Safari Notes

Spectacular Selous Game Reserve As a child, I and my family spent some years in Iringa, Tanzania and areas around it - Iringa is a town with beautiful surroundings and an excellent climate. Not far - South East of Iringa, is one of the most breathtaking, wonderful and pristine wilderness and game reserves in the world: the Selous Game Reserve. Selous ( pronounced Seloo , is named after Englishman, Frederick Courtney Selous - conservationist, hunter, explorer and author)   is the largest g ame reserve in Tanzania and due to its uniqueness, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The reserve is approximately 55,000 square kilometers - about 21,236 square miles (that is four times the size of the Serengeti, more than three times the size of Swaziland and more than twice the size of Rwanda; almost five times the size of Qatar; larger than Costa Rica or Netherlands or Denmark or  Bhutan or Switzerland; and more than twice the sizes of  Massachusetts or Vermont or New Hamps...

Of its almost forty eight million citizens, about five million or about 11% of Tanzanians use the Internet and it ranks 7th in Internet usage in Africa - according to Internet World Atlas . Of these few who have Internet access, many use social media; of these, are those out of the country. A few, are blogging. With Tanzanian's superb and refined commandment of Kiswahili, most of these active blogs are in this country's national and official language. Tanzanian blogs are vibrant, too colorful and most are focused on the entertainment industry - music in particular; very few are serious and well styled.

Nectophrynoides asperginis the Kihansi spray toad was originally discovered and described in 1998 . The Kihansi spray toad is now extinct in the wild. The Kihansi spray toad lived in the spray wetland of the Kihansi Falls in the Kihansi Gorge in the Udzungwa Mountains of eastern Tanzania The serious decline and extinction of this species appears related to the construction of a hydroelectric dam in 2000 upstream on the Kihansi River, which cut off 90% of the original water flow to the gorge, thereby hugely reducing the volume of spray, particularly in the dry season. Read more >>>> More on the Kihansi Toad: IUCN , AmphibiaWeb , Wikipedia , Mongobay , Science Daily , WCS , Guardian ,

The Tanzanian government, like the Ugandan one, may soon allow dual citizenship for its people. If approved, this new law will not only benefit thousands of Tanzanians, especially those living abroad - mainly in the Middle East - but the new policy will allow too, Tanzania to benefit economically. The new law, if approved, will allow the many Tanzanians living abroad to invest their wealth, some of which is huge, in to Tanzania. And it will allow too, the free movement of many Tanzanians who were very much restricted by the previous policy. It's very disappointing and sad that, for many years, East African governments never allowed dual or multiple citizenship for their populace. This has always very much restricted the movement of East Africans living abroad; it has also made it very difficult for them, many of whom are wealthy, to invest back home into East Africa. Contrary to what many East African lawmakers have always believed in, the allowing of dual or multiple citizenship w...

Tanzania hasn't had as much oil exploration as Kenya, but it has made discoveries of gas along its coast, at Songo Songo and Mnazi; and has produced and used some of it. Of late, there has been an increase in exploration activity in Southern Tanzania; mainly by Western oil companies. Tanzania's oil exploration has a long history, dating back to the early 1950s but without much success. It's only in the last few years that 'significant' gas discoveries have been made; just recently, more gas has been discovered by an Australian company near Songo Songo. ( Photo: Songo Songo ) But despite these gas discoveries and expected oil discoveries, Tanzania - with an estimated 38 million inhabitants - is still struggling with widespread poverty and remains the poorest of the three East Africa nations. Tanzania is rich in mineral and other natural resources, and has a comparatively very good political system and governance; but due to mismanagement and bad policies, Tanzanians ...

This is shocking. Dreadful. Atrocious. And beyond belief or understanding. In Tanzania, the tens of thousands of Albinos are being hunted, and butchered by those who believe in witchcraft; believing that - the use of body parts of albinos in potions would 'help' them 'succeed' in business, politics etcetera. Watch this Al Jazeera video: Recent reports on the plight of albinos, have been shocking. Some excerpts: Some witch-doctors also say they can use albino body parts in a potion to make people rich. A teacher in the northern town of Arusha has been arrested for killing his own child, who was albino. As well as the four killings, the body of an albino has also been exhumed. It was found with its limbs cut off. The BBC Discrimination against albinos is a serious problem throughout sub-Saharan Africa, but recently in Tanzania it has taken a wicked twist: at least 19 albinos, including children, have been killed and mutilated in the past year, victims of what Tanzanian o...

The Lake Natron soda ash project will proceed. That's what the Tanzanian National Development Corporation has decided . Contrary to what the NDC says, it (NDC) is not conscious and serious with preserving the environment and biodiversity of Lake Natron and protecting the World's most important breeding site for the lesser flamingos. The NDC is only serious and conscious about the millions of Dollars involved. The so called 'benefits' and 'development' that the project will bring to the area and its people, is nothing compared to the destruction and impact that the project will cause to the Lake and the area. Three-quarters of the world population of Lesser Flamingos live and breed in East Africa. Many depend on Tanzania’s Lake Natron as a breeding site. Food is plentiful, nesting sites abound – and above all, the lake is isolated and undisturbed . But now, with the soda ash project, that will be no more. The 'multi million Dollar' project, by the Indian...