Famous people from Tanzania
Here is a list of famous people from Tanzania. Curious if anybody from Tanzania made it our most famous people in the world list? Read the aformentioned article in order to find out.
Julius Nyerere
Politician
Julius Kambarage Nyerere was a Tanzanian politician who served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country's founding in 1961 until his retirement in 1985. Born in Tanganyika to Nyerere Burito, Chief of the Zanaki, Nyerere was known by the Swahili name Mwalimu or 'teacher', his profession prior to politics. He was also referred to as Baba wa Taifa. Nyerere received his higher education at Makerere University in Kampala and the University of Edinburgh. After he returned to Tanganyika, he worked as a teacher. In 1954, he helped form the Tanganyika African National Union. In 1961 on independence, Nyerere was elected Tanganyika's first Prime Minister, and following the declaration of a republic in 1962, the country's first President. In 1964, Tanganyika became politically united with Zanzibar and was renamed to Tanzania. In 1965, a one-party election returned Nyerere to power. During the first years, Nyerere created a single-party system and used "preventive detention" to eliminate trade unions and opposition. Nyerere issued the Arusha Declaration, which outlined his socialist vision of ujamaa that came to dominate his policies. The policies led to a collapsing economy, systematic corruption, and unavailability of goods. In the early 1970s Nyerere ordered his security forces to forcibly transfer much of the population to collective farms and, because of opposition from villagers, often burned villages down. The campaign pushed the nation to the brink of starvation and made it dependent on foreign food aid.
Jakaya Kikwete
Politician
Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete is the 4th and current President of the United Republic of Tanzania. Prior to his election in 2005, he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs for ten years under his predecessor. He has also served as the Chairperson of the African Union in 2008/09 and the Chairman of the Southern African Development Community Troika on Peace, Defence and Security in 2012/13.
Rachel Luttrell
Actor
Rachel Luttrell is an actress best known for her role as Teyla Emmagan, an Athosian warrior leader on Stargate Atlantis.
David Adjaye
Architect
David Adjaye OBE is a British architect.
Mizengo Pinda
Politician
Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda is a Tanzanian CCM politician and Member of Parliament for Katavi constituency since 2005. He is the current Prime Minister of Tanzania.
Ida Ljungqvist
Model
Ida Ljungqvist is a Tanzanian-Swedish model. She was named Playboy's Playmate of the Month for March 2008 and the 2009 Playmate of the Year. She is the first African-born and second Swedish model to be named a Playmate of the Year. She is also the first Playmate of the Year to publicly dedicate her title to philanthropic work through non-profit charities and organizations. Ljungqvist was born in Tanzania to a Tanzanian mother and a Swedish father. She was discovered by 2007 Playmate of the Year Sara Jean Underwood at a bebe store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California. Ljungqvist co-hosted the Playboy New Year's Eve Party 2009 in Miami, Florida alongside several other playmates.
Alan Johnston
Journalist
Alan Graham Johnston is a British journalist working for the BBC. He has been the BBC's correspondent in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip, and is currently the correspondent in Rome. Johnston was kidnapped by a group of Palestinian militants on 12 March 2007, and released nearly four months later on 4 July, after Hamas' seizure of control in Gaza.
Tippu Tip
Author
Tippu Tip or Tib, real name Hamad bin Muḥammad bin Jumah bin Rajab bin Muḥammad bin Sa‘īd al-Murghabī, was a Swahili-Zanzibari trader. He was famously known by the natives of East Africa as Tippu Tib after the sounds that his many guns made. A notorious slave trader, plantation owner and governor, who worked for a succession of sultans of Zanzibar, he led many trading expeditions into Central Africa, involving the slave trade and ivory trade. He constructed profitable trading posts that reached deep into Central Africa. He built himself a trading empire that he then translated into clove plantations on Zanzibar. Abdul Sheriff reported that when he left for his twelve years of "empire building" on the mainland, he had no plantations of his own. However, by 1895, he had acquired "seven shambas [plantations] and 10,000 slaves." His mother, Bint Habib bin Bushir, was a Muscat Arab of the ruling class. His father and paternal grandfather were coastal Swahili who had taken part in the earliest trading expeditions to the interior. His paternal great-grandmother, wife of Rajab bin Mohammed bin Said el Murgebi was the daughter of Juma bin Mohammed el Nebhani, a member of a respected Muscat family, and an African woman from the village of Mbwa Maji, a small village south of what would later become the German capital of Dar es Salaam.
Edward Lowassa
Politician
Edward Ngoyai Lowassa is a Tanzanian politician who was Prime Minister of Tanzania from 2005 to 2008, serving under President Jakaya Kikwete.
Maria Wasti
Actor
Maria Wasti is a Pakistani film and television actress. Most of her roles in television serials portray her as a Pakistani woman going through difficult times and have landed her great respect in the eyes of critics and fans alike.
Mrisho Ngassa
Footballer
Mrisho Khalfani Ngassa is a Tanzanian footballer who plays club football for Simba and is also a member of the Tanzania national team.
Abdur Raheem Green
Man
Abdur Raheem Green is a British Muslim convert who is known in some Muslim communities for his work in Dawah, both in televised formal settings and informal contexts such as Hyde Park's Speakers Corner. He is a regular presenter on Peace TV. He is currently engaged in education and media work on Peace TV and Islam Channel and is the chairman of iERA, the Islamic Education & Research Academy. Green has given talks on international platforms, such as the Peace Conference held in Mumbai.
