Theft from the person
If burglaries and break-ins were probably the largest identifiable category of property offences in Dar es Salaam during the British period, a variety of other offences, generally more petty, variously grouped together as thefts under the penal code (or in other places as stealing) were actually much more common. Theft from the person, for example, was, in various guises, widespread in the town throughout the period under consideration. It could take the form of pickpocketing, bag-snatching, or more seriously of street robbery accompanied with violence (or the threat of violence).
The most complete impression of the incidence of such crimes comes once again from the Indian newspapers from the 1930s. Theft from the person was an everyday occurrence in Uhindini. Jewellery was particularly vulnerable to being snatched, often by gangs of thieves who purportedly hung around the Indian quarter. ‘It appears that the gang has come out again’, wrote the editor of the Herald after a golden necklace had been stolen from a young child on Windsor Street.40 ‘As usual they appear to have confined their activities to the Indian quarters’, he continued, ‘[b]ut it is feared they may extend them over other parts of town.’ In January 1934 a gang was ‘once again reported to be let loose.’41 ‘Petty cases of pilferage, of snatching bangles from children and necklaces from old ladies’, observed the editor of the Herald that year, ‘are too numerous to mention.’42
‘This fortnight is reported to have witnessed a number of Indian ladies falling prey to native scoundrels and terrorists in the main streets and in broad daylight’, the same paper declared eight months later. ‘People are fed up with reporting cases to the Charge Office’, it continued, ‘ [t]hey are required to face examination and cross-examination by police with no practical results.’43 According to another editorial from the same year: ‘The Indian public, especially ladies, view this state of affairs with great alarm. The latter find it unsafe to walk the streets even in the daytime. People see a danger in carrying money with them, cyclists must have their eyes fixed on their machines’ 44
Pickpockets were a common hazard of town life. The railway station, where the
40 TH, 27th February 1932, p.7.
41 TH, 13th January 1934, p. 10.
42 TH, 7a> July 1934, p. 12.
43 TH, 16th March 1935, p.4.
44 TH, 23rd March 1935, p6.
comings and going of passengers -particularly unwary new arrivals carrying valuables- appears to have been a favoured haunt. An Indian victim there in 1926 was relieved of the substantial sum of Shs.6,100/-. It was subsequently recovered and a gang of six pickpockets convicted and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.45 A few years later Juma bin Abdalla was charged with the same offence, stealing Shs.20/- from an Indian.
According to the Standard, there was no shortage of people to take his place. ‘At least twenty young natives in Court during the case showed unwonted attention as they hung closely 011 eveiy word spoken by accused and witnesses’, the paper reported. ‘[I]t was an excellent opportunity for anyone to study the art of picking pockets - with particular reference to avoiding those slips which may result in an appearance in the dock.’46 Throughout the colonial period pocket-picking seems to have been an activity particularly associated with African youth. In 1955, Assistant Commissioner Brockwell, informed the public that although delinquency was not a serious problem there were ‘some clever young pickpockets in the towns’. ‘I recommend you’, he warned, ‘to keep your money in an inside pocket.’47
Street robberies, which were also categorised as theft, were another Dar es Salaam hazard. Once again they were frequently reported in the Indian press. In a case from 1931, the disappointed thieves rebuked their victims for the slender takings. ‘Big men like you’, the robbers were reported to have complained, ‘should be ashamed to go out with only fifteen cents in their pockets.’48 ‘Instances of this nature occur daily’, observed the editor, ‘and it is difficult for one to get police aid on the spot.’ In June 1932 an Indian was reported to have fallen ‘victim to the hold up plan of a native gang in a lane in the Indian area - his pockets were searched and a gold chain was taken from his neck.’49 In 1937 another victim died as a result of such an attack.50 Later that year Gujarati merchants wrote to the Herald complaining that ‘during busy hours a gang of thieves armed with sticks and knives, loaf about the bazaar and cany on their profession without any fear of being apprehended and that the situation is going from bad to worse’.51 ‘The recent development’, wrote the editor the previous week, ‘is that robbery takes place in
