and Arusha.

Zanzibar. Urojo is a Zanzibar street food, sold in the evening at Forodhani Gardens in Stone Town.

Coconut milk. Vitumbua are made of rice flour and coconut milk, cooked in a pan with round hollows so they are crisp outside and soft inside.

The right hand. Eat and pass food with the right hand. This is the custom across Tanzania, as in much of East Africa.

True. True. Ugali is a firm dough of maize flour and boiling water, eaten with beans, greens, fish or stew.

False. False. Pilau is rice cooked in a meat broth with spices such as cumin, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves, served at weddings and festivals.

Mwanza. Mwanza is called Rock City. Kigoma is on Lake Tanganyika, and Tanga is on the Indian Ocean.

Moshi. Moshi sits at the foot of Kilimanjaro, surrounded by coffee and banana farms of the Chagga people.

True. True. Dar es Salaam is the largest city and main port, but the official capital is Dodoma.

Uhuru Peak. Uhuru Peak, "Freedom Peak", is the summit of Kilimanjaro. Batian and Point Lenana are on Mount Kenya, and Socialist Peak is the top of Mount Meru.

Serengeti National Park. Serengeti National Park is home to the Great Migration: the wildebeest, with zebras and gazelles, circle through the Serengeti and Kenya's Maasai Mara following the rains.

Gombe National Park. Gombe National Park, a small park on Lake Tanganyika reached only by boat, is where Jane Goodall began studying chimpanzees in 1960.

Fossils of early humans. At Olduvai Gorge, Louis and Mary Leakey found stone tools and fossils of early humans and their relatives up to about 1.9 million years old.

Mount Meru. Mount Meru, just north of Arusha, rises to 4,562 m, second only to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

True. True. Coral stone is the main building material of Stone Town and gives it its warm, reddish colour.

False. False. The Ngorongoro Crater is a huge volcanic caldera with a flat, grassy floor full of lions, elephants, buffalo, hippos and black rhinos.

Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined together. The name is Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined together: it was made in 1964 from the first letters of the two countries that united.

Tanzanite. Tanzanite is mined only in a small area near the Mererani Hills. Tiffany & Co. named it after the country.

Freddie Mercury. Freddie Mercury, the singer of Queen, was born in Zanzibar in 1946. His family moved to England in 1964.

Lake Tanganyika. Lake Tanganyika is the deepest lake in Africa and the second deepest in the world, after Lake Baikal. Lake Victoria is the largest in area but much shallower.

7 in the morning. Saa moja asubuhi is 7 in the morning, because Swahili time counts the hours from about 6 o'clock.

True. True. Nyerere trained and worked as a schoolteacher before politics, and Tanzanians still call him Mwalimu.

False. False. Mungu ibariki Afrika, "God bless Africa", uses the tune of the South African hymn Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika.

Freedom. Uhuru means freedom, as in Uhuru Peak, the summit of Kilimanjaro. Friend is rafiki, journey is safari and water is maji.

Slowly. Polepole means slowly or gently, and guides say it all the time on Kilimanjaro. Goodbye is kwaheri.

True. True. In Swahili, safari simply means a journey or trip of any kind.

Shikamoo. Shikamoo is the respectful greeting for elders. Marahaba is the elder's reply, lala salama means good night, and kwaheri means goodbye.

Where is the toilet?. "Choo kiko wapi?" means "Where is the toilet?": choo is toilet and wapi means where. "How much is this?" is "Hii ni bei gani?"

Poa. "Poa", cool, is the usual casual reply. Marahaba answers an elder's greeting, kwaheri is goodbye and samahani means sorry.

True. True. A younger person says Shikamoo, and the older person answers Marahaba.

False. False. Hakuna matata means "no worries". Good morning is "Habari za asubuhi?"

True. True. Plastic bags are banned, and as of September 2026 travellers arriving by air are asked to hand them over.

False. False. As of September 2026 it is illegal to take or share photos and videos of protests.

Zanzibar's own inbound travel insurance. As of September 2026 every visitor except residents must have Zanzibar's own inbound travel insurance from the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation; other policies are not accepted instead.

Altitude sickness. Altitude sickness is the main risk, even for fit walkers. Going slowly, "pole pole", and allowing enough days helps the body adjust.