The City of Dar es Salaam: a ‘Haven of Peace’ in Search of Ideas and Initiatives for Renewal and Change
In recent years, the African continent has witnessed exponential urbanisation; with sprouting towns and cities not only because of natural population growth but also as many people, especially as young men and women move away from rural areas to urban areas in search of employment, good life and self-betterment. The process has, in most cases, found many cities unprepared for such a rapid growth, with few available services (housing space, water facilities, land for accommodation and re-creation) and infrastructure. Like many other developing economies struggling with meagre resources, including inadequate skilled human resources, the City of Dar es Salaam finds itself in such a situation.
‘Dar es Salaam’, from the Arabic etymology, was founded as a ‘Haven of Peace’ (sanctuary) at the mainland by one of the feuding sons of the ruling Zanzibar Sultan as they contended for inheritance in Zanzibar in the 1860s (Leslie 1963: 21; Brennan and Burton 2007: 13-75). The city has since then grown into the headquarters of the civil government, private companies and public corporations, industries, as well as local and international NGOs.
The ‘sanctuary’, then, grew from a mere 5,000 souls in 1885, to 1.4 million a century later, in 1988; to 2.5 million in 2002; to a staggering 3 to 4 million currently estimated. Dar es Salaam has invariably been an attractive, wooing ‘centripetal’ centre, making its population one of the most fast-growing, culturally heterogeneous, socio-economically diverse and politically dynamic in the country and in the East African sub-region in general. Understandably, the waves of rural-urban migration into Dar es Salaam have involved not only labour-prospecting young adults but also school-leaver youths and children; not only the educated and gainfully employed but also the venturing semi-skilled or utterly unskilled; not only the educationally qualified but also the utter illiterate and poor (FACET BV 2004).
Notwithstanding its comparative industrial and commercial advantages and the associated centripetal attractions, Dar-es-Salaam faces a number of challenges, which, in a seeming state of unpreparedness and inadequate anticipatory planning, could have a choking effect on the present and an even greater implication for future development. The challenges include—though they are not limited to—the following:
(i) Unemployment - perhaps topping the list. It is mostly among young people—thousands of primary and secondary school leavers who either prematurely dropped out of school and found some reason to board a bus or train or even ‘hitch-hike’ to the perceived riches and employment opportunities in Dar es Salaam (Ishumi 1984: 25-46). The unemployment rate in the City of Dar es Salaam is estimated at 46% of the population. It is certainly higher if apparent under-employment were also to be taken into account.
(ii) Poverty, manifested mostly in ‘income poverty’ - claiming a proportion of 51% of the population who live on less than the equivalent of 1 US dollar per day (URT 2002) and as much as 60% or so living on 1 to 2 US dollars. Such an income poverty, is bound and can safely be presupposed to lead to (or in any case be connected with) other forms of poverty—psychological, moral, intellectual. A young guy on an empty stomach cannot think creatively and will not engage in any optimal, self-satisfying, socially prized production, even within the informal economic sector which potentially holds hopes for the many.
(iii) A widened and continually widening economic disparity: between the poor and continually impoverished, on the one hand, and the rich and well-nourished in a public display of conspicuous consumption within the very same urban environment that ‘punishes’ the poor and the deprived.
(iv) Poor housing — in most of the unsurveyed fringes of the city, where accommodation is highly congested, building construction is unplanned and squatter living is the order of the day, with multiplier risks of health hazards (infectious diseases, malnutrition, malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis), crime (house-breaking, alcoholism and drug abuse), etc
(v) Poor urban transportation, traffic congestion and, for those gainfully employed in offices and industry, a compounded daily loss of working time in transit; and
(vi) A latest spectre of invading public ‘open spaces’ (school grounds, playgrounds, public reserve-plots) and misappropriating them for own private, commercial or other illegitimate use, or else vandalising them.
Surely, these and many other development challenges confronting the city, in this particular case the City of Dar es Salaam, cannot be handled by the City Council alone. The ‘City Fathers’, as often termed, would need collaborators—the central government, private good citizens, public and private institutions, including universities—to collaborate and team up with them in problem-solving and social action for the sake of self-sustaining development.
