Mbeya is a city located in southwest Tanzania, Africa. Mbeya's urban population was 280,000 in 2005. Mbeya is the capital of the surrounding rural Mbeya region (population, with Mbeya, totals approx. 2 million).
Mbeya is the first large urban settlement encountered when travelling overland from the neighbouring nation of Zambia.
Mbeya is situated at an altitude of 1,700 meters (5,500 ft), and
sprawls through a narrow highland valley surrounded by a bowl of high
mountains. The main language is colloquial Swahili, and the English language is extensively taught in schoolsFollowing the 1905 gold rush, Mbeya was founded as a gold mining town in the 1920s. The TAZARA railway
later attracting farming migrants and small entrepreneurs to the area.
Mbeya and its district was administered by the British until 1961. Mbeya
Region was created in 1961. Mbeya City is now a growing metropolis and
business centre for the southern regions and the neighbouring countries
of Malawi, Zambia and Congo. The City is well connected with an
all-weather road that forms part of the "Great North Road" running from
Cape Town to Alexandria. The City has several tribes including the
Safwa, Nyakyusa and Nyiha, all being agricultural peoples. Mbeya also
boasts as one of the regions that form the bread basket of Tanzania.
Local government is administered via the Mbeya Urban District authority and a Regional Commissioner.
Mbeya has weather with enough rainfall and fertile soil which enable
it to be thelargest producer of maize, rice, bananas, beans, potatoes
(Irish & sweet), soya nuts and wheat in the entire country. Tanzania
has a free market
in agricultural produce, and Mbeya transports vast amounts of its maize
to other areas of Tanzania. There is also extensive animal husbandry,
with dairy cattle predominating. Mbeya is also the biggest producer of
high-value export and cash crops in Tanzania; those crops are coffee
(arabica), tea, cocoa, pyrethirum and spices. There is some smallholder
cultivation of tobacco. Firewood is collected by women and girls, from
the wooded valleys and mountainsides. Bamboo
is naturally abundant in the forests, and there are plans to teach
local people about this versatile plant and its many uses. Some gold is
still mined in the rural Chunya District, by artisan miners.
Mbeya is considered to be heading the Southern Highlands Regions,
that's why there is a Mbeya Referral Hospital which serves the whole of
the Southern Highlands regions, Bank of Tanzania BOT, Mbeya Cement Company, Afri Bottlers Company Coca-Cola Company, SBC Tanzania Ltd Pepsi Cola Company, Tanzania Breweries Limited, NMB, TIB, Mbozi Coffee Curing Limited, Tukuyu Tea Company, Tanzania Oxygen Limited TOL - KYEJO,
CRDB all these serve as zonal representative for southern Highlands.
There are also a number of companies and statutory organisations with
zonal offices in Mbeya.
Besides a growing number of secondary schools, Mbeya has some
institutes of higher learning education. Among the better known ones are
- Teofilo Kisanji University is a young institution of the Moravian Church in Tanzania offering courses in theology,business, arts, sciences and educational studies, as well as training pastors and. Since 2005, it has grown out of the earlier Moravian Theological College. The college is situated at Soweto suburb.
- Mbeya University of Science and Technology (MUST) formerly known as Mbeya institute of Science and Technology (MIST) is a public institution offering degrees, advanced diplomas, and ordinary diplomas in various engineering disciplines. The College is at Iyunga area.
- Mzumbe University (MU) Mbeya Campus is situated in Forest area next to the Bank of Tanzania. This public University offers bachelor degrees and diplomas in law and business, as well as providing evening programs in postgraduate studies.
