Africa Is a Country

How the poor can fight back against the banks

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

How the poor can fight back against the banks

By
Faria Shomary
Translation by
Michaela Collord

The small business owners revolution in Tanzania: Form a poor people's bank.

Stone Town, Dar es Salaam. Image credit Andrew Moore via Flickr (CC).

I live in Manzese, on Mvuleni Street. [Manzese is a working-class area in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital – Editor]. I own a small business. We, small business owners, find ourselves taking out loans because of the difficult living conditions we face; so, we go for loans to get capital. Because the commercial banks refuse to lend to us as we lack collateral, we have invented new strategies to lend amongst ourselves.

This article forms part of an initiative with Sauti ya Ujamaa (Voice of Socialism) to amplify grassroots voices on Africa is a Country. The original post was dictated by the author in Swahili, transcribed by Sabatho Nyamsenda and published in the bi-weekly Tanzanian newspaper, Raia Mwema (Good Citizen) and then on the Sauti ya Ujamaa blog.

About the Author

Faria Shomary is a small business owner in the working-class area of Manzese in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

About the Translator

Michaela Collord is a PhD candidate at Oxford University.

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