The University of Dar es Salaam, in particular its School of Education and its Department of Educational Foundations, Management and Life-long Learning, have given an indication to the City Fathers of their willingness to collaborate not only in the critical reflections on the challenges but also in strategic planning for the future; more particularly where it necessitates and will require collective strategic interventions for immediate and long-term interventions, coupled with necessary and appropriate mass educational and social-action packages for the different and diverse groups and categories of the city population encircled in the maze. University products, in forms of research outputs, consultancy reports, advisories and action briefs, as well as its graduates constitute invaluable inputs into the development machine of the kind the City Council leadership might need in a partnership for creating an attractive, safe and tranquil City and beyond (Toland and Yoong 2005; Cook 2010: 34).
Depending on the order of problem-solving priorities within the City’s strategic development plan, possible projects formulated for/with the ‘the learning city’ might include the following:
- De-congesting the city—with the support of the central government—by providing an attractive and convincing package to motivate investors and property developers to plan, build and locate their business facilities within new and planned satellite towns (outer cities) away from and beyond areas of population concentration in the current locations;
- Teaming up with local authorities in locations contiguous to the City in a campaign to motivate current urban slum dwellers (mostly in the inner city but also in fringes) to move out and relocate to newly found less densely populated areas in prospective satellite towns;
- Preparing user-friendly brochures, flyers and posters in publicizing preventive urban practices and habits aimed at preventing or reducing public hazards, recurrence of disease and epidemics, which would potentially reduce costs of cure for the same many and recurring diseases and epidemics being experienced; and
- Many more projects in public education, adult continuing education, community resource mobilization, community welfare upgrading, entrepreneurship for self-reliance, job creation, etc.
References
Brennan, J. R and A. Burton (2007). “The Emerging Metropolis: A History of Dar es Salaam, circa 1862-2005”. In J.R Brennan, A. Burton & Y. Lawi (Eds), Dar es Salaam: Histories from an Emerging African Metropolis. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota.
Cook, R. (2010). “The Pan-Northern Collaboration Project between the Higher Education Sector and the Cultural Industries in the UK”. In N. Longworth, & M. Osborne, (Eds), Perspectives on Learning Cities and Regions: Policy, Practice and Participation. NIACE, pp. 29 – 42.
FACET BV (2004). Supporting Small Enterprises: Child Labour in Scavenging. Country Study, Final Report.
Ishumi, A.G.M (1984). The Urban Jobless in Eastern Africa. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.
Leslie, J. A (1963). A Survey of Dar es Salaam. London: Oxford University Press.
NEPAD (2009). NEPAD Tertiary Education Dialogue - Engaging Tertiary Institutions in the CAADP Process. Proceedings of Conference held at FARA secretariat offices, 28-30th July, 2009.
Toland, J. & P. Yoong. (2005). “Learning Regions in New Zealand: The Role of ICT”. In International Journal of Education and Development Using Information and Communication Technology, No. 2005 (4), Vol. 1, pp. 54 – 68.
URT [United Republic of Tanzania] (2002). Ministry of Labour, Youth Development and Sports Figures. Dar es Salaam: URT.
For Discussion:
- To some extent, all cities in the world do experience, or have experienced, the facts of unemployment, poverty, economic disparity, and poor urban housing. These are issues that have a correlation, if not a causal relationship. What can we say about these four features in trying to differentiate between cities in developed countries and cities in developing countries? What can cities in developing countries learn from the experience of cities in the developed countries?
- Some cities and towns, in different countries around the world, have commendably developed lateral, external sister-city relations with each other. Apart from just mutual visits, what could (and should) advisably be done within the framework of such city-to-city friendship relations? Does this kind of city-to-city friendship protocols have implications for a “learning city’s” strategic planning and social-action programme at home?
- Does the idea of ‘satellite towns’ make sense for a growing city – from the point of view of both innovation and problem-solving? Could ‘satellite towns’ also work as a preventive measure in the early stages of urban planning?
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Authors Abel G. Ishumi – Professor of Education at the University of Dar es Salaam, based in the Department of Educational Foundations, Management and Life-long Learning of the School of Education. He has taught courses in sociology and also in philosophy of education. He has conducted research and published in the same areas.
