Sara came to Dar es Salaam from Same in a spirit of adventure. She stayed and lived in the streets. In the Belly of Dar es Salaam is a story of Sara and other dwellers of the streets, Mansa from Kibaha, Ali from Lushoto and Kaleb from Mtwara. They have all come to Dar es Salaam to escape rural poverty and a life of drudgery. They land into a harsher kind of poverty in Dar es Salaam, sleeping on pavements and in crowded, dilapidated rooms. They walk and work on the streets in the hot sun. They live for one purpose only: Kutafuta maisha, to survive. This is a story of their lives and their struggles, their dreams and ambitions.

In the Belly of Dar es Salaam is a timely novel which questions the political rhetoric on the commitment to social-economic development and the adage of a better life for all Tanzanians.