Dar-Es-Salaam
The town was founded by Majid bin Said, the first Sultan of Zanzibar, in 1865 or 1866. It was the main administrative and commercial center of German East Africa, Tanganyika, and Tanzania. The decision was made in 1974 to move the capital to Dodoma which was officially completed in 1996.
Dar es Salaam is Tanzania's most prominent city for arts, fashion, media, film, television, and finance. It is the capital of the co-extensive Dar es Salaam Region, one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions, and consists of five districts: Kinondoni in the north; Ilala in the centre; Ubungo and Temeke in the south; and Kigamboni in the east across the Kurasini estuary.
History
In the 19th century, Mzizima (Swahili for "healthy town") was a coastal fishing village on the periphery of Indian Ocean trade routes. In 1865 or 1866, Sultan Majid bin Said of Zanzibar began building a new city very close to Mzizima and named it Dar es Salaam. The name is commonly translated from Arabic as "abode (home) of peace", from dar ("house"), and es salaam ("of peace"). Dar es Salaam fell into decline after Majid's death in 1870, but was revived in 1887 when the German East Africa Company established a station there. The town's growth was facilitated by its role as the administrative and commercial centre of German East Africa and industrial expansion following the construction of the Central Railway Line in the early 1900s.
In the East African campaign of World War I, British and Empire forces captured German East Africa. The Royal Navy bombarded the city with the monitor Mersey on 21 July 1916 and battleship HMS Vengeance on 21 August. The German colonial authorities surrendered the city on 3 September. German East Africa became the British Tanganyika Territory.
Dar es Salaam remained the administrative and commercial centre. Under British indirect rule, European areas such as Oyster Bay and African areas (e.g., Kariakoo and Ilala) developed separately from the city centre. The city's population also included a large number of workers from British India, many of whom came to take advantage of trade and commercial opportunities. After World War II, Dar es Salaam experienced a period of rapid growth.
Political developments, including the formation and growth of the Tanganyika African National Union, led to Tanganyika's independence from colonial rule in December 1961. Dar es Salaam continued to serve as its capital, even when Tanganyika and the People's Republic of Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania in 1964. In 1973, provisions were made to relocate the capital to Dodoma, a more centrally located city in the interior. The relocation process to Dodoma was completed, although Dar es Salaam continued to be the location of most government offices.
In 1967, the Tanzanian government declared the ujamaa policy, which made Tanzania lean towards socialism. The move hampered the potential growth of the city as the government encouraged people not to move into cities and instead remain in Ujamaa socialist villages. By the 1980s, the policy failed to combat the increasing poverty and hunger that Tanzania faced, and had delayed necessary development. This situation led to the liberalization policy of the 1980s that essentially ended socialism and silenced its proponents within Tanzania's government through political repression.
Until the late 1990s, Dar es Salaam was not regarded in the same echelon as Africa's leading cities like Cairo, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Lagos, or Addis Ababa. During the 2000s, businesses opened and prospered; growth expanded in the construction sector, with new multi-storey buildings, bridges and roads; Tanzanian banks headquartered in the city became better regulated; and the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange expanded. The port is prominent for entrepot trade with landlocked countries like Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, and the eastern portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city's skyline features tall buildings, among them the 35-storey PSPF Tower (finished in 2015) and the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) Tower, the tallest in the country (completed in 2016).
A number of historical buildings and elements of urban planning, such as parts of the harbour and streets going back to colonial times, still exist. The Old Boma, one of the city's oldest buildings, was built in 1866–67 by Majid bin Said, sultan of Zanzibar, and enlarged under German rule. The Botanical Gardens now are close to the National Museum of Tanzania. The present-day State House goes back to Majid bin Said, and were the seat of the German and later the British colonial governments. Along with the Azania Front Lutheran Church, built between 1899 and 1902, and the Roman Catholic St. Joseph's Cathedral, constructed around the same period, Ocean Road Hospital also belongs to a number of early historical buildings in Dar es Salaam.
Geography
Dar es Salaam is located at 6°48' S, 39°17' E (−6.8000, 39.2833), on a natural harbour on the coast of East Africa, with sandy beaches in some areas.