Mpoki Mwaikokesya – Assistant Lecturer in Education, based in the same Department and School at the University. He is currently a doctoral student in adult and lifelong learning at the University of Glasgow, UK. January 2011 |
Comments
Learning cities in developed and developing countries
The Dar es Salaam stimulus paper poses the important question of what cities in developing countries can learn from the experience of cities in developed countries. The Kaunas, Vancouver, and Hume papers provide examples of such learning city development over periods of time. Their common features include a shared vision in each case, partnership development, and strategies to build an inclusive learning culture. Success factors are identified in several of these papers. In addition, the Glasgow paper illustrates the role of the arts and cultural institutions as arenas for lifelong learning and agents of socil change.
Are these lessons relevant to cities such as Dar es Salaam? What else may need to happen? It has sometimes been suggested in discussions of developing countries (eg World Commission on Culture and Development, 1995) that where tradition meets modernity in developing countries a process of "hybridization" is under way. Is this notion of the fusion of ideas relevant to Dar es Salaam? If so, what ideas might be fused in the mix for Dar es Salaam?
Similarities in Vastly Different Contexts
This stimulus paper raises issues that are key to our development as a global community. Yes, in Canada, the issues of unemployment, poverty, economic disparity, and housing issues are pressing and complex -- which is, of itself, noteworthy and disturbing. However, for those of us in Vancouver, the scope and depth of their consequences doesn't compare (and, arguably, never did.) The context for decision-making and resource allocation surely differs dramatically (and, arguably, always has.) It isn't as if the developed world is "further along" the same continuum.
Of course, if we did not believe there were opportunities to tap into one another's experiences and "lessons learned", intitiatives such as PIE would not interest us (and they do). Sharing our experiments, our successes and failures, may have the effect of shortening our communities' learning curves somewhat - but there are limits that it would be a disservice to downplay or overlook.
More likely, the willingness to share ideas and to build an atleast-partially-comprehending network of people who support and encourage one another offers the greatest promise in the end. Let's remain open and keep talking and trying new things. Perhaps if we resist the urge to find and promote "answers" we'll surprise ourselves on all sides.
Twinning
Having recently visited Dar es Salaam, I immediately recognised some of the issues raised by Abel Ishumi, and I do think that exchanges of experience through twinning of cities could be useful. I think that this has to be something that involves a variety of stakeholders, and not be something symbolic at the level of city administrators. The logic of a learning city is that a wide range of agencies work together collaboratively with amongst other goals to acheive social and economic objectives. We have a start here in Glasgow through a collaborative agreement between our universities so that one set of stakeholders has already got a commitment - this could form the basis for developing other forms of linkages.
Twinning schools internationally
One of the key highlights of the PALLACE project which took place from 2002 to 2005 was the twinning of schools in South Australia with schools in Finland. The objective was to get teachers and pupils talking to each other across international boundaries about how they saw their own city and, more imporantly, what they thought their contribution should be to make it a better place. The project was uncompleted and underfunded and, though some activity did take place, it wasn't carried through to produce a definitive result.
But the idea still remains - school students are future citizens and they should have a say in how it develops. The Dublin learning city consultation process for example gave a voice to the schools and Espoo once had a youth shadow cabinet. The international dimension provides a useful focus and motivation for debate between young people on how they might contribute to learning city development. If we can get schools in Dar-es Salaam linking with schools in the other PIE partners on learning city matters that would be a start.
Twinning Schools in Twinning Cities
I agree with you entirely Norman. This is something worth exploring for action. It should start somewhere and "trickle down" to other domains. But, obviously, such a step presupposes that a twinning between cities and a basic mutual learning process between them (first on such basic issues confronting/troubling them 'now' as have been exemplified) is already established and is ongoing. An order of priority is necessary, I think. What do you think?
Twinning Schools in Twinning Cities and general observations
Having been in Dar on a number of occassions over the last 20 years I can see the changes that have taken place........the volume of traffic now is incredible! The unreliability of power and water in, for example, Upanga district, impacts on lives in a real and tangible way.
The changes in Dar and city dwelling pose real problems but equally the lack of development in rural areas in the last 20 years is concerning, not least when placed alongside concerns about food production and the migration of populations to cities.
