Dar es salaam

The name Dar es Salaam means harbour of peace or house of peace. The name was given by Seyyid Majid, the Sultan of Zanzibar 1862 when he was building Dar es Salaam city (Dar es Salaam City Profile 2004: 3). The recent population census shows that Dar es Salaam has a total of 4.3 million inhabitants, which accounts for 10 percent of the total population of Tanzania. Mwanza follows Dar es Salaam with a population of 2.7 million (Population census 2012: 1). Although Mwanza is the second largest city in Tanzania after Dar es Salaam, the

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discrepancy between them is incredibly large, as Dar es Salaam’s population is approximately twice as much as that of Mwanza. Dar es Salaam was chosen because of its rapid growth due to the fact that many youth have been attracted to come and reside in the city in search of better living conditions. The rapid growth of Dar es Salaam is reflected in the words of a researcher who travelled there several times for her research. After two years in Sweden she travelled back to Dar es Salaam and was bewildered by the changes that had taken place. This is what she wrote in her diary.

“Today I have worked up and down Samora Avenue. Just to observe and to inhale the atmosphere. Here it is certainly obvious that things have happened since I was last here, two years ago. The fruit and vegetable selling women in colourful kitenge clothes, the football playing street children, and the news-paper vendors are now crowding with young people dressed up in trendy business like outfits, hurrying (unusual in Tanzania where the life philosophy is pole pole (slowly, slowly) and “haraka haraka haina baraka”

(haste is not a blessing) between shops selling CDs, sports clothes and mobile phones, and trendy fast food restaurants. Signs every hundred metres announce an internet café on almost every corner. These are many more than when I was last here, and they are not only frequented by wazungu (white/foreign people) which was mainly the case just two years ago. In the afternoons youth dressed in school uniforms are queuing up outside, waiting to get connected to the world …more and more people at least here in the city carry a mobile phone. … Sure the infrastructure and communication technology is ‘developing’. For Tanzania as a country this leads to improved contacts with the rest of the world, and to improve possibility to participate in global economy, new opportunities and new ties . . . (Ylva Ekoström 2010: 126).

There are different reasons, although they are unproven, why youths and middle-aged adults flock to Dar es Salaam from rural areas. The foremost reason is that young people believe Dar es Salaam to be ni jiji la maraha (a city of entertainment) for everybody, despite their education. They believe that once somebody manages to arrive in Dar es Salaam, an enjoyable life is guaranteed (Sanga 2013: 70). Youths, particularly those from rural areas, equate Dar es Salaam with living in Europe or the United States and those who want to be perceived as successful must do everything they can to take the plunge in Dar es Salaam.⁶ The myth that Dar es Salaam is the city of maraha that is manageable by everyone has led to what FACET (2004: n.p) calls,

6 The myth that Dar es Salaam is a city of success is clearly reflected in the song Nitarejea (I will come back) by Diamond Platinum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi2djjZhh4U

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A wave of rural to urban migration into Dar es Salaam which involves not only labour-prospecting young adults but also school leavers, the semi-skilled or completely unskilled, and the educationally qualified or the illiterate poor.

Studies, however, have shown that living in Dar es Salaam is not as simple as many people think. One has to toil in order to make ends meet (Sanga 2013: 70, see also Ekström 2010) and this is particularly true of the youth who have received virtually no education that constantly exposes them to verbal, physical and sexual harassment in their places of work (Satz 2003: 304, ILO 2002).

The drastic outflow of youth from rural areas to Dar es Salaam appears to have a detrimental effect on Dar es Salaam. Although the number of people has rapidly increased, the infrastructure of the city has not kept pace, which means that it cannot accommodate such a stream of immigrants from all corners of Tanzania, as the city which was originally designed to accommodate five hundred thousand inhabitants (Leseth 2004:32) now accommodates 4.3 million of people, accounting for 10 percent of the total Tanzania Mainland population (Population Census 2012: 11). In addition, therefore, the city falls short in providing quality services like hospitals, education and roads. Long queues for everywhere including roads, banks and health services, and even economic opportunities are increasingly defining life in Dar es Salaam. However, young people are the ones who are increasingly becoming vulnerable in the economic opportunities queue. Since independence to date, youth are still in the queue waiting for the older generation to step back so that they can take over, but this in many cases does not happen since the older generation has not been primed to do so. As I cited above, the pension of retired people is too small and does not meet their basic needs (Spitzer et al., 2009: 31). Because of their lack of access to economic opportunities, young people turn to burglary, prostitution and armed robbery to make ends meet (Robertshaw et al 2007). However, this is not always the case. Some young people strive to look for alternative ways of surviving apart from illegal means. This study shows how young people in Dar es Salaam use ngoma to combat the plight of limited access to economic space.

