Written by: Vanessa Mwingira

Evenings in the streets of Dar es Salaam with the vast food stalls feels like a survival game for your wallet, will it be safe tonight or will you go home knowing you have gone over the budget? You get down from the bus with one goal in mind, to reach home. However, you spot a table that sells seafood, and you lose focus. I am sure it has happened to most of us. 

With these vibrant tables that sell seafood like calamari for two hundred shillings per piece, grilled beef on sticks famously known as ‘mishkaki’ and plantain smoked to perfection offered at five hundred shillings per piece. Hot chapatis served with different side dishes like beans and meat stew for a generous price of three thousand shillings and not forgetting the chips stalls that taste better than home-made chips, how can you resist?

To make these spots more attractive to passerby’s, vendors place benches, chairs and makeshifts table so their customers can sit. In exchange, meals are bought and discussions about social issues are made between strangers. “I didn’t plan on coming here, I was just passing then I saw the seafood table” said Edna while picking up more calamari pieces from the table with a toothpick. “I can spend almost two thousand shillings here, there are affordable, and they satisfy my cravings.”

While some people eat out in the streets because of cravings, others do so since it is the only affordable option. These spaces become more than food stalls, it is where some people have all their meals at times. According to Juma, a chapati seller in Tabata Shule, he starts making chapati around 7pm to target people who are coming back from work. Another passerby informs a person next to them, “we need to get fried fish, cook it and eat it with ugali and our day is over”.

That is the quiet truth, for those with minimum income, these vendors are essential. They make sure that the bajaj driver heading home after a long day driving and a university student have a chance to grab and eat a good meal even on a tight budget.

Street food vendors are a necessity, they are the ones who make it possible for thousands of Dar es Salaam residents to eat every day, without them, daily life in this city would be much harder.