MOST PRESENT-DAY Dar es Salaam residents are first or second generation
immigrants to the city. Unlike their rural relations, the vicissitudes of the
natural environment do not immediately affect their food supply.
Nonetheless day-to-day household food security is by no means assured.
The hazards of urban purchasing power can be just as unmerciful as the
weather. Food purchasing power is dependent upon the prices of foodstuffs
and the wage level, both of which vary over time. Food subsidies
become important when a declining wage level coincides with rising food
prices, a situation that Dar es Salaamites have faced in recent years.
During the 1970s Dar es Salaam residents experienced shortages of their
preferred cereals. The problem first surfaced in 1974 after a bad harvest.
Wheat flour was in almost perennial short supply in the years that followed,
rice in sporadic supply and even maize meal, that is setnbe (the major
staple), became a problem in the early 1980s. Practical experience led Dar
es Salaam residents to view queueing as a necessary part of daily
existence. With a touch of humour, they lamented: Siku hizi, ukiona
foleni jiunge tu. Uliza baadae} The queues were for a variety of things:
soap, cooking oil, meat, all the vital necessities, not just staple grains.
Tanzania in the early 1980s faced an economic crisis and the problem of
urban staple food supply was for many urban consumers the most irritating
aspect of the crisis.