“It is like slavery”: Tanzanian bar waitresses speak up on sexual abuse in the industry - Minority Africa
Francis Nyonzo
June 2, 2023
While working as a bar waitress in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 25-year-old Ester Steven Mashaka was often touched inappropriately by customers. Then, it was understood that accepting gifts was a sign of willingness to have sex with customers. Talking to Minority Africa, Mashaka recalls a specific incident where a customer offered her beer and later wanted to take her home. She refused. Her manager, however, insisted that she went with the customer to secure her job.
This was not the first time Mashaka was offered this kind of proposition. Often she obeyed and did what the customer wanted, going where he wanted and having sex with him.
“Doing things out of one’s wish is painful, you know, it is more like slavery,” Mashaka says. “It depends on the understanding of the customer, sometimes you may be forced to go and the customer understands that you do not want to and he leaves you.”
One day, when she was working, a brawl broke out. “There was a guy whom I do not know about. [He] punched the other guy in the bar, and I went there to resolve the issue, but then it was said that I bring my people in the bar to cause trouble,” Mashaka says. “I was beaten before being fired from the job. People said I could not report the incident to the police because he [the manager] is known to them; nothing could have been taken against him.”
In Tanzania, women in the informal sector lack access to benefits and social protection programs, putting them at higher economic risk. Women working in bars and clubs are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence, including unwanted sexual advances and verbal and physical assault from both their employers and customers. This is because their job requires them to provide personal attention and hospitality, which can create a sense of intimacy that some customers may exploit.
The problem is exacerbated by customers who believe they have the right to sexually harass and abuse women working in bars and clubs. This is further aggravated when managers take their side.
Husnat Masoud, another girl in her early twenties with a certificate in secretarial studies, had to take a job as a barmaid in various bars in Dar es Salaam to make a living. Masoud has worked with two different bars. In the first bar, her supervisor protected her whenever customers wanted her to have sex with them. Barmaids were also allowed to report cases of sexual harassment and immediate action was taken against the customer, such as taking him out of the bar or having a discussion. The bar was then closed and she joined another bar where sexual harassment was the norm.
Once, she served a customer who refused the bill presented to him. “It happened that way because I refused to have sex with him,” Masoud says. When a customer refuses to pay the amount required, it will be deducted from the barmaid’s salary. When this happened to Masoud, her manager did not listen to her because he wanted to maintain the customer at her cost. This happened more than once and in all the incidents, the manager supported the customer and refused to listen to her. Masoud eventually quit the job.
‘It is a norm for most of the bar owners to treat barmaids like prostitutes,” says Dismas Massawe, who owns more than four bars in Dar es Salaam.
According to Massawe, to keep the customers coming, some bar owners look at physical beauty when employing a barmaid. “Most jobs adhere to physical beauty, [especially in] banks and airports; you have seen this, only beautiful girls are there,” he says. It has been observed that bars do not retain barmaids for long, as the customers are constantly in need of new women to have sex with. So bar owners keep on employing and firing barmaids to give customers different tastes of the women.
Massawe explains that when registering a bar or club in Tanzania, sexual abuse is not considered a safety issue in the workplace.
“Protecting your workers is your responsibility,” Massawe says, explaining that he had to create his own policy to protect his employees. “The place that respects women attracts respectful customers, and they are always ready to pay any price. People who need peace go to places where no one is mistreated, it is not only five-star hotels that can achieve that, even street bars can.” Sexual harassment is prohibited in all his bars and when it happens, security guards in his clubs are instructed to take out customers who harass workers.
The environment for female bar workers is made worse by the meager wages that they take home. In Tanzania, the minimum wage for civil servants is Tsh 270,000 ($115), and according to the Integrated Labour Survey report of 2021/22, the average monthly income for women is Tsh 318,691 ($136) in Tanzania. But these figures do not apply to informal workers like Mashaka and Masoud.
According to Prosper Ndega, owner of a club in the Shinyanga region, the payments to the barmaids do not exceed 200,000 Tanzanian Shillings, which is equivalent to 86 US dollars per month. The amount is paid to those who have attained certification in courses such as hotel management, receptionist training and customer service.  Due to the poor remuneration, barmaids depend on tips, which customers often consider as a ticket to harass them. Also, it is hard for barmaids to refuse gifts (which can sometimes be food). Unfortunately, these gifts are often assumed to be invitations for sex.
“Buying one a drink does not make [us] become lovers, sometimes I do not ask for a drink, they give an offer and assume to be my lovers and demand sex,” says Mashaka.
Like Massawe, Ndega tries to protect barmaids from sexual assaults in his bar. He tells Minority Africa that he has fired one of his managers for demanding sex in exchange for hiring a barmaid. “I have had to display my phone number for them [barmaids] to report any sexual harassment incidents,” he says.
Today, Mashaka is currently out of a job and living with her mother at Kimara Suka, in Dar es Salaam. She depends on her mother, knowing not what to do after being fired. “I do not have dreams, I just want a job to earn a living,” she says.
Edited/Reviewed by Khadija Sanusi,, PK Cross, Caleb Okereke, and Uzoma Ihejirika.
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Francis Nyonzo is an economist and researcher. His experience in the newsroom starts in 2016 when he was a News Reporter at the English newspaper in Tanzania. He is recently a contributor to various news outlets. He is interested in Social Justice.
Esuvath Daniel is a mass communication Student at the University of Dar es Salaam. She has a passion for minority groups, especially children and women. She is an active member of the Empowered Girls Club. She has a deep commitment to social justice and equality.