DAR ES SALAAM: JULY 7 has a long history as a public holiday in Tanzania. Originally, the holiday was to commemorate the date when the ruling political party, then known as Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) was born, on the 7th of July 1954. Today, it is largely related to the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF).
The latest July 7, which was on a Tuesday, was unique, in the sense that, many streets were deserted, as there was widespread fear that violence would take place. Nothing of the sorts happened, however. The Good Citizen of July 9 (page 2) lamented the impact of such fears on businesses in a feature titled: “How long will businesses suffer from protest fears?”
Reflecting on the losses associated with the violence that took place last year on 29th October, the feature’s writer had this to say: “Private sector losses accounted for the largest share, estimated at Sh89 billion, affecting ‘businesses’, commercial banks and fuel stations”.
Surely, commercial banks and fuel stations are also businesses. Most likely, the writer had ‘shops’ in mind, when he wrote of businesses. The sentence could be re-written to reflect this, into: “Private sector losses accounted for the largest share, estimated at Sh89 billion, affecting all kinds of businesses, including shops, commercial banks and fuel stations”.
Towards the middle of the feature, the writer quotes the Chairman of the Kariakoo Traders Association Chairman, SM, as saying: “many traders stayed away ‘voluntarily’, despite there being no official directive to close businesses”.
Did traders stay away “voluntarily”? According to the Collins Dictionary, words with similar meaning to “voluntarily” include: freely, willingly, by choice, and, on your own accord. Given the situation, the traders had no choice, since opening business on that day was highly risky.
Besides, the writer should have talked about there being no official directive NOT to open business, rather than a directive to close business. Normally, businesses open in the morning. Given that they remained closed from the previous day, an official directive would have been to prevent them from opening, not closing.
Indeed, the writer quotes a representative of the Dar es Salaam Commuter Buses Owners Association (Darcoboa), KD, as saying: “he personally kept his buses off the road on July 7 ‘due to fears’ they could be vandalised, costing about Sh1 million in lost income”.
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Thus, if businesses remained closed “due to fears”, that cannot be termed “voluntary business closing”.
The quoting attributed to the Chairman of the Kariakoo Traders Association Chairman, SM, could be changed to read as follows: “Despite there being no official directive preventing the opening of businesses on that day, many traders stayed away ‘due to fears of vandalism’”.
The feature carried a colourful photograph with the following caption: “Many shops remained closed ‘along in’ Kariakoo, Dar es Salaam, on Tuesday after opting not to open for business amid fears of planned demos”.
If the shops remained closed, it was obvious that they had opted (or had been forced by circumstances) not to open. It that tautological to say they remained closed and had not opened. My version of the caption would take the following route:
“Many shops in Kariakoo, in Dar es Salaam, remained closed for business on Tuesday, amid fears of planned demos”.
The Daily Blog of July 9 had, on its page 14, this huge and colourful photograph accompanied by the following caption: “A section of the public ‘walk’ to the 50th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) at the Sabasaba Grounds yesterday. The fair has attracted attention of the people from all corners of the country ‘including’ those from outside.
I believe, it is “a section of the public walks”, not “walk”; that is one. Two, those coming to the Fair from out side cannot be considered included among those who come from within. The caption is amended as follows:
“A section of the public ‘walks’ to the 50th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) at the Sabasaba Grounds yesterday. The Fair has attracted the attention of the people from all corners of the country, as well as (not ‘including’), those from outside.
Have a nice weekend.
lusuggakironde@gmail.com.