David Myatt
Man
David Myatt – also known as David Wulstan Myatt and formerly known as Abdul-Aziz ibn Myatt – is the founder of The Numinous Way, a former British Muslim, and a former neo-nazi. "A British iconoclast who has lived a somewhat itinerant life and has undertaken an equally desultory intellectual quest, Myatt is emblematic of the modern syncretism of radical ideologies", and regarded as an "example of the axis between right-wing extremists and Islamists". He has been described as one of the more interesting figures on the British neo-Nazi scene since the 1970s. Before his conversion to Islam in 1998, Myatt was the first leader of the British National Socialist Movement, and was identified by the British newspaper, The Observer, as the "ideological heavyweight" behind Combat 18. At a 2003 UNESCO conference in Paris, which concerned the growth of anti-Semitism, it was stated that "David Myatt, the leading hardline Nazi intellectual in Britain since the 1960s [...] has converted to Islam, praises bin Laden and al Qaeda, calls the 9/11 attacks 'acts of heroism,' and urges the killing of Jews. Myatt, under the name Abdul Aziz Ibn Myatt supports suicide missions and urges young Muslims to take up Jihad. Observers warn that Myatt is a dangerous man..." This view of Myatt as a radical Muslim, or Jihadi, is supported by Professor Robert S. Wistrich, who writes that Myatt, when a Muslim, was a staunch advocate of "Jihad, suicide missions and killing Jews..." and also "an ardent defender of bin Laden". One of Myatt's writings justifying suicide attacks was, for several years, on the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades section of the Hamas website.
Chipo Chung
Actor
Chipo Chung is a Tanzanian-born actress raised in Zimbabwe. She currently lives in London.
Asha-Rose Migiro
Politician
Asha-Rose Mtengeti Migiro is a Tanzanian lawyer and politician. She was appointed as the Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa of the United Nations Secretary-General on 13 July 2012. Previously, she was the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. She was formally appointed and assumed office on February 1. She completed her appointment as DSG at the UN in June 2012. She is married to Cleophas Migiro, and the couple has two daughters. She is the third Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Muhoozi Kainerugaba
Man
Muhoozi Kainerugaba is a Brigadier in the Uganda People's Defence Force. He is the Commander of the Special Forces Group, which contains the unit known as Presidential Guard Brigade responsible for providing security to the President of Uganda and to Uganda's constitutional monarchs. The Special Forces Group is also responsible for providing security at Uganda's oil installations. He is the son of President Yoweri Museveni, who is allegedly grooming him as his successor.
Filbert Bayi
Olympic athlete
Filbert Bayi is a former Tanzanian middle-distance runner of the 1970s who set the world records for 1500 metres in 1974 and the mile in 1975. He is still the 1500 m Commonwealth Games record holder.
Emily Ruete
Noble person
Emily Ruete was born in Zanzibar as Sayyida Salme, Princess of Zanzibar and Oman. She was the youngest of the 36 children of Sayyid Said bin Sultan Al-Busaid, Sultan of Zanzibar and Oman. She is the author of Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar.
Ahmed Ghailani
Man
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is a conspirator of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization convicted for his role in the bombing of embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He was indicted in the United States as a participant in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. He was on the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list from its inception in October 2001. In 2004, he was captured and detained by Pakistani forces in a joint operation with the United States, and was held until June 9, 2009, in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp; one of 14 Guantanamo detainees who had previously been held at secret locations abroad. According to The Washington Post, Ghailani told military officers he is contrite and claimed to be an exploited victim of al-Qaeda operatives. Ghailani was transported from Guantanamo Bay to New York City to await trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in June 2009. When the case came to trial, the judge disallowed the testimony of a key witness. On November 17, 2010, a jury found him guilty of one count of conspiracy, but acquitted him of 284 other charges including all murder counts. Critics of the Obama administration said the verdict proves civilian courts cannot be trusted to prosecute terrorists because it shows a jury might acquit such a defendant entirely. Supporters of the trial have said that the conviction and the stiff sentencing prove that the federal justice system works.
Luke Adams
Olympic Racewalker
Luke Kendall Adams is a male race walker from Australia, who was born in Tanzania. He is a three-time Olympian for Australia. On 23 June 2000, he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal.
Abeid Karume
Politician
Abeid Amani Karume was the first President of Zanzibar. He obtained this title as a result of a violent revolution which led to the deposing of the last Sultan of Zanzibar Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah in January 1964. Three months later, the United Republic of Tanzania was founded as Tanzania, prompting Karume to become the first Vice President of the United Republic along with Julius Nyerere of Tanganyika as president. He was the father of Zanzibar's former president – Amani Abeid Karume.
Mark Behr
Author
Mark Behr is a Tanzanian writer in South Africa. He is professor of Creative Writing at Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee. He has been professor of World Literature and Fiction Writing at the College of Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He also teaches in the MA program at the University of Cape Town and the MFA program at the University of New Mexico.
