Tefkros Anthias

Andreas Pavlou, writing under the nom-de-plume Tefkros Anthias, was born in Kontea in 1903. Educated as a primary teacher, Anthias emerged as the pioneer of proletarian poetry and social realism in Cypriot literature.

His 1929 collection The Whistling of the Vagabond (To Sfyriximo tou Aliti) caused a cultural sensation, denounced by the ecclesiastical hierarchy but passionately embraced by youth and labor unions. Imprisoned by British authorities in Dhekelia internment camp in 1955 for his communist anti-colonial activism, he lived his final years in London editing progressive journals.