Comunidade Grega de Lourenço Marques - Personalidades e actividades

Na sequência desta mensagem, nesta mensagem copio do livro ‘The Greek presence in Mozambique’ textos e fotos sobre actividades económicas de membros da comunidade grega, destacando algumas das suas personalidades mais conhecidas em Lourenço Marques (LM) e junto algumas fotos de outra origem - ver também primeira mensagem sobre o tema.
Restaurante Bar Arcádia (Johnny's Place) de John Kamamis. Onde era?

Uma das atividades mais prezadas dos imigrantes gregos era a alimentação. Quando chegavam a um país trabalhavam primeiro como empregados e depois criavam uma pequena empresa como padarias, mercearias, restaurantes, etc. Os gregos em Moçambique seguiram este padrão e em LM durante as primeiras décadas do século 20 havia alguns cafés gregos como o Olympia de Zacharias Kyriakakis (ver também última foto), o Georgeto de George Poulos, o Palace de Michael Protoulis, o café de Kostas Livanos, o café-bar de Sideris e o 'Rialto' de Michael Nicolau (ver em baixo). 
Negócios mais recentes foram o bar Arcadia (Johnnie Place) de John Kamamis (foto de cima), a Pastelaria Scala de Panagiotis Michalellis e a Pastelaria Hatzis (Aziz) de Elias Hatzis.
Vemos aqui a fachada principal do prédio desta padaria virada para a Av. Samora, antiga D. Luís:
Foto com direitos dreamstime
Padaria (H)Aziz pintado de creme com colunas salmão a seguir ao prédio S. Jorge
E temos uma foto de cerca de 1929 com a vista da Maxaquene para a Baixa e com as traseiras da Pastelaria Aziz ao centro:
Azul: Padaria e pastelaria? Qual o texto em baixo?
Laranja: Av. D. Luis, actual Samora
Castanho: Prédio Pott, face virada a nascente
Grupo na escadaria do Restaurante Costa do Sol 
(ver texto detalhado em baixo)
Café Rialto na Praça 7 de Março. 
Ficava na esquina à entrada da Rua Araújo.
Hotel "Central" propriedade de Belibasakis
na (mal) afamada Rua Araújo, actual Bagamoyo

Mais padarias
Os gregos foram pioneiros no campo da padaria em Moçambique a partir do final do século 19. Nesse período a população europeia de Moçambique aumentou e o pão que era um alimento básico na sua dieta tornou-se indispensável e a população local também se familiarizou gradualmente com este hábito nutricional europeu. Em LM as padarias mais antigas eram de Michael Nicolau, Costas Kougioumtzoglou, Panagiotis D. Billinis (ver em baixo) and Dionysis Ananiadis.
Padaria Moçambique - Vila Vion

Indústrias alimentares
O cidadão de origem grega Manuel Macropulos que emigrou para Moçambique em 1926 foi fundador da Fábrica SIPAQ e foi depois sócio da PROTAL.
Protal - Produtos Alimentares, Lda
Visita de militares em convalescença a esta fábrica de queijos, leite condensado, etc

