Located in East Africa, Tanzania is thought by many to be the cradle of human civilization. Fossils found at Olduvai Gorge have been dated back to millions of years ago. The area was originally inhabited by tribes speaking a click-tongue language, who were later displaced by the Bantu and other groups. Arab traders arrived in the 8th century and began to build major trade routes from India to Persia. In 1498, Vasco da Gama took the coastal area of Tanzania for Portugal, but they never got further than this. The Omani Arabs drove the Portuguese out by the early 18th century. By the mid 19th century, the Germans and British arrived, signing treaties with local tribes in exchange for protection. But locals grew tired of colonialism and rebelled in 1905-1907. More than 120,000 Africans died from fighting and starvation during this conflict. German colonial rule ended after World War I, when control was passed to the United Kingdom.
Lay of the Land: Tanzania, located in East Africa, is an amalgamation of the island of Zanzibar and the former colonial territory of Tanganyika. Lake Tanganyika runs nearly the whole length of the western side of the country and forms the border with Democratic Republic of the Congo. The northern tip of the lake lies in Burundi, with the Kagera River forming Tanzania’s border with Rwanda. Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake, juts into northern Tanzania. Midway up the western shore lies the border with Uganda. The border with Kenya is approximately halfway up the eastern side of the lake and stretches southeast to the Indian Ocean. Africa’s highest mountain, flat-topped, snow-covered Mount Kilimanjaro, rises over 19,000 feet just south of the Kenyan frontier. Enormous game migrations still take place in Tanzania’s vast Serengeti National Park.
Prehistory has dated civilization in Tanzania to some of human’s earliest ancestors. Northern Tanganyika’s Olduvai Gorge has yielded fossil records that indicate this area may be where human civilization began originated.
Diplomatic relations between the United States and Tanzania were established on December 9, 1961, with William R. Duggan serving as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.
When President Kikwete was elected in December 2005, relations between the United States and Tanzania became even closer. In February 2008, President Bush made an official four-day visit to Tanzania. President Kikwete, who has visited the US repeatedly, made a reciprocal official visit to Washington in August 2008.
From 2004 to 2008, US imports from Tanzania included green coffee, increasing from $2.9 million to $15.7 million; nuts and preparations, rising from $1.4 million to $9.2 million; tobacco, waxes, and nonfood oils, moving up from $1.7 million to $2.9 million; and gem stones (precious, semiprecious, and imitation), increasing from $7.8 million to $14.3 million.
Tanzania Bomb Suspect Charged with War Crimes
The State Department reports that there were some incidents of violent clashes between clans in Tanzania in 2007. Mob justice against suspected criminals persisted, despite government warnings against it. The media reported numerous incidents in which mobs killed suspected thieves who were stoned, lynched, beaten to death, or doused with gasoline and set on fire.
Note: The Embassy in Dar es Salaam was established on Dec 9, 1961, with William R. Duggan as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.
Liberata Mulamula, a career foreign service officer, presented her credentials as Tanzania’s ambassador to the United States to President Barack Obama on July 18, 2013. Mulamula is also credentialed as ambassador to Mexico.
Mulamula graduated from the University of Dar-es-Salaam in 1980 and later received a master’s degree in government and politics from New York’s St. John’s University in 1989. She joined Tanzania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1981 as a third secretary in its legal and multilateral department.
In 1985, Mulamula came to the United States to serve in her country’s permanent mission to the United Nations as an advisor on disarmament, decolonization and anti-apartheid issues. In addition, she was a member of the UN/Organization of African Unity group on the denuclearization of Africa. That group’s work eventually resulted in the Treaty of Pelindaba, which created a nuclear-weapon-free zone on the continent. From 1992 to 1994, Mulamula participated in the Rwandan peace talks as a member of the facilitators team.
Mulamula went to Canada as deputy high commissioner in 1999, serving in that role until 2002. She then was made head of chancery for Tanzania’s mission to the UN in New York. Mulamula returned home in 2003 to become ambassador/director of multilateral cooperation in the foreign ministry.
In 2006, Mulamula was named first executive secretary of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region in Burundi. That multilateral group includes Angola, the Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Zambia and Tanzania and discusses issues of importance to the region. Mulamula served with that organization until 2011.
Mulamula was named senior personal assistant to Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete in 2012, a position she held until coming to Washington.
Mulamula and her husband, George Mulamula, have two children, Alvin and Tanya.
-Steve Straehley
To Learn More:
Botswana, Tanzania ‘Sisters’ Share Different Africa Story (by Larry Luxner, Washington Diplomat)
The next ambassador to the East African nation of Tanzania will be an attorney well-versed in the ways of Washington. Mark B. Childress has served as an assistant to President Barack Obama and deputy chief of staff for planning at the White House since 2012. Nominated July 8, Childress would succeed Alfonso Lenhardt, who served in Dar es Salaam starting in 2009.