Given the percentage of the population that is under 15 in Tz (45.6% in 2001) then I believe engaging and working with young people is crucial. Twinning schools offers some interesting opportunities for engagement and discussion but I am also interested in how we engage the many young people who are not in school or not in school post standard 7. Following on from the 2010 report on EFA, I am also interested in how we engage marginalised young people - there are an estimated 150 million children in the world with disabilities, about four-fifths of them in developing countries.
On one estimate, one in three urban dwellers in the developing world – 900 million in total – resides in a slum. Slums can often be focal points for educational deprivation so alongside school twinning it would be good to think how we engage those young people not "in the system" and therefore potentially more vulnerable to all kinds of influences.
The recent explosion
I was sorry to read of the recent explosion at the ammunition dump outside Dar. I do think though that it highlights again the importance of issues such as city planning and development in terms of how and where housing is situated. Residents said the evacuation resulted in deadlocked streets, again highlighting a number of issues for us to grapple with in our discussions. Hoping our Tz colleagues were not caught up in the blast.
Dar es Salaam renewal and change
It seems to me that the big challenges for Dar es Salaam are water supply pressures, traffic congestion and associated pollution levels, growing rich-poor disparities within the city exacerbating social tensions, and the size and 'power' of the informal sector within the city. Water supply has been a problem for years (it was even a problem as far back as the early 1980s when the population was still less than a million), and it has not got better. The multitude of strategies which people now use to obtain clean water would make a fascinating study in its own right, not least because of the way in which the informal sector has got into the act. With regard to traffic congestion and pollution, I don't get the sense that this has improved with the banning of small dahla-dahla from the city centre. Are there other ways of tackling the problem. I know that there are plans to create flyover junctions at Nyerere/Mandela and at Ubungo, but will this be any more than a short-term fix? Incidentally, the congestion during the construction phase of these projects will be something else, I imagine! A suggestion was made of possibly constructing satellite towns around Dar es Salaam to take off some of the pressures. I think that would have to be treated with considerable care as a proposal. Experience from Egypt, where 6 October City and 10th of Ramadan were built outside Cairo as satellite cities to do just this had little impact on reducing congestion in Cairo, as these cities encouraged higher in-migration because houses were cheaper to rent than in Cairo itself, but people still commuted into Cairo to work. However, this might be worth researching in the Dar es Salaam context. Anyway, just some thoughts to throw in the mix.
Satellite towns
I had heard that there has already been agreement to develop new urban areas in Kigamboni and Luguruni areas. The Citywide Action Plan talks about the need to consider those who will be displaced and that care needs to be taken to ensure that residents are not forcibly evicted and pushed into unplanned settlements due to lack of affordable housing opportunities. There is also concern that the Satellite Cities Project is likely to generate land speculation and illegal subdivision in the surrounding areas which may well appreciate significantly in value as a result of the adjacent development.
The recent explosion and the issue of learning city
It was shocking also for me to read about the recent explosions at ammunition area in Dar-es-Salaam, the event occurred one day after I left Dar-es-Salaam, thanks God that we have not heard of any of our colleague to be caught up in the blast. This was a second explosion to occur in two different army bases within a short period of three years, causing deaths and shocks among citizens. The first one occurred in 2009 in Mbagala Military area in Dar-es-Salaam. The reasons associated with the blasts are said to be the expiry of the ammunitions and the growing problem of urbanisation such that some residences come too close to army bases. The problem of urbanisation and poor planning are among the critical issues facing cities in the developing Countries like Tanzania, it is important for such issues to be taken on board as we consider engaging Universities with communities, how best can universities work with city authorities and other agencies to improve city planning? What are the possibilities for reducing risks and hazards of this nature in future? How can the city be planned better than it is now?
