Under German Colonial rule, Tanganyika was a place where ambitious gentlemen adventurers could try their fortunes in a new and wild expanse. In 1899 a German settler founded Burka Coffee Estates, and planted the first Coffee tree in what is now Arusha’s largest coffee plantation. By 1918, the Estates were part of the British protectorate. When Captain J. A. Hewer set off for Tanganyika in 1920, land was plentiful, and a young man could make his fortune in the agricultural industry.
...1960
In Swiss hands ever since
Hewer bought Burka Estate, and later sold it to a Swiss group of investors in 1926. It has remained partly in Swiss hands ever since. Running side by side is the history of the Latvian born Bloom family, who also travelled to Tanganyika to find their family fortune, where Goodall Bloom formed a syndicate with Captains J. A. and C. Hitchcock. The coffee these families planted and cultivated became Selian Estate, which was added to Burka in 1990.
