Dar es Salaam

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(Redirected from Mzizima)

This article is about the city, for the region see Dar es Salaam (region).

**Dar es Salaam**

Image:DarHarbour.jpg
Image:Tanzania DaresSalaam.png Location of Dar es Salaam
Mayor	Adam Kimbisa
Area –Land –Water	162.5 km² 0 km²
Population –Total (2005) –Density	Metropolitan area 2,456,100 (2005)
Latitude Longitude	6°48' S 39°17' E
Official website:

Dar es Salaam (Template:Lang-ar [translation: "House of Peace"] Dār as-Salām), formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania with an estimated population of 2,500,000. It is also an important economic centre and the former capital city of Tanzania but it continues to serve as the capital for the surrounding Dar es Salaam Region.

1 Geography
2 City Life
3 History
4 Culture
5 Trivia
6 External links

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Geography

Although inland Dodoma is the official capital, the vast majority of federal government employees live in Dar and most major political figures maintain residences here. Located on a harbour on the Indian Ocean, its main railways originate in or near the city. Local industries include trade, food products, textiles, cement, and pharmaceuticals. About one half of Tanzania's manufacturing employment is located here despite the fact that Dar holds only ten percent of the population. Dar es Salaam is located at 6°48' South, 39°17' East (−6.8000, 39.2833). [1]

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City Life

Though the city has a low violent crime rate, this is increasing along with the already high number of instances of theft as inequality increases and the amount of money available from Tanzania's thriving aid industry increases. A common nickname for the city is "Bongo" (literally, "brain" in Swahili), which refers to the street smarts necessary to survive there.

The Tazara railway runs from Dar es Salaam to Lusaka, Zambia and produces much of the income in the area.

Administratively, Dar es Salaam is broken into 3 districts: Ilala, Kinondoni, and Temeke.

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History

Image:Dar-es-salaam-c1905.jpg In 1859, Albert Roscher of Hamburg became the first European to land in Mzizima ("healthy town"). In 1866 Sultan Seyyid Majid of Zanzibar gave it its present name, an Arabic phrase meaning Haven 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 resulting from the construction of the Central Railway Line in the early 1900s.

German East Africa was captured by the British during World War I and from then on referred to as Tanganyika. Dar es Salaam was retained as the territory's administrative and commercial centre. Under British indirect rule, separate European (e.g. Oyster Bay) and African (e.g. Kariakoo and Ilala) areas developed at a distance from the city center. The town's population also included a large amount of South Asians.

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 (TANU), led to Tanganyika attaining independence from colonial rule in December 1961. Dar es Salaam continued to serve as its capital, also when in 1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania. However, in 1973 provisions were made to relocate the capital to Dodoma, a more centrally located city in Tanzania's interior. The relocation process has not yet been completed, and Dar es Salaam remains Tanzania's primary city.

One of the deadly 1998 U.S. embassy bombings occurred in Dar es Salaam; the other was in Nairobi, Kenya.

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Culture

Image:SubwayDar.jpg Downtown Dar es Salaam has a very Arabic and Indian flavor, including many small business proprieters from those origins. Many of the buildings and general layout of the downtown area have a frenetic, claustrophic air that lends itself to street vendors and restauranteers earning a steady living.

The areas outside the city center are newer and tend to be spread out and disorganized (sprawling). The outskirts are generally populated by Africans, with the exception of Oyster Bay, where there is a large "western" population. Although there is little in the way of open racial hostility, the various ethnic communities of Dar es Salaam do not tend to intermingle heavily. The edges of Dar es Salaam spreading are growing rapidly, taxing the transportation system and creating fear that the city will suffer urban overcrowding in the near future.

A few local restaurants specialize in traditional Indian or Zanzibari cuisine. Many other establishments, such as the New Protein Bar, serve traditional Tanzanian foods, including "Nyama Choma" (roasted meat) and "Mishkaki" (Shish Kabob) cooked with salt and various hot peppers. Due to the growth of the expatriate community and increasing tourism, the number of international restaurants is increasing very rapidly.

A variety of museums, including the National Museum, the Village Museum, and the Botanical Gardens, are all very close by. Within an hour's drive North is Bagamoyo, which is home to the Kaole ruins. There are beaches on the Kigamboni peninsula east of Dar es Salaam and on Kigamboni Island to the North where residents and tourists alike frequently visit. The National Stadium hosts Dar es Salaam's Simba football club, Tanzanian football clubs, and many other international matches.

The first cineplex in Tanzania to show first-run Western and Indian releases was opened in Dar es Salaam in December 2003.

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Trivia

The building that houses The National Audit Office of Tanzania used to be a car salesroom before it was nationalised by the state shortly after independence.

Bongo is the commonly-used nickname for Dar es Salaam. The use of the word can be traced to the mid-1980s. Bongo is Swahili for 'brains'. It is thought that due to the hard economic times during Nyerere's rule, the only way one could survive was by using his brains. 'Bongoland' sometimes refers to Tanzania.

Masaki and Mikocheni are suburbs of Dar es Salaam

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