HEHE TRIBAL LEADER, CHIEF MKWAWA

Chief Mkwavinyika Munyigumba Mwamuyinga (1855–19 July 18981), more commonly known as Chief Mkwawa, was a Hehe tribal leader in German East Africa (now mostly the mainland part of Tanzania) who opposed the German colonization.

After his death, German soldiers removed Mkwawa's head. The skull was sent to Berlin and probably ended up in the Übersee-Museum Bremen. In 1918 the then British Administrator of German East Africa H.A. Byatt proposed to his government that it should demand a return of the skull to Tanganyika in order to reward the Wahehe for their cooperation with the British during the war and in order to have a symbol assuring the locals of the definitive end of German power. The skull's return was stipulated in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles:

THE ISIMILA STONE AGE SITE

THE ISIMILA STONE AGE SITE in Tanzania provides fascinating insights into how ancient man developed the tools to master his environment.

Stone tools and artefacts found at Isimila near Iringa town, over 500 kilometres from Dar es Salaam, show that the Hehe — one of the ethnic groups in the region — used the site as a sort of Stone Age weapons factory.

Excarvation in Iringa region, especially Mtera and Upper Kihansi, indicate that there were settlements in these areas from as early as 200,000 years ago to as late as the Iron Age.

According to Mohammed Ngoma, a conservationist at the Isimila Stone Age Site, Upper Kihansi too was a production site for stone tools of the Neolithic period, which include pot shards and remains of iron works.

The Iron Age settlements in Iringa district and rock paintings at Kombangulu in Kilolo district also provide fascinating glimpses into the lives of early humans.

The Isimila site is reputed to have been inhabited from 300,000 to 400,000 years ago. The soil erosion that has been occurring there over the millennia, has un

covered remains of stone tools, animals and plants that have contributed to the understanding of the pre-history of the area.

SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK

The Serengeti National Park is a Tanzanian national park in the Serengeti ecosystem in the Mara and Simiyu regions. It is famous for its annual migration of over 1.5 million white bearded (or brindled) wildebeest and 250,000 zebra and for its numerous Nile crocodile.

MIKUMI NATIONAL PARK

The Mikumi National Park is a national park in Mikumi, near Morogoro, Tanzania. The park, established in 1964, currently covers an area of 3230 km² and is the fourth largest in the country. The park is crossed by Tanzania A-7 highway.

The park contains a subspecies of giraffe, that biologists consider the link between the Masai giraffe and the reticulated or Somali giraffe. Other animals in the park are elephants, zebras, impala, eland, kudu, black antelope, baboons, wildebeests and buffaloes.

RUAHA NATIONAL PARK

Ruaha National Park, the second largest national park in the country, is one of the unexplored parks in Tanzania and the largest elephant sanctuary. The name Ruaha derives from the great Ruaha River which flows along its entire eastern border creating spectacular gorges and scenery.
AREA : 13,000 Sq. Km.
ALTITUDE : 1000 Metres