Lindi

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Downtown Lindi

Lindi is a coastal town on the Indian Ocean in southeastern Tanzania. The town is 100 miles north of Mtwara, the southernmost coastal town in Tanzania, and gives its name to the surrounding Lindi Region, one of the most sparsely populated areas of the country. The population was 41,549 as of the 2002 national census ^[1].

Lindi is located at the mouth of the Lukuledi River. Its port facilities are still rudimentary, allowing one or two small cargo and passenger boats at a time, and cannot accommodate ocean-going ships.^[2] The region was once an important sisal-producing plantation area, especially in Kikwetu, surrounding the airstrip. During the rainy season Lindi is accessbile only by air and sea, with roads open during the dry season. During the colonial era a transfer to Lindi amounted to a re-appraisal or demotion.

Lindi is a fairly cosmopolitan town with Arab and Indian merchants forming the bulk of business, and Islam is the predominant religion. The locals, known as Swahilis, are mainly engaged in fishing and some farming on the outskirts of the town. From the coast the land rises sharply to the escarpment hills of Mtanda, once a residential area for colonial civil servants, with striking views of Lindi Bay. Tarmac road access is easy passing through Mikindani, an important Arab business settlement for explorers sailing along the east coast from Muscat, Oman, Malindi or Mombasa to Sofala.