Tanganyika

Tanganyika or the nyika (bush) beyond the coastal town of Tanga, was all the hinterland that stretched along the Arab trading routes from Bagamoyo to Kigoma onto the shores of the long lake in the centre of Africa.

For the longest time, Eastern Africa was the under the influence of the coastal Swahili and later Omani peoples.

Following the Scramble for Africa in the 1880's Tanganyika become a colony of the Germans after the 1885 treaty that divided Africa amongst the European colonial powers.

After the 1st World War, it was conquered by the British and ruled as a trust territory until Independence in 1961.

Khojas have traded and established shops throughout Tanganyika since the 1830's, upon the heels of the Arabs slave and ivory traders, often financing their expeditions with rations etc and later setting up trading posts in the cross-road and bush though a network, based on close family ties.

Sometimes, their fortunes were built because of conflict (slave trade)and at other times,conflict cost dearly (as when the Germans and the British confiscated their cars, trucks and other merchandise, as part of their "war" effort). A even heavier loss was incurred when the German currency "Heller" was demonetized without compensation by the British.

Khojas continue to live in large numbers in the Republic of Tanzania, made of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.