45 Police AR for 1926, p.37.
46 TS, 8“' June 1935, p. 12.
47 TS, 13th December 1955.
48 TH, 11th August 1931, p.9.
49 TH, 4th June 1932, p.4.
50 TH, 16th January 1937, p.6.
51 TH, 20lh November 1937, p.3.
broad daylight and any attempt to chase a thief is answered by him with violence.’52
Such attacks were by no means restricted to Uhindini. Certain areas in the African township also became particularly feared because of the high incidence of robberies which occurred there. Ilala Road was one such place, which, according to a letter in the African newspaper Kwetu, had ‘been infiltrated by enemies who perpetrate violence’:
From time to time, beginning around seven o ’clock in the evening, if a child or woman passed alone they would appear to her, and ask her, who are you? Give me your money or your clothing and be safe, or you shall lose your life. And at ten in the evening you men must be seized by a thief hiding any place among the Albizzia trees.’53
Six years earlier the Indian-run Herald had seen fit to complain about the same area: ‘In consequence [of] the lack of lighting at this native location, and the absence of police supervision, native residents were being seriously molested.’54 Little appeared to have been done by the authorities to reduce the danger in the intervening period. Neither did the situation improve during WWII, By 1945 DC Bone was complaining of ‘the dangers of assault and robbery’ in the area.55 Another place singled out by Bone was Mnazi Mmoja - the open space situated between Zones II and III comprising both recreation grounds and remnant bush. This was perhaps the most notorious haunt of muggers in the British colonial period. Kichwele Street, which bisected Mnazi Mmoja comiecting Uhindini with Kariakoo, was, according to a correspondent to the Standard in 1949,
‘infested with thieves who take advantage of the poor lighting.’56 Both Africans and Indians, men and women formed their prey. Complaints were made, for example, in Zuhra (the Swahili newspaper printed by Machado Plantan) in February 1951 that wahuni were hanging around Mnazi Mmoja (and Tuwa tugawe - see below) following women returning from the cinema and attacking them.57 A year earlier an Indian was attacked by two Africans who made off with just a saw, an inner tube and a pair of shoes which had been forcibly removed from their victim. Seven or eight similar incidents had occurred over the previous month, the Standard reported.58 A correspondent to the paper the same day complained that there was ‘not a single day when robbery has not taken
52 TH, 13th November 1937, p.6.
53 Kwetu, 14th Jan. 1939, p.29. Quoted in Anthony, “Culture and Society”, p. 191.
54 TH, 30th September 1933, p.5.
55 DC to Supt.Pol., Dsm, 4.5.45, TNA/540/271/1.
56 Letter from Kichwele resident, TS, 9th April 1949, p.9.
57 Zuhra, 3rd February 1951, in TNA/540/21/8.
58 13th February 1950>
S c a le 1:1 0 .0 0 0
Map 5 Kariakoo, 1940 (note: Mkunguni Street runs past the central Market and out across the ‘Open Space’ [Mnazi Mmoja])
Source: Kironde, “Land use structure”
place in the major road which passes through the open space referred [sic].’59 The incident had occurred on Mkunguni Street, which ran across the upper end of Mnazi Mmoja, connecting the African and Indian quarters. A similar incident that had taken place the previous week was described by ‘Unprotected’ in a letter to the Standard:
On the moonlit night o f Friday past, at as early an hour as 8pm an Indian youth was held up by hooligans and robbed o f his fountain pen, wrist watch and money in Mikungani [sic]
Street. ...I would explain that Mikungani Street is a tarred, not-so-badly lit street, running from opposite the Indian junior school towards the new market, and the robbery, I am told, took place almost on the edge o f the street, somewhere between the Municipal Lavatory and the M buyu [tr. baobab] tree. Dozens o f robberies have taken place in this vicinity, so that the area in question has come to be known as 'Tuw a tu g a w e’ which means ‘put it down and let us divide’. And instead o f drastic measures for the safety o f the public all we get from the authorities is the advice to ‘keep to the roads’ and ‘walk in pairs’ !60
Another correspondent to the paper had warned that ‘these natives [robbers] have learnt a trick to drag the person from the street into darkness with a neck press until he is lightened of his belongings.’61 ‘Undesirable incidents interrupting the peace of Asian dwellers of Kariako [sic]’, he reported, ‘take place very often now.’ The notoriety of Mnazi Mmoja, and Tuwa tugawe in particular, was also recollected by oral informants:
At Mnazi Mmoja it was a gang, not an individual, consisting o f young people in a kind o f alliance. They were jobless idlers who had turned to crime. They stayed not exactly at Mnazi Mmoja but at a place known as Tuwa tugaw e. If they wanted to rob you, at first just one o f them would attack and then others -hiding nearby- would help him if he needed it.62
Women, according to Masudi Ali, were particularly vulnerable:
There was one place at Mnazi Mmoja called Tuwa tugawe. Ladies would pass there at night carrying something - you know it was ladies behaviour to send food to their men. So when they came to this place they’d come across gangs w ho’d demand that they put down whatever they were carrying. They were crossing from Kisutu to Kariakoo and they had to pass this way.63
The incidence of robberies was not helped by the apparent lack of a police presence in the area. ‘H.R.’ reported in a letter to the Standard that:
To look things up for myself, I toured the whole area from Arab Street round Msimbazi, Kichwele, N ew and Livingstone Street, beyond the now notorious Mkunguni Street from 6.15 to past 8pm for a couple o f days in succession. But I could not see even a fleeting shadow o f an A s k a r i’s ghost. Later on I looked up things in Zone I and found A skaris here,
