The Cypriot Peasant under British Rule

Moving away from traditional histories of modern Cyprus, Panikos Panayi, Professor of European History at De Montfort University, will focus on the backbone of Cyprus in the form of the Cypriot peasants, who, until the end of the 20th century, formed the bulk of the island’s population. 

Panikos will outline the semi-orientalist British reactions to the rural population and the impact of imperial rule upon the lives of the peasantry and will argue that, while the British may have had an impact on the political and economic sphere, they did not change the domestic sphere. The traditions of rural life, dominated by religion, remained largely untouched, resulting in a vibrant secular culture, as evidenced through the survival of oral history or storytelling.

Panikos Panayi, a London born Cypriot, is Professor of European History at De Montfort University. His most notable publications include: The Enemy in Our Midst: Germans in Britain During the First World War (Berg, 1991); Life and Death in a German Town: Osnabrück from the Weimar Republic to World War Two and Beyond (IB Tauris, 2007; Bloomsbury, 2020); Spicing Up Britain: The Multicultural History of British Food (Reaktion, 2008); and Migrant City: A New History of London (Yale University Press, 2020). He is currently working on a project funded by the Leventis Foundation and De Montfort University entitled ‘The Cypriot Peasant: Everyday Life and Modernisation under British Rule, 1878-1960.’