Saida Karoli
Musical Artist
Saida Karoli is a traditionalist Tanzanian singer and performer who has staged live shows in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and DRC. Karoli was born in 1976 in Rwongwe, a small village in the Bukoba Rural district in the northern Tanzanian Kagera Region on the western side of Lake Victoria. "Maria Salome", a song from her first album Chambua kama Karanga reached number three in airplay on Tanzanian radio. After the song's success in Uganda, she become popularly known there as Wanchekecha, a nickname derived from the lyrics of the song. She has entertained the Kabaka of Buganda and is an act at Zanzibar's Sauti Za Busara Festival. Most recently she was nominated for several honors at the Kora All-African Music Awards. In style, Karoli's music is described as natural with mellow vocals and hypnotically rhythmicism. Though she sings primarily in her native tongue Haya, her lyrics also incorporate extensive Swahili and the occasional phrase in English. She is managed by Felician Mutta, the CEO of FM Productions LTO. At the 2005 Tanzania Music Awards her album Harusi was nominated in the Best Folk Album category and at the 2006 Tanzania Music Awards, she was nominated for the Best Female Vocalist category. In 2013 Saida Karoli song Maria Salome was featured on the movie Peeples
Nizar Khalfan
Soccer Midfielder
Nizar Khalfan is a Tanzanian footballer who currently plays for Young Africans SC in the Tanzanian Premier League.
Mbwana Samata
Footballer
Mbwana Ally Samata is Tanzanian footballer. He is playing for the TP Mazembe in Linafoot as a striker. He is a member of Tanzania national football team, played at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualification and scored two goals. Samata is well known in Lubumbashi for his six goals which he scored during the last campaign of CAF Champions League. He scored against Al Alhy, Zamalek, Berekum Chelsea, Power Dinamo and El Marreikh.
Chris Nielsen
Professional Ice hockey Player
Chris Nielsen is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey centre. Nielsen was born in Tanzania while his Canadian father was stationed there working for the Canadian International Development Agency. His family moved back to Canada when he was three, and he grew up on a farm near the small town of Goodlands, Manitoba. Nielsen was drafted in the 2nd round, 36th overall by the New York Islanders in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft. He played parts of two seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Anna Tibaijuka
Professor
Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka is a Tanzanian CCM politician and Member of Parliament for Muleba South constituency since 2010. She is the current Minister of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Developments. She has also served as the former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Until her resignation in 2010 to run for political office in Tanzania, she was the second highest ranking African woman in the UN System.
Narendra Patel, Baron Patel
Politician
Narendra Babubhai Patel, Baron Patel, KT, Kt, FMedSci, FRSE is a British-Tanzanian obstetrician and cross bench peer, and Chancellor of the University of Dundee.
Julian Scherner
Military Person
Julian Scherner was a Nazi Party official who served in the SS as an SS-Oberführer. Scherner is most notorious for his career as SS and Police Leader of Kraków, Poland.
Luisa Baldini
Journalist
Luisa Baldini is Anglo-Italian news reporter and presenter, presently working for BBC News.
Alison Bruce
Actor
Alison Bruce is a New Zealand television and movie actress, who starred in 1999 feature Magik and Rose. International viewers may know her for her parts in teen series Being Eve and guest roles on Xena: Warrior Princess. Bruce was born in Tanzania to a Scottish father and an English mother. Her family moved to New Zealand when she was around eight. After training at Auckland's Theatre Corporate in the early 1980s, she began a busy acting career with stage roles that include starring in Hamlet and Cyrano de Bergerac. Bruce made her screen debut in 1984 teleplay The Minders. Since then she has acted in more than 30 screen roles, including sizeable parts in two feature films: 1990 chase comedy User Friendly, in which her character steals a keenly-sought dog statue from a crazed former boss; and 2001 feature Magik and Rose, which Bruce later described as a turning point in terms of the type of roles she is offered. The comedy-drama saw Bruce playing Magik, a fortune-teller who arrives in a Kiwi town in a house-truck, seeking the daughter she gave up for adoption many years before. Bruce also acted in based-on-a-true-story feature The World's Fastest Indian and short film Mon Desir, which was selected to play in the Un Certain Regard section of the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.
Polycarp Pengo
Man
Polycarp Pengo is the Archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
Hilde Frafjord Johnson
Politician
Hilde Frafjord Johnson is a Norwegian politician from the Christian Democratic Party. She is a former Minister of International Development of Norway, and member of the Norwegian Government. She currently serves as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan. Johnson previously served as Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, a position she held from 2007-2011. She has served as Minister and member of the Norwegian government/cabinet in the period 1997-2000 and 2001-2005. She was Member of Parliament from 1993 to 2001. Throughout her tenure as Minister for International Development, Johnson was an advocate for human rights, poverty eradication, and reform of international aid. She has been actively involved in efforts to build coalitions for change, both of the UN, in the Bretton Woods Institutions and bilateral aid. In 1998, Johnson initiated the Utstein-group, a group of key likeminded development ministers from the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Norway to spearhead this agenda. She worked closely with the senior leadership of the UN, the International Financial Institutions and the World Trade Organisation and leaders of developing countries, to bring about better pro-poor development policies. She has also served as Governor and member of the Board of the World Bank for Norway and the Nordic/Baltic Constituency.
