In the Pare and Usambara Mountains, NE Tanzania, approximately 4000 km 2 of granulites display regular moderate northeast dips of layering and foliation and down-dip plunge of pervasive stretching lineation. Folds, other than scarce tight microfolds, appear to be absent; thrusts, only mapped in the North Pare Mountains, are probably numerous elsewhere. The granulites pass up, without any evidence of stratigraphic, structural or metamorphic break, into slightly lower-grade metasediments, including conspicuous marbles. These rocks show major tight folds. Comparison with the Turoka Fold in south Kenya, here re-interpreted as a sheath fold, supports interpretation of the stretching lineation in the Usambara granulites and overlying metasediments as the transport direction, transverse to the N-S Mozambique Belt. The regional lineation pattern indicates correlation of the transverse Usambara and Turoka lineations with those transverse to the Mozambique Belt farther north in Kenya. These are dated at ∼830 Ma; it is concluded that the Usambara stretching lineation, foliation and associated structures were also formed at that time. The fabrics show that this intense deformation took place in granulite facies conditions. The gradual change from their intense planar and linear deformation to the slightly more inclined fold and thrust deformation in the overlying metasediments is interpreted as implying an initially nearly flat shear zone in the lower crust during the Mozambique Belt orogeny; continuing movement imbricated and refolded the initially flat foliation, giving the northeastward dip across the granulites. The curved trend of the stretching lineation through the Usambara Mountains is attributed to strains during the late Mozambiquian deformations.