Extreme weather events (EWEs) and resource insecurities are associated with adverse mental health outcomes, yet little is known about their impacts on older adults in climate-affected settings. We conducted a community-based cross-sectional survey 250 randomly sampled older adults from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology cohort in Moshi, Tanzania (mean age 60.6 years, SD 11.1). Multivariable linear regression examined resource insecurity (food, water, sanitation), EWE exposure, social support, and resilience associations with depressive and anxiety symptoms. In adjusted analyses, low food security (aβ=0.86, 95% CI: 0.54, 1.18), very low food security (aβ=1.07, 95% CI: 0.73, 1.41), sanitation insecurity (aβ=0.05, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.09p = 0.022 e), and past-year EWE exposure (aβ=0.39, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.70) were associated with higher depressive symptoms. Low food security (aβ=0.51, 95% CI: 0.22, 0.79), very low food security (aβ=0.62, 95% CI: 0.32, 0.93), and water insecurity (aβ=0.53, 95% CI: 0.02, 1.03) were associated with higher anxiety ssymptoms, while resilience was associated with lower anxiety symptoms (aβ= −0.07, 95% CI: −0.14,−0.01). Findings highlight interconnected environmental and resource insecurity-related mental health vulnerabilities among older adults, underscoring the importance of integrating resource security and mental health into climate adaptation strategies for older adults in climate-affected low and middle-income settings.

Interventions for older adults with NCDs and depression should be relevant to the risk factors for NCDs in non-WEIRD populations. We conducted a single-group pilot study of the Ziba Ufa intervention, consisting of problem-solving therapy and health education over 6 weekly sessions delivered by lay counsellors; there was no control group. Participants were opportunistically sampled through outpatient NCD clinics in four sites in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. We conducted exploratory analyses of the clinical relevance of the health education using self-report survey data, and perceived relevance using qualitative interviews. Thirty-two participants enrolled (88% with hypertension and 44% with type 2 diabetes). Of the 21 participants with height and weight data, 12 (57%) were obese. Advice on weight loss, a sleep routine, and increasing fruit and vegetable consumption may be clinically relevant, but alcohol and tobacco consumption, levels of physical activity and consumption of processed foods with added sugar or salt were self-reported as meeting recommendations; therefore, they may be less clinically relevant. Participants reported acting on the sleep advice more than on the dietary and physical activity advice. This may indicate that sleep advice was perceived as relevant, but dietary and physical activity advice was not.

An analysis of two diverse landscapes—the partial electrification of villages and homes in rural central Tanzania and the disproportionate electricity bills that consume people’s paychecks in the US South’s Black Belt—highlights the role of energy infrastructure in “organized abandonment” (Gilmore 2008). The triaging of racialized places and people distributes and extracts energy resources, enhancing life and labor for some, while rendering others more vulnerable to premature death. The ongoing reactivation of infrastructural sedimentations of inequality constitutes “race-making,” so that it is not only infrastructure that is racialized; racemaking also becomes infrastructuralized.

Urogenital schistosomiasis remains a significant public health problem among school-aged children in Tanzania despite ongoing preventive chemotherapy. This study determined the prevalence of laboratory-confirmed Schistosoma haematobium infection and assessed knowledge and behavioural factors associated with infection among primary school children in an urban district of Tanzania. A school-based cross-sectional analytical study was conducted among 384 children selected using a multistage sampling technique. Data were collected using a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire and laboratory examination of urine specimens by the standard urine filtration technique. Logistic regression analyses were performed to identify factors independently associated with laboratory-confirmed infection. The overall prevalence of S. haematobium infection was 11.2% (95% CI: 8.1–14.4), with 90.7% of infected children having light-intensity infections. Younger children aged 9–11 years were at significantly higher risk of infection than older children. Previous schistosomiasis diagnosis (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 4.15, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.52–11.33; p = 0.005) and unemployment of the head of household (AOR = 5.92, 95% CI: 1.16–30.32; p = 0.033) were independently associated with infection. Overall, 45.3% of participants demonstrated good knowledge of urogenital schistosomiasis; however, infection persisted despite relatively high levels of awareness. Urogenital schistosomiasis remains endemic among primary school children in this urban setting, indicating ongoing transmission despite school-based control programmes. Strengthening integrated control strategies that combine preventive chemotherapy with health education, improved water, sanitation, and hygiene, and interventions that reduce exposure to contaminated freshwater is essential to accelerate progress towards schistosomiasis elimination.

