Land for the Dead : Access to and Evolvement of Necral Land in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Abstract: This thesis is aiming to describe and understand the access to and evolvement of necral land (burial and crematory grounds) in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania and one of the most rapid growing cities in Africa. The study is based on field work conducted in Kinondoni District during the spring of 2010. It could partly be described as intensive research, because it is done like a pioneer study, trying to describe and understand a phenomena; not so much trying to find out how widespread the phenomena is. The data was primarily produced through interviews with persons representing different actors. The result from the field study is that even if there are differences in costs and needs for permits to access the land, it seems like there are ways for everyone to bury or cremate a dead body. One common way of manage costs is to collect financial contributions from friends, family and neighbours. The problem however is the evolvement, where centrally located burial grounds are considered full but still used and the cemetery established by the municipality outside the centre is not used by city dwellers, because of the lack of information and the transportation cost.