In 1983, the government amended the penal code banning people from uzururaji (idleness or disorderliness) in cities (Lugalla, 1997; Tripp, 1990). The Human Resources Deployment Act of April 1983 directed urban dwellers who were not legally employed and made their living through unauthorised petty business operations to have a labour identification card. Otherwise, they would be regarded as wazururaji (idles or loiterers) (Lugalla, 1997; Stein, 1985; Tripp, 1990). On September 24, 1983, the Tanzania workers’ weekly newspaper, Mfanyakazi, published a list of activities identified as illegal and against the Ujamaa ideology, including the following; shoe shining; selling newspapers, buns, roasted cassava, and other foods in the streets; selling locally brewed beer outside of authorised premises; operating small vending stalls; car washing; special festival catering; and any petty trading that involved door-to-door selling (Kiondo, 1990).
Criminalising informality did not start or end with Ujamaa. Below, I review the history of Dar es Salaam, focusing on how informal living and working spaces and places came into being and how both colonial and postcolonial policies were, for different reasons, hostile to these forms of informality.
engaged in economic activities like farming, fishing, boat building, and the slave trade (Brennan, Burton, & Lawi, 2007).
Later, because of the influx of Arab traders and other migrants along the coast, their culture and social and economic life slowly changed. The Zaramo, who had a common and undifferentiated culture with nearby groups like the Kutu, Matumbi, and Ndengereko, started to distinguish themselves from other Africans who worked mainly as enslaved people or manamba (labourers) on plantations. The Zaramo associated themselves more with urban Arab culture and preferred to be identified as Shomvi. On the other hand, the Shomvi were cosmopolitan traders who had slaves and owned plantations near the coast. Both groups became close associates with Arabs and the Islamic religion. Having dual identities enabled them to claim and hold land rights and to engage with what later came to be known as Swahili culture. Swahili culture arose from this contact between original coastal dwellers and newcomers from the Far and Middle East. Apart from the fact that they had differentiated themselves as two separate groups, colonial regimes identified them as the coastal Swahili societies (Brennan et al., 2007).
In 1862, fleeing from political and diplomatic pressure in Zanzibar, Sultan Majid Bin Sayyid settled at Mzizima and named the place Dar es Salaam, meaning harbour of peace (bandar as-salâm). Majid had experience in long-distance trade and coconut farming, which he brought to Mzizima. The natural harbour of Dar es Salaam invited traders from Hadramaut, southern Yemen, and India to engage in trade and farming. However, between 1862 and 1887, a smallpox outbreak killed three-quarters of the Zaramo. Many businesses were hurt. In turn, an increase in slave trading and the kidnapping of Africans to work on farms led to a famine.
Sultan Sayyid Majid’s death in 1870 marked the beginning of the end of Arab rule along the mainland coast (Brennan et al., 2007).
The Anglo-German agreement of 1886 overturned the Sultan’s dominance over the mainland coast. German rule placed conditions on the Sultan’s collections of customs duties, while his jurisdiction was limited to 10 miles of the coastal strip. Later, Germany occupied the whole coastal line, leading to the Abushiri rebellion that ultimately overthrew Arab rule. In 1891, the town of Dar es Salaam officially became the new capital of colonial German East Africa. Looking back at colonial ordinances from Germany, the land and building ordinances claimed to arrange structures for future investment. The ordinances outlined racial divisions through different European, Indian, and African zones and building standards. The Land Ordinance, passed in November 1895, was a critical piece of urban legislation, creating guidelines for determining which periurban lands were communally owned and which were ownerless. It also determined ways for Europeans to purchase periurban land from local Africans, subject to government approval. Wajumbe (local leaders) were the leading actors for authorisation; these transactions gave shape to German-era urbanisation in the city (Brennan et al., 2007; Iliffe, 1979).
During the nearly three decades of their occupation, until 1916, Germany tried to organise the urban space of Dar es Salaam to suit their colonial project, implementing class divisions and racial segregation. The city’s structures and urban planning were designed to protect the welfare of the German rulers. August Leue, town administrator (1887–1890), insisted that the intention was to safeguard the city. Unlike other colonial coastal towns, like Mombasa and Nairobi, the Germans focused on establishing structures and designs that resembled Germany’s colonial settlement, that is, wide roads to allow communication from the centre to the askaris (soldiers). There was a permanent frontier positioned in the water and barracks on the land. The askaris’ huts were built permanently adjacent to the town boma (fort).
