Police in Dar Es Salaam
I arrived in Dar Es Salaam from Australia. I intended to go to Zanzibar
for a few days before heading to Arusha in Northern Tanzania to start
the mountain biking. I spent a day in Dar Es Salaam the largest city in
Tanzania organising my bus tickets to Arusha and my ferry return trip to
Zanzibar. Riding around Dar Es Salaam you see the usual array of street
stalls so common in the third world. Amongst those were stalls selling
movie video tapes and DVD's. I picked up a few video tapes at prices much
cheaper than in Australia. I was travelling with a very small travel pack
which would allow me to ride with all my luggage on my back. This meant
that I had little room to add video tapes to my luggage. DVD's were far
more practical for me to carry. However being a poor country DVD's were a
lot less popular so there was little to choose from. I had asked a
couple of stalls for some particular DVD titles. None had them, but all had
indicated that they could get them in about a week. This was no good to me
as I was heading up to Arusha in three days.
In a small place like Dar Es Salaam nothing is secret for long and a
few of the touts who hang around the hotel had noticed me at the street
stalls. They suggested that they may be able to find the particular DVD's
I was after, while I was in Zanzibar. I realised that they would be making
a cut out of the transaction but that would be ok if the price was right.
I had planned to catch the ferry back from Zanzibar which would arrive at
17:00 in the afternoon in three days time. It would only take me a
few minutes to ride to my hotel the Safari Inn, so I arranged to meet then
outside the hotel shortly after 5 pm. It eventuated that I caught a
earlier ferry and arrived back in Dar Es Salaam just after lunch. At the
agreed time I went outside the hotel but the touts were nowhere to be
seen. I then headed downtown to pick up some supplies for tomorrows bus
trip and decide on a location for dinner.
About 6 pm I met one of the touts who told me that they had found the
DVD's I wanted, and that they had gone to ferry to meet me rather than the
agreed location outside the hotel. He explained that they had planned to
take me straight from the ferry to the persons shop. We then agreed to
meet with his friend outside the restaurant where I had arranged to have
dinner with someone. Outside the restaurant they told me what DVD's they
had found and the price. They informed me that the shop was now closed for
the day, so we would have to go the the persons house to buy the DVD's. I
told then that I was not interested at that price. I gave them the price
that I would buy the DVD's at. They said they might be able to do
something and they would meet me outside the restaurant when I
had finished dinner.
At the restaurant I met a young Australian couple. The husband was a
teacher working on an education project in Tanzania and his wife was a
nurse. A very enjoyable dinner took a while. When I came out the touts had
been anxiously waiting. With a bit more haggling we came to an arrangement
where I would buy six current DVD movies at an equivalent of around seven
Australian dollars each. I had deliberately made sure that I had only this
amount of cash on me. We went to a location outside some houses where they
asked for half the money, so they could go in and collect the movies. I
wanted to go in with them, but they said that was not possible. We seemed
to be at a stalemate at this point and I almost walked away. Because it
was such a good deal from my point of view I decided to offer them a
quarter of the money (About ten Australian dollars). I decided it was
worth the risk as only one of them was going inside with the money. A few
minutes later one of the touts came back with a parcel. They immediately
started walking back towards my hotel. The touts were nervous and said
they did not want to stop and do a transaction in view in this area.
However I did not want to go to the hotel as I had something else to do in
the opposite direction. Eventually they got to a spot where they were
happy to stop under a street light so I could check out the DVD's.
No sooner had we sat down on a retaining wall than two men walked up to
us. They obviously knew the touts and the touts knew them. The two men
started asking questions as to what we were doing and what was in the
parcel. The touts were very nervous and evasive and I ignored the
questions as I did not know who they were and considered it was none of
their business. The two men then took the parcel and my original deposit
that the touts were holding. The men then announced that they were
detectives and showed their badges. They asked whose money it was. I
advised them that it was my deposit on the purchase of goods from these
men. They then stated that the goods were stolen. The two touts were
selling stolen goods and it looked like I was receiving stolen goods. I
stated to the detectives that I did not know that the goods were stolen. I
asked them how did they know that the goods were stolen as they had not
opened the parcel to see what was in it. The detectives procrastinated a
fair bit and went on about how serious the matter was. I had read about
Tanzanian police trying to extract bribes or blackmail tourists so I
stayed relaxed. The touts acted very anxious and worried and encouraged me
to do something with the policeman. I took the attitude I have really done
anything wrong, so lets tough it out. After a few more questions the
detectives announced that we were all to go to the police station.
