A quick tour of Dar es Salam

Dar es Salam Tour

Annika Seifert kindly took a group from the Urban Narratives (Simulizi Mijini) Symposium on a walking tour of the city. We met at the Old Boma and after a briefing on the history of the city plan we set off taking in the Post Office, and Anthony Almeida’s modernist St. Joseph’s school and the colonial White Fathers’ house.

Further along the dock road is the National Bank of Commerce designed by Charles Alfred Bransgrove (who also designed the British Legion Offices in Dar, 1952). From here we visited Walter Bgoya’s wonderful book shop (picking up a copy of Dar es Salaam. Histories from an Emerging African Metropolis, Mkuki Na Nyota Publishers,2007) and then venturing into the wonderful commercial district that contains outstanding architecture from the inter-war period. Some of the buildings display hints of Indian influence, others definitely deco, sweep around the corner sites with great confidence.

From the city centre we crossed the old colonial cordon sanitaire (now an ‘open space’) to venture into the Kariakoo district to take in the brutalist market designed by Beda Amuli.

Many thanks to Rachel Lee and Diane Barbé from The Habitat Unit at TU Berlin for organising this event. Great Job!