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33-742: The park is in the Mtwara district of Southeast Tanzania and extends to the border with Mozambique . The area is considered to have globally significant marine biodiversity values and covers 650 square kilometres, of which 33% is on land. The park extends from the northern portion of the Ruvuma Estuary to Mnazi Bay, including the headland of Ras Msangamkuu. The environment within the park includes mangroves , rocky and sandy shoreline, mudflats , salt pans , fringing coral reefs , lagoonal patch reef, seagrass beds, three islands (Namponda, Mongo and Kisiwa Kidogo) and numerous small rocky islets. The Park

66-656: A Fabian view of colonial intervention which encouraged a proactive state role in producing primary materials and extending social benefits to colonial populations. The Tanganyika initiative represents part of a " second colonial occupation " within the British Empire , characterised by economic control and technological expertise. In 1946, Frank Samuel , head of the United Africa Company , came up with an idea to cultivate groundnuts in Tanganyika,

99-450: A deep-water port that can accommodate ocean-going vessels, and a range of large municipal buildings, including a post office. Recent improvements in the port made it possible for big container ships to berth there. Mtwara has reasonable transport links considering its remoteness in southern Tanzania. It is linked by paved roads with Dar es Salaam and Lindi to the north and Masasi inland and by partially paved roads to Newala in-land to

132-600: A British colonial territory under UN trusteeship , for the production of vegetable oil . Britain remained under World War II rationing and was short of cooking oils and fats, and especially margarine. He presented the idea to John Strachey, the Minister of Food , and in April 1946, the British government authorised a mission to visit suitable sites, led by John Wakefield , former Director of Agriculture in Tanganyika. After

165-537: A branch of the Dangote Cement Public Limited Company and medium scale cement factory owned by Chinese at Mikindani called Lulu Cement. Due to close proximity to the equator and the warm Indian Ocean , the city experiences tropical climatic conditions similar to all Tanzanian coastal cities. The city experiences hot and humid weather throughout much of the year and has a tropical wet and dry climate ( Köppen : Aw ). Annual rainfall

198-522: A flight in the afternoon. The flight time is around an hour. Current improvement of the airport makes it possible for landing in the day and night or in the mist. Mtwara serves as the access point for a small but growing tourism industry based in nearby Mikindani . New roads of a good standard were being built in 2013 within the city. Most of the roads have never been sealed. There is a choice of bus companies which provide daily services between Mtwara and Dar es Salaam. Also regular buses connect with Masasi ,

231-513: A three-month mission, the team's report in September 1946 was optimistically favourable to the scheme and recommended the cultivation of 3.21 million acres for groundnuts by 1952. The Cabinet approved the recommendations in January 1947, and began transporting personnel and machinery to Tanganyika. Officials began to recruit men for the "Groundnut Army" and 100,000 former soldiers volunteered for

264-482: Is approximately 1,024 mm (40 in), and in a normal year the rainy season lasts from November to April/May and the dry season from then until late October. Mtwara is the hometown of Bandari F.C. and NDANDA F. C. Mtwara is twinned with: 10°16′25″S 40°10′58″E  /  10.27361°S 40.18278°E  / -10.27361; 40.18278 Tanganyika groundnut scheme The Tanganyika groundnut scheme , or East Africa groundnut scheme ,

297-559: Is home to nesting grounds for Green and Hawksbill turtles , and a number of marine mammals have been seen in the area including migrating Humpback whales and the Indopacific Humpback dolphin . A large population of crab-plovers led to the area being designated as an Important Bird Area (IBA) in 2001. The area was also once home to dugongs but the last confirmed sighting was in 1992, although there have been unconfirmed sightings since. Close to 30,000 people live within

330-448: The 1,200 jobs. The advance party set up camp at Kongwa , not far from Dodoma (now the capital of Tanzania), and scouted out the area. They deemed it suitable for groundnuts despite the large amount of clay and the local shortage of water, and established the scheme's headquarters there. Gradually a whole town was established, known locally as 'Half London', as half the population of London seemed to wash up there over time. Obtaining