John Stephen Akhwari
Olympic athlete
John Stephen Akhwari is a Tanzanian former marathon runner. He represented Tanzania in the marathon at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
Juma Ikangaa
Olympic athlete
Juma Ikangaa is a marathon runner from Tanzania, a sentimental favorite in Boston after finishing second three years in a row at the Boston Marathon from 1988-1990. A great trainer, Ikangaa said "The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare."
Edward Sokoine
Politician
Edward Moringe Sokoine was Prime Minister of Tanzania from 13 February 1977 to 7 November 1980 and again from 24 February 1983 to 12 April 1984. Edward Moringe Sokoine had a developmental conception of the village. Sokoine saw the village as a harbinger of self-reliant, national development and the peasant as an agency of change. He was a person of unimpeachable personal integrity.
Godfrey Mwakikagile
Author
Godfrey Mwakikagile is a prominent Tanzanian scholar, writer and specialist in African studies.
Flaviana Matata
Model
Flaviana Matata is a Tanzanian beauty queen and fashion model.
Deepak Obhrai
Politician
Deepak Obhrai is a Canadian politician, representing the riding of Calgary East for the Conservative Party of Canada. He is currently serving as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was first elected in 1997 for the Reform Party of Canada, and was re-elected when the Reform Party became the Canadian Alliance in 2000. In 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2011 he was elected as a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. He was also one of four Alliance MPs who agreed to sit with the Progressive Conservative caucus after the December 9, 2003 creation of the merged Conservative Party. The Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parliamentary caucuses were not officially merged until a few weeks later. As an opposition member he served as the Opposition critic for International Cooperation, Multiculturalism, International Trade and of CIDA.
Rose Mhando
Woman
Rose Muhando is an East African Swahili gospel artist. Rose, a former devout Muslim and mother of three, claims to have seen a vision of Jesus Christ while indisposed on her sick bed at the age of nine, having suffered for three years, after which she was healed and later converted to Christianity. She started her music career as a choir teacher in Dodoma's Saint Mary’s Choir for the Chimuli Anglican Church.
Navnit Dholakia, Baron Dholakia
Politician
Navnit Dholakia, Baron Dholakia, OBE, PC, DL is a British Liberal Democrat politician and the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords. Lord Dholakia is one of the most senior Asian politicians in Britain.
Katherine Scholes
Novelist
Katherine Anne Scholes is an Australian writer. She was born in the Dodoma Region of Tanzania where her parents were English missionaries, and spent most of her childhood there before moving to England and then Tasmania. Scholes is the author of the international bestsellers Make Me An Idol, The Rain Queen and The Stone Angel. She has also written several children's books including the acclaimed Peacetimes, The Boy and the Whale and a young adult novel The Blue Chameleon, which won a New South Wales State Literary Award. All of her books have been translated into numerous languages. Katherine also works in the film industry. She currently lives in Tasmania with her filmmaker husband Roger Scholes and their two sons.
Said Salim Bakhresa
Businessperson
Said Salim Awadh Bakhresa, is an extremely reclusive Tanzanian business tycoon. He is the founder and the chairperson of the Bakhresa Group Of Companies. He is a well-known industrialist in the mainland of Tanzania and island of Zanzibar. With a humble beginning as a small restaurateur in seventies, he created the business empire within a span of three decades. He is the mastermind behind the success of all the businesses within the group. His vision and excellent managerial skills contributed to the growth of this group to great heights. At the age of 14, he dropped out of school to become a potato mix salesperson and would later go on to become a successful African businessman. Bakhresa Group; is a conglomerate of various companies and is the largest milling company in East Africa with operations in Tanzania and five other countries. Currently, his net worth is $520 million according to Forbes 2012 top 40 richest people in Africa.
Ray C
Woman
Rehema Chalamila, popularly known for her stage name Ray C, is a musician from Tanzania. Her music is a mixture of Bongo flava, R&B and taarab
Thomas Ulimwengu
Footballer
Thomas Emanuel Ulimwengu is a Tanzanian football striker who plays for African Champions TP Mazembe in Democratic Republic of Congo. He plays international football for Tanzania, the Tanzanian Olympic Football Team and the Tanzania U-20 National Team.
Ali Mohamed Shein
Politician
Dr. Ali Mohamed Shein is the 7th President of Zanzibar, in office since 2010. He was previously Vice President of Tanzania from 2001 to 2010. Shein is originally from the island of Pemba, and he is a member of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party. He is a medical doctor by profession.
Zakia Mrisho Mohamed
Olympic athlete
Zakia Mrisho Mohamed is a Tanzanian long distance runner who specialises in track and road running. She represented her country in the 5000 metres at the 2008 Olympic Games. Born in Singida, She attended her first major international athletics competition in 2003, taking part in the 3000 metres in which she finished sixth. She won the Cinque Mulini cross country meeting in 2004, becoming the first Tanzanian woman to do so. She was selected for the 2005 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and managed to finish in twentieth place in the long race. She came sixth in the 5000 m at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics and third at the World Athletics Final a month later. She represented Tanzania at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, finishing eighth in the 5000 m final. At the 2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships she was 23rd overall but she was less successful on the track, failing to make it out of the 5000 m heats of the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. The same fate awaited her at her first Olympic Games in Beijing the following year, although she did managed a fourth place finish in the 3000 m at the 2008 IAAF World Athletics Final as well as competing in the 5000 m event. She reached her first major global final in the next season at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, taking 15th place in the 5000 m.
