ABSTRACT
Before Ali passed away in 2011, the lifelong resident of Dar es Salaam had spent thirty years working at a dance and social club, bringing him into contact with all manner of useful civil servants. When, in the early 1990s, he noticed a manager for the state power utility Tanesco eyeing a barmaid, he “made arrangements” (nilimfanyia mpango) and discreetly brokered her services. The kindness did not go unappreciated, and a decade-long exchange of gifts and favors followed. Tanesco workers soon routed a cable from the neighboring clinic to the club’s sound system and refrigeration. They left the metered street-side line connected to the lights, furnishing the club with cheap power and the appropriate suggestion of legality. Over the years, the manager steered inspection teams away from the club while Ali provided crates of beer on Christmas, soda for funerals, and use of the establishment for weddings and celebrations. When the manager transferred to another district, he made sure to apprise his replacement of the friendship, tacitly institutionalizing it.
