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ABSTRACT
This essay focuses on the question of Polish engagement in modern colonial projects and how contemporary Polish political discourse denies this uncomfortable legacy. Poland’s colonial aspirations first arose in the aftermath of World War I. Even though colonialism was never directly supported by the interwar Polish government, the influence of the Maritime and Colonial League – an organization advocating colonial expansion – grew gradually until 1939, when it had around a million members. The author argues that colonialism in interwar Poland functioned as a marker of modernity, and that the failure to acquire colonies overseas defined the state as insufficiently modern. The author claims that, in political discourse today, the Polish–Haitian connection – a curious legacy of Napoleonic times – is often used as a smokescreen to cover the fact that Poland once actively sought opportunities to acquire colonies overseas. The myth of heroic Polish participation in the Haitian Revolution now serves to rebut accusations of racist prejudice in Poland or to resist political recognition of social diversity persistent in Polish politics. Additionally, the article discusses how contemporary media and art represent Haiti and Haitian Poles and how some works set an example of ethical engagement with postcolonial studies in the Polish context.
RÉSUMÉ
Cet article aborde l’expérience coloniale polonaise et la manière dont cet héritage gênant est nié dans le discours politique polonais contemporain. Les aspirations coloniales de la Pologne ont d’abord émergé à la suite de la Première Guerre mondiale. Bien que le colonialisme n’ait jamais été directement soutenu par le gouvernement de l’entre-deux-guerres, la Ligue maritime et coloniale, une organisation prônant l’expansion coloniale, a vu son influence augmenter progressivement jusqu’en 1939, date à laquelle elle comptait environ un million de membres. L’autrice soutient que le colonialisme était vu dans la Pologne de l’entre-deux-guerres comme un attribut de la modernité, dont l’absence trahissait le caractère insuffisamment moderne de l’État. Dans le discours politique d’aujourd’hui, la connexion polono-haïtienne héritée de l’époque napoléonienne est souvent utilisée comme écran de fumée pour masquer le fait que la Pologne a autrefois activement cherché à acquérir des colonies outre-mer, ainsi que pour réfuter les accusations de préjugés racistes en Pologne et empêcher une pleine reconnaissance politique de la diversité sociale. L’article traite finalement de la représentation de Haïti et des Polonais haïtiens dans les médias et l’art contemporains, montrant comment certaines œuvres donnent l’exemple d’un engagement éthique avec les études postcoloniales dans le contexte polonais.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Reposted tweet: “Młoda dziewczyna z Haiti odkrywa swoje polskie korzenie.” Wykop.pl, 3 August 2020. https://wykop.pl/link/5634265/mloda-dziewczyna-z-haiti-odkrywa-swoje-polskie-korzenie/.
2. Polish engagement in the Haitian Revolution makes an intriguing appearance in Stefan Żeromski’s 1902 novel Ashes. There we learn about the horror experienced by Polish legionnaires through the veteran Sariusz Ojrzyński’s story.
3. Thum, “Die polnischen Legionen,” 161–62.
4. Pachoński, Generał Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, 289–90.
5. Władysław Franciszek Jabłonowski (1769–1802) was one of the first dark-skinned generals in the Western world. He was the son of the British aristocrat Maria Dealire and her African butler. The illegitimate child was adopted by Maria’s husband, the nobleman Konstanty Jabłowski, who raised Władysław as his own, providing him a patriotic education. Young Jabłonowski was sent to the prestigious École de Brienne, where he met Napoleon Bonaparte (who supposedly bullied him) and Louis Nicolas Douvat (who became his good friend). Władysław had a successful military career. He participated in Kościuszko’s Uprising in 1794, and in 1799 he became a general in the Polish Legions. See Pachoński and Wilson, Poland’s Caribbean Tragedy, 60–61.
6. The first German settlements in Santo Domingo were established in the mid-eighteenth century. Augusta Elmwood writes that most of the German immigrants were part of a French expedition between 1763 and 1765 aimed at colonizing parts of Guiana. (Elmwood, “Germans in Saint-Domingue,” 32.) The next group came alongside Poles with Leclerc’s army. (Girard, “Leclerc Expedition to Saint-Domingue.”)
7. Rypson, “Czarna Madonna, Czarni Polacy,” 121.
8. Rozwora, “Four Madonnas,” 11.
9. Thum, “Die polnischen Legionen,” 182.
10. Sokołowska, “Polskość czarnych Polaków.”
11. Śladami Polonii, “Polacy na Haiti,” 0:01–0:12 and 2:37–2:46.