Born circa 1959 in Asheville, N.C., Mark Childress earned a B.A. at Yale University and a J.D. at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Law School.
He started his career as a staff attorney at the Department of Agriculture from 1986 to 1989, moving to the Hill to serve as general counsel for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) from 1989 to 1995.
After Democrats lost their Senate majority in the election of 1994, Childress left government to serve as vice president and general counsel for the Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based nonprofit focused on public health, from 1995 to 1998.
Childress joined the Clinton administration, serving as senior counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office from 1998 to 2000, where he worked on Clinton’s nominations of judges and other officials requiring Senate confirmation.
He served as chief counsel and policy director for Senator Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) from 2000 to 2004, where he often handled negotiations across the aisle, including helping resolve a stalemate over 25 of President George W. Bush’s stalled judicial nominees.
Leaving Washington again, Childress was chief counsel at the Balkanu Cape York Development Corporation, an advocacy group for the Aboriginal population in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, from 2004 to 2007, where he negotiated contracts with multinational firms on behalf of Aboriginal landowners.
From 2007 to 2009, he was a partner at Foley Hoag, LLC, practicing in life sciences, energy technology and renewables, as well as performing some lobbying. Among his lobbying clients was the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which would become a part of the contraception debate years later that Childress helped resolve.
Childress returned to the Senate HELP Committee in April 2009 as a senior advisor on health care reform, and stayed with HELP after the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) as Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) took over the chairmanship. After Congress finally passed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in February 2010, Childress moved on to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in April to oversee implementation of the ACA as acting general counsel. He served as HHS principal deputy general counsel and acting general counsel.
From 2011 to 2012, he served as senior counselor for Access to Justice at the Department of Justice, before moving on to his White House job. In that job, he received plaudits for guiding White House strategy on several politically difficult issues, including the exemption for some religious institutions from the ACA contraception mandate and the executive order to enact some of the ideals of the stalled DREAM act.
A lifelong Democrat, Childress has donated to a select few Democrats in recent years, including donations of $500 to the Democratic National Committee, $500 to Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico), and smaller donations to Democratic candidates William Cahir, John Oliver and Paul Hodes.
Mark Childress and his wife Katherine, a sometimes lobbyist, have no children and live with their golden retriever named Riley.
-Matt Bewig
To Learn More:
Meet The Most Powerful Man In The White House You’ve Never Heard Of (by Evan McMorris-Santoro, BuzzFeed)
Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (pdf)
moreLocated in East Africa, Tanzania is thought by many to be the cradle of human civilization. Fossils found at Olduvai Gorge have been dated back to millions of years ago. The area was originally inhabited by tribes speaking a click-tongue language, who were later displaced by the Bantu and other groups. Arab traders arrived in the 8th century and began to build major trade routes from India to Persia. In 1498, Vasco da Gama took the coastal area of Tanzania for Portugal, but they never got further than this. The Omani Arabs drove the Portuguese out by the early 18th century. By the mid 19th century, the Germans and British arrived, signing treaties with local tribes in exchange for protection. But locals grew tired of colonialism and rebelled in 1905-1907. More than 120,000 Africans died from fighting and starvation during this conflict. German colonial rule ended after World War I, when control was passed to the United Kingdom.
Lay of the Land: Tanzania, located in East Africa, is an amalgamation of the island of Zanzibar and the former colonial territory of Tanganyika. Lake Tanganyika runs nearly the whole length of the western side of the country and forms the border with Democratic Republic of the Congo. The northern tip of the lake lies in Burundi, with the Kagera River forming Tanzania’s border with Rwanda. Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake, juts into northern Tanzania. Midway up the western shore lies the border with Uganda. The border with Kenya is approximately halfway up the eastern side of the lake and stretches southeast to the Indian Ocean. Africa’s highest mountain, flat-topped, snow-covered Mount Kilimanjaro, rises over 19,000 feet just south of the Kenyan frontier. Enormous game migrations still take place in Tanzania’s vast Serengeti National Park.
Prehistory has dated civilization in Tanzania to some of human’s earliest ancestors. Northern Tanganyika’s Olduvai Gorge has yielded fossil records that indicate this area may be where human civilization began originated.
Diplomatic relations between the United States and Tanzania were established on December 9, 1961, with William R. Duggan serving as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.
When President Kikwete was elected in December 2005, relations between the United States and Tanzania became even closer. In February 2008, President Bush made an official four-day visit to Tanzania. President Kikwete, who has visited the US repeatedly, made a reciprocal official visit to Washington in August 2008.
From 2004 to 2008, US imports from Tanzania included green coffee, increasing from $2.9 million to $15.7 million; nuts and preparations, rising from $1.4 million to $9.2 million; tobacco, waxes, and nonfood oils, moving up from $1.7 million to $2.9 million; and gem stones (precious, semiprecious, and imitation), increasing from $7.8 million to $14.3 million.
