Conference Paper

Atlas mapping in Tanzania: An African case study

By Mike Shand; Eugene Silayo· 1996

Tanganyika · Version 2

1956

The source treats the 1956 Atlas of Tanganyika as the third updated edition of the national atlas, published by the Survey Division, Department of Lands and Surveys, Dar es Salaam, and renamed from the earlier Tanganyika Territory atlas; it notes the change from a red colonial binding to a green independent binding. It records the main revisions: most maps enlarged to 1:3,000,000, the three population maps combined and supplied as transparent overlays, the historical section removed, and five plates added for 27 in total, covering meteorological data, labour distribution and routes, water supplies, and extracts from large-scale maps of Dar es Salaam, Tanga, Dodoma and Morogoro. It also observes that the 1956 vegetation map's 27 categories required about seven printing inks and that the relief map used ten, while some line patterns are judged visually disturbing despite skilful area-fill design.

← Back to Tanganyika

View whole-article summary

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.