Iraqw people in the context of "Hanang District"

Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. According to a 2024 estimate, Tanzania has a population of around 67.5 million, making it the most populous country located entirely south of the equator.

Many important hominid fossils have been found in Tanzania. In the Stone and Bronze Age, prehistoric migrations into Tanzania included Southern Cushitic speakers similar to modern day Iraqw people, who moved south from present-day Ethiopia; Eastern Cushitic people who moved into Tanzania from north of Lake Turkana about 2,000 and 4,000 years ago; and the Southern Nilotes, including the Datoog, who originated from the present-day South Sudan–Ethiopia border region between 2,900 and 2,400 years ago. These movements took place at about the same time as the settlement of the Mashariki Bantu from West Africa in the Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika areas. In the late 19th century, the mainland came under German rule as German East Africa. This was followed by British rule after World War I when it was governed as Tanganyika, with the Zanzibar Archipelago remaining a separate colonial jurisdiction. Following their gaining respective independence in 1961 and 1963, the two entities merged in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania.

Iraqw (/ɪˈrɑːkuː/) is a Cushitic language spoken in Tanzania in the Arusha and Manyara Regions. It is expanding in numbers as the Iraqw people absorb neighbouring ethnic groups. The language has many Datooga loanwords, especially in poetic language. The Gorowa language, to the south, shares numerous similarities and is sometimes considered a dialect.

Karatu District (Wilaya ya Karatu, in Swahili) is one of seven districts of the Arusha Region of Tanzania. The district is bordered to the north by the Ngorongoro District and to the west by the Meatu District in the Simiyu Region. The district is bordered to the east by the Monduli District, and to the south and southeast by the Mbulu District and the Babati District. The district covers an area of 3,207 km (1,238 sq mi). The district is comparable in size to the land area of Samoa. The district has a max elevation of 1,739 m (5,705 ft) on Oldeani Peak. Predominantly settled by Iraqw, Karatu district is home to the hunter-gatherer community of the Hadza people. Also Karatu is known agriculturally as the onion capital of Tanzania. The district capital is the town of Karatu. According to the 2022 census, the population of the district was 280,454.