Dar es Salaam city, Universities and community engagement
I agree with John and others comments about Dar es Salaam city. It is unfortunate that although it is about 50 years now since independence, many socio-economic issues such as increasing population, disasters of many kind, etc remain unresolved. Universities as important institutions in society should not remain silent. For instance, the University of Dar es Salaam (which is the oldest university in the country) this year is celebrating its 50th anniversary; much is still missing in terms of achieving third mission of universities. Challenges include, how can the universities chip in addressing issues like sewage system and damp (which can be associated with poor planning and housing) in the city? Dar is said to be the dirtiest city in Tanzania, what should be done about this situation? It is high time that universities should act and help the city to learn in collaborating with other actors in the community including, NGOs, CBOs, etc.
Dar City, Universities and Community Engagement: A Rejoinder to
Dar City, Universities and Community Engagement: A rejoinder to Amina Kamando
In principle, I agree with Amina Kamando that universities, as part-and-parcel of (others might say as a lifeline in) society, must not stay aloof and just watch things disintegrate where they are about to crumble or are not going well. If they (the universities) simply watch like spectators, then they are not worth the name – in the sense of the ‘developmental university’ concepts of men like Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, James Coleman of the US, and Jon Lauglo of Norway, in their view of the expected role, duty or obligations of third-world universities vis-à-vis the community (societies) in which they are located.
This imperative notwithstanding, Amina and other readers should note—and will hopefully agree—that it takes two to tango. Unlike ‘pachanga’ or ‘twist’, tango, like rumba, can only be meaningfully played and managed by two individuals together, face-to-face, and in close partnership and embrace! The university—any university—might have ideas (i.e. might be in possession of research-based data, insights, solutions or alternative scenarios to demonstrate ‘for free’ as a public-community service, or for a token consultant fee as a service product); but it cannot and will not seek to impose the ideas on an uninterested and unwilling potential partner—say, for instance on an uninterested municipal council director, government department, or on an atavistic village chairman virulently resistant to change position. This, unfortunately, has frequently been the nasty experience of many optimistic pro-advancement universities in developing countries, in situations and areas some such universities come to be suspected or feared of being a threat to the pre-existing knowledge package, or a competitor for future financial gain or bonus, or a potentially critical or domineering partner relative to the desired status quo that otherwise confirms the traditional patterns of loyalty and ways of doing things. This is a universal challenge in third-world contexts, at least compared with technologically advanced societies. Yet, I do admit, this frequent encounter must not be allowed to discourage continued altruistic efforts and resilience on the part of the universities in this new millennium. And, I must add, universities in the highly changed socio-cultural and technological landscape of today ought to be the first to know the futility of ivory-tower elitism in any approach to partnership in development.
Abel is right, but where do we go?
Abel of course I agree with everything that you say but I wonder what are the practical first steps that can be taken to progress beyond this situation towards a future that we would all wish to see. Is there anything that can be done by PASCAL and PIE?
APPROACHING PARTNERSHIP AND INFLUENTIAL EDUCATORS
Abel I also agree with your position. Here at Hume City in Melbourne we are fortunate through the Hume Global Learning Village to have experienced some different outcomes in developing and working with Universities in partnerships to help improve our community. Your circumstances are clearly different, but I feel motivated to offer some comments based on our experience.
One of the first things is to identify what i will call a "sticky person" in a position of some influence in a University. That is, someone with whom you feel your ideas may take hold who is in an area that can contibute to your community - you already mention research-based data, insights, solutions or alternative scenarios to demonstrate ‘for free’ as a public-community service, or for a token consultant fee as a service product. Then work on building a personal relationship with that person. Then work on expanding that relationship to developing some early level of partnership with some simple goals which can be achieved by working together and allow you both to get a "win". This can then be traded on to engage with bigger ideas. The effect is like oil on water - one small drop spreads gradually over a large area.
We all know that maintaining networks and professional partnerships and relationships requires significant and continous effort. It needs to be part of our everyday work. I believe developing the relationships is just as hard and made more complex in the third world setting you refer to.
Perhaps PASCAL and PIE can collectively develop an engagement and partnership toolkit applicable to different global settings. Are some willing mentors out there who will help with ideas and support for individuals embarking on the challenging journey of initiating, developing, growing and deriving the benefits of a strong partnerships? Can PASCAL and PIE facilitate some hard outcomes from our own International partnership which we in turn are working to develop?
