The sad story of a Greek in Burundi

 Michael Iatrou was born in Agios Efstratios in the 1900s. In 1925 he immigrated to Congo and in 1944 he moved to Bujumbura in Burundi where he was involved in trade activities along with his brother Aristotelis. He was a prominent member of the local Greek community.

In 1961, Iatrou and seven other people were accused for the assassination of the prince Louis Rwagasore who had won the election a few months earlier. He was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment for 20 years. However, in 1962 the decision was changed and Iatrou was sentenced to death. On January 14th 1963, he was executed.

Fifty years later, a Belgian reporter found out that those who organised and carried out the assassination were Belgian politicians who were against the independence of Burundi.

Greek pioneers in Malawi in the early 1900s

(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in Malawi’)

 Greek presence in Malawi (pr. Nyasaland) dates back to the 1900s. The pioneers of the Greek migration to Malawi were mainly from the Kefalonia island. These were Panagiotis and Themistocles Vasilatos, Themistocles Zepatos, Dionysis and Pavlos Focas and Gerasimos Kapatos. We should also add Nikos Deftereos from Ithaca, Antonis Giokarinis from Samos, Nikos Trataris, Yiannakis brothers (Nikos, Dimitris, Elefterios, Stavros, Stelios, Charalambos, Kostas), Christos Fergadiotis and Leonidas Malachias from Lemnos, George Benedictos and Dimitris Papadopoulos from Cyprus.

Greek heroes who resisted the Italian fascism in Ethiopia

 

(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek presence in the horn of Africa’)

For lots of historians, WW2 started when 100,000 Italian soldiers attacked Ethiopia through Eritrea and Somalia in October 1935. Ethiopians resisted vigorously, but the invaders used ‘mustard gas’ against the civilian population during the bombings.

Among the Ethiopian forces defending the country was the Greek military commander of Sidamo, Savvas Karavasilis, from the Dodecanese. The Italians tried to bribe him offering him offices. Karavassilis refused and went on fighting. When Sidamo fell to the Italians, Karavasilis was arrested and executed. A Greek doctor, George Dassios, offered many services to the Ethiopian army during the war. In July 1935 he was head of the hospital in Dessie. When the city was bombarded Dassios treated several patients until the time he was arrested. After the liberation of the country, he was decorated by the emperor.

Members of the Ethiopian resistance were Efthimia Borovilla, wife of Vassilis Aslanidis who had given her home to the Ethiopian defenders and Wolete Amanuel, wife of Stelios Papatakis, who was the head of a resistance group.

 

 

For the first time -The history of the Greek community in Malawi

The Greek presence in Malawi (former Nyasaland) is dated back to the late 19th century when few pioneers settled in. During the 1930s, a massive wave from Lemnos brought lots of Greeks (like the Yiannakis, Trataris, Tselingas etc), who worked hard and became pillars of the local economy especially in the tobacco field, bakeries, trade and livestock. You can read the magnificent stories of those people in a book which was based on research in a wide range of records and includes lots of old pictures. 

 The book is available by the author Antonis Chaldeos (Email:anchald1997@hotmail.com) Pre-order the book till the end of November and get it with a 20% discount.

The death toll of the Greek pioneers in South Africa

 (Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in South Africa’)

 

Between 1890 and 1920, lots of Greeks who immigrated to South Africa worked in the mines along with other whites and African labourers. Most of them died from the fatal disease known as miner’s phthisis. Although they were suffering from the disease, they continued to work even harder because their duty to their families was much more important than any consideration of their health. Most of them were from Laconia, Cyprus and Crete, and died between the ages of 30 and 40. 

 

 

The first days in the life of a Greek in Mozambique

(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in Mozambique’) 

 

Panos Macropoulos left Smyrna in 1919 and immigrated to Mozambique. After an arduous journey of 40 days he arrived in Lourenco Marques. Then, he embarked on a ship and after 40 hours he reached Jangamo. There, he rode a horse for 25km through the jungle in order to reach the farm of another Greek where he would work. During the first year of his staying, he lived in a round hut with only a bed and table in it. The heat was unbearable. Tropical diseases like malaria and wild animal attacks made everyone’s daily life a true hell. However, Macropoulos worked hard and within the next decades became one of the pioneer industrialists in the history of Mozambique. 

 

The Greek contribution to the railways in Mozambique and Rhodesia

(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in Mozambique’) 

 Most Greeks who arrived in Beira (Mozambique) worked in the construction of the railway. Greeks, Indians, Chinese and other railway workers faced extremely difficulties, not only because of the type of the work but mainly because of the diseases that plagued the area and the wild animals attack. Almost 60% of the Europeans who built the railway line between Beira and Salisbury died from malaria. It should be mentioned that the Greek presence was crucial to the completion of the railway because of their prior experience in similar projects both in Asia Minor and Egypt, and their resistance to the difficult weather conditions and the dangers of the jungle.

The Greek football team in Sudan in the 1930s

 (excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in Sudan’)

In 1921, a football championship was launched in Khartoum with the participation of teams formed by members of the British administration and people of different nationalities. The “Hellenic Athletic Club” was one of those teams. Matches were usually held at Gordon College and there were two annual cups. In 1931, the Greek team played a total of 20 football matches with 14 wins, 3 defeats and 3 draws.

