Dar es Salaam City Tour – Everyday

Established in 1934 as a memorial museum dedicated to King George V, opened to the public as the National Museum in 1940 and expanded in 1963. The entry gate is located in Shaaban Robert Street; it houses many historical treasures the most important of which are the remains of the first humans “Paranthropus boisei” discovered by Dr. Louis Leakey at Olduvai Gorge. The museum also has a large colonial history section with Ethnographic displays include traditional crafts, head dresses, ornaments and musical instruments. Hunting and gathering, initiation rites, traditional healing and witchcraft are a few other themes; also on view are leather and bark clothing, and a wooden bicycle in working order.

Tingatinga Paintings are Tanzanian traditional paintings created using layers of bicycle paint representing physical features and landmarks drawn in a canvas material. Formerly they were locally drawn on Masonite and ceiling boards and later Canvases added using several layers of glossy enamel paint which turned its noticeable outlook brilliant, and very attractive representing local people’s activities, Landscape with its exotic animal. Bicycle paint is a good material to use on making clear, vibrant colored paintings that contain sharp contrasts and still gives the ability to work with shades surfaces. The name Tingatinga was derived from the founder of the painting style, a Tanzanian named Edward Said Tingatinga who passed away in 17th May 1972, he left behind his art flying his name to the world, a wife, two children (Daudi & Martina) and six painters who later taught many more other painters

It is located at the center of a roundabout between Samora Avenue and Maktaba Street, unveiled in 1927 to honor the African Soldiers who fought in the first World War and to the memory of the Native African Troops who fought, to the carriers who were the feet and the hands of the army, and to all men who fought, served, died for the King and the Country in the East Africa in World War 1”. The former statue was unveiled in 1911 to celebrate the Germans victory in 1888, represented Major Herman Von Wissmann, a German explorer and soldier, who became Governor of German East Africa in 1895. British entered Dar es Salaam in 1916 and removed this statue along with those of Karl Peters and Otto von Bismarck.

Tanzania has about 124 ethnic tribes in which the main 16 are chosen to represent all, by displaying their old ways of living before colonial and industrial revolution.
Among the chosen tribes, each display their home structure with houses built by natural materials to show the old life reality, inside each house you will find some of the equipment used including cooking stoves, pots, bowls, water cooling pot, spears & arrows for hunting, defensive & protection. Each house include rooms divisions and allocation to the family members accordingly.
At each house information are provided in a well printed and laminated paper to give visitors more details about the customs of their people, lifestyle, and equipment discovered & used before the modern world. To-date there are still tribes in the rural areas who lives one hundred percent in their old ways of life.
Under the big tree at the museum yard, a general traditional tribal dance performances take place daily, whenever there is demand.