I think the idea is that the Parle Gem company decided that they could make more money on the gems and jewelry if they gave the Mahenge garnets a cute name. I don’t know my African geography well enough to have much of an idea where Mahenge is other than Tanzania. Probably a lot of consumers would not relate will to stones labeled that way.
The other thing I was told is that they have a contract to buy up all the garnets from that region. So the supply is drying up for folks like us.