The Greek Community in South Africa

Description

The Greek presence in South Africa is dated back to the late 19th century. Beyond the political and social conditions in the wider area where there were Greek settlements, it was inextricably associated with the political and economic conditions prevailing in South Africa, and specifically with the discovery of gold and diamonds in Transvaal. The British victory in the war with the Boers and the subsequent establishment of the state of South Africa created a need for infrastructure. The Greeks took advantage of these conditions and immigrated to South Africa. By the first half of the 20th century, they showed a great spatial dispersion and they were the protagonists of the economic development of the country. After the 1960s, the immigration to South Africa culminated and the Greek community gradually succeeded in obtaining an important role in the country. Despite the fact that things changed abruptly in the 1990s, mainly due to the political and economic changes that the country experienced, almost 35,000 Greeks live in South Africa nowadays. It’s time to get the recognition they deserve in the history of SA and the Hellenism.