Germany focused on modifying the Arabs’ structures with simple classical materials to suit the structure of German administration, and not many efforts were made for their commercial
merits (Brennan et al., 2007; Iliffe, 1979). Urban planning in Dar es Salaam and the features of the city today are still influenced by Germany’s efforts to protect the capital.
The city was partitioned into three zones. The city centre, near the harbour and the contemporary Sokoine drive, was designated for administration and business. Beyond the administrative centre, there were shamba [field or farm] fields with coconut plantations, and Shomvi and Zaramo villages were located in the remote parts of the city. The Germans kept the Indian and Arab traders who had already invested in the city in the city centre, relocating their businesses from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam. These investments were necessary for German colonial urbanisation. Prominent figures such as the Indian Sewa Haji and the Arab Suleiman bin Nassor impacted the city’s development. During this period, Sewa Haji hospital and school were built. The commercial growth invited shop owners from other towns, vendors, and visiting farmers to the city (Brennan et al., 2007). The Indian bazaar had two market halls in the Indian quarter, which stood as local businesses’ focal point. Later, the market halls were taken over by the Kommune (municipal administration) established in 1899.
Some people came to the city in search of wages, although one’s skills or lack thereof were not the determinant of the wage; instead, it was the race one belonged to. Wage payment for a skilled Goan was 2.5–3 rupees, compared to 2.2–3 rupees for Hindus, and 64 pesa (equivalent to 1 rupee) for Swahili workers. At the same time, massive pressure was building from European settlers and officials of the colonial state over the rapid growth of the Indian population, who were condemned for unfair business conduct and unhygienic practices (Brennan et al., 2007).
In taking control over the future of urban development, the German colonial administration focused on how land was acquired and on keeping races apart. Between 1912 and 1913, the building ordinance was introduced as a guideline for residential building standards, commonly known as a tripartite division among Africans, Asians (Indians and
Arabs), and Europeans. The ordinance introduced limited land transactions in Msimbazi, Msasani, Mtoni, and Kitschwele (Abebe, 2011). The colonial administration purchased Indian and Arab lands in Upanga for European development. The administration acquired Schöller’s shamba (formerly owned by the Sultan) for a cordon sanitaire (mnazi mmoja) from Arabs, and the area later came to be known as Kariakoo among Africans (Brennan et al., 2007).
After WWI, a new era began under British rule. Nothing much had changed; the British adopted most of the German laws. The three zones established by the Germans were adopted in 1924. European inhabitants were overwhelmingly located in Zone I, which included the old German quarter, northeast of the city centre, and embryonic coastal suburbs to the north, around today’s Oyster Bay Peninsula. Zone II was for India’s crowded bazaar, which occupied the residential and business quarter, or today’s Upanga. Zone III hosted the Africans, with Kariakoo and Ilala as the core settlements (Brennan et al., 2007; Iliffe, 1979). With this separation, Zone I was arranged with trees and lavish vegetation facing a sea view, and Africans’ entry to Zone I was restricted unless they were employed by the Europeans. The place was well known as Uzunguni (the European place). On the other hand, Acacia Avenue from Kivukoni to the railway station was a shopping area where Indians owned most of the businesses. Their combination of residences and shops made the area known as Uhindini (Abebe, 2011; Brennan et al., 2007).
The colonial government imposed racial segregation not only on buildings and settlements but also in other vital sectors. Education was given to a limited number of Africans to allow them to support colonial administration. Again, education was offered based on racial discrimination, whereby the top priority in enrolment was given to white students, second priority to Asian Students, and African students were given the lowest consideration. The colonial government’s annual expenditure on education per student in 1958 was US $33 per
Black African student, US $74 per Asian student, and US $694 per European student (Chediel, Sekwao, & Kirumba, 2000).
After independence, President Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the first president of independent Tanganyika and later Tanzania, initiated the African modernisation project. The project overhauled most of the colonial economic structure and bureaucratic arrangements to fit the idea of African modernisation.