Łukasz Dziedzic traces the moral gaps in Polish-African relationships in the spirit of the contemporary postcolonial reflection. In his painting, he focuses on the archive traces and visual stereotypes in representing the colonial interior.
A disturbing collection of images presents the potential for annihilation which, despite the zeal of the Maritime and Colonial League, took place without the involvement of the Second Polish Republic. However, racism and white supremacy were embedded in the fabric of every colonial project, a fact that requires careful analysis. Today, the “blackface” of a Polish soldier presenting uniforms for colonial troops during the parade of the Maritime and Colonial League in Toruń (1939) will be evaluated differently. Also in need of revision are such figures as Stefan Szolc-Rogoziński and his expeditions to Cameroon and Bronisław Malinowski, whose anthropological legacy has turned out to be biased and stained by discrimination. The exhibition, complemented by archival material, corresponds with a rapid process of decolonisation, affecting not only language, museum collections, literature, science and history, but also social consciousness.

The second perspective, less theoretical and more universal, is based on the observation of global trends of increasing racist and xenophobic attitudes. Harmful prejudices and myths return from the dustbin of history, updating the colonial apparatus that objectifies or animalises selected groups.
Modern forms of repression, however, are much more subtle, psychologically sophisticated and usually covert.
The phenomenon can be described as nano-racism, “which has become the culture and the air, in its banality and ability to penetrate all the pores and veins of the social organism, in the times of widespread stupefaction, mechanical debraining and duping of the masses” (A. Mbembe, 2018). “Ad maiorem Poloniae gloriam” is a wake up call for the white section of the population – we are and always have been privileged, and racism is our responsibility.”

Paweł Wątroba
Excerpt from the text accompanying the exhibition Ad maiorem Poloniae gloriam
CSW Kronika, Bytom, Poland, 8.2021