Nancy Sumari
Model
Nancy Abraham Sumari is a former Miss World Finalist turned model, and is now Managing Partner at Frontline Management Limited,an Events and Corporate Communication firm, and also a co-founder of The Tanzania Women of Achievement Awards. She was selected as Miss Tanzania 2005, later competed at Miss World 2005 where she placed in the top 6, and won the title Continental Queen of Africa for 2005. Sumari was born in Arusha, Tanzania, in 1986 to Abraham Simango Sumari. She is one of five children, including her older sister Nakaaya Sumari of reality TV show "Tusker Project Fame".
Mohammed Dewji
Politician
Mohammed Gulam Dewji is a Tanzanian CCM politician and Member of Parliament for Singida Urban constituency since 2005.
George Lilanga
Author
George Lilanga was a Tanzanian artist. He was of the Makonde tribe and lived in Dar es Salaam. His work was exhibited in international expositions of African contemporaries including Africa Remix in Düsseldorf, Paris, London and Tokyo.
Eddie Anaclet
Soccer Defender
Edward Bahati Obara "Eddie" Odhiambo-Anaclet is a Tanzanian professional footballer who plays as a right-back. He currently plays for Conference North side Brackley Town. Odhiambo began his career as a schoolboy with Oxford United, before moving to Southampton in 2003. A year later, he signed on professional terms with the club, and was loaned out on separate occasions to Chester City and Tamworth during the 2004–05 season. He did not break into the first-team at Southampton, and signed for Oxford United on a free transfer in July 2006. After two seasons of regular first-team football at Oxford, he joined Stevenage Borough on a free transfer ahead of the 2008–09 campaign. In his first season with the Hertfordshire side, he helped the club win the FA Trophy in May 2009. The following season, Odhiambo was part of the side that secured promotion to the Football League for the first time in the club's history. However, he was released at the end of the season, and subsequently joined Newport County, spending the 2009–10 season with the club, before moving to another Conference National team in the form of Gateshead. He spent one year at Gateshead, but was released in April 2012. A month later, Odhiambo signed for Brackley Town of the Conference North.
Gertrude Mongella
Politician
Gertrude Ibengwe Mongella is a Tanzanian politician and the first president of the Pan-African Parliament.
Bi Kidude
Musical Artist
Fatuma binti Baraka, also known as Bi Kidude, was a Zanzibari-born Tanzanian Taarab singer. She is considered the undisputed queen of Taarab and Unyago music and was inspired by Siti binti Saad. Bi Kidude was born in the village of Mfagimaringo, she was the daughter of a coconut seller in colonial Zanzibar. Bi Kidude's exact date of birth is unknown, much of her life story is uncorroborated, giving her an almost mythical status. In 2005, Bi Kidude received the prestigious WOMEX award for her outstanding contribution to music and culture in Zanzibar. She died on 17 April 2013.
Shaaban Bin Robert
Author
Shaaban bin Roberts, also known as Shaaban Robert, was a Tanzanian poet, author, and essayist who supported the preservation of Tanzanian verse traditions. Shabaan Robert was born in Vibambani village, Tanga Region. Robert is celebrated as one of the greatest Tanzanian Swahili thinkers, intellectuals and writer in East Africa and has been called "poet laureate of Swahili" and is also known as the "Father of Swahili."
Shomari Kapombe
Soccer Midfielder
Shomari Salum Kapombe is a Tanzanian footballer. He played for Tanzania internationals at the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Oscar Kambona
Politician
Oscar Salathiel Kambona was the first foreign affairs minister of Tanganyika and the second most influential and most popular leader in the country after President Julius Nyerere. He was born on 13 August 1928 on the shores of Lake Nyasa in a small village called Kwambe near Mbamba Bay in the district of Mbinga near Songea in southern Tanganyika. He died in London in July 1997. He was the son of the Reverend David Kambona and Miriam Kambona. Reverend David Kambona belonged to the first group of African priests to be ordained into the Anglican Church of Tanganyika. Kambona received his primary school education at home under a mango tree in his home village. The tree still stands today. He was taught by his parents and by an uncle, all of whom were teachers. He was then sent to St Barnabas Middle School in Liuli in southern Tanganyika not far from his home. He also attended Alliance Secondary School in Dodoma in central Tanganyika. A British Anglican bishop paid Oscar Kambona's school fees because his father could not afford to do so. The school fees were 30 Pounds per year. Kambona is reported to have said he convinced the Anglican bishop to pay his school fees by reciting the Lord's Prayer in English.
Adi Yussuf
Soccer Forward
Abdillahie Yussuf is a professional footballer who plays for Lincoln City as a striker.
Joseph Warioba
Politician
Joseph Sinde Warioba served as Prime Minister of Tanzania from 1985 to 1990. Furthermore, he served concurrently as the country's vice president. He is currently a judge on the East African Court of Justice and chairman of the Tanzanian Constitutional Review Commission. He was born in Bunda, Tanzania. He graduated from the University of East Africa in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1966. From 1966 to 1968, he served as state attorney in Dar es Salaam, and from 1968 to 1970, as solicitor for the City Council. In 1970, he graduated from the Hague Academy of International Law. From 1976 to 1983, he served as the attorney general of Tanzania. From 1983 until his election as prime minister, he served as minister of justice. Following his tenure as prime minister, he served as a judge on the Hamburg, Germany-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea from 1996 to 1999. Furthermore in 1996, President Benjamin Mkapa appointed him as chairman of the Presidential Commission Against Government Corruption, better known as the Warioba Commission. Warioba was chosen to lead the Commonwealth Observer Group in the April 2007 Nigerian elections. He gave a positive assessment of the elections, deeming them to be progress while also saying that there were irregularities.
