• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • News
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Science
  • World
  • Lifestyle
  • Tech
Dar es Salaam: How a village became one of Africa’s biggest and busiest cities

Dar es Salaam: How a village became one of Africa’s biggest and busiest cities

September 10, 2020
How AfCFTA will decrease conflict by increasing youth employment

How AfCFTA will decrease conflict by increasing youth employment

January 24, 2021
Mothers in Tunisia denounce ‘Arbitrary arrests’ of their children

Mothers in Tunisia denounce ‘Arbitrary arrests’ of their children

January 24, 2021
Police disperse pro-Bobi Wine protesters in Nairobi

Police disperse pro-Bobi Wine protesters in Nairobi

January 24, 2021
Roadside bomb kills three Malian troops

Roadside bomb kills three Malian troops

January 24, 2021
Africa cheers as US returns to the World Health Organization

Africa cheers as US returns to the World Health Organization

January 24, 2021
Libyan MP dies of Covid-19 in Morocco hospital

Zimbabwe loses two more ministers to coronavirus

January 24, 2021
Access Bank picks eight African nations for expansion

Access Bank picks eight African nations for expansion

January 20, 2021
Advice to Africans: Don’t send your children to study in the West

Advice to Africans: Don’t send your children to study in the West

January 20, 2021
UN chief Guterres condemns attack in Somalia’s Galkayo

Nine African nations in debt to UN lose voting rights

January 20, 2021
Malawi turns stadium into isolation centre as virus cases rise

Malawi turns stadium into isolation centre as virus cases rise

January 20, 2021
Absence of Army Officers Stall Lagos #EndSARS  Judicial Panel Proceedings

My husband died in SARS detention over N200 airtime – Widow

January 20, 2021
Sudanese movie in the race for an Oscar for the first time in history

Sudanese movie in the race for an Oscar for the first time in history

January 20, 2021
https://www.firstbanknigeria.com/personal-banking/ways-to-bank/firstmonie/ https://www.firstbanknigeria.com/personal-banking/ways-to-bank/firstmonie/ https://www.firstbanknigeria.com/personal-banking/ways-to-bank/firstmonie/
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Sunday, January 24, 2021
  • Login
The Voice
  • Home
  • Africa
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Travel
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Technology
  • Diaspora
  • World
No Result
View All Result
The Voice
No Result
View All Result
Home Africa

Dar es Salaam: How a village became one of Africa’s biggest and busiest cities

September 10, 2020
in Africa, Business
Reading Time: 3min read
0
Dar es Salaam: How a village became one of Africa’s biggest and busiest cities
3
SHARES
25
VIEWS
ShareTweetWhatsApp

According to projections, by 2035, Dar es Salaam will have more than 13 million people living and working in the city, making Tanzania‘s most commercially vibrant metropolis a “megacity”.

This expectation falls in line with current trends within the global scheme of things. The UN says 10 of the world’s fastest-growing cities are in Africa and one of them is the city nicknamed Dar.

But a century-and-a-half ago, if you had told the founders of Dar that what they were building was the beginning of a complex and domineering city, there would be more than a few questioning looks. This is in spite of the big dreams Sultan Majid bin Said had for his project.

https://www.firstbanknigeria.com/personal-banking/ways-to-bank/firstmonie/ https://www.firstbanknigeria.com/personal-banking/ways-to-bank/firstmonie/ https://www.firstbanknigeria.com/personal-banking/ways-to-bank/firstmonie/

Dar’s story actually begins in Zanzibar, Tanzania’s semi-autonomous archipelago in the Indian Ocean founded as a dignified 15th-century state by Yemeni Arab traders. They chanced upon the islands sometime before through international trade with natives on the African coast..

These Arab traders called the islands by an amalgamation of two Arabic references, namely Zanj ( or zenji) and barr (coast). While Zanj, which roughly translates as “black”, was a medieval Arabic term for the peoples and lands of southeast Africa, barr is Arabic for shore or coast. Zanzibar is thus, “coast of the black (people)”.

