Manda is an administrative ward in

Ludewa District Ludewa District is one of six districts in the Njombe Region in Tanzania, East Africa. Prior to 2012, the district was one of the seven districts of Iringa Region. The town of Ludewa is the administrative seat of the district. A hospital is l ...

in the Njombe Region of

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 ...

. In 2016 the Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics report there were 4,443 people in the ward, from 4,304 in 2012. Manda is a small town along

Lake Nyasa Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, () is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fourth largest ...

(Nyasa means Lake), in Ludewa District. The small town of Manda was known as Wiedhafen during the time of

German East Africa German East Africa (GEA; ) was a German colonial empire, German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Portugu ...

. Germans promoted commerce and economic growth. Lake Nyasa in Tanzania also known as Lake Malawi in Malawi, and Lago Niassa in Mozambique is one of the truly wonderful places in the world. The lake itself is the 5th largest in the world by volume, the second largest in Tanzania and Africa, and has been in existence for millions of years (estimates range from about 8mya).Delvaux, D. (1995). Age of Lake Malawi (Nyasa) and water level fluctuations. Mus. roy. Afr. centr., Tervuren (Belg.), Dept. Geol. Min., Rapp. ann. 1993 & 1994: 99–108.Sturmbauer; Baric; Salzburger; Rüber; and Verheyen (2001). Lake Level Fluctuations Synchronize Genetic Divergences of Cichlid Fishes in African Lakes. Mol Biol Evol 18(2): 144–154. In just one lake it contains over a thousand species of fishes. Lake Nyasa is between long, and about wide at its widest point. The lake is at its deepest point, located in a major depression in the north-central part. The largest river flowing into it is the Ruhuhu River in Manda, and there is an outlet at its southern end, the Shire River, a tributary that flows into the very large Zambezi River in Mozambique. The majority of the species are in the family

cichlinae The Cichlinae are a subfamily of fishes in the Cichlidae, cichlid family, native to Centra America, Central and South America. This subfamily consists of approximately 117 described species as of July 2017. Some authors have suggested that the ...

, popular with aquarists, but there are also

lungfish Lungfish are freshwater vertebrates belonging to the class Dipnoi. Lungfish are best known for retaining ancestral characteristics within the Osteichthyes, including the ability to breathe air, and ancestral structures within Sarcopterygii, inc ...

, elephant-noses, mastacemblid eels and

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

. They are often very colourful and have interesting behaviours - making for fascinating fish-watching. The great diversity in the lake means that most species have unique adaptations and occupy specialised ecological roles in the lake. Some scrape algae from the rocks, some filter sand, some eat snails, some live in empty snail shells, some eat plants, some eat fish, some eat scales, some mimic dead fish to allow them to catch unwary prey. Most are maternal mouth breeders, which mean that the females carry the eggs and young (!) around in their mouths. All of this in a lake that offers warm, clear water, with white sands and clean hot rocks to sunbathe on. It is surrounded by vast plains and the impressive Livingstone Mountains. Manda has experience a ton of historical legacies, ranging from being the host of naval battle between the British and the German.

References

Wards of Dodoma Region {{Dodoma-geo-stub