59 Ibid.
60 Letter from ‘Unprotected’, 4 th February 1950, TNA/20219/Vol.II.
61 TS, 17.2.50.
62 Interview N o.2.
63 Interview N o.7.
there and everywhere, not solos but mostly in pairs. I still wonder whom or what they are generally guarding there.64
The most plausible answer was, of course, European persons and property. However, whilst it is probably true that, as in the inter-war period, Zone I continued to be better policed than the African or Indian quarters, this did not mean Europeans in Dar es Salaam were not beginning to fall victim to ‘muggings’ or ‘snatchings’ themselves. After WWII, reports in the Standard of thefts from Europeans grew more frequent. After two failed attempts of bag-snatching from Europeans in 1946, the paper reported that this offence was on the increase. ‘There is in this town,’ observed Resident Magistrate Platts two years later, ‘a considerable number of undesirable Africans who loaf around Acacia Avenue [the main European shopping street] and its adjoining streets for the sole purpose of stealing ladies handbags and anything which is left unprotected in stationary motor cars or in bike baskets.’65 Later the same year it was reported that in two separate incidents European women had been attacked 011 Ocean Road, one of them being threatened with a knife. Whether the timing of this phenomenon had anything to do with a lessening of European prestige amongst the African population is unclear. Within a decade though, bag-snatching and attacks on women had become common enough to lead to nurses at a Kinondoni hostel being taught self-defence to protect themselves against assailants.66
A criminal economy?
The concentration of population and wealth which existed in Dar es Salaam appears to have led to the emergence of a criminal network exploiting the multifarious opportunities for illicit gain present in the capital. This network consisted of various criminal types engaging in the illegal acquisition, receipt and distribution of property. It hinged around the market for illicit goods. Links with areas beyond Dar es Salaam were often vital to the various groups taking advantage of these opportunities.
Smugglers of contraband goods were one such group. As Tanganyika’s main port, and
64 Letter from H.R., TS, 16th February 1950.
65 TS, 23rd October 1948, p.19.
66 Photo and caption, TS, 19th June 1957, p.5.
its’ principal urban centre, Dar es Salaam and its environs were the location of widespread smuggling throughout the colonial period. Contraband from Zanzibar,67 located just a few horns away by boat, was particularly common, as customs duties in the protectorate tended to be lower than those levied in Tanganyika, and as a consequence various items were frequently brought illegally to the mainland. The main smuggled items, according to the Comptroller of Customs in 1934, were sugar, matches, playing cards and tobacco, although khangas and other types of material such as merikani were also popular.68 The points of entry were multiple. ‘Trouble spots’ reported in one file included Tanga, Pangani, Bagamoyo, Kisiju, Rufiji and Kilwa along the coast. In addition, smuggling was common in the environs of Dai' es Salaam, at fishing villages to the north, such as Msasani and Kunduchi, and to the south, such as Mji Mwema.69 In Msasani Bay, according to Leslie
they could land... quite safely. In those days it was fairly deserted by authority even though it was within the township boundaries. There was a village there o f Washomvi, who claimed descent from Persians. They would probably be in charge o f the smuggling trade.
But there were other little villages along the coast there too, certainly as far as Kunduchi - fishing villages that wouldn’t be at all supervised.70
In one incident in 1934, acting on a tip-off about smuggling at Msasani, police made some arrests on the shore, but not before an incoming dhow had been warned of the raid.
