Current Time in Sumbawanga, Tanzania

Sumbawanga lies in the far southwest of Tanzania, high on the Ufipa plateau between Lake Rukwa to the east and Lake Tanganyika to the west. At around eighteen hundred metres above sea level, it is one of the highest towns in the country, and the altitude gives it a cool, fresh climate quite unlike the humid lowlands, with chilly nights in the dry season and heavy rains from November to April. Rolling grassland, miombo woodland and scattered granite hills stretch in every direction.

The town is the capital of Rukwa Region and has a population of well over two hundred thousand. It is the main commercial and administrative centre for a large, thinly populated area, and its markets serve farmers from across the plateau. The name is said to come from a local expression meaning to throw away or discard witchcraft, reflecting a tradition about the founding of the settlement.

The Fipa people are the largest community here, with a history of ironworking, terraced farming and organised chiefdoms that impressed the first European travellers to reach the plateau in the late nineteenth century. The region was part of German East Africa and later British administered Tanganyika, though its remoteness meant that colonial influence was limited and traditional structures remained strong. After independence Sumbawanga grew steadily as a district and then regional headquarters, and the sealing of the road linking it to Mbeya and Tunduma in recent years has ended much of its isolation.

Agriculture dominates the economy. The Rukwa valley and the plateau produce large surpluses of maize, beans, finger millet, sunflower and rice, and the region is often described as one of the grain baskets of Tanzania, supplying markets far beyond its borders. Cattle keeping, fishing on the two lakes and small scale trade complete the picture.

The greatest attraction in the area lies about a hundred kilometres to the southwest, where the Kalambo River plunges more than two hundred metres from the plateau into the Lake Tanganyika valley. Kalambo Falls is among the tallest uninterrupted waterfalls in Africa, and the gorge below it is also one of the most important archaeological sites on the continent, containing evidence of human occupation stretching back hundreds of thousands of years, including some of the earliest known use of fire and, more recently, the discovery of worked wooden structures of astonishing age. Marabou storks nest on the cliffs, and the view across the escarpment is unforgettable.

Katavi National Park, one of Tanzania's wildest and least visited reserves, lies to the north, famous for enormous herds of buffalo, hippos crowded into shrinking rivers and a genuine sense of solitude. Lake Rukwa attracts birds and crocodiles, and the Mbizi forest reserve near the town shelters monkeys and rare plants.

Buses connect Sumbawanga to Mbeya, Mpanda and the lakeshore, and a small airstrip serves the region.

Sumbawanga is significant as the gateway to some of Tanzania's most remote landscapes and a prehistoric site of world importance.