On Monday, which happened to be 918 Day in Tulsa, Mayor G.T. Bynum announced Tulsa is getting a new Sister City.
“Our city is excited to announce the process to add Mwanza, Tanzania, to our growing network of Sister Cities,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said. “Tulsa is truly a global city, and I want to thank the Tulsa Global Alliance, our delegation, and local nonprofit MainSprings for helping kickstart this process.”
Mwanza is the second largest city in Tanzania, which is the capital of the Mwanza region with a population over 1.3 million. The city is also known as the “City of Rocks.”
Mwanza has ties to Tulsa through local nonprofit Mainsprings that helped bring the city to Tulsa’s attention. Over the past several decades, numerous Tulsans have visited the city and made ties to the region.
Tulsa has eight other international Sister Cities including Amiens, France; Beihai, China; Celle, Germany; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Lan Luis Potosi, Mexico; Tiberias, Israel; Utsunomiya, Japan; and Zelenograd, Russia.
According to the City of Tulsa, adding Mwanza as a Sister City will be a monthslong process. In the coming weeks, Tulsa and Mwanza committees will meet virtually to exchange perspectives. Each city’s partnership committee work to complete initial research on possible city connections and opportunities for exchange.
Following initial research by each committee, Tulsa’s local delegation will visit Mwanza to secure identified exchange opportunities before finalizing the application and securing letters of interest and support.
Mayor G.T. Bynum said he will travel with the group to Mwanza to meet their leaders and to start planing.
The last step will be a vote of the TGA board on the merits of the application before it is signed by the City of Tulsa.
More on Tulsa’s Sister Cities here
If you’re curious where exactly Mwanza is, see the map here.