DR ZANNETOS TOFALLIS

I was born in Stylloi, a small village in the Famagusta district.  Being a farmer , my father had to work very hard – he had a family of nine.  Due to the deplorable economic and financial conditions of the time , he was ‘forced’ to emigrate.  I happily went through primary education and then moved to the Commercial Lyceum in Famagusta from where I graduated in 1956.  Two of my sisters and a brother were already in England, so I took the ship from Limassol in September 1956 and arrived in London nine days later.  We travelled via Port Said, Piraeus, Venice, Calais and Dover.  Victoria Station was awesome.  I left half of my family in Cyprus and now I was with the other half in the British capital.

My first impressions were not at all favourable.  The dense fog meant that visibility was highly restrictive.  I recall that on my arrival I had £5 in my pocket, so I had to be extremely careful with such a princely sum.  For six months, I  was unloading heavy crates.  Then I met Tefkros Anthias in a ‘kafeneio’ and he offered me a post at the newspaper ‘Vema’.  My weekly wage was £8.  I believe that those three years were the happiest times of my life.  Anthias was really my mentor and with him around, I met other prominent individuals, such as George Seferis, who was at the time the Greek Ambassador in the UK.  At the same time I began to study the world’s great poets.  During my time at the ‘Vema’, I tried to raise the standard of our community and secondly, at a time when EOKA were fighting the British in Cyprus, to give the other side of the story.  The British media were biased and were bringing out stories which could not be substantiated.  I also formed the opinion that our community had to project parliamentarians who were sympathetic to our problem.  We proceeded to do that.

In the 1950s, life in the UK was not easy.  Most of our compatriots worked in hotels and restaurants and were usually doing all the menial jobs.  Our ladies usually worked as machinists.  Let us not underestimate the role of the Cypriot women who, not only worked very hard, but raised families as well.  Today young Cypriots have taken over all the professions.  We must be proud of our second and third generations.  However, there is still friction between the so-called “old heads” and the “new heads”.  Our community has to be very careful.  Unfortunately, today’s youngsters are prone to imitate a lot of things and very often do not have the willpower to resist what may be considered anti-social.  The role of the Church and of the Greek schools is crucial.  Only with maximum effort can we hope to succeed in keeping a united and homogeneous community.We have to be careful “not to go under”, as Anthias used to say.

I am married to Vasoulla Alexandrou Mina, who was born in Alethriko.  Publicly, I must say “thank you” for all the help and support she gave me when I was studying.  My son Christopher studied literature and married Gina.  Her father comes from Koma tou Yialou and her mother from Aradippou.  I absolutely adore my grandchildren.  I yearned to return to our beloved island, but with the family expanding I have put things “on hold”.  Cypriots are “family conscious” therefore loving and caring.  I started teaching Greek history and civilisation at the Mary Ward Centre in Russell Square.  We formed a Greek society, which organised regular Greek evenings.  It was a great pleasure to project our civilization to foreigners.  I also lectured higher education and university students.  I then gave everything up when our community did all it could to acquire “a voice”, to join the air waves of this multi-ethnic society of ours.  We succeeded.  LGR, of which I served as manager, is now a major part of our lives.

I continue to be active in community affairs.  I am very much involved and I am the president of my village’s association and of another association in Barnet. It is always a pleasure to meet my co-villagers, to talk about the past and about our lovely island.  I am of the opinion that Cyprus will see better days.  Let us hope that a speedy solution and a workable one is found, so that all Cypriots can live together in peace and harmony.  Then our associations in the UK, can devote all their time to problems which our community is now facing.