Polish refugees in East Africa: a story of hope and human solidarity
Professor Rafał Pankowski – Lecture, 17 October, 5pm. PUNO Lecture theatre (this is an in-person event). Part of the Twentieth Century Polish History Seminar.
The history of Polish refugees in World War II is a story of multiple, overlapping displacements, shaped by shifting alliances, imperial infrastructures, and humanitarian responses. One of the most remarkable, yet less widely known, chapters of Polish wartime displacement unfolded in Africa. Between 1942 and 1952, more than 18,000 Polish refugees – mostly women and children evacuated from the USSR – were resettled in British colonies in East and Central Africa, including two sites in Uganda (Nyabyeya and Koja).
The challenges included tropical diseases, isolation, and cultural dislocation. The historical episode provides a crucial lens for understanding both the structural challenges and transformative possibilities of refugee reception.
The refugee experience (exile) is a shared human condition: today’s hosts may be tomorrow’s displaced. By centering this relational understanding, the historical narrative encourages solidarity with refugees both in Europe and globally by drawing on the shared history of displacement.
Professor Rafał Pankowski is a sociologist of culture and political scientist, Professor at Collegium Civitas in Warsaw, Poland, a Rotary Peace Fellow at Makerere University (Kampala, Uganda). He is a co-founder of the ‘Never Again’ Association. Author of ‘The Populist Radical Right in Poland’ (Routledge 2010), among other publications.
