Moshi

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View on Kilimanjaro from Moshi.

Tanzania: Moshi is at Kilimanjaro, east of Arusha

Mosque of Moshi.

Moshi is a Tanzanian city with a population of 144,739 (2002 census). Many residents have banana groves (migombani) and coffee small-holdings (vihamba) on the fertile slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Moshi contains various schools including International School Moshi. The Valley View Primary and Secondary School is a private school with an English medium. It is considered to be one of the best schools in the region, even though there is a serious lack of books and utilities. A computer lab was recently donated by Americans. Moshi Secondary School, which was formely known as Old Moshi Secondary School, is one of the two earliest government secondary schools in Tanzania, the other being Tabora Boys Secondary School. Because electricity in the area is unreliable, using the computers is a difficult task.

Mawenzi Secondary School started out as the Indian School of Moshi in 1956. It is now a thriving school of 1100 pupils. A-Level students are all female boarders and are drawn from all over Tanzania. The school specialises at A-Level in Kiswahili, Geography, History, and English. The school operates a double shift system for junior pupils (Form 1 - 4). All subjects are taught in English, apart from Kiswahili and French. Mawenzi School has had a link with Buckie High School in Scotland since 1987. Pupils and teachers have travelled between Tanzania and Scotland on many occasions.

Moshi is home to the Chaga and Maasai tribes. The city is comprised of two major roads, based around the central reference point of clock tower, the north-south road to Tanga and Dar es Salaam and an east-west road to Arusha. Moshi was where the Arabica coffee seeds that Catholic missionaries introduced at the end of the 19th century were cultivated. Thanks to the government, local authorities, and Catholic and Lutheran missions, Moshi had universal primary education and the highest literacy rate in the vicinity. The Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU) was probably the most efficient and progressive cooperative organization in Africa. The district commissioner, Sir Charles Dundas, a Scottish baronet, started it in the 1920s to enable Chagga coffee growers to compete on equal terms on world markets with the European growers. The main hospital in the area is the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College. This huge spawling complex serves a population of over 11 million individuals. It was opened in March 1971 by the Good Samaritan Foundation.

Moshi is often overlooked as a tourist destination, with many visitors to Northern Tanzania instead choosing to stay in nearby Arusha. However the town is now host to the Kilimanjaro Marathon which is rapidly growing in popularity and there are several cultural tourism programs operating on the lower slopes of Kilimanjaro.