(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in Tanzania’)
In the late 1930s, 134 out of 405 coffee estates in the Kilimanjaro area
were Greek owned. Actually, 80% of the total production was in Greek hands. Tanganyika’s
coffee growers suffered badly during the depression of 1929. Prices collapsed and
the Greeks had tremendous difficulties in surviving. Since there was no support
from the British administration, they asked for the help of the Greek State
through the local Greek Consulate. In the spring of 1930, the president of the
‘Hellenic Society of Tanganyika, L. Christianakis sent a letter to the Greek
prime minister, Eleftherios Venizelos asking for an economic support through a
loan from the National Bank of Greece.
