Tukuyu, known as Neu Langenburg during the German's colonial rule, is a hillside town that lies about south of the city of

Mbeya Mbeya is a city located in south west Tanzania, Africa, with an urban population of 649,000 in 2023. Mbeya is the capital of the surrounding rural Mbeya Region, Mbeya region (population, with Mbeya, totals approx. 2 million). Mbeya is situated a ...

, at an elevation of around in the highland Rungwe District of southern

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

, East

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. Tukuyu has a moderate to cool temperature ranging from 10 °C in May and June to mid 20 °C in around November. The town and the surrounding areas are green all year round due to the almost year-round convectional rains resulting from Lake Nyasa. Tukuyu is divided into several wards include; Kawetere, Msasani, Bulyaga and Bagamoyo. The local language is Nyakyusa, together with the national language Swahili. Secondary and college education is done in the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

. The people are the Nyakyusa, although localised groups give themselves different local names, such as the Waandali from the surrounding Ileje mountains. There are also intermarriages with the Kinga, Wabena and Kisii tribes from the Livingstone mountain ranges. The Nyakyusa tribe which dominates the whole of Rungwe and Kyela Districts, these districts can also be found in the Northern Part of Malawi.

History

In 1891,

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

and Moravian

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

missionaries started to work in this region, aiming to convert the local population to their faith. German administration at the north end of Lake Nyasa was established in January 1893, some eighteen months after the arrival of the first German missionaries. The new administration arrived in the form of a party led by Hermann von Wissman, Imperial Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief, with orders to take possession of the territory in the south of German East Africa secured under the terms of the Anglo-German Agreement of 1890. The town was founded in 1900 by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Imperial regime as the colonial town of Neu Langenburg, named after the original Langenburg on the shores of Lake Nyassa which had to be given up due to rising sea levels. It was an important regional centre under the

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

and consequently there is an important

presence here, including a hospital. According to the 1920 ''

Deutsches Koloniallexikon ''Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon'' is the German title for the ''Encyclopedia of German colonies'' which was published in 1920. The text had been finished by 1914 before World War I but was not printed due to the war. Thus it gives a wide range of in ...

'' two of the ten shops were operated by

Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common ancestry, language, faith, historical continuity, etc. There are ...

(the rest of the shops were operated by Indian Khojas) and the police force, composed of "coloureds", was 66 men strong.''Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon'' (1920), Band II, S. 633 The town was administered by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

from 1919 until 1961, as Tukuyu in the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

's Tanganyika Territory. After 1919, when the

left,

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

missionaries carried on the work of their German

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

counterparts at the Kiymbila and Itete Stations. The

established a large hospital in the town in the early 1920s, and built roads and bridges. There was a small British military post some miles south at Masoko.

Topography

The dormant

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

Mount Rungwe Mount Rungwe is a volcanic mountain in Mbeya Region, in Tanzania's Southern Highlands, Tanzania, Southern Highlands. At an altitude of , it is southern Tanzania's second-highest peak. Rungwe's volcano is currently inactive. Geography Rungwe sta ...

, rising to 2,961 metres above

sea level rise The sea level has been rising from the end of the last ice age, which was around 20,000 years ago. Between 1901 and 2018, the average sea level rose by , with an increase of per year since the 1970s. This was faster than the sea level had e ...

s above the town, a part of the

Great Rift Valley The Great Rift Valley () is a series of contiguous geographic depressions, approximately 6,000 or in total length, the definition varying between sources, that runs from the southern Turkish Hatay Province in Asia, through the Red Sea, to Moz ...

. Much of the mountain's area contains forest reserve, established as reserve by the British in 1949. Rungwe has unbroken 10−15 m closed-canopy forest up to the treeline at 2600 m, and is home to numerous important bird species. The

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

zone starts at 1,900 metres, and bamboo wood is extensively used by local people. The mountain forest has spiritual significance for the Wanyakyusa people (locally called 'Isyeto'). A lava flow from Mount Rungwe formed a

natural bridge A natural arch, natural bridge, or (less commonly) rock arch is a natural landform where an arch has formed with an opening underneath. Natural arches commonly form where inland cliffs, coastal cliffs, fins or stacks are subject to erosion fro ...

called Daraja la Mungu or the "Bridge of God" on the Kiwira River, which is fast-flowing and borders the Ileje mountain ranges. Other notable topographic features are the Masoko Crater and the Kaporogwe Falls. Rungwe's ridge falls north-west to merge into the Poroto Mountains. In and around Tukuyu there are some notable but very slight tremors due to the volcanic nature of the region. About 30 km away at Kyejo, carbon dioxide oozes out from the earth, proving the region has not-so-dormant volcanic activity. The area can produce spectacular short-lived thunderstorms. The yearly temperature for the entire Rungwe district ranges from a maximum of 27 °C during November and December to a minimum of about 5 °C during June and July. But one has to be cautious, because even in the hottest season the temperature difference between day and night is around 10 °C. The wettest period for Tukuyu is in the period of November to April, where rain, sometimes in sleet, may rain for days on end. June to September, however, is relatively dry and sunny. To the east of the town is the Kipengere Range of mountains, better known as the Livingstone Range, beyond which the land becomes incredibly harsh and mountainous.

Infrastructure

The National Institute for Medical Research has a significan
Medical Research Station there
and there is a small

hospital. The Africa Bridge charity is based near Tukuyu. There is a school, the Kipande School, and several other small educational initiatives. The town is the headquarters of the Konde Diocese of the influential

Lutheran Church Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 15 ...

in Tanzania. However the Moravian Church, which originated from Germany and Central Europe has a very large following in and around Tukuyu and Rungwe District and also the entire Southern Highlands. Rungwe mission (about 10 km from the Mbeya−Tukuyu road) is a centre established as the alternative missionary settlement for the Moravian Church. This centre comprises a secondary school, an original Moravian Church and other agricultural training schemes. There is a small Post Office at Tukuyu. The area has many commercial

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

plantations, some

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

, and there is intensive

smallholder A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...

agricultural use of the well-watered rich volcanic soils.

Tourism

The surrounding of Tanzania make for excellent hiking and walking. The forests are ecologically lush, have clear freshwater rivers and streams, are outside of the

mosquito Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...

zone, have friendly villagers, have very few dangerous animals, and the elevated highland climate is cool. The trek to Ngozi Peak, below which is a spectacular volcanic crater lake, is popular. Lake Ngozi has a local water-serpent legend, and it is possible to bush camp here overnight. The town sees around 2500 mm of rain per year, with no month receiving less than 50mm (2

inch The inch (symbol: in or prime (symbol), ) is a Units of measurement, unit of length in the imperial units, British Imperial and the United States customary units, United States customary System of measurement, systems of measurement. It is eq ...

es) of rain. Rainfall and mists are common in some seasons and the nights are often cool; very-lightweight waterproofs, and a light sweater and cap are advisable in some months. (For details of the rain season months, see

Cash crops

Tea is widely cultivated around Tukuyu. It is one of the perennial crops that many small scale farmers depend on. There is a tea processing factory at Katumba, (Wakulima Tea Company) 5 km from Tukuyu, as one travels to Mbeya. Coffee is also grown extensively around Tukuyu though in recent years the yield has been dropping due to falling financial returns to the farmers.

References