Finally, I would be willing to further engage in exploring the Twinning concept with schools (both Primary and Secondary) in Dar and Hume.
citylinks
Twinning is one excellent idea though Dar's problems are so severe that twinning with one city in the developed world would overwhelm the capacity of that city to make a large difference.
Thinking wider, let's imagine that there is a consortium of several (say 6) cities - perhaps several consortia - from each continent interested in making links - for argument's sake Vancouver, Glasgow, Melbourne, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro and Dar es Salaam. Links are established between adult education, universities, schools, the city authority (politicians and administrators), companies, cultural services. There would need to be people to drive this effort in each city by involving organisations and individuals - as many as they can. The focus of the cooperation is to explore innovative ways of helping each other and then to initiate exchanges, projects, funding schemes, resources development, economies etc. Lifelong Learning for a more sustainable future would be at the core, whether or not we call them Learning Cities. The programme would be heavily publicised in each city to maximise the contribution from citizens, industry, stakeholders. The benefits, economic, social, environmental for each city, and especially in this case Dar, don't take much imagination.
Of course this would take initial funding to seed such a project - and the donors are not readily obvious, but in the end the project becomes self-sustaining as the benefits roll in. The European Commission did provide small funding for such a project (PALLACE) some years ago but its priorities have now changed. So where do we now look for such an organisation with global vision?
Twinning Concept
The British Council have quite a developed system for linking schools that might be of interest. http://www.britishcouncil.org/schoolpartnerships.htm [2]
Twinning of schools
Dear Margaret, many thanks for this link, which provides valuable information on the matter. There are schools I think of here in Tanzania (not necessarily in Dar es Salaam) that are active [or potentially active], would welcome the idea and would wish to take a first step. Maybe you were right: a school doesn't have 'to wait' for a city for such a step, especially where the levels of understanding or appreciation and acceptance of the idea are not necessarily the same or interdependent.
Moving head with Twinning School
As Mike, Norman, Peter and Abel seem to suggest, it could be a good idea to start thinking putting into practice some of these ideas; ‘twinning of schools’ to begin with. This reminds me of the diffusion of innovation theory by Rogers which explores the likelihood that a new idea, product, or practice will be adopted by members of a given culture or social system. According to this theory there are always ‘innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards’. Since the idea of school twinning and learning cities seem to be new, and we are either innovators or early adopters with a vision of the ought to be situation, we better start putting these ideas into practice now, there may be hesitations by some members of the society. The link given by Margaret provides a good start to think of available possibilities for moving forward.
Cultural Aspects of Dar Es Salaam Development
I wonder Abel whether thought has been given to the cultural aspects of Dar Es Salaam development in responding to the issues so well set out in your Stimulus Paper and response note? You will be aware of the argument that culture and development are complementary, and that cultural issues are often critical for development.
You may also be aware of the attempts to strengthen cultural policies in African countries undertaken by a consortium led by the South African based "Arterial Network" and supported by bodies such as The Commonwealth Foundation. This consortium has recently produced a "Cultural Policy Template for African Countries". While these efforts are directed mainly at cultural policies as the national level, a good deal may also be relevant to cultural policies in cities such as Dar Es Salaam.
I raise this question because it seems to me that cultural aspects (heritage learning, identity, art, stories, etc.) are particularly relevant to the twinning ideas that have attracted so much attention in the dialogue on Dar Es Salaam. These aspects are relevant to twinning between schools, but can also be adapted to youth strategies and adult learning. If you agree, I wonder it there is a key person with cultural responsibilities in the City administration (or some other relevant area) who might be brought into the PIE dialogue to contribute in this area? The Glasgow Stimulus Paper shows what can be done by cultural institutions, such as museums, galleries and libraries, in making a large contribution to the revitalisation of a city. I am very interested in the question of what might be achieved in Dar Es Salaam and how cultural development can contribute to the issues raised in your two papers.
Cultural Aspects of Dar es Salaam’s Development
Peter Kearns raises a matter that has a number of dimensions and for which it is rather difficult to provide concrete thoughts, at least for a beginning.
