The Pare Mountains are located within Tanga Province, which is the smallest province in Tanzania its total area being only around 14,000 square miles. This makes it a little less than half the area of Ireland. The province is situated in the north-east corner of Tanzania and is bordered on the north by Kenya, on the east lies the Indian Ocean with the islands that make up the Zanzibar archipelago. To the west lie the mountains; Meru and Kilimanjaro and the Masai lands. Within the province are to be found the ranges of the Usambara – 7,500 feet – and the North and South Pare ranges – at 8,000 feet lies Shengena Peak – filled with thick evergreen rain forests, lush vegetation, a land of mist and fog running with crystal clear streams. From all of this it is easy to see that the rainfall is high, when the main rain period, March – May can result in as much as 100 inches of precipitation. This area is considered to contain, both agriculturally and panoramically, the finest landscape in the country.
The people of the Pare’s live for the most part at heights of between 4,500 and 6,500 feet, thus there are no mosquitoes, which add to the attraction. The Pare Mountains covering an area of 3,000 square miles, form part of the Eastern Arc mountain range and are inhabited by the Pare people. The population is around 1,000,000.
The Pare people of today would appear to be the result of three migratory invasions going back some 300 hundred years, all emanating from tribes which lived on the Kenyan side of the present border. The first two waves are known as the Bwambo and the Pare; the final invasion came from the Taita hills in Kenya where the tribe were known as the Wemjema. They would appear to have established some leadership over the earlier tribes as a result of their skills in ironwork, rain making and in their use of herbal medicine. They bartered these skills with the neighbouring tribes, and gained both respect and the essentials for daily living – meat, salt, etc - especially from the Masai and the Chagga. In fact there appears to be a strong Chagga strain within the Pare today.
When the Germans were forced out The English appointed Pare chiefs throughout the area, these chiefs acted with a council of elders, this syzygy of chiefs and elders can still be seen in the politics of the mountains today. A single case will suffice to illustrate this – later, stay tuned.
Maize is the staple food, and the late arrival of the rains – they are here now, let me tell you. I had a shower last night with buckets of rain roaring down the corrugated roof, thunder the music and forked lightening to help find the soap when it slipped out of my hand. Beans of many varieties abound. Rice, fruit – in abundance - and the various European vegetables; potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions etc are not in short supply. The biggest problem is a population explosion, there is just not enough land available, and now what land there is, is being eroded through the felling of trees both for building and fuel. An American group called ‘Floresta’ appear to be doing something in this direction; I don’t know the details - yet.
or something like that... jim, on the way to Dar es salaam for a well earned break.
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