Tanzania Bomb Suspect Charged with War Crimes
The State Department reports that there were some incidents of violent clashes between clans in Tanzania in 2007. Mob justice against suspected criminals persisted, despite government warnings against it. The media reported numerous incidents in which mobs killed suspected thieves who were stoned, lynched, beaten to death, or doused with gasoline and set on fire.
Note: The Embassy in Dar es Salaam was established on Dec 9, 1961, with William R. Duggan as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.
Liberata Mulamula, a career foreign service officer, presented her credentials as Tanzania’s ambassador to the United States to President Barack Obama on July 18, 2013. Mulamula is also credentialed as ambassador to Mexico.
Mulamula graduated from the University of Dar-es-Salaam in 1980 and later received a master’s degree in government and politics from New York’s St. John’s University in 1989. She joined Tanzania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1981 as a third secretary in its legal and multilateral department.
In 1985, Mulamula came to the United States to serve in her country’s permanent mission to the United Nations as an advisor on disarmament, decolonization and anti-apartheid issues. In addition, she was a member of the UN/Organization of African Unity group on the denuclearization of Africa. That group’s work eventually resulted in the Treaty of Pelindaba, which created a nuclear-weapon-free zone on the continent. From 1992 to 1994, Mulamula participated in the Rwandan peace talks as a member of the facilitators team.
Mulamula went to Canada as deputy high commissioner in 1999, serving in that role until 2002. She then was made head of chancery for Tanzania’s mission to the UN in New York. Mulamula returned home in 2003 to become ambassador/director of multilateral cooperation in the foreign ministry.
In 2006, Mulamula was named first executive secretary of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region in Burundi. That multilateral group includes Angola, the Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Zambia and Tanzania and discusses issues of importance to the region. Mulamula served with that organization until 2011.
Mulamula was named senior personal assistant to Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete in 2012, a position she held until coming to Washington.
Mulamula and her husband, George Mulamula, have two children, Alvin and Tanya.
-Steve Straehley
To Learn More:
Botswana, Tanzania ‘Sisters’ Share Different Africa Story (by Larry Luxner, Washington Diplomat)
The next ambassador to the East African nation of Tanzania will be an attorney well-versed in the ways of Washington. Mark B. Childress has served as an assistant to President Barack Obama and deputy chief of staff for planning at the White House since 2012. Nominated July 8, Childress would succeed Alfonso Lenhardt, who served in Dar es Salaam starting in 2009.
Born circa 1959 in Asheville, N.C., Mark Childress earned a B.A. at Yale University and a J.D. at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Law School.
He started his career as a staff attorney at the Department of Agriculture from 1986 to 1989, moving to the Hill to serve as general counsel for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) from 1989 to 1995.
After Democrats lost their Senate majority in the election of 1994, Childress left government to serve as vice president and general counsel for the Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based nonprofit focused on public health, from 1995 to 1998.
Childress joined the Clinton administration, serving as senior counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office from 1998 to 2000, where he worked on Clinton’s nominations of judges and other officials requiring Senate confirmation.
He served as chief counsel and policy director for Senator Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) from 2000 to 2004, where he often handled negotiations across the aisle, including helping resolve a stalemate over 25 of President George W. Bush’s stalled judicial nominees.
Leaving Washington again, Childress was chief counsel at the Balkanu Cape York Development Corporation, an advocacy group for the Aboriginal population in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, from 2004 to 2007, where he negotiated contracts with multinational firms on behalf of Aboriginal landowners.
From 2007 to 2009, he was a partner at Foley Hoag, LLC, practicing in life sciences, energy technology and renewables, as well as performing some lobbying. Among his lobbying clients was the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which would become a part of the contraception debate years later that Childress helped resolve.
Childress returned to the Senate HELP Committee in April 2009 as a senior advisor on health care reform, and stayed with HELP after the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) as Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) took over the chairmanship. After Congress finally passed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in February 2010, Childress moved on to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in April to oversee implementation of the ACA as acting general counsel. He served as HHS principal deputy general counsel and acting general counsel.
From 2011 to 2012, he served as senior counselor for Access to Justice at the Department of Justice, before moving on to his White House job. In that job, he received plaudits for guiding White House strategy on several politically difficult issues, including the exemption for some religious institutions from the ACA contraception mandate and the executive order to enact some of the ideals of the stalled DREAM act.
A lifelong Democrat, Childress has donated to a select few Democrats in recent years, including donations of $500 to the Democratic National Committee, $500 to Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico), and smaller donations to Democratic candidates William Cahir, John Oliver and Paul Hodes.
Mark Childress and his wife Katherine, a sometimes lobbyist, have no children and live with their golden retriever named Riley.
-Matt Bewig
To Learn More:
Meet The Most Powerful Man In The White House You’ve Never Heard Of (by Evan McMorris-Santoro, BuzzFeed)
Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (pdf)
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