As was pointed out in the original Stimulus Paper, Dar es Salaam grew from a mere small coastal township of some 5,000 souls in 1885, to 1.4 million a century later, in 1988; to 2.5 million in 2002; to an estimated current staggering 3 to 4 million. The population attracted at the beginning were (and must have been) young people of or moving to marriage age who would venture into town for some paid job in order to acquire enough financial resources to return home, pay bride-wealth (‘bride-price’) for a wife; or pay for a piece of land for settlement, or to build a house back home. In the nature of things, not many young men from the village went out to cities to ‘stay’ permanently, and the kind of labour migration between village and town was cyclic (rural-urban-rural). The perceived insecurity and risks of urban life urged the individual immigrants to follow a pattern of settling in a place close to fellows from one’s own rural origin – who presumably knew each other or would have a fellow-feeling for the newcomer and would share common values and traditions in the hope of remaining connected to their rural origins[i] [3]. This was the basis, at least in the early days of labour migration in the 1940s and 1950s well into the ’60s, of ethnic-based associations that developed in Dar es Salaam, formed as they were, basically to provide some kind of insurance (social-cultural and psychological security, ease of linguistic communication, and a safety net in case and in times of trouble in an alien urban environment—in the case of illness, need for credit, loss of a job, death or an emergency wish to return home.
It was the subsequent attractions of a ‘modernizing, luring town’ that turned the cyclic mobility into a unidirectional rural-urban migration. Part of the reason for the persistence of expanding, unplanned, congested or else shanty pockets of settlement in African cities (not least in Dar es Salaam) could be that the urban immigrants’ first consideration for a place to live was proximity to the location of a member of one’s ethnic group and not so much the convenience and advantage of a planned physical outlay of a location.
By the 1980s, for the most part, the importance of these ethnic-based cultural associations seemed to have diminished, probably because of a grown sense of relative income, economic independence, financial security and consequent individualism. Surprisingly, however, associations with an ethnic tinge re-emerged in ensuing years, even though they now seem to be accommodative of wider membership of individuals from an allied outer group. Why this phenomenon has recurred and ‘re-emphasized’ itself, the patterns it is taking, and how they function and bind members together should be a subject of interest for urban research and urban development policy[ii] [4].
Another cultural aspect in the dynamics of Dar es Salaam is the recent initiative by the National Museum of Tanzania, through its Dar es Salaam-based Village Museum department, to sponsor and host periodic cultural festivals intended to highlight the traditional culture and systems of Tanzania’s more than 120 ethnic groups (‘tribes’). This has been adopted as the Museum’s programme of public education and consciousness-raising about the history and diversity of traditions, values and practices of the people of Tanzania, much of which cultural fund is hardly known by the younger generation most of them born and raised in the city. This programme, which began in 1994, has so far sponsored and hosted as many as 18 ‘Ethnic Cultural Festivals’, involving or highlighting as many as 25 individual ethnic groups. It began with the Wagogo of Dodoma (in central Tanzania) in July 1994; the latest was for the Wanyambo of Karagwe district (in north-western Tanzania) in January 2011. One might say that this is another, official drive towards not only building and integrating the national culture of Tanzania but also reminding the urban population of the rich diversity of the national culture they belong and ought to subscribe to.
Given the significance of the issue that has been raised, and with reference to several programmes that can be initiated (as has been the case of libraries in Glasgow, Scotland and the Global Learning Centre in Hume, Australia), it now sounds even more imperative for our universities in the country to champion the idea of training and the government and city authorities engaging/employing trained sociologists and anthropologists for truly down-to-earth researching, investigation and reporting on the many social phenomena, events, incidences and dynamic tendencies in cities. In this regard, it is well worth for our university departments of sociology and/or anthropology in Tanzania to think of designing and mounting courses deliberately focussed on urban anthropology/sociology—particularly on the urban anthropology/sociology of African cities and towns—with a view to preparing professional personnel to research into and advise on problematics and challenges that surround urban environments in our countries. This point is further reinforcing the argument made elsewhere in my RESPONSE NOTE of March 23, 2011.
The two cultural developments mentioned above notwithstanding, I am not fully sure whether I did address the precise matter put forward by Peter Kearns—whether he expected me to indicate if there were (and are) any universal or abiding rules, principles or formulae that govern or could govern cultural growth and performance of urban populations. If this was the question, then, I must say that one cannot provide a straight answer to it. This is because while some developments and practices might transferable from one situation to another, others are too indigenous (endogenous?) and peculiar to generalise. Let’s see what other participants on this PIE platform say about this.
