A scene on Lindi's main street with shops and a students' hostel.
Lindi is a historic southern Tanzanian coastal town and regional capital of the Lindi Region. The town is located at the far end of Lindi Bay on the Indian Ocean in southeastern Tanzania. The town is 450 kilometres (280 mi) south of Dar es Salaam and 105 km (65 mi) north of Mtwara, the southernmost coastal town in Tanzania, and gives its name to the surrounding Lindi Region. The Lindi Region is a large, yet sparsely populated, region of Tanzania.
Lindi Town was founded in the 11th century. There is no record of a previous name of the Swahili town. It was possibly named after one of the ancestors of local Mwinyi. In the 17th century, the town was renamed by the Omani Arab colonizers as Lindi meaning "deep channel".[citation needed]
The Omanis dominated local people and used the location as a port to sell and transport enslaved humans and ivory to the global market.
With the coming of the German occupation in the 19th century and later on the British occupation after World War I, the town was the administrative capital of the southern province until 1952 where it was moved to Mtwara City due to its favorable harbor potential in Lindi Bay. In 1971, ten years after independence, the Nyerere administration made Lindi Town the regional seat for Lindi Region. However, the following year in 1972 due to a socialist policy, urban councils were abolished in favor of rural development negatively affecting the economy of the town. In 1978 urban councils were reintroduced.[2]
Economy
Lindi town's main economic activities are fishing, coconut, cashew nuts, roselles and salt production.[2]
The town population was 78,841 as of the 2012 national census.[3]
Geography
Lindi Town is located at the mouth of the Lukuledi River. Located on Lindi Bay, its port facilities are still rudimentary, allowing one or two small cargo and passenger boats at a time, and cannot accommodate ocean-going ships.[4] The region was once an important sisal-producing plantation area, especially in Kikwetu, surrounding the Lindi airstrip, 25 kilometers north of town. Around 2012 Lindi was finally linked to Dar es Salaam by a continuous tarmac road, making Lindi accessible throughout the rainy season. An older tarmac road connects Lindi Town to Mtwara City, passing through Mikindani, an important historic Swahili settlement in Mtwara Region. The Rondo Forest Reserve is an important site of biodiversity which is located at the Rondo Plateau, located in southern Lindi Region.[5] Part of a Coastal Forest mosaic, the Rondo Plateau rises sharply from sea level to about 885 metres or 2,900 feet and therefore features a unique microclimate.[6]
Bird's eye View of Lindi TownLindi Town Street Scene
Tanzania
