The Greeks in Egypt and the Rest of Africa
Document Type
Book
Role
Contributor
Publication
The Oxford Handbook of Modern Greek History
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Standard Number
9780197759554
Publication Date
7-22-2025
Abstract
The Greek diaspora in Africa was created in the early nineteenth century with the settlement of merchants in Egypt, a country in which the Greeks became one of the most important foreign communities. Greeks from Egypt and others coming directly from Greece filtered southward to Sudan and formed small communities in most countries in the rest of the continent. Wherever they settled the Greeks formed community organizations, churches, mutual benefit societies, and other associations through which they maintained their identity, their religion, and their ties with Greece. The Greeks played an important role as a middleman minority active in the export and import trade and later began investing in the manufacturing sector. The Greeks benefited from the colonial status of those countries and the privileges accorded to the foreigners. In their position in-between colonizer and colonized they tried to adapt to the rise of nationalism but ultimately found there was little room for them after the countries that hosted them gained independence in the second half of the twentieth century. The last refuge for many was South Africa, where they formed the second most important Greek diaspora community in Africa; and they remain so to this day even though their presence was drastically reduced after the end of apartheid in the 1990s.
Repository Citation
Kitroeff, Alexander, 'The Greeks in Egypt and the Rest of Africa' (22 July 2025), in Stefanos Katsikas (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Modern Greek History (online edn, Oxford Academic, 22 May 2025), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197759523.013.0030.