In the meanwhile, I will seek information about Arterial Network and the “The Cultural Policy Template for African Countries”. I was not yet aware of this.
For now, I would wish to introduce the currently acting Director-General of the National Museum of Tanzania, Mr. Jackson Kihiyo (E-mail: [email protected] [5]), who is a historian and a cultural-heritage specialist, whose insights and contributions will, I'm sure, be of interest to many of us. Before his current position, he was director of the Village Museum (in Dar es Salaam) for more than a decade and an initiator of a number of programmes and innovations there.
[i] [6] For instance, Ilala became a favourite for the Zaramo of the coast region, Magomeni a favourite for the Nyamwezi of Tabora, Kiwalani for the Ngoni from the south of the country, Msewe for the Luguru of Morogoro, and Kimara for the Nyakyusa mostly from Chimala, the name being a corruption from the original native name. See for instance JAK Leslie, A Survey of Dar es Salaam, Oxford University Press, 1963, pp. 37-44. For parallel developments in other urban centres, see for instance, Aidan Southall & Peter Gutkind, Townsmen in the Making: Kampala and its Suburbs, Oxford University Press, Nairobi, 1956.
[ii] [7] Hence the importance of re-considering the idea of a formalized system of employing and engaging urban sociologists/anthropologists by urban authorities and the Government Ministry concerned with lands, housing and human settlements development (just as the colonial government had profitably engaged the services of rural and urban sociologists of the level and professional keenness of Arthur Theodore and Geraldine Mary Culwick, Hans Cory, M. M. Hartnoll, David Brokensha, Philip Gulliver, and others).
Culture, learning, and development
Thank you Abel for your very comprehensive response to the questions I have raised about cultural aspects. Since your response you will have seen the very interesting Dakar stimulus paper written by Lamine Kane which takes the position that culture is the determining factor "that finally models and gives to education systems their souls and their life." His paper takes up the important role of the non-formal education system in building on basic traditional and cultural standards and in helping mobilise civil society in progressing basic social, cultural, and educational objectives.
While Tanzania has had a rather different historical experience to Senegal, I wonder how far the perspectives built into the Dakar papar also apply to Dar es Salaam. You will see that Lamine addresses this question in the final section of his paper.
he papers from the June 2006 PASCAL conferece on Heritage, Regional Development, and Social Cohesion held in Ostersund have now been published and are available. I will provide address details in a few days for those who wish to secure the report. There are points raised in these papers on heritage and heritage learning (role of museums, assessment etc) that are likely to interest Jackson and I would be very interested in his comments. My Introduction to the papers will be available on the PIE Library site in a few days.
Your comments, and those of Lamine in his stimulus paper have added further dimensions to our consideration of learning and development in cities and I hope we can now build on these on these.
Promoting access & quality in adult non-formal education
There is a very useful paper on promoting the quality of adult non-formal education and lifelong learning in Tanzania that was delivered at the May 2010 Shanghai International Forum on Lifelong Learning by the Director of the Adult Education Department in the Tanzania Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, Mr Salum R. Mnjagila. This conference was sponsored by UNESCO and a number of Chinese partners and papers from this conference may be downloaded from a UNESCO site at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001920/192 [8]
The paper by Salum Mnjagila ranges widely over conceptual and policy issues and outlines the policy context of adult education and lifelong learning in Tanzania. Progress in providing for a large number of adult learners in non-formal education programs is outlined. The increase in enrolments is said to be the result of extensive community sensitisation programs. These programs increased enrolments from 338,060 in 2004 to 1,211,643 in 2008, an increase of 258%
Despite this remarkable progress, the paper lists a number of challenges that remain to be addressed. Some are said to remain unresolved, and some have informed future undertakings. These challenges are cited as the following.
Strengthening non-formal education and lifelong learning and addressing these challenges is very relevant to the issues raised in Abel's very good stimulus paper so that comments on any of these challenges in the PIE dialogue could be useful in Dar es Salaam development. What can PIE contribute to any of these challenges?