Mwinyi Kazimoto
Soccer Midfielder
Mwinyi Kazimoto is a Tanzanian Soccer Player.
Laurean Rugambwa
Man
Laurean Rugambwa was the first modern native African Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Dar es Salaam from 1968 to 1992, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1960.
January Makamba
Man
January Yusuf Makamba is a Tanzanian CCM politician and Member of Parliament for Bumbuli constituency since 2010. He is the current Deputy Minister of Communication, Science and Technology.
Augustine Mahiga
Politician
Augustine Philip Mahiga is a Tanzanian diplomat. He is the current United Nations Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia.
Dully Sykes
Rapper
Dully Sykes is a Bongo Flava musician from Tanzania
Firoz Kassam
Man
Firoz Kassam is a Tanzanian-born, businessman. He is the former owner of Oxford United F.C. He was born in Tanzania, and is of Indian descent. He came to Britain as an exile during the 1970s. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2009 ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK he was placed 309th with an estimated fortune of £180million. Firoz Kassam made his fortune as a slum hotelier and in the 1980s was labelled a "merchant of misery". He bought run-down London hostels and hotels and was paid by local councils to fill them with homeless people and asylum seekers, until the inmates rebelled over the conditions in which they were being housed. In 1999, Kassam bought Oxford United F.C. for only £1, also taking over its debts, estimated to be in the region of £13m. In 2000 he resumed building a 12,500-capacity stadium at Minchery Farm on the edge of Oxford, which he called the Kassam Stadium. Construction of this stadium had actually been in progress since 1997, but was suspended in the early stages due to the club's financial problems. The fourth side of the stadium was left empty due to Oxford's decline in the league, as they had dropped down two divisions while the stadium was being built. The development includes a hotel, cinema, bowling alley, gym, health centre and restaurants. Oxford United played its first game there on 18 August 2001, in Division Three of the Football League. Kassam sold the football club in 2006, but retained ownership of the stadium through his company Firoka with Oxford United as tenants. Oxford United's old home, the Manor Ground in Headington, was sold by Kassam, first to his own holding company for £6 million, and then to developers for £12 million in 1999. The ground has since been demolished and developed into the Manor Hospital, which opened in October 2004.
Tumi Molekane
Hip hop Artist
Boitumelo "Tumi" Molekane is an African rapper and poet. He is the lead vocalist of Tumi and the Volume, a hip hop music ensemble that comprises the members of the Mozambican band 340ml. Molekane was born in Tanzania while his South African parents lived in exile there. In 1992 he repatriated to South Africa and took up residence in Soweto. In 2005, he recorded the song "Trade Winds" with Cincinnati-based rapper Main Flow. In 2006 he published his debut album, Music from My Good Eye, through his record label, Motif Records. In 2006, he was published in the American literary journal The Subterranean Quarterly. Tumi was also involved in the Dead Prez show around late in 2000 and also took part in the Black August tour to South Africa in 2001. He has also performed with South African recording artists Blk Sonshine, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Watkin Tudor Jones, Lesego Rampolokeng. Saul Williams, Sarah Jones and Mutaburuka. In his book Stealing Empire: P2P, Intellectual Property and Hip-hop Subversion, Professor Adam Haupt of the University of Cape Town analyzed the lyrics Molekane wrote for the Tumi and the Volume song "76", as well as others. Among Haupt's arguments are that contemporary hip hop music provides critical insights into the inheritance of violence in post-apartheid South Africa. He contends that, despite commercial and often sexist imperatives in mainstream hip hop music, South Africa has produced a number of socially conscious hip hop artists, who are reluctant to compromise their art and political views.
Farhan Lalji
Sports commentator
Farhan Lalji is a Vancouver-based sports reporter for TSN. He previously anchored SportsDesk between 1997 and 2000. He graduated from Simon Fraser University in liberal arts with a minor in communications and history. He was born in Tanzania and is also a reporter for CTV 9 in Vancouver. Currently he serves as head coach for the New Westminster Hyacks and is also President of the British Columbia Secondary Schools Football Association. He is married with two children and lives in New Westminster.
Ibrahim Lipumba
Politician
Ibrahim Haruna Lipumba is a Tanzanian economist, politician and Chairman of the Civic United Front party. Although he is more known for his involvement in the political arena, Professor Lipumba, born in the Tabora region of Tanzania, and holding a doctorate in Economics from Stanford University is a prominent scholar. He has held a number of positions in the field of education, as a University Professor both in the United States and at home; and as a freelance economist. He was the economic adviser to the Ugandan government in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Professor Lipumba has held the position of Chairman of Tanzania's main opposition party, the Civic United Front from 1995 to present day. He has also contested every presidential election in Tanzania since the country instituted a multiparty system in the early 1990s. In the first election in 1995, he placed third and won 6.43% of the vote. He finished second behind incumbent President Benjamin Mkapa in 2000, capturing 16.26% of the vote. Running again as the CUF presidential candidate in the 14 December 2005 elections, Lipumba finished a distant second to Jakaya Kikwete of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party winning 11.68% of the vote.
