HELLENISM OF SOUTH AFRICA, 2002

In honour of the official visit of H. E, The President of The Hellenic Republic, Mr. Constantinos Stephanopoulos, to South Africa, a decision was taken by the members of The Federation of Hellenic Communities and Associations at a meeting held on 1 August 2002 to publish this commemorative book.

All the members were immediately informed (by fax or via e-mail) about this publication and requested to submit the following information as soon as possible.

  1. Who were the first Hellenes to settle in their districts.
  2. Who were the founders of the Community or Association in question and the founding dates.
  3. What are the main objectives of the Com-munity or Organization (according to their Constitution).
  4. Which functions/events does their Community/organization partake in annually.
  5. Who were the Presidents/Chairmen of the Community/organization and which years did they serve as such.
  6. What are the major contributions of the Community/organization, towards Hellen-ism, in South Africa and in the case of organizations representing the various islands or areas in Greece, what have they contributed to these parts of Greece.

Due to the summer holidays in Greece from July to the middle of September, the compilation of information, with a few exceptions, started after the 20th September.

Today, 21st October 2002, is the final day for submitting information, since the printing of this book will commence tomorrow.

The number of members that submitted the required information surpassed our expectations. There is almost 100% participation.

It seems that the announcement of the arrival of H. E, The President of the Hellenic Republic, Mr. C. Stephanopoulos, acted as a catalyst and all responsible persons rushed, with much enthusiasm, to send the information to us on time.

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The following are included in this book: The Holy Archbishopric of Johannesburg and Pretoria, The Federation of Hellenic Communities and Associations, the Greek Consulate, 17 Hellenic Communities, 13 Hellenic Associations or Brotherhoods, 11 Organizations (even though, some of them, have not been officially declared as proper members of the Federation), and 23 Hellenic – owned companies or individuals (sponsors).

Due to time constraints, the number of successful companies, businesses or businessmen of Hellenic origin, that are accounted for in the book, represent only a small percentage of the total number. We are hoping to be able to incorporate all of them in a future edition, when we shall have enough time (between 6 to 12 months) for the collection of information, text, photographs, etc. in which will be able to give the true reflection of the contribution of Hellenism towards the development of our country.

We believe that all the information that is recorded herein is a true and accurate record. We are not in a position though to verify this, since we have published the text as it was given to us by the relevant Presidents/-Chairmen or those responsible for the articles within each community/ organization or association. We have made very few, obvious corrections (grammatical or typing errors). We have also, for the sake of uniformity, kept a standard font and typeface.

Since we regard this official State Visit of our President as an extremely positive event, we have not obliged our members to give us a comparison of Hellenism as it is today and as it was in the past, when the Hellenic Community was thriving.

Merely one or two of our members were compelled, because of certain circumstances, to refer to the reality of today, which has been developed since 1994, where due to the escalating crime rate, we have witnessed a steep decrease in numbers amongst the Hellenes of South Africa.

The text that the reader will read (in a summarized form) in this book, we were hoping to collect over the years, as we believe that in this manner, on one hand, we honor the pioneers, who took many risks and faced many hardships and managed to get established in this faraway corner of the globe and their first concern was the building of Orthodox Churches and schools, for the preservation of the Hellenic and Orthodox ideals of our nation, and, on the other hand, we can only hope, that the future generations of Hellenes in South Africa, will be able to use this information to continue the work of the pioneers.

With your presence, your Excellency, Mr. President, we, the children of the Diaspora, the children of our Motherland, Greece, see our beloved country as a whole, and that is why your visit here has the effect of balsam in the hearts of all of us, which reinforces our national spirit and our enormous love for our great motherland.

We hope that the Merciful God grants you good health always, so that you may carry on fulfilling your function, which you are accomplishing so successfully until today.

Christoforos Gerondoudis, editor-in-chief

Chairman of the Lemnian Brotherhood of Southern Africa.

Johannesburg, 21 October 2002.