Zanzibar was an important trading post that connected East Africa and the Gulf states. The ownership of Zanzibar juggled from one power to another, eventually falling into the hands of the rulers of Oman at the beginning of the 17th century.

Also Read:   Four Burundian journalists charged with undermining state security

The Omani overlords of Zanzibar established a sultanate in their overseas territory in the 19th century. It was the first sultan of Zanzibar, Majid bin Said, who built Dar in the 1860s very close to the fishing village of Mzizima, Swahili for “healthy town”.

Perhaps, calling the new settlement Dar es Salaam was deliberately made in tune with what Mzizima means in Swahili, for Dar es Salaam in Arabic stands for “abode/home/haven of peace”. Dar had a modest beginning but Sultan Said’s ambition was clear – the new settlement had to grow to be a symbolic representation of the Sultanate.

During the first sultan’s lifetime, Dar showed promise but took a nosedive when its founder died in 1870. It was not until 1887 when the German East Africa Company, with colonial and commercial interests in Central and East Africa, established a station in Dar that the town resumed on the path that its founder had set it.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Dar was the administrative and commercial district of German East Africa. This meant that amenities were built to facilitate mass transportation of goods and people, an investment that gave birth to a delightful service sector.

Also Read:   Somalia cuts diplomatic ties with Kenya over Somaliland

By the early 1900s, Dar had a port and also boasted a major railway network. What was a small town just 50 or so years before had become a city with even a cosmopolitan populace.

The Germans had been forced to relinquish to the British their hold over the territory at the end of World War I. When the second world war ended, Dar’s population began to boom exponentially.

According to a 2013 research by Manja Hoppe Andreasen at the University of Copenhagen, Dar es Salaam’s population growth has “historically… translated into spatial expansion and residential sprawl”. This means that over time, the area that was originally known as Dar has expanded in magnitudinous proportion to the population boom.

The sultan’s little town is now home to over 4.3 million people and it is more than 20 times bigger than what it was in 1826. Dar is now a modern city, in the strictest global sense of the term, by the look of its culture, architecture, technology, and economy.

What is the future for Dar? In a way, Dar’s future prospects and problems would not be any different than any other growing African city. Tanzanians already know this and it should be exciting to see how they continue to reinvent the Abode of Peace.

Source: face2faceafrica.com

Share1Tweet1Send
David

David

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Angola’s former Unita leader Jonas Savimbi reburied after 17 years

Angola’s former Unita leader Jonas Savimbi reburied after 17 years

June 2, 2019
Nigeria is in a State of Wasted Brilliance of Hard Working people – Kwevi Quaye

Nigeria is in a State of Wasted Brilliance of Hard Working people – Kwevi Quaye

January 5, 2021
149 African Migrants Evacuated From Libya to Italy

149 African Migrants Evacuated From Libya to Italy

June 1, 2019
Egypt withdraws from latest Nile dam talks

Egypt withdraws from latest Nile dam talks

1
How AfCFTA will decrease conflict by increasing youth employment

How AfCFTA will decrease conflict by increasing youth employment

0
Is Kenya in Upward Trajectory after the 2017 Elections ?

Is Kenya in Upward Trajectory after the 2017 Elections ?

0
How AfCFTA will decrease conflict by increasing youth employment

How AfCFTA will decrease conflict by increasing youth employment

January 24, 2021
Mothers in Tunisia denounce ‘Arbitrary arrests’ of their children

Mothers in Tunisia denounce ‘Arbitrary arrests’ of their children

January 24, 2021
Police disperse pro-Bobi Wine protesters in Nairobi

Police disperse pro-Bobi Wine protesters in Nairobi

January 24, 2021
The Voice News Magazine

Copyright © The Voice News Magazine

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • World
    • Science
  • Entertainment
    • Gaming
    • Music
    • Movie
    • Sports
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Gear
    • Mobile
    • Startup
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Fashion
    • Health
    • Travel

Copyright © The Voice News Magazine

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In