Mwanza Region (Mkoa wa Mwanza in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions The region covers a land area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of North Macedonia. Mwanza Region is bordered to the north through Lake Victoria by the Kagera Region and Mara Region, to the east by Simiyu Region, to the south by the Shinyanga Region and to the west by Geita Region. The regional capital is the city of Mwanza. According to the 2022 national census, the region had a population of 3,699,872 and national census of 2012 had 2,772,509. Mwanza Region is the second region with high population in Tanzania after Dar es Salaam Region History First communities According to oral history, around c.1500 a group of 250 Bantu people, from the shores north of modern Geita, looking for a new home. The group was led by the son of the king of the Lushamba Kingdom. When reaching what is near - and east of - today's Mwanza City, the son called out, "nye-nsukumale-aha", meaning "let me camp here". It is from this phrase, and camp that the name Usukuma, (Sukumaland), and modern Mwanza is from. From the 1500s the region, as well as many of the surrounding regions, would be part of the Sukuma kingdoms rather than villages, and for much of that time ruled from the area near modern day city of Mwanza. Beginning from this time many people from very diverse backgrounds and tribes moved to Usukuma. Colonial era The Mwanza Region is home to the Basukuma, who are the largest and one of the oldest tribes in Tanzania and the Great Lakes. Prior to German colonization Sukuma had wealth from their large herds of cattle, good soil, and trade of gold, and ivory using the central corridor of Tabora. In 1857, British explorers, Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke mention "Muanza" as a settlement in 1858 and confirm the presence of the Basukuma on the Lake shore and at the island of Ukerewe. During the period the Germans established the port of Mwanza, in 1892, inorder to govern the conqured Usukuma. The area governed by Mwanza by the colonizers was referred to as the Lake Zone and included the portions of Lake Victoria from Mara in the east to Kagera in the West, and as far south as Tabora