Tanganyika

H. T. B.

This article reviews the publication and significance of the Atlas of the Tanganyika Territory. Produced during World War II by the local survey department, the atlas comprises about eighteen maps on a polyconic projection, illustrating the region's physical conditions, biogeography, human geography, and industry and commerce. The review notes that the maps, at a scale of approximately 1:4,000,000, offer a generalized view, with effective use of colors, though historical maps suffer from reproduction quality, and the place-name list has omissions and spelling inconsistencies. The article also highlights the difficulty of accessing recent cartographic information on British colonial dependencies and suggests establishing a central institution in London to collect and disseminate such data, thereby enhancing the atlas's utility.

P. J. Greenway

This article reviews the Atlas of Tanganyika Territory, published in 1942 by the Survey Division of the Department of Lands and Mines. The atlas was designed to present the territory's historical, physiographical, economic, and climatic information in a concise format. It comprises 27 sheets, including a statistical section, gazetteer, and index, organized into five thematic sections: physical geography, biogeography, human geography, industry and commerce, and history, featuring early cartography and European exploration routes. Due to wartime security, the initial edition was restricted to government use, with public release planned for 1949. The article also notes subsequent additions, including hydrographic and provisional malaria maps, and ongoing work on soil and vegetation maps, highlighting the atlas's value in consolidating previously scattered information.

Malcolm E. Bondy

This article describes the Atlas of the Tanganyika Territory (2nd edition, 1948), received by the Map Division from the Department of Lands and Mines, Dar Es Salaam. Reflecting global interest in under-developed areas, the atlas highlights geographers' role in providing accurate data for planning. Compared to the 1942 edition, it adds soil, vegetation, and principal mines maps, and revises maps on rainfall, geology, hydrography, temperature, physiography, forest reserves, game distribution, education, health, agriculture, transport, and population. It also includes medical geography data on tsetse fly, sleeping sickness, malaria, and cattle density. Each map is accompanied by explanatory text, and a statistical section covers imports/exports (1893–1946) and production graphs for tin, mica, salt, gold, and diamonds. The atlas concludes with a historical section on East African cartography, tracing knowledge growth since Herodotus and Ptolemy.

Walter W. Ristow

This review examines sixteen regional atlases published over a decade up to 1950, representing eleven countries. It begins by referencing Wright and Platt's classification of atlases into four types—general world, topical world, general regional, and topical regional—noting that the latter two serve as specialized tools for scholars. The author then critiques each atlas by country, covering French topical atlases on wine, textiles, peat bogs, and hydroelectric power; general regional atlases from Denmark, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Belgium, Tanganyika, India, and Australia; and a rainfall atlas from Brazil. The review focuses on content organization, cartographic techniques, compilation backgrounds, and scholarly value, with particular praise for the collaborative model and cartographic excellence of the Atlas of Denmark. The article aims to provide geographers with a systematic overview and evaluation of these regional atlases for academic reference.

Mike Shand; Eugene Silayo

The continent of Africa has a long history of atlas production at both regional and national levels. The countries of East Africa are no exception to this, hence the history of atlas production in Tanzania can be mirrored in many other countries across the African continent. The first part of this paper will review the history of atlas publication in Africa and Tanzania, making special reference to the source data and base maps; atlas contents, formats and scales; and the cartographic production methods adopted for atlases of Tanzania. Six separate editions of a "national" atlas of Tanzania have been published to date, one of German East Africa, three of Tanganyika and two for the Republic of Tanzania. In addition there have been numerous general, specialist/thematic and school atlases published by educational establishments and commercial companies for both East Africa and Tanzania. Atlas production can be a time consuming and costly process requiring a large collaborative effort by several organisations and many individuals with scientific and cultural expertise in both physical and human geography and in the field of mapping and topographic science for the map production process. The second part of this paper will discuss the impact of current digital mapping technology on national and commercial atlas production, with a view to (i) the revision or production of a new edition of a national Atlas of Tanzania, (ii) the production of a demographic atlas and (iii) the creation of a small scale cartographic data base. A series of completed sample atlas sheets of Tanzania, created by digital mapping methods and utilising desk top publishing technology, will be cited in this part of the paper. The discussion will concentrate on a comparison of analogue and digital atlas production methods and consider their role in the future of atlas publication in Tanzania and Africa.

David N. Siriba; Daniel O. Nyangweso

National atlases provide synthesised spatial knowledge of a particular country in the form of maps and textual descriptions. The three East African Countries gained independence at around the same time and most of their topographic mapping programmes were supported by the Directorate of Overseas Surveys (DOS). Similarly, the first editions of their national atlases were created and published around the same time. However, for various reasons, the national atlases have not been updated for quite some time. The same reasons advanced for the delayed revisions of the topographical are also applicable to the national atlases. The development of web mapping technology, Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and the Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) paradigms have changed how national atlases are prepared and used. SDI and VGI provide a great opportunity for the East African Countries to revive the National Atlas - although the SDI development in East African Countries remains low.