Gregos na agricultura (inglês)
Since Mozambique was a rural country, a few Greeks engaged in the agriculture sector. Between 1890 and 1920, the majority of them settled in the province of Manica-Sofala. However, a few Greek farmers lived in Inhambane to the south of Mozambique. The Greeks engaged in the sugarcane cultivation but soon they introduced the tobacco cultivation. Many Greeks were originated from the Asia Minor, an area with a substantial tradition and expertise in both the tobacco production and processing. As a result, when they settled in Inhambane they dealt with the tobacco cultivation which was favoured by the suitable climatic conditions. The Greeks were the first who introduced the tobacco cultivation also in Rhodesia. Some of the Greek pioneers in Inhambane were Michael Lygeros from Plomari, Michael Nicolaou, Dimitris Kalliontzis from Smyrne, Xenophon Poulios, Dimitris Pagonis from Chios, Panagiotis Avgoustatos from Kefalonia, John Vlassopoulos from Aivali, Michael Grispos from Dodecanese, brothers Apostolis Angelides, Aristides Angelides and Aristides Eugenides from Kirkagac of Asia Minor, George Spellas from Spetses, Costas Katsulis and Kyriakos Katsulis from Samos, Panos Macropoulos from Smyrne and Telemachos Tsihlakis from Smyrne. Soon, some of them such as Aristides Eugenides (ver Tabacos George em baixo) and Panos Macropoulos (da Sociedade Agrícola de Tabacos) created the first tobacco industries in LM.
Castanho: edifício da Empresa de Tabacos George de Aristides Eugenides
 e John Mihaletos e depois de Charalambos Kyriakakis.
Azul: Kiosk Olympia
With no doubt, the most famous and one of the oldest restaurants of Lourenço Marques, which became the city reference point for over 70 years was ‘Costa do Sol’ of Gerasimos Petrakakis. In 1938, Petrakakis left Rethymno and immigrated to Mozambique at the invitation of his uncle Kyriakakis to work in Central’ hotel. However, after a short period, Petrakakis decided to open his own business. He bought an old tea-room and borrowed from his uncle the necessary equipment such as cutlery, tables and chairs and in 1938 the ‘Costa do Sol’ was opened. On the north side of Avenida de Marginal, it remained open throughout the day and night, serving the customers of the adjacent casino. In the beginning, the owner could only serve tea. Soon, ‘Costa do Sol’ became a restaurant, and later Petrakakis also built a hotel. At that time, the infrastructure in Maputo was minimal, and the closest water and power supplies were at a distance of 9 km. Despite all these difficulties, Gerasimos Petrakakis kept the restaurant open 24 hours a day and served the ‘Lourenço Marques shrimps’ that became the most famous dish of the restaurant. The ‘Costa do Sol’ was also famous for the entertainment it offered, since Brazilian and Spanish women dancers from the nearby cabaret usually presented shows. Over the next decades, the elite of politics and business life, not only of Lourenço Marques but also of the adjacent South Africa, visited the Greek restaurant.

The Greek beer of Africa (inglês)
Μichael Perantonakis, usually known as Cretikos because of his origin from the island of Crete, immigrated to Mozambique in the late 19th century. Although he intended to work in the mines of South Africa, he settled in Lourenço Marques where he started to sell bananas. Then he started a grocery store, and at the end of the first decade of the 20th century, he began to sell drinking water in the neighbourhoods of Lourenço Marques. During this period, the Greek merchant noticed the lack of ice, which was necessary to preserve the fish and decided to get involved in the production field. In 1915, he founded the company ‘Vitória’ and in 1916, he erected an ice factory with the name ‘Vitória Cold Storage and Ice Factory, Ltd’. It was located on the west side of the city, in the Praia do Polana (HoM: mas que confusione!), in front of the Avenue of the Republic and opposite the ‘Olympia’ café and fish market (HoM: Isso não sei mas talvez fosse antes de ir para o local conhecido). In the following years, Perantonakis expanded his business in the bottling of mineral water and the production of soft drinks. Since he decided to enter also into the brewery field, he travelled to Germany to consult experts on the production method. In 1932, Perantonakis used a European recipe and having followed high standards at all the stages of the production, he produced a beer under the trade name ‘Laurentina’. In 1935, ‘Laurentina’ acquired 50% of the domestic market. During the 1950s and the 1960s, the brewery of Perantonakis implemented strategic alliances and a series of investments in the production sector. In 1959, two new units were erected beside the original plant. The cost of this investment exceeded $200 million. The quality of ‘Laurentina was improved and for that reason it won six gold medals in the world beer competition held in Brussels. By the independence of Mozambique in 1975 and the economy policy followed, the brewery were nationalised under the body of ‘SOGERE’ (Sociedad General de Cervejas e Refrigerantes de Mocambique SARL). In 1997, the company was acquired by the French BGI-Castel and the Irish Guinness, and in 2001 it was sold to the SABMiller.

Comentários

Eterno Exílio disse…
Fascinante,este redescobrir da História da nossa cidade.