Districts of Dar es Salaam region
Dar es Salaam Region is divided into five administrative districts, four of which are governed by municipal councils that are affiliated with the city's suburbs or wards.
| District | Population (2016) |
Area (km) |
|---|---|---|
| Ilala District | 1,528,489 | 210 |
| Kigamboni District | 1,510,129 | N/A |
| Kinondoni District | 1,164,177 | 527 |
| Temeke District | 204,029 | 656 |
| Ubungo District | 1,058,597 | N/A |
| Dar es Salaam Region | 5,465,420 | 1,393 |
Kinondoni
Kinondoni is the most populated of the districts. It houses half of the city's population and several high-income suburbs.
- Masaki, Oyster Bay and Ada Estate are the high-income suburbs located along the central beach. During the Colonial Era, they were the major European suburbs of the city. Diplomats and expatriates currently reside in these areas. Oyster Bay Beach (also known as Coco Beach) is the only white sandy beach east of Kinondoni.
- Mikocheni and Regent Estate are also suburbs within the district. These are high and middle-income areas with Mikocheni B enjoying a higher population density than Mikocheni A and Regent Estate. According to the 2012 census, the Mikocheni ward had a population of 32,947.
- Msasani is a peninsula to the northeast of the city center and home to expatriates from the United Kingdom and other western countries. It contains a mixture of traditional shops and western-oriented resorts and stores including the redevelopment of the former Msani Slipway shipyard by architect Antoni Folkers
- Mbezi Beach is the beachfront suburb located along the northern Dar es Salaam Beach. It contains several tourist hotels, residences and a kite-surfing area by Upepo Avenue.
- Sinza, Kijitonyama, Magomeni, Kinondoni and Mwenge are more ethnically mixed than the areas above and are located west of Dar es Salaam's Central Business District.
Ilala
The administrative district of Ilala contains almost all government offices, ministries, and the Central Business District. It is the transportation hub of the city, as the Julius Nyerere International Airport, Central Railway Station and Tazara Railway Station are all within the district's boundaries. The residential areas are mainly middle- to high-income, among them:
- Upanga and Kisutu have the highest concentration of Asian communities within Dar es Salaam, with residents of Indian and Arabic descent. These areas contain colonial houses and mansions built in Indian, Arabic and European styles. Upanga is divided into Upanga East and Upanga West.
- Kariakoo is the shopping district of the city: shops, bazaars, and merchants sell products from foodstuffs to hardware. The Kariakoo Market contains the only underground section of the city. It is the major supply point of the food consumed by all Dar es Salaam residents.
- Tabata, Segerea and Ukonga are located slightly farther west from the city center.
- Ilala, among the middle-income suburbs very near to the city center, is marked by the Askari Monument and suffers from gang activity.
Temeke
 |
Temeke is the main industrial district of the city, where manufacturing (both heavy and light industry) is located. To the east is the Port of Dar es Salaam, the largest port in the country. Temeke is believed to have the largest concentration of low-income residents due to industry. It is home to military and police officers as well as port officials.
- Kurasini, located on the harbour, contains Dar es Salaam Port, the Police College, the Mgulani Police Barracks and the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair grounds. The main residents are police officers and port officials.
- Chang'ombe is one of the few higher-income areas in Temeke. It has maintained this status due to the presence of African high colonial officers and some industry owners from the Colonial Era. Chang'ombe houses the Dar es Salaam University College of Education, the National Stadium and Uhuru Stadium.
- Temeke, Mtoni, Tandika, Kijichi, and Mbagala are middle to low-income suburbs, of which the last is the largest suburb in the entire district.
Ubungo
The Ubungo terminal serves as a transportation link to most large Dar es Salaam urban nodes. The narrow-gauge commuter rail runs from there to the city centre, with ten level crossings along the route.
This district is characterised with a lot of potential social and economic centres such as industries i.e. Urafiki textile industry, bus station and various institutes and universities such as National Institute of Transport(NIT)
Kigamboni
Kigamboni (also known as South Beach), a beachfront suburb on a peninsula, is home to an economically diverse population. Access to the suburb is mainly by ferry, although the Kigamboni Bridge provides an alternative.
