What if Dar es Salaam was not meant to grow into this city?
Harbour and city centre skyline of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Dar es Salaam is home to roughly 10 percent of the country’s population, at least on paper. The very definition of a Primate City.
What is it like to live in one of the fastest growing cities in the world, you ask? Well, it is many things, one of which is "unexpected." Nobody would have predicted this for Tanzania in the past.
I like to imagine that for newcomers from the hinterlands, Dar es Salaam is an exhilarating adventure. For us long-term residents, it is a perpetual surprise at how big it has become, how expensive everything is, and how we can’t find anywhere because the landscape keeps changing, with fewer trees, more asphalt and new buildings.
