Photographic Memories #13

As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With lockdown incomplete and travel still on hold for a while, we currently have no new adventures to blog; we do though have many such memories…

Photo #13 Dar Es Salaam

Sometimes, in the midst of a culture very different from home, something catches your eye and for the next few moments you can’t tear yourself away. This photograph was taken during one such moment. Dar Es Salaam is a bustling, colourful city, no longer the official capital of Tanzania since the creation of Dodoma but still the country’s beating heart for most of its people.

“Dar” is eclectic and exciting and a hotchpotch of influences, an African city heavily influenced by migrants from India and with underlying hints of German occupation. Daytimes are lively and exciting; after dark is another story, and we were told in no uncertain terms by locals that it is not safe for western tourists to be out at night. Overall though the city is unmistakably African, a quality most seen in its huge, heaving market places.

Clothing stalls are an outrage of bright colours; repair shops hum with activity; and the meat markets are a step beyond, shockingly swarming with flies and racked with the stench of rotting flesh. You hold your nose as you walk through.

And so to the fish market, and to the photograph. There is no mechanism, no structure, and this is what had us spellbound for a while. As the fishing boats pull in with their catch, the skipper can only bring the vessel in to a certain point: the only way to get the fish ashore from that point is a human chain, standing waist deep in the water passing bucket after bucket of fish from man to man. The fish market, inevitably, is right there on the quayside, so once the human chain has passed the catch ashore, it’s straight on to the slabs to be presented to the punters. 

It was fascinating to watch, not least because of its wonderful simplicity.