Conveniently the detectives seemed to summon up a taxi driver to take
us to the police station. In the taxi the touts put a lot of pressure on
me to offer the detectives something to get us all out of trouble. I
replied that unfortunately I was not too worried about them and I did not
think that I had anything to worry about myself. In fact I had a very big
problem. I had to catch a bus to Arusha the next morning at 6 am and I
could not afford to miss it. But I figured that I had over nine hours to
when the bus left so it was far too early to panic. It was clear that we were
not heading directly to the police station, if we were heading there at
all. When the touts failed to pressure me the senior detective tried. I
challenged him to provide some evidence that the goods were stolen, or
even to tell me what was in the parcel, as he had not opened it. I
challenged him to tell me what was going on as he clearly was not heading
to the police station. The detective already had ten Australian dollars of
my money, and I figured there was fat chance that I would see that again.
He was going to work a lot harder than this caper to get any more of my
money. Eventually they stopped the car and the discussion continued. The
detective indicated that he was doing me a favour of providing a last
opportunity to offer him something. I perceived that they were getting a
bit desperate. I suggested that we should have a talk away from the
others. We left the car and I insisted that we stand under a near-by
street light.
When we were under the light I showed him documentation of my
affiliation with the travel industry. I explained that I would be writing
articles on my trip for various magazines. If bad things happened to me
they would be written about. I told him that if he arrested me he had
better be sure the charge would stick. If it did not a lot of people would
hear about it and he would not be too popular to say the least. He made
another hardly veiled pitch for a bribe. I replied to him that if he
really thought he could get a charge to stick he should arrest me, it was
his duty. However he would not want to make a mistake as the shit
would really hit the fan. After a minute or so to think about it, he asked
me would I be ok if he left me there, because if I was, he would take the
two touts on to the police station and let me go. By now we were a fair
way out of the centre of Dar Es Salaam and with all the twists and turns I
was not sure if the way back was forward or back or left or right. However
I grasped at the opportunity to extract myself from the situation, and
said yes I was ok. Figuring that the safest bet was to walk back in the
direction we had last come from, I immediately started heading that way as
soon as he turned towards the taxi.
In fact we were quite a way out from the centre of Dar Es Salaam. After
walking in the dark for about a kilometre I arrived at an open shop to ask
for directions to the centre of the city. Luckily a customer at the shop
with his family was heading across to the other side of Dar Es Salaam. He
offered to drop me off on the main road a couple of blocks from my hotel.
In the end it turned out fairly well, I rode down to catch my bus the next
morning, it cost me ten dollars and I did not get the DVD's, but I filled
in my last night in Dar Es Salaam with a bit of adventure. More adventure
than I could buy for ten dollars. I did eventually get a couple of the
DVD's cheaply on a shop in Arusha.
It is possible that the whole thing was a set-up from the beginning,
but unlikely. The touts were not to know I would catch an early ferry and
they would miss me earlier in the day. If the main plan was to make money
from blackmail why did they almost blow the deal by insisting on some
money before they would get the goods. In fact why were they so insistent
on getting some money in advance at all? It did not strengthen the handing
stolen goods accusation. Better off to have me caught with the parcel in
my hands, but they never handed it to me. Why did we walk for blocks and
blocks before they would sit down to show me the goods. If it was a set up
it would have been just as easy to have the detectives come up at the
quite location where they picked up the parcel.
I suspect that the detectives were simply opportunists, who saw an
opportunity to make some money from a tourist. The touts are probably
known petty thieves. The touts are probably young guys working on
commission for a shady entrepreneur. Maybe the goods were stolen. But
maybe they were not stolen but to prove that they were not they would need
to reveal who their boss is and they dare not do that.
I guess what you can learn from my experience is if you are going to
buy goods in a third world country do it in the daylight in the open at a
stall or shop. If you do not have the time or opportunity to do it when
the stall or shop is open don't bother. If you do get into a spot where
the police try to blackmail you and you don't think you are guilty and do
not think they have a strong case, them tough it out as long as possible.
If possible try to turn the pressure and threats back on them, because
they are more exposed than you are. Just make sure it is not worth their
while to kill you.