363-407: The 1940s, it was planned and constructed as the export facility for the disastrous Tanganyika groundnut scheme , but was somewhat neglected when the scheme was abandoned in 1951. The city is spread out over a large area planned to accommodate up to 200,000 people. The present population is around 141,000. As part of the development associated with the failed Tanganyika groundnut scheme, Mtwara features

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396-512: The biggest town inland from Mtwara. The port is the third largest ocean port in the country and was built as part of the failed Tanganyika groundnut scheme . The port was neglected for many years, however with the recent economic boom in the region, the government has spent funds for the upgrade of the port. Recently the port has seen added activity due to the construction of the Dangote cement factory and increased gas exploration activities and

429-400: The crop. After two years, only 2,000 tons of groundnuts were harvested, less than had been imported as seed, and an attempt to grow sunflowers instead proved futile as they were even more susceptible to drought. The scheme's managers therefore began to focus attention on the more fertile regions in the west and south of Tanganyika, but the development of both was proving painfully slow. In

462-510: The first nuts. When the rainy season arrived, some of the workshops and stores were swept away by a flash flood. After that, the hot season baked the ground clay into a hard surface that made harvesting the nuts very difficult. In February 1948, the United Africa Company handed over responsibility for the project to the newly formed Overseas Food Corporation (OFC). It sent a new manager, Major-General Desmond Harrison , to

495-486: The front, creating what were known as " shervicks "—but these too proved no match for the African bush. Eventually, in the wooded Southern Province, they discovered that a long chain linked between two bulldozers would flatten all the trees in between, while a third bulldozer was used to overturn any trees that resisted the chain. The first order for a suitable ship's anchor chain from London was, however, cancelled by

528-511: The heavy equipment necessary to clear the land for cultivation, however proved difficult. Eventually, the project managers found some suitable tractors and bulldozers from Canada and bought up U.S. Army surplus tractors from the Philippines, though many proved to be too rusted to use. These then had to be transported through the Port of Dar es Salaam , which became hopelessly congested, to

561-469: The inland site using the only available transport, a single-track railway with steam locomotives. A sudden flood of the Kinyansungwe River wiped out part of the rail tracks, leaving a dirt road as the only means of transport. This delayed the arrival of the bulldozers needed for clearing until April 1947. Even then, the bush proved far harder to clear than the planners had expected. Besides

594-455: The main casualties were the heavy machines. By the end of the summer of 1947, two-thirds of the imported tractors had been rendered unusable. Bulldozer blades that were used to extract ground roots were ruined in a couple of days. In the spirit of 'making do', the scheme bought up surplus Sherman tanks and got the Vickers engineering company to take the armour off and put a bulldozer blade on

627-530: The managers in London because they thought it was a joke. In September 1947, the African workers joined a nationwide strike for three days; the expatriate staff were less than delighted to have to do their own cooking. A growing number of Africans were then employed as tractor drivers and, after early errors, became skilled at the job. With great difficulty, the Groundnut Army was finally able to plant

660-403: The natural hazards of local wildlife (on several occasions workers had to face angry elephants and rhinoceros ), they found the large local baobab trees were hard to remove, a task made more difficult by one of them being a local tribal jail, another a site of ancestor worship , and many had bees ' nests in their hollow trunks. Several workers were hospitalised with vicious bee stings. But

693-471: The park, depending mainly on marine resources for their livelihoods; the park includes in its boundaries 11 villages and 8 sub-villages. There are few opportunities for development hence poverty is rife. This has created an over dependence on marine resources and the persistent use of destructive fishing methods. Gas was discovered in Mnazi Bay in 1982, and wells were brought into operation in 2006. Gas from

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726-600: The port for the export of iron ore and coal. There are plans to build a railway linking Mtwara with Lindi and mines at Mchuchuma and Liganga via Songea . In the year 2003, there were proposals for transporting coal from the Ludewa and Njombe regions respectively by rail to the port of Mtwara in Southern Tanzania as part of the Mtwara Development Corridor project. Mtwara hosts