The dhow turned away and was later found to have unloaded its cargo at the island of Mbezi, opposite Kunduchi village, from where it was relayed to Dar es Salaam by catamaran. Thirty-seven bags of Java sugar and five cases of matches were found at the house o f one of those arrested. Commenting on the case a CID officer wrote to the Commissioner of Police:
I would not for a moment contend [sic] m yself in assuming that the case at issue is an isolated one, but rather that smuggling is carried out on broad lines, and the loss o f Government revenue should be the subject o f serious consideration. It would be equally idle to pretend that the Native Authority at Kunduchi or along the coast is not conversant with what is taking place although no information from this source is ever received by the Police.71
The police and customs officials relied heavily on a system of rewards for information
67 According to Leslie (Interview N o .11) Tumbatu island in particular was ‘a real smugglers cove’.
68 Comptroller o f customs to the Auditor, 15th January 1934, TN A/12402/Vol. 1; and Leslie interview.
69 Reports in TN A/12402; Leslie interview.
70 Leslie interview.
71 Supt. Hornettto CP, 16th February 1934, T N A /12402/V ol.l.
about such activities. The Comptroller informed the Chief Secretary in January 1935 that it was his opinion
that the general dissemination among Coast natives o f the know ledge that substantial rewards should be paid for information leading to the detection o f smuggling is the most valuable, and probably the only practicable, means o f checking the smuggling which is undoubtedly endemic on the whole littoral between Dar es Salaam and Tanga.72
Precious little intelligence was forthcoming. £[L]ocal opinion5, as an official had observed a few years earlier, ‘being usually on the side of the smuggler will not as a rule bring the facts to official notice.573 Even within the port of Dar es Salaam, the ability of the police and the customs department to control smuggling was limited. Here, the harbour front was policed by patrols day and night which entered dhows and other small craft looking for contraband. The foreshore along Azania Front -where there was ‘danger of shore boats landing goods under cover of darkness5- was also subject to nightly patrols. The Comptroller acknowledged, however, that in conditions such as existed in Dar es Salaam eradication of smuggling was unrealistic. ‘With the harbour full of pulling boats, motor boats and sailing craft, all mobile in the highest degree,5 he informed the secretariat, ‘complete security against smuggling can only be realised with a small preventive army.574 The position in the town, though, was significantly better than that which prevailed north of the capital and further along the coast. The coastline between Dar es Salaam and Tanganyika’s northern border was under no effective control whatsoever. The prevalence of smuggling there ‘by Swahili and Arab dhows' coming from the islands of Zanzibar resulted in the introduction of bicycle patrols in 1938 covering the whole three hundred miles of vulnerable coastline from Moa to Msasani.75 Whilst this may have had some effect in checking such activities, the smuggling continued and arrests were periodically made. In 1945 reports were received of khangas being smuggled via Kunduchi. Five years later a gang of smugglers from Zanzibar were reported to be landing goods to the north of Dar es Salaam and running them into town by car.76 In 1953 a Dar es Salaam man was arrested after being found in possession of Shs.3,363/- worth o f tobacco and other contraband goods.77 Unfortunately, though, thanks to both the scarcity of surviving data relating to smuggling, and to the implicitly
72 Comptroller o f customs to CS, 10th January 1935, TN A /12402/V ol.l.
73 N ote on smuggling in Ruflji (1932), TNA/61/454.
74 Comptroller o f customs to Asst. Sec., 9th March 1938, TNA/12402/Vol. 1.
75 Comptroller to PCs, EP and Tanga, 3 rd May 1938, TN A /12402/V ol.l.
76 TS, 6th May 1950, p.24.
‘shady’ nature of the trade in contraband, it is difficult to gain much idea of its prevalence in the later colonial period. It is likely that smugglers remained at least as active in Dar es Salaam and its environs as they were before WWII. Indeed the rapidly growing urban population would have provided an ever more attractive market for the dealers in illegally imported goods, and judging by the post-war escalation in other forms of crime it is probable that the incidence of smuggling also grew. Leslie recollects the smuggling of goods to have been relatively common at the time of his survey, and whilst officials were aware of what was going on in Msasani and Kunduchi, it was not considered important enough to devote many scarce resources to its control.78
‘shady’ nature of the trade in contraband, it is difficult to gain much idea of its prevalence in the later colonial period. It is likely that smugglers remained at least as active in Dar es Salaam and its environs as they were before WWII. Indeed the rapidly growing urban population would have provided an ever more attractive market for the dealers in illegally imported goods, and judging by the post-war escalation in other forms of crime it is probable that the incidence of smuggling also grew. Leslie recollects the smuggling of goods to have been relatively common at the time of his survey, and whilst officials were aware of what was going on in Msasani and Kunduchi, it was not considered important enough to devote many scarce resources to its control.78