In the years following independence, history-writing increasingly became a strategic instrument of nation-building and a means of constructing a “usable past.” Using the South African writer Bloke Modisane’s research on the Maji Maji War in Tanzania as its point of departure, this article examines how newly independent African states navigated the politics of historical production in the early postindependence period. Although deeply invested in African history, Modisane was not a formally trained historian and remained on the margins of the emerging Dar es Salaam School of History. His uneasy reception in Tanzania not only underscores the tension between Pan-African ideals and national imperatives, but the challenges faced by intellectuals working outside official or institutional structures. While he never completed his research to the point of publication, revisiting his experience reminds us that the history of African history was also shaped by incomplete, interrupted, and forgotten efforts to write the past.

The Ngezi–Vumawimbi Forest Reserve is the largest remaining patch of natural vegetation on Pemba Island, Zanzibar, Tanzania. In 2024, in collaboration with the Department of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture, Zanzibar, we conducted a baseline biodiversity survey of animal and plant communities. Preliminary results reveal previously unrecognized plant diversity, including species likely new to science that are currently under study. We confirmed the presence of endemic and threatened plant species, and recorded populations of species not previously reported on Pemba Island. We also confirmed the presence of a small population of blue duiker Philantomba monticola, currently under threat from poaching. One of the areas richest in plant diversity is designated for development of a new tourist resort. This would replace most of the Vumawimbi evergreen coastal forest, home to a unique forest type in continental Africa dominated by Intsia bijuga.

This paper investigates the connection between political settlements and foreign policy in Tanzania, focusing on how domestic power shifts impact external relations. Utilising Political Settlements Analysis (PSA), it examines the transition from John Magufuli’s presidency to Samia Suluhu Hassan’s, uncovering how elite configurations and intra-party dynamics shape foreign policy choices. The analysis draws on fieldwork, interviews and document reviews, revealing how changes in Tanzania’s political settlement – from Magufuli’s centralisation and populism to Hassan’s return to cooperative diplomacy – have influenced policies on resource management, international legal commitments and regional engagement. By illustrating the reciprocal relationship between domestic political configurations and foreign policy, this paper not only enhances the understanding of Tanzania’s case but also contributes to broader debates on the significance of political settlements in shaping the foreign policies of African states.

This article assesses a 10-month co-created universal school-based mental health (SBMH) promotion initiative for adolescents (10–19). The study combined quantitative and qualitative components. Pre- and post-intervention surveys were conducted in four schools in Tanzania (n = 400 baseline, 488 endline, with 100 intervention participants at both) and eight schools in Vietnam (n = 1,036 baseline, 893 endline and 436 in panel). In each country, ~90 qualitative interactions (interviews and focus groups) were held at baseline and endline with adolescents, parents, teachers and service providers (total = ~180). In Tanzania, multivariate analysis indicated significant gains among intervention participants relative to peers. Emotional literacy rose 9.5% (p = 0.007; d = 0.57). Attitudes toward help-seeking (p = 0.021; d = 0.50) and prosocial behaviors (p = 0.043, d = 0.38) also improved Active coping increased 15.6% (p = 0.006; d = 0.55). In Vietnam, emotional literacy increased 5.3% (p = 0.012, η2 = .019), and positively, emotion-focused coping declined 14.4% (p = 0.032, η2 = .015). Qualitative evidence reinforces these findings, and suggested spillover effects for nonparticipants. Overall results indicate that co-created universal SBMH initiatives can improve adolescent well-being and offer viable alternatives to limited adolescent-focused mental health services in LMICs.

