In the Spotlight - Tanzania
Hazukashii
In the Spotlight – Tanzania
By Ed “Hazukashii” Howell
6 July 2022
Tanzania can be described as a land of extremes, as it is home to the tallest mountain on the African continent, Mt Kilimanjaro, that stands at nearly 5,900 meters, and Lake Tanganyika which is the world’s second deepest lake, at over 1,400 meters deep. Lake Victoria to the north, trisected with Uganda and Kenya, is the world’s second largest lake at over 69,000 square kms.
The United Republic of Tanzania was formed in 1964, when the much larger state of Tanganyika and the small islands of the Zanzibar Archipelago off the coast merged, forming a new sovereign country. This evolution occurred after Tanganyika (1961) and Zanzibar (1963) both gained their independence from Great Britain, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. The capital city of Dodoma is located near the center of the country, but the largest city is Dar es Salaam located on the coast just south of Zanzibar. Tanzania is bordered by 7 countries and 3 very large fresh water lakes. Clockwise starting in the north is, Uganda, Lake Victoria, and Kenya. To the east is the Indian Ocean, and Mozambique to the south. Going up the west is Lake Malawi, Malawi, Zambia, Lake Tanganyika, Burundi, and Rwanda.
The first recorded hash run occurred on 9 February 1982, when Ron Peachey arrived after running with the Bangkok H3. Assisted by Bob Martin and Tony Martin, they founded the Dar es Salaam H3 (a.k.a. the Dar Hash). The Dar Hash is still very active running on Monday evenings, and they recently celebrated their 40th anniversary. There is currently one other active hash club in Tanzania, up on the northern border in the city of Arusha. Aptly named the Kilimanjaro H3, they run every Friday evenings. Pete 'Mainframe' Kyle founded this hash club on 29 August 1993, after arriving from the New York H3, probably learning some of his skills from Ian Cumming. Mainframe was assisted by Mark 'Posh Marve' Stigwood. The HHH Genealogy also lists 3 other hash clubs that are no longer active, the Tanga H3 from 1993, the Kilimanjaro Dirt Road H3 from 2003, the Zanzibar H3 which was recently active from 2016 to 2019.
As part of a prelube to Pan Africa Hash being held in Uganda, 25 hashers recently gathered on Zanzibar for three days of relaxation, drinking, and also took in an amazing tour of a spice farm. The next day they toured Stone Town where the East Africa Slave Market existed for several centuries, that sustained the Indian Ocean Slave Trade up until 1873 when Great Britain abolished slavery in the region. Stone Town also contains the childhood home of Rock legend Freddie Mercury. This group of 25 hashers even managed to run an interesting hash trail on the east coast, with a beer stop out over the Indian Ocean. After 3 days of resort living, the group took the high-speed ferry over to Dar es Salaam, and arrived just in time to join the Dar Hash for their normally scheduled Monday trail. There was about 30-35 hashers on trail including 10 of the visitors, with the rest made up of local and expat members. As you can see, Tanzania is full of interesting sites to see and mountains to climb, and while there, make sure to catch a hash run or two, you won’t regret it.
For many more articles like this on the history of hashing, check out . . . http://gotothehash.net/history/inthespotlight.html