Climate
Dar es Salaam experiences tropical climatic conditions, typified by hot and humid weather throughout much of the year due to its proximity to the equator and the warm Indian Ocean. It has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen: Aw/As). Annual rainfall is approximately 1,150 millimetres or 45 inches, and in a normal year there are two rainy seasons: the "long rains" in April and May, and the "short rains" in November and December.
| Climate data for Dar es Salaam (Julius Nyerere International Airport) 1991–2020 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 35.0 (95.0) |
35.2 (95.4) |
35.0 (95.0) |
35.0 (95.0) |
32.9 (91.2) |
33.0 (91.4) |
31.8 (89.2) |
31.9 (89.4) |
33.8 (92.8) |
33.7 (92.7) |
34.0 (93.2) |
34.5 (94.1) |
35.2 (95.4) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 32.4 (90.3) |
32.8 (91.0) |
32.4 (90.3) |
31.1 (88.0) |
30.3 (86.5) |
30.0 (86.0) |
29.7 (85.5) |
30.1 (86.2) |
30.8 (87.4) |
31.5 (88.7) |
31.7 (89.1) |
32.1 (89.8) |
31.2 (88.2) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 28.6 (83.5) |
28.6 (83.5) |
28.2 (82.8) |
27.1 (80.8) |
26.1 (79.0) |
25.1 (77.2) |
24.4 (75.9) |
24.5 (76.1) |
25.1 (77.2) |
26.2 (79.2) |
27.2 (81.0) |
28.3 (82.9) |
26.6 (79.9) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 24.9 (76.8) |
24.5 (76.1) |
24.0 (75.2) |
23.2 (73.8) |
22.0 (71.6) |
20.3 (68.5) |
19.3 (66.7) |
19.1 (66.4) |
19.5 (67.1) |
20.8 (69.4) |
22.6 (72.7) |
24.2 (75.6) |
22.0 (71.6) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 18.1 (64.6) |
18.4 (65.1) |
19.6 (67.3) |
19.6 (67.3) |
15.9 (60.6) |
14.4 (57.9) |
13.7 (56.7) |
12.8 (55.0) |
14.2 (57.6) |
15.0 (59.0) |
17.6 (63.7) |
18.8 (65.8) |
12.8 (55.0) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 54.2 (2.13) |
70.8 (2.79) |
169.6 (6.68) |
263.6 (10.38) |
172.2 (6.78) |
31.3 (1.23) |
15.8 (0.62) |
17.8 (0.70) |
20.2 (0.80) |
77.3 (3.04) |
114.4 (4.50) |
110.2 (4.34) |
1,117.4 (43.99) |
| Average rainy days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 4.2 | 4.2 | 11.3 | 16.6 | 11.3 | 3.9 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 3.6 | 5.4 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 82.6 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 77 | 76 | 80 | 84 | 81 | 78 | 77 | 76 | 75 | 76 | 78 | 78 | 79 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 235.6 | 223.2 | 213.9 | 156.0 | 213.9 | 222.0 | 223.2 | 266.6 | 252.0 | 275.9 | 252.0 | 241.8 | 2,776.1 |
| Mean daily sunshine hours | 7.6 | 7.9 | 6.9 | 5.2 | 6.9 | 7.4 | 7.2 | 8.6 | 8.4 | 8.9 | 8.4 | 7.8 | 7.6 |
| Source 1: NOAA | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Deutscher Wetterdienst (extremes, humidity, and sun), Météo Climat | |||||||||||||
Climate change
A 2019 paper published in PLOS One estimated that under Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5, a "moderate" scenario of climate change where global warming reaches ~2.5–3 °C (4.5–5.4 °F) by 2100, the climate of Dar es Salaam in the year 2050 would most closely resemble the current climate of Barquisimeto in Venezuela. The annual temperature and temperatures of the warmest month would increase by 1.3 °C (2.3 °F), while the temperature of the coldest month would go down by 0.1 °C (0.18 °F). According to Climate Action Tracker, the current warming trajectory appears consistent with 2.7 °C (4.9 °F), which closely matches RCP 4.5.
