Famous football clubs are Shupavu FC, Mlabani rangers, Techfort academy, kilombero soccernet, the wailers, kibaoni boys and other.

The indigenous people are largely the Ndamba, Mbunga and Pogoro tribes and the population today constitutes also the descendants of Lipangalala, Ndwangira and Mfalikuivahaa, who as leaders from Zululand and Southern Africa arriving in Ifakara and the region as of the late 1860s (Larson 1976:14).

Sr. Arnolda Kury, from the Franciscan Baldegg congregation of the “Schwestern von der Göttlichen Vorsehung" Baldegger_Schwestern [de] built a small dispensary in 1927.

Today the mission hospitals have become 'health projects' executing 'health programmes' which are sold on the secular and spiritual, as well as private and public, market created by donors in Switzerland and elsewhere.

The river provides different fish species including prawns, sardines, ndipi, mbewe, kitoga, tilapia, mjongwa, catfish, sulusulu, bulu, juju, ngunga, ngufu, ngundu, nguyu, ningu and mbala.

The technological superiority of the Ndamba lies in their control of canoe transport and grasp of riverine lore, which enables them to slip into vast and complicated waterways and survive there for lengthy periods.

For a long time, Larson (1976) notes, the Ndamba gained access to the fertile alluvial fans only during the dry season.

Ifakara largely occupies the central position on the fertile alluvial fan of Kilombero valley land.