 It is the highest mountain in Africa and one of the highest freestanding mountains in the world. At almost 5,900 meters, the snow-capped Kilimanjaro stands out, far above the rest, just like the 500,000 Indians for whom it has been a source of inspiration for over a century now. This is true not just for the Indian diaspora in Tanzania, the home of the Kilimanjaro, but also in Kenya and Uganda. In the capital of Tanzania, the Indian presence, the Indian street, which is the hub of commercial activity. Cinema halls, restaurant venues dominated by Indian dishes. The Indian contribution to the Tanzanian economy is immense. Nationalization had failed to achieve the desired results and the government had to opt for liberalization. The efforts of the Indian business community went a long way into re-energizing the economy and employment generation during the transition to liberalization. For example, the booming travel and tourism industry is dominated and controlled by the Indians at every level, be it tour operation or hotels. This is true for manufacturing and trading also. Dinesh Vaishnav is the editor of the Tan Travel Magazine in Dar es Salaam. A second generation Indian, his father came to Tanzania in a town or sailboat and served as a police officer for almost 25 years. He is today the proud member of the Elders Council of Hindu Mutton, of which Dinesh is the general secretary. Joginder Singh is known as the Flying Sick for winning the Kenyan safari four times in a row. He is considered the uncrowned king of safari races, so much so that many ethnic Kenyans named their children after him. Traditionally and even today, Kenya's business community comprises mostly Indians, be it trading or the manufacturing sector. Surinder Singh Gheer's father came to Kenya with just a few rupees in his pocket. Surinder Gheer has been born and brought up in Kenya and today runs a fairly successful engineering business in Nairobi. Just two generations ago, that Nanji Kalidas Mehta set up a remote trading post in Kamali and started trading with the Ugandan people in Kauri Shells. My father had difficulties in different ways in those days. The kind of difficulties my generation had to face was very different. These difficulties were created because of the political changes which are taking place on this continent. It has been a hundred years since their ancestors came here to build the Mumbasa Kampala Railroad and it has been several hundred years since the Indians settled along the coast of East Africa to open up trade and economic activity in a region that had been hitherto isolated. Over these millennia, the immense contribution of the Indian diaspora to their adopted homeland in East Africa cannot be overlooked. Although they still maintain strong cultural ties with India, their home is here in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro.