LOCAL FEATURE: Dar’s historic buildings get a new lease of life as threat looms large

Dar es Salaam. Seventy-two-year-old Walter Bgoya has a passion for conserving and protecting Dar es Salaam’s architectural heritage, which is now on the brink of being wiped out by greedy real estate developers.

Bgoya is the managing director of Mkuki Na Nyota Publishers, which is located in a historic building along Samora Machel Avenue that was once the office of the first Angolan president, Augustino Neto. The building--the Tanzania Publishing House--was also a meeting place for Neto, the late Samora Machel of Mozambique and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.

Byoga, who first came to Dar es Salaam in 1960, says in 1979 he stood firm against the demolition of the Old Boma on Sokoine Drive, presumably Dar es Salaam’s oldest building.

“Before the building was razed, I ran to State House to protest and met Joan Wicken, Founding President Julius Nyerere’s personal assistant. “She told me the building was an eyesore and had to be demolished,” Byoga recalls. He was not discouraged, though, and went to court--where he secured an injunction against the demolition of the building. “If we struggle we can do a lot of things,” he adds.

Bgoya said he did not step in the building for 30 years--until Friday of February 21, 2014--when he was invited to be the master of ceremony for the launch of the Dar es Salaam Centre for Architectural Heritage (DARCH), a project aimed at saving and promoting historical architecture in the city through research and documentation, education and professional training, community outreach and public cultural events.

The project, funded to the tune of one million Euro by the European Union, will be located at the Old Boma after undergoing renovation to highest international standards--making it a showcase of sustainable conservation and a public centre for the promotion of historical urban environment.

The EU supports seven cultural heritage projects all over Tanzania at a total cost of Euro 7 million. The DARCH support will cover three years.

Standing on the rooftop of the building he had protected from a demolition squad, Bgoya happily surveyed the result of his hard work. The building overlooks the scenic view of the Dar es Salaam port and he had every reason to smile broadly as he invited Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Lazaro Nyalandu and EU head of delegation Ambassador Filiberto Sebregondi to jointly launch the project.

DARCH is a joint initiative of the Architectural Association of Tanzania (AAT), Ardhi University in Dar es Salaam and the Technical University in Berlin, Germany.

DARCH associates include Mkuki Na Nyota Publishers, the British Council and ANZA, East Africa’s first architecture and urban planning magazine.

Dar es Salaam City Council is offering considerable support to the initiative by providing the Old Boma as a location to host all of DARCH’s planned activities. The city and DARCH together will turn the historic building into a public centre celebrating Dar’s rich urban heritage and history and promoting it to tourists and citizens.

The project has been launched at a time when the pace of development in Dar es Salaam is picking up considerably, resulting in the demolition of several historic buildings.

Newly developed structures have introduced a completely new scale and are mostly of generic architectural expression and alarmingly poor quality.

Says Annika Seifert, a German architect and researcher at the Technical University in Berlin: “One of DARCH’s major tasks will be to make the national and local governments aware of Dar’s rich urban heritage and also to highlight it to Dar’s wider public.”

The team has spoken with citizens of all social backgrounds and often encountered cynicism when it comes to governance issues and the city’s development. But, according to Seifert, a surprising majority are in favour of protecting their heritage and appear very disappointed to see it disappear fast.

She added: “At the Technical University in Berlin, we had collaborated with the Architects Association of Tanzania previously and were excited to be approached by the DARCH initiative. Heritage conservation has the potential to become a catalyst for social and economic development in Dar es Salaam.”

The architect says Dar es Salaam still has a surprising number of coherent historical streetscapes and blocks that have survived the real estate boom so far. One needs to take time to discover these treasures hidden underneath wires, billboards and old paint--but these ensembles capture the unique spirit of the city.

If you dig deeper, Seifert says, you will be surprised how deeply connected these buildings are to Tanzania’s history and, particularly, to the Tanzanian and Pan-African struggle for independence, says Seifert. “Unfortunately, not even the surprisingly small number of legally protected buildings are safe from the threat of demolition,” she adds. “If a major historic asset like Forodhani Hotel, today’s Court of Appeal, can simply be taken off the list of gazetted buildings, you might as well question the use of such a list altogether.”

There were reports last year to the effect that historical and cultural buildings and monuments in Dar es Salaam could be demolished in favour of new development following the revocation of the government notice protecting them. Iconic landmarks such as the Askari Monument, Old Post Office, Forodhani Hotel (now Court of Appeal) and Karimjee Hall are no longer protected against demolition after the government revoked the Antiquities Declaration of Conservation Areas Notice No. 2006.

The revocation comes against the backdrop of a demolition spree in which a number of historical buildings in the central business district have been brought down in recent years.

Structures that have been razed to the ground include MC George Building at the junction of Samora Avenue and Mkwepu Street, which was demolished in 2008. The building was put up in 1901 and originally housed a police officers’ mess during German colonial rule. It later served as the Tanzania head office of a German pharmaceutical company before housing the legendary Salamander Restaurant.

On February 20, 2007, the then Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Prof Jumanne Maghembe, revoked the Antiquities Declaration of Conservation Areas Notice No. 2006, opening the door to the demolition of historical buildings and monuments.

Prof Maghembe said it was a “collective” decision, adding: “It was a government decision, not my personal decision. I signed the notice because I was in the (Natural Resources and Tourism) docket at that time...it was purely a government decision.”

Prof Maghembe said the government decided to revoke the protection of historical buildings and monuments to pave the way for high rise structures that would help boost economic growth.

“We are transforming from a poor country into a middle income nation,” said Prof Maghembe, who is now the Water minister.  “This cannot be realised by keeping old buildings intact.”

Dar es Salaam resident with a passion for architectural conservation, Mr Dimitri Mantheakis, pins his hopes on the DARCH project saying: “Finally what is left standing from the remaining history and character of the charming architecture of the city of Dar es Salaam will now continue to survive through DARCH.”

Mr Mantheakis adds: “Many of my compatriots especially within the hierarchy of the National Housing Corporation have failed in the past 20 years  to believe that the protection of  the remaining  national historical buildings  is an investment in the right direction that in  the near  future may become  the single most important factor in attracting visitors to Dar es Salaam thus in return generating income for our city in the same way the brave  past generation of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere  created national parks in order to protect our natural heritage--and did so when there was hardly any tourism or need to conserve--and yet, 50 years later, Tanzania is today  greatly benefitting from the flow of tourists coming from  all corners of the planet just to see what we had then set aside for future generations.”

He commends his fellow Tanzanians who are standing up for the protection of the country’s architectural history and the cultural heritage of Dar es Salaam city. “I am also saluting the European  Union  and friends of Tanzania for helping us  to see the benefits of an alternative to the threat--in the name of development--of the  destruction of  what little  is left from our  inherited history of East Africa.”

Speaking at the launch of DARCH, Ambassador Sebregondi appealed to the government to preserve its architectural heritage in Dar es Salaam, saying time was running out quickly. “Unfortunately, not a single day goes by without seeing the risk of this heritage disappearing,” said the EU envoy. “What has happened to so many harmonious buildings in the city centre?”

The value of the past was often not understood, he added, nor was the fact that it could be integrated in the future plans for the city. “Dar es Salaam is the third fastest growing city in Africa,” said Mr Sebregondi. “It is under extreme pressure to accommodate the business, trade, housing needs of a dynamic megalopolis. This does not have to be done to the detriment of its unique architectural heritage.”

Minister Nyalandu said the government was working on plans to identify buildings and structures for preservation and protection. The government is also working closely with AAT, Ardhi Institute, the University of Dar es Salaam, the Dar es Salaam City Council and his ministry’s Department of Antiquities to identify the architectural structures.

Due to its historical significance and its vulnerability, the minister said, Dar es Salaam city centre has been included in the famous watch list 2014/15 of the World Monuments Fund (WMF) along with 66 other sites worldwide.