(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in South Africa’)
Greeks
faced racism on an unprecedented scale in the period 1915-1917. Violent riots instigated
by both the British and the Boers broke out against Greek shops and businesses
during this period. This was because Greece remained neutral during the
beginning of the First World War. They considered anyone who is not allied to
their war effort to be their enemy. The violence was engineered despite the fact
that many Greek immigrants voluntarily left South Africa to join the forces of
the Allied Powers.
