Memorie.al / Kosta Tanellari, an elderly man, a former functionary before the ’90s, one evening told me a Greek drama that unfolded in a deep, mountainous village in the Pogradec district. The event seemed almost unbelievable, but Kosta proposed that we go ourselves to the village of Niçë, meet people, and we took the road to deep, mountainous Niçë, which is located in the Gora region, starting from Qafë–Panja. We pass one beautiful valley after another with alpine mountains covered in green crowns of beeches and pines. We have entered the kingdom of the forest.
From afar, the sound of a chainsaw and the rhythmic striking of an ax can be heard, mixed with the bells of large herds of livestock and the endless song of birds. A true symphony. The recent rain has greatly invigorated the greenery in this early spring. We stop the car. Endless springs with crystal clear waters that you never feel satiated by.
Winds and gusts come from afar in the forest. “Once, this area was a large sawmill establishment, it was a real small town,” says Petraq Shkëmbi, a shepherd from Niçë. “With these forests and this livestock, we supported our families, but during the years of transition, this forest suffered significant damage from irresponsible people who took advantage of the situation when there was no state authority…”
Every family had one or two sawyers who worked for the state…! Suddenly, the valley of forests ends, and at the foot of a mass of woods, their shadow stretches towards a green landscape with numerous plum, walnut, and apple trees and houses…! The village is dense, and the houses stand one after the other, separated by a small yard.
The former village with 160 houses
This is Niçë, once in the 1990s, with 160 houses and nearly 600 inhabitants, but today it only has 30 houses, with about 100 inhabitants. The exodus has also gripped Niçë…! In this village, it is very easy to distinguish those who have left. Not only do their chimneys not emit smoke, but the roofs of those who have left are still covered with stone slabs, according to the tradition of construction in Gora, while the houses of those who live there have red roofs covered with metal sheeting.
The people of Niçë sustain themselves with livestock farming and working abroad. But this time, we have come to Niçë for something completely different; we have come to inquire about the life of Milto Qefalla, who came to their village as a young child of seven, and there he grew up, became a man, and started his own family…! We meet Josif Gjini, the oldest man in the village, who has passed 85 years of age…!
He is a composed man, and after thinking for a few moments, he tells us…! “Listen, my boy, a neighbor is like a brother or a sister; whether you like them or not, you have them there in the bowl, as we say from the village, and you have your neighbor there for life, and the important thing is that you must get along well with your neighbor, because life brings all sorts of surprises, and you must be there for each other…”!
“Ah,” adds Josif, “the story of the Greeks coming to our village in 1940 and the story of Milto Qefalla seem like a legend, but it is all true…! Life is born from love, my son, and we must love each other, but the new times and the rush with which we walk every day in the struggle for survival seem to have faded those traditions and that love and generosity we had for each other; it seems to have faded in these young people.
But let’s move on to Milto Qefalla, or as we called him when we were young, Milto the Greek, and he would get angry and say: ‘No, I am Albanian!’ It was the year 1939-1940, when Greece was engulfed in extreme poverty, and a bread crisis had appeared, where many people died of starvation. Parents, unable to support their children, sent them on foot towards Albania.
Such was the case of several boys aged 7, 10, or 15, who, from the deep areas of Ioannina, and especially from Konitsa, crossed the Gramoz mountain, entered Ersekë, then Vithkuq–Voskopojë, passed into the Gora area, and then via the old ‘Egnatia’ road, they emerged here in our village, which is primarily inhabited by Vlachs. Three Greek brothers were sheltered in the house of Petro Haliçe (Kuteli).
The youngest of them, Miltiadhi, was only seven years old, very ill from malnutrition, with a swollen belly and yellow as wax. The destination of the Greek brothers was Myzeqeja or Berat. His severe condition did not allow it, and his older brother, Kostandini, left Miltiadhi with Petro Kuteli’s family. After staying three days with his other brother, Dhimitri, the two of them left. After a month, Kostandini returned to Niçë, and he found Miltiadhi completely changed and exceedingly happy, and Miltiadhi himself refused to move from Niçë, because he was very pleased with Petro’s family, and especially with grandmother Maga Kuteli.
Kostandini went to Greece and returned to Niçë again after a year and wanted to reunite the two brothers, to take Miltiadhi to Dhimitri in Berat, but he refused again, and when Kostandini went to the family where he had left Dhimitri in the oil area, as Kostandini says, he did not find his brother. He had left without an address from where his brother had left him. This immensely saddened Kostandini.”