759-423: The profits from the British Empire . The scheme's proponents, including Minister of Food John Strachey , had overlooked warnings that the environment and rainfall were unsuitable, communications were inadequate, and the project was being pursued with excessive haste. The disastrous project management, initially by the United Africa Company , and subsequently by the government-run Overseas Food Corporation , led

792-445: The recent energy crisis, has seen Mtwara port used as port for transporting Coal. The port in the future is planned to facilitate exports such as Cashew nuts, Iron, Coal and Gas. The port also has an Export Processing zone to facilitate the manufacturing industry in the area. New Port for dirty cargo such as Cement and Coal is planned to be constructed at Mgao Village near Mikindani, it is under final stage of procurement. Mtwara might be

825-473: The scheme to be popularly seen as a symbol of government incompetence and failure in late colonial Africa. Despite the enormous effort and spending £36 million (equivalent to over £1 billion in 2020), the project failed abjectly and was finally abandoned in 1951. It was described in 1953 as "the worst fiasco in recent British colonial history." In the period after the Second World War, Britain

858-515: The scheme was coming in for robust criticism in Parliament and the press. The government persevered, but suffered for it at the election in 1950 and even more when they lost the 1951 United Kingdom general election . Just before that, in January 1951, they finally cancelled the project, the Treasury writing off a total of £36.5 million—equivalent in 2020 to over £1 billion. Mechanised production

891-466: The site. He found the scheme in a state of chaos, and immediately tried to instil some military discipline, which did not endear him to the workers, but subsequently retreated to his tent to concentrate on copious paperwork in a vain effort to contain the spiralling costs. Late in the year he was ordered back home on sick leave. In 1949, the Kongwa region was struck by a terrible drought, which decimated

924-446: The south, not only was a whole new railway line needed, but a deep-water port had to be constructed from scratch at Mtwara . The Southern Province Railway was constructed first in order to transport the crops, but never had any to transport and was later dismantled. The original target of 3 million acres was reduced to 150,000 acres (607 km ) and then to 50,000 acres (202 km ). In the end only 47,000 were ever cleared. By late 1949,

957-490: The wells is now piped to Mtwara where a gas to power plant provides electricity for the Mtwara and Lindi areas. However, the quantity of gas available is far greater and the wells have now become the focus of plans to supply power to the national grid in an attempt to relieve national power supply problems. Mtwara Mtwara ( Portuguese : Montewara ) is the capital city of Mtwara Region in southeastern Tanzania . In

990-527: The west. Beyond Masasi the road is newly paved towards Songea via Tunduru and Namtumbo and the Unity Bridge which provides a crossing point to Mozambique . The A19 links it with Mbamba Bay on Lake Malawi in the west. It features an airport with a new paved runway that can accommodate medium size passenger jets up to Boeing 737 and Airbus. Precision Air runs a daily morning flight between Mtwara Airport and Dar es Salaam and Air Tanzania offers

1023-616: Was a failed attempt by the British government to cultivate tracts of its African trust territory Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania ) with peanuts . Launched in the aftermath of World War II in 1946 by the Labour Party administration of prime minister Clement Attlee , the goal was to produce urgently needed oilseeds on a projected 3 million acres (5,000 sq miles, or over 12,000 km , an area almost as big as Yorkshire ), in order to increase margarine supplies in Britain and increase

Mnazi Bay-Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park - Misplaced Pages Continue

1056-547: Was in significant debt to the United States, facing what John Maynard Keynes termed a "financial Dunkirk ", and the Attlee government sought the development of imperial territories to minimise their financial reliance upon the United States. Increasing the cultivation of food supplies in colonial territories, both for local consumption and export, was a central component of this strategy. The government subscribed to

1089-510: Was stopped, and the cleared land handed over to African farmers, who did a better job growing tobacco, cashew nuts and herding cattle. The 1950 British comedy film , The Happiest Days of Your Life , concludes with Alastair Sim and Margaret Rutherford quietly discussing in which remote and unattractive corner of the British Empire they might best try to pick up the pieces of their respective careers, and with her mentioning having

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