Information about the object:
Cemeteries with Polish gravestone monuments.

Bwana Mkubwa, Mbala, Livingstone, are the sites of former Polish exile settlements in Zambia. The first transports of Poles from Soviet captivity arrived there in February 1943. Their areas included day care centres, a hospital, libraries, theatres, Polish primary and vocational schools. There was an excellent school centre in Livingstone, where Polish senators, generals and university professors, among others, taught. There was a scouting movement and other cells of social life. In the settlements, care was taken to preserve the national identity, an example of which is the White Eagle monument with the inscription: "God Honour Fatherland God Save Poland" and the plaque "Polish Exiles of the Great World War 1939-1945" at the main entrance gate to the estate in Bwana Mkubwa. The necropolises where Poles are buried are exposed to the devastating effects of the African climate and the bush.

Completed works:

2021
Representatives of national scouting organisations reached out to the Polish outgrowth settlements in Zimbabwe, the former area of Southern Rhodesia.

Between 3 and 23 September 2021, a team of scout volunteers made up of representatives from various scout organisations reached as many as seven Polish memorials located in the former Southern Rhodesia, i.e. today's Zimbabwe.

Among them were three Polish necropolises in the villages of Rusape, Kadoma, Marondera. All the plots and graves were documented, thoroughly cleaned, inventoried and repainted white. For the first time, the remains of the former Polish-Italian cemetery located next to the settlement in Ngesi, from which the Poles were later exhumed to Kadoma, were found. Two broken crosses once located on Polish graves were excavated from under the rubble.

In addition, volunteers reached the sites of former Polish exile settlements in Rusape and Ngesi. Together with their current residents, they carried out an inventory of selected buildings and recorded reports showing the current state and appearance of the buildings. In Ngesi, the foundations of a former Polish hospital, chapel, theatre and bar were found next to the cemetery - the inventory will make it possible, among other things, to verify the historical map of the settlement created on the basis of witnesses' memories.

On their way to meet the Polish Honorary Consul in Harare, the scouting expedition also visited the former Polish girls' school in Digglefold, where they took stock of the Polish stone Eagle, located in front of the main entrance. Pupils and teachers also take care of the Polish emblem embroidered by Polish schoolgirls to this day, thus keeping the history of this important place alive among the local community.

The whole expedition was accompanied by many lectures on the fate of Poles in Africa, meetings with Polish people and members of local African communities. Their aim was to publicise the idea of the project and to build awareness of the still little-known topic of the fate of Poles who, after leaving the USSR, found their way to Africa with General Anders's army.

2022
The project aimed at reaching Polish memorial sites in Uganda and former Tanganyika (Tanzania), taking care of them, carrying out an inventory of their condition (the last expedition of historians was in Uganda in 2017), acquiring documentation and building awareness of the fate of Polish exiles - who left the USSR together with General Anders' army and ended up in Africa - in the country and among local communities, Polish youth, students, Polonia.

This year's expedition of trained volunteers, working with historians who were among the first to preserve memorial sites in Africa, focused on cleaning, repainting, inventorying and photo and film documentation of five Polish necropolises, four monuments, a church and reaching traces of former Polish settlements in Koja, Morogoro and Ifunda.

2023
The project "Scout Africa 2023: We are on alert. Polish Memorial Sites in Zambia' aimed to reach the Memorial Sites in former Northern Rhodesia, carry out cleaning and inventory work, create documentation and record a short documentary film about the exiles who left the USSR with the Anders Army and ended up in Africa, with the aim of spreading awareness and promoting the idea of preserving national heritage abroad. This year's expedition focused on cleaning, repainting, photo and film documentation of the current state of 6 Polish Memorials. A short documentary film about Polish exiles will be made, which will tell the story of Poles in Africa in an engaging way for young audiences and promote activities aimed at protecting Polish necropolises.

2024
As part of the ongoing activities of the project "Scout Africa 2024: Hear, see, experience. Polish Memorials in Zimbabwe' aimed at caring for Polish heritage in Africa and popularising it in Poland and abroad by carrying out cleaning works and documenting their condition, the Scout Volunteers of the 20 Foundation reached four Polish Memorials: three Polish necropolises (Rusape, Marondera, Kadoma) and the former Polish girls' school and the Polish Eagle monument in Digglefold. A great success of this year's expedition was the access to the National Archives of Zimbabwe and the digitalisation of almost one third of the archival material on the functioning of the Polish settlements in the former Southern and Northern Rhodesia, the daily life of the Polish refugees, as well as the lists containing the names of the inhabitants of the settlements. This is a total of over 1,000 photographs of documents, which is probably the largest digitised fragment of the Archive's collection held by a Polish institution. The trip was carried out in Q3 2024 and was attended by sixteen volunteers.

Funding: Polonica Institute programme "Polish cultural heritage abroad - volunteering".

More about the project: https://polonika.pl

• Fundacja 20, realizacja w roku 2021, 2022, 2023 i 2024