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Africans in Poland, also known asAfro-Poles orAfro-Polish (Polish:Afropolacy), are citizens or residents ofPoland who have any ancestry from any of theBlack racial groups ofAfrica.
The first people of African descent to arrive on Polish soil were brought as servants to Polish kings and nobles. Among others,John III Sobieski,Augustus II the Strong andStanisław August Poniatowski had black servants.[1] In the first half of the 17th century a black servant named Aleksander Dynis was in the service of the Bishop ofKrakow.[1] In 1752,Hieronim Florian Radziwiłł fromBiała Podlaska purchased 12 slaves in London, black servants were also in the service ofJerzy Ignacy Lubomirski inPrzemyśl, andElżbieta Izabela Lubomirska inMokotów (today part ofWarsaw).[1] A black adjutant and butler, Jean Lapierre, was in the service ofTadeusz Kościuszko.[1]
However, the origins of the current Afro-Polish community are rooted in educational immigration to thePolish People's Republic. The Communist government strongly supported anti-colonial movements in Africa as part of broaderSoviet policy. From the 1950s to the 1980s, many Africans emigrated to Poland to pursue their educations. While most African students in Poland returned to their countries of origin, many decided to remain in Poland and acquire citizenship. The contemporary Afro-Polish community includes many of these Africans and their descendants.[2]
In 1955, the 5thWorld Festival of Youth and Students was held inWarsaw. Organized by the leftist, anti-imperialistWorld Federation of Democratic Youth, the festival invited thousands of delegates from around the world, including almost 1,000 Africans. The Communist leadership of Poland wished to express solidarity and promote socialism to Africans from colonized nations. This was one of the earliest Polish encounters with non-white people, following the end of the multicultural and multiethnicSecond Polish Republic followingWorld War II. ThePolish Press Agency was given the task of documenting the African visitors, which began an ongoing series of Polish press photography depicting African visitors and residents of Poland.[3]
Media related toAfrican diaspora in Poland at Wikimedia Commons
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