The huts of the Chalikoutis approximately on today’s Dimitrakakis Street in upper Koum Kapi.
The Africans of Crete who did all the heavy lifting that no Christian or Muslim bourgeois wanted to do.
The travellers who visited Crete during the Egyptian occupation say that the village of Chalikoutis outside the walls of Chania was the first village in Crete.
In 1851 it had about 3,000 souls! During the period of Cretan autonomy, this peculiar village was a thorn in the side of the expansion of the city towards the aristocratic Chalepa, so one day when Prince George was away from Crete, who liked them, they burned the 30 huts that were left and forced them to go to Kladissos, and they even held a protest march to Chania, but “where the poor and his fate”.
Most Africans were exchanged by 1924 unless of course they had somehow acquired another citizenship in the meantime, such as Abla or Salis who had Italian and British citizenship respectively (and were NOT brothers).
Chania: The huts of the Chalikoutis
