Tabora Municipality can historically be traced back before 1830 when it was still known as UNYAMWEZI i.e. a place of the people of the moon. It was named after the arrival of the first traders from far western hinterland to the coast m seen from meaning that the moon is first seen from west. Later on , when the Arabs expanded the routes of their slave trade caravans and having influence in Unyanyambe, they constructed two importance bases in about 1840 at Kazeh Hill (Tabora) and Ujiji (Kigoma). This necessitated to nickname Kazeh base because of its historical and archaeological value as TABORA. i.e. a place of sweet potatoes food which in Nyamwezi languge is “MATOBOLWA”. From here , the chiefdom centre (Unyanyembe by the the indigenous people) become “ which has continued up to the present town and the Region as a whole.
The growth of Tabora urban centre like other urban centres in the country was caused by several factors. Among them, were the designations of headquarters of Tabora province (west region) during the colonial administration, the declaration of Tabora town as a Regional Headquaters in 1966 at the time of Tanzania Administration and the decentralization policy of 1972 followed by villagization programme in 1975. All in totality increase the importance and volume of the function of the Central Business District (CBD).
From the end of 19th century up to date, there are important marks of colonial era adventures which are regarded as historical sites. There are war cemetery for English and Belgians, first aerodrome in the country, oldest railway line , Italian dam and German Boma. There is also the first secondary school in the country, Swedish, Catholic and other missions. Generally this historical background is worth noting that Tabora town grew institutionally and now is able to realize at the enormous housing stock.
The establishment of the first German Boma at chemchem and later on shifted to the existing Boma at Cheyo initiated the Tabora urban form. The former when the urban function increases it developed itself as CBD while the latter Boma is where government administrative buildings are concentrated. Generally, the pattern of the built-up areas is in a compact form. Its development is I a scattered fashion due to existence of the flood areas, squatter areas unplanned and public intuitions areas of which their location were not really planned but followed the convenience of construction.
A very large proportion of urban land is institution land such as administrative offices, missions, and schools which create a buffer between largely planned settlement of Cheyo and the CBD.
The town scape of Tabora can be categories mainly through buildings and street patterns. In case of building, very few are high rise and this include: Regional Block, NPF building, THB, TTCL, buildings, NBC flats, TANNESCO buildings, NHC blocks, Catholic church Block, and Isike Bank. This shows a very little diversity of Tabora Town sky scape compared to other urban centres like Mwanza and Dodoma which exhibit various in building size, shape and heights
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Tabora town is characterized by detached houses. The building materials, d not very mach which manifest the homogeneity in Socio economy characteristiscts of Nyamwezi people and the availability of building materials. This situation is mostlu apparent in the CBD and in squatter areas like; Ng’ambo, Kanyenye, Tambukareli, Kiloleni, Mtendeni and Isevya wards.
There is a conspicuous road network that originates and radiates from the old Boma to other parts of the town and the region.