The second reason why youth leave rural areas for Dar es Salaam city is because they think that Dar es Salaam is a hub capable of connecting the country to the global society (Ekström 2010:124). While globalization continues to build a borderless world, Dar es Salaam is envisaged to be the place in Tanzania where the exit door exists. This is because Dar es Salaam is where embassies, international organizations’ offices, prestigious schools, reputable

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universities, the central bank, main harbour and international airport are located – all of which are thought to increase the possibility of one travelling abroad in search of better living conditions (ibid).

The third reason is that Dar es Salaam is the place where affluent individuals like Rostam Azizi, Said Bahresa, Reginald Mengi, Edward Lowassa and Yusuph Manji live, as well as influential individuals such as the President of Tanzania, members of parliament and government ministers. This has led to the emergence of sayings such as Dar es Salaam is Baba Lao (father of all regions), Dar es Salaam is kila kitu (is everything), Dar es Salaam is ndio jikoni (is a kitchen) and many others of the same nature. Although Dodoma is officially the capital of Tanzania, and the Parliament and Prime Minister’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government (PMORALG) are housed there, all ministers and members of parliament still reside in Dar es Salaam and only travel to Dodoma when parliament is in session or when anything arises that is related to their work (Ekström 2010:

120). Therefore, although Dar es Salaam is not the capital it is certainly the commercial capital, where everyone wants to live. It might be argued that moving the capital city to Dodoma remains a dream owing to the fact that Dar es Salaam has been prepared to be the capital city for decades. Eström in her study “We are chameleons: Changing media scapes, cultural identities and City Sisters in Dar es Salaam” observed this fact. She proclaimed,

“Historically Dar es Salaam is the city began to built by Sultan Seyyid Majid. When Germans took power in 1887, continued building the town that sultan had started, and three years later, Dar es Salaam became the capital city of Germans East Africa. When British took over the colony after World War I, the city remained the centre for colonial power until independence in 1961” (ibid).

This was also the case after independence. The city continued to have the status as the capital city until 1995, when president Mkapa was in power, when it was suggested that the capital be moved to Dodoma.

Ishumi (2011) in his study “the Haven of peace: In Search of Ideas and Initiatives and change” makes it obvious that Dar es Salaam is a cosmopolitan city accommodating people from within and outside Tanzania (See also Dar es Salaam City Profile 2004: 4). Dar es Salaam not only attracts local people within the country, but also tourists and refugees from different parts of Africa (Sommers 2001: 21). The everlasting peace and harmonious environment is one of the reasons why people want to reside in Dar es Salaam. The diverse nature of the population makes the city look heterogeneous, thereby capable of

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accommodating individuals from different cultures. The city was selected to explore how such a fusion of cultures impacts Tanzanian ngoma performances, particularly those performed by young people.

The fourth reason for the influx of people is concerned with technological development. The huge number of internet cafés, mobile phones and computers of different kinds in Dar es Salaam points to the fact that that these things are considered vital. It is not uncommon for a youth in Dar es Salaam to own more than one mobile phone while at the same time being able to recharge their mobile phones, which is still not feasible for the youth in villages and small towns. However, in Dar es Salaam youths are able to buy their mobile phones at Kariakoo, the central market of Tanzania, which sells many commodities, and so businessmen and women from other regions travel to Dar es Salaam to buy what they need, such as TV sets, clothes, kitchen utensils, shoes and mobile phones. They then transport these things to be sold up-country, where the price of items is doubled or even tripled, which makes mobile phones unaffordable to up-country youth. Apart from that, poor technology and the lack of electricity exacerbate the problem in rural areas.

Figure 2: Kariakoo central market in Dar es Salaam

Extending the discussion on technological development, December 31^st of 2012 was remarkable for inhabitants of Dar es Salaam. This was the day when the entire city for the first time went digital. However, the transformation from analogue to digital broadcasting did not come without a cost. Those residing in Dar es Salaam who wanted to continue watching TV programmes had to purchase a King’amuzi or decoder (Rweyemamu 2012: n.p).⁷ The

7Dar es Salaam was the first to begin using a decoder, followed by Singida and Tabora which went digital in March 2014 and then Musoma, Bukoba, Morogoro, Kahama, Iringa, Songea and Lindi was

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reason for this change was because the global communication policy announced that by 2015 the Tanzanian populace must have moved from analogue to digital technology.

Indeed, while Kenya was the first to switch off fake mobile phones, Tanzania appears to be the first in Africa to realize the UN goal of the technological shift from analogue to digital devices (TCRA 2014: n.p). However, some poor families who did not manage to buy a decoder experienced information blackout, but for those who did, the cost of buying airtime for TV was another issue. The airtime cost is between 10,000 Tshs and above per month. As for Startimes decoder, the 30,000 Tshs package is the one containing children’s and youth’s favourite programmes. Surprisingly, despite complaints that the 30,000 Tshs package is too expensive, families with children and youth often buy it. This study explores how TV impacts young people’s access to skills for ngoma. Similarly, young people’s ownership, control and usage of mobile phones are explored to find out the extent to which they impact Tanzanian youth’s access to basic skills for ngoma.