I highly endorse this book for its insightful exploration into Tanzanian culture through the lens of electronics’ repair. Samwel Moses Ntapanta, an ethnographer, skillfully unveils the deep cultural significance of repair practices in Tanzania, illustrating how they reflect resilience and optimism for the future. This narrative not only enriches our understanding of local markets, but also sheds light on sustainable practices amid global techno-capitalism, making it essential reading for anyone interested in socio-cultural dynamics and environmental stewardship.

Piotr Barczak, Circular Economy Program Manager, ACEN Foundation

Grounded in long cooperation, mutual curiosity, and friendship, Ntapanta follows Tanzanians living and working with the detritus of global techno-consumerism?gathering discarded electrical appliances, extracting metals, and forging utensils from apparent waste in central Dar es Salaam. Avoiding the external observer’s facile dystopianism, he provides the reader glimpses of urban everyday life in the ‘downstream’ regions of post-imperial techno-capitalism. Drawing on readings from Marx and thinkers of the Dar es Salaam school to contemporary anthropological theory, Ntapanta reconsiders seemingly marginal economic practices?eking out lives from residues at the end of the value chain?as central to century-long processes of value (re-)generation, extraction, and accumulation.

Paul Wenzel Geissler, University of Oslo