Wendy Fraser
Olympic athlete
Wendy Katrina Fraser is a former field hockey player from Scotland, who was a member of the British squad that won the bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Affiliated with Glasgow Western Ladies she competed in two consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1988.
Hukwe Zawose
Musician
Hukwe Ubi Zawose was a prominent Tanzanian musician. He was a member of the Gogo ethnic group and played the ilimba, a large lamellophone similar to the mbira, as well as several other traditional instruments. He was also a highly regarded singer. He came to national and international attention after Julius Nyerere invited him to live and work in Dar es Salaam. He also gained much attention for his work with Peter Gabriel, and released two albums on Gabriel's Real World Records label. His final release before his death, Assembly, was a collaborative effort with producer/guitarist Michael Brook. At the 2005 Tanzania Music Awards he was given the Hall of fame award. His family is included in the 2009 documentary Throw Down Your Heart, which follows American banjo player Béla Fleck as he journeys through Africa.
Miriam Odemba
Award competitor
Miriam Odemba is Miss Tanzania Earth 2008 and Miss Earth Air 2008. Odemba is a Tanzanian model. She is one of the best models from her country where she started her modeling career at an early age and emerged into the limelight in 1997 when she won the Miss Temeke title. The following year she took part in the Miss East Africa beauty pageant and finished second. At 13, her life was tough and her parents had to move to their uncle. She always wondered what life was all about then. As she grew older, she perceived God’s message of love and started appreciating everything around her especially the nature, God’s greatest gift to not only to her but to all of us.
Amri Kiemba
Soccer Midfielder
Amri Kiemba is a Tanzanian soccer player.
Stephen Wasira
Politician
Stephen Masato Wasira is a Tanzanian CCM politician and Member of Parliament for Bunda constituency since 2005. He is the current Minister of State in the President's Office for Social Relations and Co-ordination.
Cleopa Msuya
Politician
Cleopa David Msuya was Prime Minister of Tanzania from 7 November 1980 to 24 February 1983 and again from 7 December 1994 to 28 November 1995. Msuya was born in Chomvu, Usangi, in the Mwanga District of Kilimanjaro Region. He attended Makerere University College from 1952 to 1955, and he worked in social and community development in rural areas from 1956 to 1964. Beginning in 1964, he served as Permanent Secretary at a number of ministries: he was Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Community Development and Culture from 1964 to 1965, at the Ministry of Lands Settlement and Water Development from 1965 to 1967, at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning from 1967 to 1970, and at the Ministry of Finance from 1970 to 1972. He became Minister for Finance on February 18, 1972 and served in that position until he became Minister for Industry on November 3, 1975. After five years as Minister for Industry, he became Prime Minister in November 1980, serving until February 1983; he was then Minister for Finance again from February 1983 to November 1985. On November 6, 1985 his portfolio was expanded and he became Minister for Finance, Economic Affairs and Planning until March 1989. From March 1989 to December 1990 he was Minister for Finance again, and from March 1990 to December 1994 he was Minister for Industry and Trade.
Suleiman Nyambui
Olympic athlete
Suleiman Nyambui is a former athlete from Tanzania who won the silver medal in 5000 metres at the 1980 Summer Olympics. Nyambui had dropped out of school after primary education. He became a fisherman in Ukerewe District in Mwanza region, where his potential as a good athlete was spotted by the Region's Athletic Organization. The organization helped in his training and afforded him facilities and guidance in making him a national and international athlete. He also had joined the Tanzania National Service before he went to train as a teacher. He taught school at Bukumbi before moving to the United States to study for his Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the University of Texas at El Paso. Then he took a contract to train Saudi Arabian athletes. After that he moved back to Tanzania. In between all these, he did the following:
El-Farouk Khaki
Lawyer
El-Farouk Khaki is a Canadian refugee and immigration lawyer, and human rights activist on issues including gender equality, sexual orientation, and progressive Islam. He was the New Democratic Party's candidate for the House of Commons in the riding of Toronto Centre in a March 17, 2008 by-election. Khaki came in second with 13.8% of the vote.
Ian Iqbal Rashid
Film Director
Ian Iqbal Rashid is a poet, screenwriter and film maker. In his early childhood, his family were forced to leave Tanzania. After failing to secure asylum in the UK and US, they settled in Canada. In the early 1990s, Rashid returned to London, Britain, where he lives today with his partner, the writer and curator Peter Ride. Touch of Pink, his first feature film, spent 12 years in development. In 2003 he finally had the chance to direct the project as a Canada-UK co-production. It premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim, a bidding war, and eventually, a sale to Sony Picture Classics. How She Move received a similar reception at Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Rashid in 2006/7, the film is set in the world of step dancing. It was nominated for a Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize and purchased by Paramount Vantage. The film opened to great reviews and strong box office: another indie success story to emerge from Sundance. Rashid's next feature project is American English, due to begin production in 2013. The film, a comedy, is written by Rashid and will be produced by The King's Speech's Oscar-winning producers Iain Canning and Emile Sherman alongside Christina Piovesan, producer of Amreeka and The Whistleblower.