Moreover, according to the 2022 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, Dar es Salaam is one of 12 major African cities (Abidjan, Alexandria, Algiers, Cape Town, Casablanca, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Lagos, Lomé, Luanda and Maputo) which would be the most severely affected by the future sea level rise. It estimates that they would collectively sustain cumulative damages of US$65 billion under RCP 4.5 and US$86.5 billion for the high-emission scenario RCP 8.5 by the year 2050. Additionally, RCP 8.5 combined with the hypothetical impact from marine ice sheet instability at high levels of warming would involve up to US$137.5 billion in damages, while the additional accounting for the "low-probability, high-damage events" may increase aggregate risks to US$187 billion for the "moderate" RCP4.5, US$206 billion for RCP8.5 and US$397 billion under the high-end ice sheet instability scenario. Since sea level rise would continue for about 10,000 years under every scenario of climate change, future costs of sea level rise would only increase, especially without adaptation measures.
Government
In his 1979 journal A Modern History of Tanganyika, historian John Iliffe wrote, "In 1949 the town became a municipality...[with] four honourable nominated Town Councillors who elected a Mayor." According to Associational Life in African Cities: Popular Responses to the Urban Crisis, published in 2001: "Until June 1996, Dar es Salaam was managed by the Dar es Salaam City Council...the highest policy-making body in the city." As of 2017, Paul Makonda serves as the commissioner of Dar es Salaam Region.
Demographics
Dar es Salaam is the most populous city in Tanzania and the fifth most populous in Africa. In 2020, the population was estimated to be 6.4 million.
When the 2012 national census was taken, the city had a population of 4,364,541, about ten percent of the country's total. The average private household size was 3.9 persons compared to the national average of 4.7. Less than half of the city's residents were married, with a rate lower than any other region in the country. The literacy rate in the city was 96%, while the national average was 78%. Between the 2002 and 2012 censuses, the city's 5.6% average annual growth rate was the highest in the country.
More than three-quarters of the city's population live in informal settlements. In 2018, Dar es Salaam scored 0.631 (medium category) on the Human Development Index (HDI). The city's HDI has increased every year since 1992, and it ranked higher than any other region in the country except for one.
Dar es Salaam is the second-fastest-growing city in the world and could have a population as high as 13.4 million by 2035. The population was estimated at 20,000 in 1900, 93,000 in 1957 and 273,000 in 1967.
| Census year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1978 | 843,090 |
| 1988 | 1,360,850 |
| 2002 | 2,487,288 |
| 2012 | 4,364,541 |
| 2022 | 5,383,728 |
Economy and infrastructure
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Dar es Salaam is Tanzania's most important city for both business and government. The city contains high concentrations of trade and other services and manufacturing compared to other parts of the country, which has about 65 percent of its population in rural areas. Downtown includes small businesses, many of which are run by traders and proprietors whose families originated in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent—areas of the world with which the settlements of the Tanzanian coast have had long-standing trading relations.
The Dar es Salaam Central Business District is the largest in Tanzania and comprises the Kisutu, Kivukoni, Upanga and Kariakoo areas. The downtown area is located in the Ilala district. Kivukoni is home to the Tanzania Central Bank, The Bank of Tanzania, the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange and the city's important Magogoni fish market. With businesses and offices, Kisutu is the location of Dar es Salaam central railway station, the PSPF Towers, and the TPA Tower.
Dar es Salaam is undergoing major construction and development. The 35-storey PSPF Twin Towers are the second tallest building in the city and the country. The city has major infrastructural challenges, including an outdated transport system and occasional power rationing.
Financial services
The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) is the country's first stock market. The headquarters of the Natural Gas Revenue Fund is also here.
Retail
Dar es Salaam hosts the Mlimani City shopping mall, the City Mall in the Kisutu area, Quality Center Mall, GSM Pugu Shopping Mall, GSM Msasani Mall, and Dar Free Market Mall.
Transportation