12. Rosenberg, “Poland Border Crisis.”
13. Serwis Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, “Spotkanie z Polonią.”
14. Czapski, “Kawałek Polski na Haiti,” 9:10–9:26.
15. Ibid., 9:58–10:02.
16. Ibid., 18:24–18:56.
17. Fiut, “Polonizacja? Kolonizacja?” 152.
18. Bakuła, “Kolonialne i postkolonialne aspekty,” 17.
19. Wąsiewski, “Dzieje polskich lig morskich.”
20. Liga Morska i Rzeczna, Program Kolonjalny Ligi Morskiej, 16.
21. Borkowska-Arciuch, “Polskie doświadczenie kolonialne,” 21.
22. Beck, Ostatni raport, 129.
23. Kusiak, “U źródeł kolonialnych,” 190.
24. Borkowska-Arciuch, “Polskie doświadczenie kolonialne,” 18.
25. I elaborate on this topic in Jeżyk, “Suitors with Their Stomachs.”
26. Piotrowski, “Działalność Ligi Morskiej,” 19.
27. Miksne, “Madagaskar.”
28. Bodo and Reri were a couple at that time, and their relationship was widely publicized. Instead of getting married, the actors ended up separating owing to Reri’s drinking problems. Tomczyk, “Reri: Miss Polinezji wśród.”
29. Schlechter, “Dla ciebie chcę być.”
30. Borkowska-Arciuch, “Polskie doświadczenie kolonialne,” 19.
31. Białas, Liga Morska i Kolonialna, 217.
32. The formation of a Polish diaspora in Brazil is described in Ureña Valerio, Colonial Fantasies, Imperial Realities.
33. The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company leased one million acres of land from Liberia in 1926 to open a rubber plantation. The press, both Polish and American, contributed to the failure of Polish settlements in Liberia. While media in the US envisioned Poles as uncomfortable competitors, Polish newspapers blatantly wrote about Liberia as a Polish colony, which alarmed Liberian authorities. Kowalski, Dyskurs kolonialny, 109–20.
34. Borkowska-Arciuch, “Polskie doświadczenie kolonialne,” 23.
35. Girard, I See Satan Fall, 10.
36. The list of the Maritime and Colonial League’s members is available on Wikipedia: https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategoria:Cz%C5%82onkowie_Ligi_Morskiej_i_Kolonialnej_(1930%E2%80%931939).
37. Thum, “Die polnischen Legionen,” 162–63.
38. Staszczyszyn, “Shaman Who Took Down.”
39. Konopka and Rosołowski, Sztuka znikania, 21:12–21:22.
40. The directors claim that initially they wanted to tell Frémon’s story through the testimonies of his friends, wives, and lovers. The shaman turned out to be a failed hero, however. Many interviewees had only negative things to say about him. This is how Konopka and Rosołowski decided to narrate Frémon’s journey through Poland instead. Lipińska, “Duchowość zapętlona i groteskowa.”
41. Crumley, “Warrant Officer Faustin Wirkus.”
42. Duda and Soja, “Never Embrace Burning Statues,” 0:47–1:14.
43. Jasper and Malinowska, “Halka/Haiti 18°48ʹ05″N 72°23ʹ01″W.”
44. According to a 2015 survey by the Centrum Badań Opini Społecznej (Centre for Public Opinion Research), 72% of Poles support accepting refugees, but the number goes down to 33% when the refugees come from the Middle East or Africa. Kowalczuk, “Stosunek do uchodźców,” 2, 4.
45. Donovan, “(Sorry) State,” 11. See also Donovan’s article in this issue.
46. Popular YouTube video creators, such as Bez Planu or Planeta Abstrakcja, provide excellent material on these topics.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Agnieszka Jezyk
Agnieszka Jezyk specializes in the Polish avant-garde poetry of the interwar period and Slavic horror studies. She has published in The Polish Review, Canadian Slavonic Papers, Slavic and East European Journal, and Ab Imperio, among other journals. She is a co-editor of the volume Slavic Horror across the Media: Cursed Zones, due out from Manchester University Press in 2023. Dr. Jezyk earned her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago for her thesis on excessive matter in Bruno Jasieński’s poems. She is working on a book manuscript discussing marginal subjectivities in Polish avant-garde poetry of the 1920s, and she has started a project on representations of deadly technologies in various central European avant-garde works. She has worked at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of California, Los Angeles, and most recently the University of Toronto, where she was an assistant professor of Polish Language, Literature, and Culture and the acting director of the Polish program.