After the National Liberation War
After the end of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War, Miltiadhi finished elementary school in Niçë, being an exemplary student. Then, the family where Miltiadhi lived, Petro’s family, was engaged in livestock farming, so Miltiadhi began to engage in livestock farming and had a large herd of livestock, among the best in Niçë. After the Second World War, Miltiadhi had hopes that one day the borders would open, but they closed even more tightly…!
Miltiadhi’s hopes of meeting his family in Greece were fading every day, and he was even afraid to write letters lest he harm himself, or Petro’s family, who had adopted him as a son. In 1949, 40 Greek families came to the village of Niçë from Greece following ‘Greek provocations,’ fleeing the civil war that was taking place in northern Greece. At this time, Miltiadhi refreshed his Greek with the newly arrived Greeks and was interested in learning something about his family, but he learned nothing.
The Greeks who had arrived along with their herds of livestock left after three months of staying in our village, because they had nothing to sustain their livestock during the winter…! But Miltiadhi lived in hope. When we were together, Miltiadhi spoke to us with love about his father Pandeli, mother Vasiliqi, older brother Kostandin, his sister Athina, and Dhimitri, describing them all as he had last seen them.
Miltiadhi grew into a man and went to perform military service, part of it in Tirana and the other part in Gjirokastër. He returned from the army more mature and manlier, and then he fell in love with a village girl, right here in the village of Niçë, named Frosina Petro Spirollari. They got engaged, and after a year, the wedding of Petro Kuteli’s only son, Miltiadh Qefalla, took place…!
At the moment of the wedding ceremony, he addressed Petro’s wife: “I have a mother who gave birth to me in Greece, but you are the mother who raised me and made me a man.” Miltiadhi created his family and his new home, bringing four children into the world: Vasilika, Kozeta, Kristaqi, and Piro. At this time, Miltiadhi worked as a geologist in the village of Petrushë, Pogradec, near the coal mine.
At this time, the longing for his family gnawed at him every day, and after consulting with Kosta Tanellari, who held an important party function at the time and whom he had known since childhood, he decided to write a letter to his family around 1970. The letter was written in Albanian and then translated into Greek by a married woman from Dropull in Pogradec. They sent the letter to Greece. Among other things, Miltiadhi asked his family in Greece for the address of Dhimitri, who was in Albania and with whom he had lost contact since 1940…!
The search for the brother he hadn’t seen for 40 years
After two months, the answer arrived, writing that Dhimitri was in an Albanian city where oil was extracted. Now began the search for his brother Dhimitri, whom he hadn’t seen for 40 years and who was in Albania. So, Miltiadhi, together with Kosta Tanellari, sent letters to the Albanian cities where oil was extracted, such as Fier, Ballsh, Patos, Kuçovë, and Cërrik.
And after a few months, a reply came that Dhimitër Qefalla from Pikalla, Greece, lived in Kuçovë, was married with four children, and even his address in Kuçovë was provided. This was the peak of happiness. After 40 years, he would meet his brother. “They set off together,” says Kosta Tanellari, “towards Kuçovë, but the meeting had been prepared beforehand by the leaders of Kuçovë at that time, because something could happen from the great joy and emotions.”
Dhimitri worked at the Kuçovë water utility, and the director of the water utility enterprise, after Miltiadhi had arrived at her office, notified Dhimitri to come to the office as soon as possible, because a citizen had complained after his drinking water pipes had been damaged. After a few minutes, Dhimitri arrived at the director’s office. Miltiadhi was there with Kosta, who was accompanying him.
As soon as he entered the door, Dhimitri saw the two gentlemen and the director in the office. He paused for a moment and addressed the director; “Who is the citizen with the complaint?” “Here is the comrade,” she said…! They looked each other in the eye for a few seconds, and instantly Dhimitri shouted; “But this is my brother, director!” “The scene was unprecedented,” recounts Kosta Tanellari, “they hugged and kissed for several minutes. They had parted as children and were meeting as men after about 40 years…”!
Both families celebrated this event magnificently, and Dhimitri’s family even came to Niçë to visit his brother. The two brothers decided to reunite and live in Kuçovë. Miltiadhi was to move near Dhimitri, but bureaucratic obstacles did not allow him to obtain a passport/residency near his brother in Kuçovë.
Dhimitri, only a year after the brothers were reunited, died suddenly. The joy of their reunion was not meant to last. Later, after the arrival of democracy, Miltiadhi went to Greece with his wife, to his two sons, and we have learned that he also passed away a short time ago. This was the extraordinary drama of the brothers Miltiadh and Dhimitër Qefalla. / Memorie.al
