Mto wa Mbu

Where the road meets the Rift

Mto wa Mbu — the name means “river of mosquitoes” in Swahili, a reference to the irrigation channels that make the town possible — sits exactly where the Great North Road drops off the Rift Valley escarpment and runs past the entrance gate to Lake Manyara National Park. Every Northern Circuit itinerary that links Tarangire with Manyara and Ngorongoro passes directly through it, which has made the town, almost by accident, one of the most ethnically varied places in Tanzania.

More than 120 tribes in one small town

Fed by groundwater springs off the escarpment, the land around Mto wa Mbu is unusually fertile for this part of the Rift, and over the past century it has drawn migrant farmers from across the country — Chagga coffee growers, Maasai pastoralists, Iraqw highlanders, Sukuma from around Lake Victoria and many more — all farming irrigated plots of banana, rice, maize and mango side by side. The town is often cited as having more of Tanzania’s ethnic groups represented within its boundaries than almost anywhere else in the country, and that diversity is the whole point of a visit.

Noted cultural diversity

Walking the village

Guided cultural walks through Mto wa Mbu take in irrigated farm plots, the busy central market, a traditional banana-beer brewery, and workshops where Makonde woodcarvers and batik artists work in full view. Bicycle tours cover more ground for those who want to see the rice paddies and farmland stretching toward the escarpment rather than just the town centre. None of it is elaborately staged for visitors — it is simply daily commerce and craft that happens to be unusually accessible to outsiders, which is what makes it worthwhile.

A natural stopping point

Because of where it sits, Mto wa Mbu functions as the hinge of the Northern Circuit: coming from Arusha or Tarangire, it is the last town before Manyara and the climb up to Ngorongoro; heading the other way, it is the first proper town after descending from the highlands. Lunch, a market stop or a short village walk here breaks up the driving day naturally, and it is built into most of our multi-day Northern Circuit itineraries for exactly that reason.