 

Migrants from Ithaca to South Africa in the 1890s

[Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in South Africa’]

Following the discovery of diamonds and gold, small groups from Ithaca immigrated to South Africa and worked as gold diggers, miners, railway workers and shop-owners. Some of the pioneers were Vlassopoulos, Frangos, Couvaras, Macris, Paxinos, Mouzakis, Adrianatos, Deftereos, Divanis, Drakopoulos, Gerontis, Kallinikos, Karantzis, Comnenos, Koutsouvelis, Maroudas, Moraitis, Paizis, Palmos, Raftopoulos, Sofianos, Sikiotis, Zaverdinos and others.

 

The first newspaper in the official language of Ethiopia was Greek

(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek presence in the horn of Africa’)

The Greeks in Ethiopia were pioneers in a many fields including the publication of newspapers. In 1908, Andreas Kavadias, who worked as an accountant, published the first newspaper in the local official language of Ethiopia. This was the Aemero.

 

The first Greek school in South Africa

 

(excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in South Africa’)

In 1927, the Greeks of Johannesburg decided to establish a Greek language school and started raising money. Soon, Greeks from the Transvaal, Natal, Cape and from as far away as Rhodesia, also contributed to this project. The foundation stone of the so called ‘The Great School of the Nation’ in Malvern was laid in February 1928.

 

The racism of the British against the Greek traders in South Africa

 (Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in South Africa’)

 In Transvaal, Greek shopkeepers and retailers faced the racist of the British. The Greek shops also experienced prosecutions in Cape Town. There were several incidents of anti-Greek behavior by the officials in relation to the granting of licences and certificates.

The financial survival of the shopkeepers made the wholesalers and wealthiest merchants angry. For that reason, in collaboration with the city authorities, they realised that new legislation had to be designed in order to keep these immigrants out of the colony. Even so, the columns of the South African Review openly "accused" Greeks of "monopolising" the small confectionery business and the fruit shops in the 1900s.

 

The Greeks of Sudan during WW2

(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in Sudan’)

The outbreak of the Second World War mobilized all the Hellenism of Sudan. Apart from those who fought on the North African front, the Greeks of Sudan initiated a fundraiser and sent clothing and money to the Greek Red Cross in Alexandria in order to be transferred to Greece. Financial assistance was also given to the British Red Cross and the RAF. Furthermore, the Greeks of Sudan joined the Sudan Auxiliary Defence Force which was formed by the British in order to protect the eastern borders of the Sudan that were threatened by the Italian forces that had occupied Ethiopia and were constantly trying to invade Sudan.

 

A Greek of great importance for the British in Ethiopia in the 1910s

(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek presence in the horn of Africa’)

 Philippos Zaphiropoulos was born in Constantinople in 1874. He immigrated to Cairo and in 1896 he went to Ethiopia to work as a interpreter for an American millionaire. Shortly after, he dealt with the organization of safaris, which allowed him to get acquainted with the British diplomatic authorities. As a result, in 1904, the British Ambassador appointed Zaphiropoulos as the border inspector between Ethiopia and Kenya. After completing his mission on the southern border of the country, he moved to Addis Ababa where he was appointed as an interpreter and secretary of Ethiopic affairs at the British Embassy. Zaphiropoulos was honored by the British government in 1934.

 

 

From Lemnos to Mozambique in the 1890s

 

(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in Mozambique’)

 During the late 19^th century lots of Greeks from Lemnos immigrated to Beira in Mozambique such as Dimitris Paraskevas. Paraskevas fled Lemnos around 1885 because he had attacked a Turkish soldier. He boarded a ship heading to Africa and arrived in Dar es Salaam. In

1890, he moved to the south and settled initially in Beira and then in Vila Pery where he involved in the cattle breeding and trading.

In 1892, he started a bakery business with his brother Panagiotis. Other pioneers from Lemnos were Nikolaos and Komnenos Chalamandaris,

Sarantos Lecanidis, Nickolas Kampanis, Kimon Diomataris, Nickolas Vertsonis, Nicholas Trataros, John Miltiades and Dimitrios Verghis.

 

From Kephalonia to Cape Town- The life story of a true patriot

(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in South Africa’)

Nikos Adelinis was originated from Kephalonia. He immigrated to Cape Town in 1891 and was the leading figure behind the establishment of the ‘Mutual Help Organisation’ in 1898, and the Hellenic community of Cape Town in 1902. Adelinis was the first to donate large amounts of money to the church fund too. The Greek community recognised his services and made him an honorary life president of the community and the Greek government decorated him with its highest award, the Silver Cross of the Lord.

From Tripoli to South Africa-The life story of a world wanderer in the late 19th century

 

(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in South Africa’)

 Dionisis Schinas was born in the 1870s in Tripoli. At the age of 17 he fought with the Germans in East Africa. Then he travelled to Vladivostok where he had been a digger for diamonds and gold. After a short period he moved to China and then to Australia, where he settled for four years before coming to South Africa. He fought with the British troops in the Anglo-Boer war of 1899 and was eventually rewarded by Kitchener with a sum of money that was sufficient to permit him to open a small shop in Brakpan.