Centre’s mission in Tanzania, Kondoa/Tengeru

Tanzania, Kondoa/Tengeru 2024 is another research project in Africa led by UKEN’s Centre for the Documentation of Displacement, Expulsion and Resettlement. Its main objective is the reconstruction and restoration of the Polish cemetery in Kondoa. However, we started with an archival search in the Tanzanian National Archives and a meeting with the authorities of the Polish Embassy in Dar es Salaam (Ms Katarzyna Sobiecka and Consul Wojciech Łysak). Extremely important for the preservation of Polish heritage in Africa were discussions with the Director of the Archive Mr Firimin M. Msiangi, who allowed us full access to the collection and the discovery of hundreds of documents relating to the stay in Tanzania of thousands of Polish Siberians between 1942 and 1952. We reached them as the first researchers from Poland (as in the National Archives of Zimbabwe in Harare – Dr Mariusz Solarz in 2018). The Centre’s director Prof. Hubert Chudzio is currently working on a book: ‘Polish Siberian settlements in East and Southern Africa 1942-1952’. For this and other publications this material is invaluable. As usual, we are helped by Polish missionaries. This time the Franciscan Fathers. The project is being carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Dar es Salaam and the ‘The Past Doesn’t Return, But It Doesn’t Die’ Foundation. It was co-financed by funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Cultural Promotion Fund.