('city short of an ocean/port'.)
Morogoro is a city with an urban population of 206,868 (2002 census) in the southern highlands of Tanzania, 190 km west of Dar es Salaam. It is the capital of the Morogoro Region. It is also known informally as "Mji kasoro bahari", which translates as 'city short of an ocean/port'.
Morogoro lies at the base of the Uluguru Mountains, and is a centre of agriculture in the region, with the Sokoine University of Agriculture based in the city. A number of missions are also based in the town, providing schools and hospitals. The town is the administrative headquarters of the Morogoro region. It is also a traditionally music town, home of Salim Abdullah founder of the Cuban Marimba jazz band. The band was in the fore-front of promotion of Tanzanian music. He was a prolific composer and singer of the Cuban style rumba music of the late 1950s and post-independent Tanzania. After his death, the band struggled to regain its prominence but faded to oblivion. The town was also a home of the Morogoro Jazz Band, another well known band established in 1944.[1] In the mid-1960s to '70s, Morogoro was a home of one of Tanzania's most influential and celebrated musicians, Mbaraka Mwinshehe, a lead guitarist, singer-songwriter, who died in a car accident in 1979.[1] It was also known for its football clubs. Today, tourism is vital in Morogoro. Morogoro is a town connecting a triregion area of country's capital city, Dar es Salaam and the centrally located town of Dodoma and the southern highland town of Iringa. It enjoys the rainfall levels vital in the agriculture of rice, sugar cane and the cool temperature that allow tropical fruits and vegetables all year around. On the western plains of the region there is the Mikumi National Park. In the colonial days the outskirts stretched for mile with sisal plantations then an export cash product, Tanzania is the world's second largest sisal producer.
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