Dar es Salaam is the former capital city of Tanzania and a city in East and Central Africa with one of the tallest 2 buildings. The city covers an area of about 1393 sq.km with a total population of more than 4,364,541(Population Census of 2012) million people with more than 120 tribes living together. Dar es Salaam has a neighbourhood with regions like Morogoro, Mtwara, Pwani, and Zanzibar islands.
Dar es Salaam is located at the equator line, geographically classified having a tropical climate with a high temperature of more than 30°C almost throughout the year. Two rain seasons have been experienced in Dar es Salaam which are high seasons that occur in April and May. And the shorter one that appears in November.
The city has the port that serves the town and most of the neighbour countries like Rwanda, Zambia, Burundi and Congo. Being a business capital city, it attracts a lot of people to do business in the city and that is why there is a high population compared to any city in Tanzania. Also, Dar es Salaam is located at the shores of Eastern Indian Ocean where citizens get to benefit from it in doing business and leisure activities.
Municipalities of Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam is segmented into five municipalities which are Ilala, Temeke, Ubungo, Kinondoni and Kigamboni. Each district is divided into wards that ultimately form streets. The following are municipalities of the city with their most known areas (streets).
Kinondoni municipality
It is the municipality which is estimated to have a population of about 1,775,049. Areas found in Kinondoni are Masaki, Oysterbay and Ada Estate where Oysterbay beach or currently white sand beach for leisure and recreation activities. Mikocheni, Msasani, Sinza, Kijitonyama, Magomeni, Kinondoni, Mwenge, Mbezi Beach, Tandale, Mwananyamala-Kisiwani and Kigogo are some of the famous streets in Kinondoni Municipality.
Temeke municipality
Temeke municipality is very famous and it is where most of the people of low income live. There are some processing industries that are found there like Azam industry at Buguruni. National stadium and Uhuru stadium, as well as Azam football pitch, are found within this municipality. Saba-Saba grounds where exhibitions and trade fairs take place are available in this district. The district comprises areas like Kurasini, Temeke, Mbagala, Chang’ombe, Kijichi, Buguruni, Mtoni and Tandika.
Ilala Municipality
In this municipality, it is where most government offices and ministries are found. Though currently, all ministries have shifted to Dodoma city which is the capital city of Tanzania. Ilala is the centre of business and has high concentration of people, area made up Ilala are Upanga, Kisutu, Kariakoo, Segera, Tabata, Ukonga and Ilala.
Ubungo Municipality
The municipality is very popular because of having an international bus terminal whereby more than 28,000 buses that do their trips within and outside the country arrive at the terminal every day. There is a presence of five-star hotels known as BLUE PEARL HOTEL (the former Kilimanjaro Hotel).
Kigamboni Municipality
This area is also known as the south-beach of Dar es Salaam where the access to Kigamboni is mainly by ferry though currently there is a Kigamboni bridge that also people use when crossing to this suburb. Economic activities in this area are well diverse among its population.
Leisure & Tours
Presence of beaches like Cocoa Beach, Msasani Beach, Kijichi Beach, and others create recreational and leisure opportunities for residents and tourists who visit Dar es, Salaam. The presence of monuments like askari monument at Posta provides another chance for tourists to do tourism activities.
People also may decide to visit the national museum as part of tourism in the city where they can acquire a lot of information on the evolution of Tanzania. This national museum is located at Posta as well. Apart from all these areas, configuration of the city deserves to be an attraction on which tourists may do walking safaris, biking, cultural and city tours. In Dar es Salaam there are a variety of night clubs and casinos where people can go for relaxation of minds for example Maisha club that located at Mbagala Rangi tatu
Accommodation
The city also has hotels where guests can relax before going to their destinations. For example, clients are going to the southern circuit or northern circuit for tourism activities, after landing at Dar es salaam airport can be transferred to hotels such as Dar es salaam Serena hotel, Sea cliff hotel, Golden Tulip hotel and Hyatt Regency hotel.
CULTURE
Art
There are people who base on art crafts especially on painting and carving woods of different tree species. Famous painting area is found at Oysterbay where tingatinga style painted pictures and many others are sold as well as wood carvings of different shapes are available.
Music
In Tanzania we have got different music flavours like bongo flavour, taarabu, Singeli and mchiriku wich are home based flavour where Dar es Salaam is the base of all these Tanzanian flavours. Also, we do have best artists like Diamond, Ali Kiba, Vanessa Mdee, and so many others.
TRANSPORTATION
Transport system in Dar es Salaam is adequate because all forms of transports are available in this city which is land transport, water transport and air transport each of these serves people on their daily activities within and outside the city and even outside the country.
Land transport
This is commonly used in the city compared to any other form of transport because of economic and geographic location of the city whereby residents’ ability to use air transport is not that much strong to afford. Here there are two major kind of land classification which is road transport and railway transport
Road transport
Road transport is the leading means used by residents because people own their own private cars and there are these public buses and min-buses inside and outside the city. Also, the project of Usafiri Dar Rapid Transit (UDA-RT) was established two years to solve the problem of traffic jam in the city this was as the solution of the failure UDA (Usafiri Dar) that uses normal min-buses. The project of bus rapid transit “mradi wa mabasi ya mwendo kasi” has been reducing the problem of traffic jam in this largest and most populated city in Tanzania.
Railway transport
Railway transport also helps people to do transport inside the city as the mechanism to reduce traffic jam also to transport people or luggage via central railways (TRL- Tanzania Railway Limited) and international one known as TAZARA (Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority). There some trains that do their trips within the city but others they cross borders of the city to other cities in Tanzania like Tabora, Morogoro, Dodoma, Singida and Kigoma, also some they do their safaris in neighbour countries like Zambia and South Africa.
Air transport
In Tanzania, Dar es salaam used to be as the hub that connects different airstrips to other countries outside the country. Dar es Salaam is where Julius Nyerere International Airport with modern constructed terminals used to transport people within and outside the country. Different flights from different parts of the word land in this airport. Also, domestic flights land at the domestic airport in Dar es salaam then clients are transferred to the international airport to take their international return flight after coming from their safari.
Marine transport
Residents also have access to different islands like Zanzibar, mbundya, mafia and others by using marine transport vessels like ships and boats. People have been using the ferry, especially from Kivukoni to Kigamboni and the same on the way back though currently, the government has constructed a big and beautiful bridge called Nyerere Bridge that people use from other parts of Dar es Salaam to Kigamboni. From Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar there is no way reach at the desired destination rather than using only two types of transport which are water and air transports.
Education
Speaking of universal education, Dar es Salaam has several universities that provide education for different professionals like engineering, medical personnel, tourism specialists, teaching and so many others. The most famous university is called University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Dar Es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE), Kampala International University (KIU) Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences.
Places of Worship
Having all more than 120 tribes, Tanzania also has different religions in Dar es Salaam like Christianity, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhism and so many that difficult to identify. In Christianity, there are Roman Catholic whereby dar es salaam is the headquarter of roman catholic in Tanzania and only city where the cardinal post is held as far as church matters concern. Also, there are other churches like Pentecost churches, seventh-day church, protestant churches and so far. In Muslim, there are only two classes which are Sia and Suni.
NOTE: Currently Dar es Salaam is not a capital city of Tanzania and the government has been making a progress to shift all the ministries in Dodoma city that was approved to be the city in 2018 by the president of United Republic of Tanzania.
