Angelo Capato

Angelo Capato, born Angelos Helia Kapatos (Άγγελος Ήλιος Καπάτος) on the Ionian island of Cephalonia in western Greece (1854–1937), was the most eminent business magnate and "one of the most powerful persons" in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan at the beginning of the 20th century. He arrived in the Egyptian port town of Suez in 1870. Two years later he joined the crew of John Murray's Challenger expedition, a pioneering scientific mission in oceanography that went on until 1876. In 1882 he followed a British Nile exploration mission as a small merchant. The business offered huge profits, When an Anglo-Egyptian army under Herbert Kitchener started the reconquest of Sudan in 1896, Capato and other Greek merchants followed the invading forces from Wadi Halfa and again specialised in catering to the troops and officers. Once more, profit margins for supplying "highly-priced imports" were huge – as were the risks: after the defeat of the Mahdist regime in 1898 and the withdrawal of most of the foreign soldiers, Capato was left "with large stores of 'luxury products' that proved impossible to sell to Egyptian and Sudanese subalterns." He got engaged in the trade with ivory from what was then Southern Sudan and Gum arabic from Kordofan.

Soon his business activities expanded into the Congo Free State as well, where he also set up a network of Greek agents - thereby contributing to the creation of a Greek community in Congo which still exists today. Likewise it may be argued that he was one of the founding father's of the Greek community in South Sudan.

At the same time, Capato owned hotels, In the same year, however, Capato's fortunes started turning in the fashion of an Ancient-Greek tragedy:"A string of bad luck began when a storm sank a large number of his boats (some sailing northwards carrying gum, others going south with salt and general merchandise) between Shellal and Wadi Halfa. Nothing was insured and the combined loss totalled £46,200. Just after this misfortune, a fire at Port Sudan caused losses of £33,000 or more; then fire (probably arson) in his Khartoum stores caused £55,800 in damage, and, finally, a fire in his storehouse in Gondokoro destroyed goods worth £47,000."

When his small business collapsed as well two years later, Capato moved to Alexandria, since there was a considerable community of Greeks in Egypt at the time. The US-dramatist Robert Hobart Davis interviewed him there in his eightieth year and found him "with both legs broken, [..] writing his memoirs and contemplating his dramatic past."

Little has been published about Capato's private life, except that he was "the father of a large family." In his final years, he lived in 19 Rue Champollion of Alexandria with a monthly allowance of £55 from Contomichalos, The Greek anthropologist Gerasimos Makris, who is related to the Greeks of Sudan through marriage, and the Norwegian historian Endre Stiansen conclude:"Capato's career demonstrates how a Greek trader (carrying a British passport) of no private means exploited economic opportunities to build his own business and become a pillar of the society. Moreover, his life history provides an interesting perspective both on social and economic changes in the Sudan during the first part of the Condominium period, as well as the formation of a strong foreign community."

And:"Capato belonged to the 'high class' of Greek settlers, but after the collapse of his business ventures he did not have the means to play a leading role in the society. In a certain sense, he continued to influence the development of the Greek community through his nephew, Gerasimos Contomichalos. By contrasting the two men, it is possible to see how the community had changed from 1900 to 1920. While Capato was an energetic daredevil who thrived on chaos, Contomichalos came to the Sudan as a well-educated young man who distinguished himself by working hard and methodically. If Capato represented the colourful and adventurous past of the Greek presence in the Sudan, Contomichalos personified the accomplishments of the mature community."