Our Journey
My late grandfather Fazal Ladha Dinani migrated to Lindi, Tanzania, East Africa from Kera, Gujarat, India the early 1920s. This was a no easy travel. He choose the Southern region as his home between Lindi and Songea. The distance between the two towns is about 280 Miles (about 450 KM). The journey took about 10 days walking with helpers carrying goods for trading. He prepared his own meals and slept in trees as wild animals were plentiful including lions.
The hardships he faced in India made him more determined to make it in Africa and his priority was to relocate his siblings too and support family back home.
As days passed into months he not only survived, was able to relocate his family members to Tanzania. His struggles, challenges, honesty and dedicated hard work started to bear fruits. The first Indian wholesale businessmen to make Songea his home, not only suppling his retail outlets, also providing nearby towns and villages with goods and services. His main wholesale customer being the Roman Catholic Mission at Peramiho (in 1940, his business with the mission reaching 50,000 Shillings). At the time Petrol was distributed in 4 gallon tin cans and 44 gallon drums. He was the sole agent for Caltex. He was also appointed agent for multiple goods and services for Southern region too.
My late father Mohamed Dinani was dedicated too with similar values. He relocated from Lindi to Dar-Es-Salaam in 1970. He purchased an existing sand and stone quarry business and grew it to be the largest in Tanzania supplying majority of material for construction of infrastructure projects including the Dar-Es- Salaam harbor. His other business included timber manufacturing , spare parts and seafood export. Our family migrated to London, England in 1977 and to New York USA in 1983.