Kadri (Kumbaro) Gjata, activist of the national movement of the last period of the Renaissance, was killed by the Greek circles. He was born in Libohova, in 1865. He received his first lessons in his hometown. In 1880 he went to Ioannina where he continued the Madrasa and connected with Albanian patriotic circles, which influenced his patriotic formation. After the announcement of the Constitution (July 1908), he devoted himself to the political-cultural movement. With the establishment of the club “Bashkimi” of Ioannina (1908), he became one of its most active members, was elected to the presidency of this club and in 1910, its president. He helped the club’s activities with his financial means. He worked for the spread of Albanian schools and learning and for raising the political consciousness of Albanians. Under the leadership of Kadri Djata, the club became a center for the propaganda of national ideas and a leading center for the organization and direction of patriotic activity in all the provinces of the South. With the material support of Kadri Gjata, a library with books in the Albanian language was built near the club of Ioannina, which served for the creation of the “Toskëria” literary circle, which, then, on the initiative of Gjata, was reorganized into a student society named “Qarku Literal” (The Literal Circle). The society opposed the propaganda and anti-Albanian actions developed by Turkish and Greek student societies in Ioannina and defended the alphabet of the Albanian language. Kadri Gjata was one of the founders of the newspaper “Zgjimi i Shqipërisë”, the periodical organ of the club “Bashkimi” of Ioannina. For his patriotic activity, Kadri Gjata was persecuted by the Greek circles, who managed to assissinate him through a group of committees in 1912. He was decorated with the Order of the “Honor of the Nation.” (In the photo: Kadri Gjata)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 1 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 812.
Photo: © https://memorie.al/
Graphic processing: AHCF
