(Excerpt from
the book ‘The Greek presence in the horn of Africa’)
During the 1930s, the majority of the railway
employees in Dire Dawa of Ethiopia were of Greek origin. Apart from the bad
working conditions due to the heat and low wages, the Greeks had to face also
the colonial behaviour of some of the French who owned the railway. On
4/6/1932, a Greek railway employee crossed a city road riding on his horse.
When the police officers saw him, they attacked him and threw him down. At the
time they were about to beat him, a coworker came out of his house and tried to
save him. The Greek tried to find a shelter to the house of his colleague. The police
officers invaded the house and beat the owner and his wife. When the rest of
the railway workers were informed of the incident, they went on a general
strike.