This paper examines the life trajectories, social contexts and living conditions of women of uncertain status in post-slavery, colonial-era Tabora, with a focus on those involved in the production and consumption of beer. It thereby searches insights into the aftermath of slavery in this region, particularly for women. It reflects on the persistent social unease surrounding slavery and its aftermath, and on the way it shapes and limits sources, arguing that a focus on post-slavery is nevertheless productive. Set in context, brewers’ life stories provide a vivid illustration of a competitive urban environment, the chances for self-emancipation that it offered, and the concomitant challenges and dangers. They thereby also enable fresh insight into the social history of alcohol and of urban women in colonial Africa. We find evidence of more successful brewing careers than existing studies would predict, but also of very stark vulnerability and persistent quests for safety in family networks. This spread of outcomes highlights the contingent nature of emancipation and the endlessly varied ways in which social constraints and personal motivations combined in individual lives.

The study aimed to develop and validate a food literacy tool for Tanzanian adults. The Tanzanian nutrition, food and health promotion experts evaluated the initial twenty-three-question food literacy tool for its relevance to the context, where its content validity was determined. The construct validity involved the analysis of food literacy information collected in a cross-sectional study involving 709 adults (484 females and 225 males) sampled from rural and urban Tanzania. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to explore the underlying factor structure and identify the number of latent constructs. A confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modelling verified the measurement model and confirmed the theoretical model’s validity and reliability. The descriptive statistics summarised the essential characteristics of the study sample. The final tool remained with fourteen questions after removing questions with low factor loadings < 0·5 and higher uniqueness above 0·60. The model achieved construct validity through convergent and discriminant validity and construct reliability through the composite reliability exceeding 0·60 and a Cronbach’s α value of 0·83 and above. The fourteen-question food literacy tool has been reviewed and evaluated by experts in food, nutrition and public health; therefore, it is a valid measure of food literacy among adults in Tanzania. It is suitable for designing nutrition education programmes and ensures accurate and reliable measurements for effective interventions and policy actions.

Family planning programmes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) often disseminate the proposition that birth spacing improves child survival. Yet, there are few examinations of this hypothesis that benefit from longitudinal data. This paper addresses this gap using 15 years of prospective data from three rural districts of Tanzania. The effect of birth interval durations on the risk of childhood mortality was estimated by fitting Weibull parametric hazard regression models with shared frailties to a dataset that comprised records of reproductive events and their succeeding survival trajectories of 25,762 mother-child dyads that lived in the sentinel areas of the Ifakara and Rufiji Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems from 2000 to 2015. The analysis was motivated by two hypotheses: First, that relatively short subsequent and preceding birth intervals would be associated with heightened risks of child mortality; however, that the effects of short subsequent birth intervals would be most pronounced among children between 12 and 59 months of age; and second, that the effects of short preceding birth intervals would be most acute during the neonatal and post-neonatal period. Results, which were adjusted for confounder effects at the individual, household, and contextual levels, demonstrated significant associations between subsequent and preceding birth interval durations and childhood mortality risk. Regarding subsequent birth intervals, relative to birth spacing of less than 18 months, durations 24–35 and ≥36 months were associated with 1–5-year-old mortality risks that were 0.29 and 0.21 times lower. Relative to preceding birth intervals of less than 18 months, those of 24–35 months were associated with a neonatal mortality risk that was 0.48 lower. Compared to the same referent group, preceding birth intervals of 18–23, 24–35, and ≥36 months were significantly associated with 12–23-month-old mortality risks that were 0.20, 0.39, and 0.33 times lower. The findings are compared with those from similar studies held in SSA, and the potential for family planning programmes to contribute to improved child survival in settings, such as Tanzania, is discussed.