Independent consultant and blogger in Dar es Salaam
A few years ago, I was warned that if I ever visit Rwanda, I would find a strong running culture. I imagined the streets overflowing with people of all ages hoofing it hither and yon at all hours, and I found this very appealing. I quietly wished that Dar-es-Salaam would adopt a similar fondness for physical fitness.
Here we are about a decade later, and Dar es Salaam is adopting a similar fondness for physical fitness. At dawn and dusk, the sidewalks and quieter roads are filled with people of all ages hoofing it hither and yon. The weekends, however, is when we really shine.
The improved infrastructure of the city lends itself well, there are bridges and broad roads with sidewalks that make it possible for many people to participate. This has led to our latest craze: the weekend fundraising “marathon”.
Here is the thing: in Dar if you want to make money or spend money, you have to go big. The city and indeed the country is in the grip of its fast growth, and we live in the era of aspirations supported by social media.
This is why every running event in the country is called a marathon and this has been commuted without any hiccups from the National Council of Kiswahili Gatekeepers into our national language. The modern Tanzanian “marathon” is synonymous with money.
On the giving side, this is a fantastic mechanism. We have a dearth of family-friendly fun events in Tanzania, some weird grimness left over from our years of socialist deprivation, so fundraising for various causes through running has become rightly popular.
On the other side of this equation is a muscular industry of event organisation, a plethora of services and products, fees for the municipal councils, photo opportunities for politicians, and of course: visibility for sponsors.
Perhaps more than politicians, corporations have taken to marathons in the biggest way. They can’t seem to get enough of them, with banks and a few other large businesses being repeat offenders- there at every pop of the starter pistol. I couldn’t fathom why until I did my first event, and I got assaulted by the branding. It made further sense when I noticed that large employee teams participating.
Considering how utterly self-serving corporations tend to be, have marathons come along to save them from their profit-driven cynicism?
The opportunity to generate pictures for the annual Corporate Social Responsibility report is irresistible, as is the use of these events for employee team-building and morale.
I think it is the regular sight of families clad in corporate shirts at these events that made sense of the mutual addiction between “marathon” events and corporations. It is a rare intersection of people, fun, charity... and profit.
If you visit Dar, know that you will find a strong marathon culture. Almost none of these hyped and sponsored runs stretch to a 42km distance- we just like the word.
If you can ignore the mildly dystopian flavour of corporate intrusion into all facets of social life, as I do, then you can enjoy this salutory development. We are a country that has a lot of sun, that is just learning how to have some healthy fun with it, one heavily-branded sponsored charity walk at a time.
