'The Greeks and the Making of Modern Egypt' Exhibition Hosted at CIBF

On Thursday, the 53rd Cairo International Book Fair (CIBF) hosted a book exhibition for "The Greeks and the Making of Modern Egypt" by Alexander Kitroeff. The Seminar was organized as part of the cultural program of the edition's Guest of Honour, Greece.

The event was attended by the Director of the Hellenic Foundation of Culture Nikos A. Koukis, the Ambassador of Greece to Cairo Garilidis Nikolaos, the First Vice President of the Greek Community in Alexandria Andreas Vafiadis, and the author of the book.

Kitroeff Initiated his talk about the earliest motives behind writing the book. He revealed that it was an academic study for the history of the Greek diaspora in Egypt amid the rise of the national discourse in Egypt and its impacts on the presence of the Hellenics in Egypt.

Next, the Professor revealed that he has a special relationship with the lands of the Nile and Pyramids as his great grandfather, who carries his name, emigrated from his homeland to Egypt and worked in the field of the cotton trade, and he was married to another Greek immigrant who lived there.

Later on, he mentioned that his grandfather also continued to live in Egypt and work there, adding that the grandfather was the first person in Alexandria to construct a building using modern cement.

After that Kitreoff recalled that he was the first grandchild who was born outside Egypt, and he is the least one of his family's generation speaking Arabic, however, he was in heavy exposure to the tales, stories, and memories of his family members in Alexandria and Egypt as if there is a permanent tie between his soul and Egypt.

About his "Nostos" or his odyssey to origins, the author narrated that it started during his stay in the US and with the history of the Greek diaspora forms around the world, including Egypt and the issue of the facilitating privileges dedicated to the foreigners back at that time.

He asserted that the Hellenics were in the same place as the Egyptians, they kept investing and working in Egypt and supporting the Egyptian economy even after the termination of those privileges, in addition, they didn’t depend only on cotton-based industries. They experienced new industries in Egypt especially in the Post-Talaat Harb’s economic revolution era, for example, Greeks constructed the earliest soap and oil productions in the country.

Moreover, Greeks kept constructing and buildings firms, institutions, and facilities for serving Egyptians as Greeks such as the Greek Stadium, Greek hospitals, and others, so they widely contributed in forming the model of Modern Egypt and its making.

Kitreoff concluded that the presence of the Hellenics in Egypt is still obvious, and the relations between both countries are strongly bounded.

On his side, the Director of the Hellenic Foundation of Culture Nikos Koukis announced that the Foundation will cooperate with the European Union and a number of institutions to start a grand project for restoring and renovating the Greek cultural heritage and archive in Egypt which represented precious documentation to the Hellenic contributions and their history.

On the other hand, the Greek Ambassador in Cairo Nikolaos Garilidis reflected that Greeks came to Egypt in the first place amid Muhammed Ali’s reign for work and investment. That was their first aim from the concept of moving from one place to another.

He continued, therefore, the new form of enhancing the Greek presence once again in Egypt after the decline in the number of Egyptian Greeks in the country is opening the door more for Greek investments and enterprises to encourage them to settle in Egypt.

“The Greeks and the Making of Modern Egypt” was published for the first time in 2019 in English by the American University in Cairo Press, and the Arabic translation of the book was released last year by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.