Yasmin Ratansi
Politician
Yasmin Ratansi is a Canadian politician, who represented the riding of Don Valley East in the Canadian House of Commons from 2004 to 2011. She is a member of the Liberal Party. Ratansi is an Ismaili Muslim, and was the first Muslim woman elected to the Canadian House of Commons.
Daniel Owino Misiani
Musical Artist
Daniel Owino Misiani was a Tanzanian musician from Mara Region. He was known as the "King of History" in Kenya; overseas and in Tanzania, he was known as "the grandfather of benga", of which he pioneered. Misiani was born in Nyamagongo, a quiet village just north of Shirati in Mara Region, Tanzania, close to the eastern shore of Lake Victoria and the border with Kenya. His parents were singers, but opposed his choice of a musical career on religious grounds. Nevertheless, he moved to Kenya in the 1960s to be a musician. He first recorded with the Victoria Boys in 1965. The band changed its name many times before becoming popular as Shirati Jazz band. He sang mostly in Dholuo and Swahili languages. He is known as a pioneering contributor to the Benga music genre. During his long career he released numerous recordings, with some international releases. He was imprisoned on several occasions for lyrics that were perceived as crossing the line into political criticism. He died in a road traffic accident at an accident blackspot in Kisumu, on the highway to Kakamega, in a crash between a minibus and a public transport van in which many others were injured. At time of his death, aged 66, he was still an active performer. Misiani, who was polygamous, had two wives with 14 children.
Frederick Sumaye
Politician
Frederick Tluway Sumaye is the former Prime Minister of Tanzania. He was Prime Minister since the first multi-party elections on 28 November 1995 until 30 December 2005. After leaving office, in 2006 he enrolled for a year as a mid-career student in the Edward S. Mason Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, earning a Master of Public Administration.
Juma Jabu
Footballer
Juma Jabu is a Tanzanian footballer. He plays club football for Simba SC, and international football for the Tanzania national football team.
Fiona Richardson
Politician
Fiona Catherine Alison Richardson, Australian Labor Party politician, is the current member for the electorate of Northcote.
Nelly Kamwelu
Woman
Nelly Alexandra Kamwelu is a Tanzanian model and beauty queen who won the Miss Universe Tanzania and Miss Southern Africa International titles in 2011.She represented her country in Miss Universe 2011 in São Paulo, Brazil, Miss International 2011 in China, Miss Earth 2011 in Manila, Philippines, and Miss Tourism Queen International in China. She is her country's only beauty queen who has competed in four Grand Slam Pagents in a single year.
Henry Joseph Shindika
Soccer Midfielder
Henry Joseph Shindika is a Tanzanian footballer. He currently plays for Kongsvinger.
Haruna Moshi
Soccer Midfielder
Haruna Moshi Shabani is a Tanzanian footballer. He currently plays for Simba SC based in Dar es salaam
Reginald Mengi
Man
Reginald Abraham Mengi, a Tanzanian industrialist and media tycoon,is the founder and Executive Chairman of IPP Group, one of East Africa's largest privately owned companies, based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Anne Makinda
Woman
Anne Semamba Makinda is a Tanzanian politician and the first female Speaker of the Tanzanian National Assembly.
Seif Sharif Hamad
Politician
Seif Sharif Hamad is a Zanzibari politician. He is the secretary-general of the opposition Civic United Front party and first vice president of Zanzibar.
Naomi Wilson
Politician
Naomi Kate Wynn Wilson is a former teacher and Australian politician. Daughter of Bishop of Central Tanganyika William Wynn and Ruth Jones and great grand daughter of former Senator and Premier of Tasmania, Henry Dobson, she was a National Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1995 to 1998, representing the district of Mulgrave. Wilson entered state parliament at the 1995 state election by defeating incumbent Labor Party MP Warren Pitt for the seat of Mulgrave. When the National Party came to power under the leadership Rob Borbidge in February 1996, Wilson was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Families, Youth and Community Care. In February 1998 she won promotion to the ministry, becoming the Minister for Families, Youth and Community Care. Wilson held this position until her defeat the following June at the 1998 state election, where she finished in third place behind Labor's Warren Pitt and victorious One Nation candidate Charles Rappolt. When Rappolt retired prematurely in late 1998 Wilson stood as the endorsed National Party candidate for the Mulgrave by-election, losing narrowly to Labor's Warren Pitt. At the 2001 state election she stood as the National Party candidate in the neighbouring district Cairns and was defeated by incumbent Labor MP Desley Boyle.
Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu
Politician
Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu was a Zanzibari revolutionary nationalist.
Keith Scholey
TV Producer
Keith Scholey is a British producer of nature documentaries for television and cinema, and a former television executive. He co-directed African Cats and Bears with Alastair Fothergill for Disneynature. He is also the executive producer of the series 'North America' for the Discovery Channel.
Mohamed Gharib Bilal
Politician
Dr. Mohamed Gharib Bilal the nuclear scientist was born in Zanzibar in 1945, was Chief Minister of Zanzibar from October 1995 to 15 November 2000.
John Yuda Msuri
Olympic athlete
John Yuda Msuri is a Tanzanian long-distance runner.