Why male drinkers prefer local dirty bars

On an ordinary day everyone would prefer a clean facility especially when you are out to have fun after a long day’s work.

But that more of a theory as it turns out hundreds of revellers have a thing for these rundown facilities that have become common in Dar’s surbubs.

It is almost 5pm and the attendants at Mperani in Tabata Dar es Salaam are busy sweeping the leafy compound. A young man, one of the helpers, is pushing a cart packed with water containers, which he empties at the back of the house.

The next kiosk, which also belongs to the same person, ‘Mangi’ is peeling Irish potatoes. These will later be used for French fries.

He lights a huge charcoal stove, and business gets rolling. On the other side, soon after sweeping the yard, the girls head to the store where they ferry plastic chairs, tables and umbrellas for customers who might come before sunset.

At the shop counter Mama Flora, the proprietor is barking orders as she goes through the previous night’s sales records with the girl at the counter. Part of her duty is also to check the creditors’ list, who seems to be more than those who pay cash on a daily basis.

As darkness engulfs the warm Dar sunshine and a cool breeze blows to usher in the night, patrons begin to flock to the bar. They come from all walks of life. Here, everyone knows each other by name. It is a closely knit society.

Whatever is going on at this joint in Tabata is a replica of what takes place almost every evening in Dar es Salaam’s suburbs and its environs.

In Sinza, a middle class residential area, though recent developments have seen a rise in decent party houses these shop-cum bars still rule the roost.

The shanty bars and shops commonly known as “groceries” in Bongo speak, are usually very small with sanitation serving as a major problem- many of them lack proper toilets.

Drinks are cheap, mostly sold at factory price and the crowd is low-key. What puzzles first time attendants is that despite the low standards of the services available at such watering holes, and the fact that better places are within reaching distance revellers continue to swarm these joints.

Proximity

Derrick a real estate broker in Dar es Salaam, is a regular visitor to one of these bars in Sinza and his main reason for going to a place that barely befits his social status is mainly due to proximity.

“I do not see any reason why I should go to a distant posh pub yet the next day is a working day. All I need is just a bottle or two to calm my evening and besides some of my clients I meet them here,” says Derrick .

But that is where another question arises, why doesn’t he take the beers from his house? Like most revellers, he says it is just not for the beer that people go to bars but they also meet and exchange ideas on the issues of the day. “Beer in the house just doesn’t flow, you need all the funny gossips in these places,” he adds.

Credit facility is another matter here. As John Mkwizu, another client reveals, these places are usually packed towards the “red days” of the month, which serves him quite right since there is unlimited credit facility extended to regular patrons.

“It is sometimes not easy to have money throughput the month, and therefore, it is important that on the days when you have it, spend it at the places where people appreciate you and can offer credit when you are dry,” says Mkwizu a resident of Tabata Kimanga.

Safety issue. Some feel it is just not safe at some bars that are far away, they want to drink in the company of those they know very well. “Sometimes it feels good to drink around people that you resonate with, I mean those you know. Here, when a new person comes in we can tell immediately,” says Geoffrey Matiku, a resident of Ukonga, as he sips from his bottle.

According to Matiku, some people think it is for lack of finesse that they go to these places. But that is not the case. The joint has a lot of natural flow of friendship unlike the so-called affluent places.

“Sometimes, it’s just seeing people sitting around getting a kick out of the dim lights, the drinks and the “feel” of the place is what brings us here,” says Geoffrey an accountant with a marketing firm in the city.

But as the men boast of the comfy that that these rundown joints offer and continue to throng the watering holes with abandon, the women who accompany them to such rendezvous have no kind words. Health issues Clara is a business woman, whose husband is a regular at one of the local kiosks, her main put off is the toilet facility.

“I wouldn’t really mind going to some of these bars, but the problem is that the toilets are usually filthy with no running water and this can sometimes mean leaving the joint with UTI,” she says.

Just like Clara, some women too, complain that these places have turned into gossiping hubs where people’s private lives are ripped bare given the fact that everybody knows everyone.

“Sometimes you can’t imagine how some of these secrets reach such places with such precise details,” one woman says. But even as women complain, these joints continue to attract single and married men in numbers and more continue to open.