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Mount Kilimanjaro is a global household name. Many people and institutions have liked to be associated with it in their own way. Thousands have, over centuries, scaled it to different heights. Some to the extent of conquering its Uhuru Peak, which, at 5,985m above sea level, is the roof top of African Continent.

In reply to symposium questions as to where it is located, many would get in right. “It’s in Africa”, they would say. But many again would find themselves at a loss when asked to specify where in Africa or even worse, why it is there.

The inbound tourism market, over times, came to believe Mt. Kilimanjaro is a Kenya product. Even unit very recently it was normal for passengers on international flights to watch documentaries sending the wrong message across. As a result, to prostitute Julius Caesar’s “veni, vidi, vici” a little, many visitors came, saw and conquered the Kili, but still left ignorant of its location.

Photo by Edgar Thissen

Thanks to efforts put in by the Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB), the Tanzania Airport Authority (TAA). Tanzania missions abroad and, other stakeholders like Swiss Air. The inbound market has slowly come to not only understand, but also appreciate that one can see the gracious glacier-capped Kili from anywhere. But to climb it, on has got to travel to Tanzania.

To boost this campaign for driving the correct message further home, it could be much better even for the market to know why the Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania.

To lay a strong foundation for establishing why Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania, logical demands that, in the first place, it is much better to establish why Tanzania is whereit is in Africa. This leads us back to civic scum-history teach in.

Photo by Tiekenei

To qualify for statehood, Tanzania, like any other country in the world, must have boundaries defining its relation with neighboring African state, which in this case are Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique.

The words “partition” and “Scramble” abound in African history books, What is common to both is that they can be traced to the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. In the Tanzanian context, it is from this time to 1919 that boundaries were set. And strong but true, these boundaries resulted both from antagonism and friendship between the British and Germans! The First World War, after which Germany lost all the colonies, also had a hand in it.

After getting this nutshell information on why Tanzania is where it is in Africa, the question of why Mt. Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania sticks its neck out into the fore. What happened?

The 1880s witnessed a decade when European countries suddenly developed a special appetite for the East African part of the continent. By then their arrival format was the bible, trade and then the flag.

The German East African Company established itself in Areas over which the sultan of Zanzibar claimed sovereignty. These extended up to the Kilimanjaro. With that a conflict had been brewed in which the British, as masters of the sea, had to come in flanked by the French.

Kilimanjaro Climb, Horombo Hut to Kibo Hut, Mt Kilimanjaro (Photo by Felix Haslimeier’)

A delimitation commission was formed. But the British and the Germans were not 100% sincere to each other over the issue. For, the sultan sent troops under a British commander to hoist this flag on Kilimanjaro. The troops encountered a German team on similar assignment. German merchants had now acquired imperial protection. Through interested in the Kilimanjaro region, British merchants, however, had yet to establish themselves there.

The Wachagga chiefs were literally trapped between British, Germans and Sultan’s claims. Led by Mandara of Moshi, the chiefs are alleged to have signed treaties with all competitors. The scramble of Kilimanjaro had started. Negotiations moved to London. Several maps suggesting areas of influence were drawn. In every case each side wanted to improve its cut.

Eventually the two sides come to terms, in which the British got Mombasa and lost Kilimanjaro to the Germans. And vice versa, if it so pleases you. Mombasa belonged to the Sultan, who had since been sidelined. On November 1, 1886, Germany and Britain exchanged letters. The deal was concluded leading to the present Tanzania-Kenya border.

 Kilimanjaro Sunset

Founding Heads of State of the Organization of African Unity (AOU) now running as the African Union (AU) in their charter resolved to honour boundaries set by colonial powers. Based on this, therefore, there is no border dispute between Tanzania and Kenya governments.

So, Kilimanjaro is truly Tanzania, Only that by taking advantages of the silence of their Tanzanian counterparts, Tourism players in Kenya grabbled the change and presented the gracious Kili and exotic to Tanzania. To climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, the inbound Market come to know, One had to fly to Mombasa or Nairobi.

Reading between the lines, the placing of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania provides an excellent menu for the inquisitive mind. Short of the Germans demands to push the border further up, the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere could have been born in Kenya. One needs the Aristotle touch to guess how the late Mzee Jomo Kenyata and Nyerere could have combined their philosophies in running Kenya political affairs.

 Beautiful glacier at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Likewise, the most aggressive business oriented Wachagga in Kilimanjaro could have been split into two identical groups living on either side of the Tanzania-Kenya border. Many be the first exemplary free cross border trade in Africa, could also be traced to Kili region.

So, now we know, Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania because Momabasa is in Kenya, as German Ambassador to Tanzania, Dr.Heinz Schneppen, rightly summarize it during his Goethe Institute and Association of Friends of the Museums of Tanzania-Sponsored address shortly before he ended his term of service in 1996.

Or as the association’s chairman Prof. Adolfo Mascarenhas put it: “Tanzania’s borders are the most positive heritage that the Germans left to the citizens of the country,” Within these borders is the Kilimanjaro.

The highest peak in Africa. The highest free standing mounting in the world. The highest peak in the world with GSM service. The only place where one can see snow close to the Equator. The place where the entire world climate is summarized under the same sky.

Karibu Kilimanjaro in Tanzania

Apparently much of these ice fields on top of Mount Kilimanjaro have now disappeared, a product of global warming (Photo by Nyaminyami)