The Twiga cementer factory is the one of the best known landmarks in Dar. When you arrive by boat from Zanzibar it’s the first building you see. It looms over the bay to the north.
There is an urban myth that it was the inspiration for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory because author Roald Dahl lived in Masaki and looked across the bay to the factory.
But the dates do not compute. Sadly it’s nothing but a story albeit a nice one. I had always wanted to see around the factory and last week I finally got the chance. I had to go there for a meeting and afterwards I asked if it was possible to have a tour.
Sadly I should have given more warning because there are health and safety briefings to go through which take time. But they offered me a driving tour instead and so I grabbed at that.
I have never seen such enormous machines. Everywhere the air was full of grey dust, the leaves on the trees struggling under the weight of a grey blanket. Staff wore masks (even before COVID) to save their lungs. The gas furnace heats the compound to around 1,500c, an incredible temperature. There were conveyor belts and silos and hoppers, flatbed trailers being loaded up with bags of cement and mountains of cement tucked safely under cover from the rain,
I didn’t have the time to visit the quarry but I was taken to the tree nursery. It was the only nice green space in the whole place but so small and I cannot imagine that it does much to offset the enormous amount of damage wreaked by quarrying.
Next time I will be given a tree to plant – maybe they grow species which can thrive with a thin covering of grey dust on their limbs.