Tanzania: Paint my tomorrow: Murals envision a resilient, inclusive Dar es Salaam
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a painting is worth much more. In a busy and crowded Dar es Salaam neighbourhood, poverty has got men and women on autopilot. The physical, mental and sometimes social labour in the city slum of Jangwani is intense. The clutter, the noise and the press of daily living makes one imagine that the only pictures that residents here can see clearly are those they have in their minds. And one artist now wants to shape that picture.
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“When this painting finally goes to a wall in Jangwani, it will make the people dream and believe again that it is possible for them to live in a clean and safe environment in which their lives are lived smoothly,” said Isaac Amini, artist and a student of architecture at the University of Dar es Salaam. His painting was one of ten on display at the Understanding Risk in Tanzania – URTZ – Conference 2018 (30-31 August), becoming finalists in the Dar Mural Challenge – a project of the Tanzania Urban Resilience Programme.
Flooding kills people and destroys property perennially in Dar es Salaam. Jangwani, a slum neighbourhood in the Msimbazi valley, is usually the worst affected by the floods. Understandably so, it is a neighbourhood right on the banks of the River Msimbazi, which flows through the city on its way to the Indian Ocean. Settlement has interfered with the natural flow of the water, there are no adequate drainage tunnels and waste disposal is poor, clogging up the river and the few drainage trenches available when it rains and water level rises. Almost the entire neighbourhood is inundated, cutting off roads to the city centre while also causing flooding in other parts of the city.
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Isaac’s painting is a neighbourhood with a number of raised bridges, recreational parks, wide reinforced drainage channels, waste collection points and housing units. At the bottom of it a tagline reads: Through designed infrastructure and natural environment, it is possible to have a resilient city.
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