doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.01

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.02

This article examines various perspectives and narratives regarding the commemoration of slavery among African communities, both in the context of constructing a local identity and in creating a tourist product for African-American citizens of the United States. As African history becomes increasingly ‘Americanised’, slavery memorials in Africa are often presented in ways tailored to the expectations of African-American tourists. This can result in the distortion of local history or the omission of certain key aspects in this complex heritage. The author highlights that, for many Africans, historical sites related to slavery also reflect the rich and diverse history of the region, which includes various periods and events, such as resistance against colonisation. Aspects related to local human trafficking in West Africa are frequently overlooked, with the focus predominantly on the transatlantic slave trade. In light of these observations, the author emphasises the importance of acknowledging the diversity of perspectives and historical contexts when commemorating slavery. This approach could help avoid historical oversimplifications and distortions, thereby fostering a more comprehensive understanding of this period.

Key words: slavery, memorial sites, genealogy (roots) tourism, difficult heritage

Bibliography

Adu-Ampong, Emmanuel A., Ishmael Mensah. „African diaspora tourism: Concepts, issues, and prospects beyond slavery-oriented heritage”. W: Cultural Heritage and Tourism in Africa, red. Dallen J. Timothy. New York: Routledge, 2023.

Ankomah, Paul, Trent Larson, Venita Roberson, Jerono Rotich. „A creative approach to development: The case for active engagement of African diaspora in Ghana”. Journal of Black Studies 43, 4 (2012).

Bellagamba, Alice. „Back to the land of Roots: African American tourism and the cultural heritage of the river Gambia”. Cahiers d’Études africaines 193–194 (2009).

Bruner, Edward M. „Tourism in Ghana: The representation of slavery and the return of the black diaspora”. American Anthropologist 98, 2 (1996).

Engmann, Rachel A.A. „Contested heritage and absent objects: Archaeological representation at Ghana’s forts and castles”. W: The Oxford Handbook of Museum Archaeology, red. Alice Stevenson. Oxford: Oxford University, 2022.

Es van, Nicky, Stijn Reijnders, Leonieke Bolderman, Abby Waysdorf, red., Place, Tourism and Belonging. London: Routledge, 2020.

Gijanto, Liza A. „Competing narratives: tensions between diaspora tourism and the Atlantic past in the Gambia”. Journal of Heritage Tourism 6, 3 (2011).

Grek-Martin, Jason. „Strange spaces of mediated memory: The complicating influence of Roots on heritage tourism in The Gambia, West Africa”. W: Locating Imagination in Popular Culture Place, Tourism and Belonging, red. Nicky van Es, Stijn Reijnders, Leonieke Bolderman, Abby Waysdorf. London: Routledge, 2020.

Haviser, Jay B. „Slaveryland: A new genre of African heritage abuse”. Public Archaeology 4, 1 (2005).

Mensah, Ishmael. „The roots tourism experience of diaspora Africans: A focus on the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles”. Journal of Heritage Tourism 10, 3 (2009).

Singleton, Theresa. „The slave trade remembered on the former gold and slave coasts”. Slavery & Abolition 20, 1 (1999).

Tillet, Salamishah. „In the shadow of the castle: (Trans)nationalism, African American tourism, and Gorée Island”. Research in African Literatures 40, 4 (2009).

Warren, Kim, Elizabeth MacGonagle. „‘How much for Kunta Kinte?!’ Sites of memory & diasporan encounters in West Africa”. W: African Hosts and their Guests. Cultural Dynamics of Tourism, red. Annette M. Schmidt, Walter E.A. Van Beek. Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer, 2012.

Yankholmes, Aaron. „The transatlantic slave trade: Africa’s epitomous heritage tourism”. W: Cultural Heritage and Tourism in Africa, red. Dallen J. Timothy. New York: Routledge, 2023.

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.03

This article examines how literary representations of the Middle Passage shape the perception of both past and present within the cultural community of the Black Atlantic. It presents an in-depth comparative study of contemporary literary depictions of the Middle Passage, a critical stage in the transatlantic slave trade, which emerges in literary texts as a symbolic starting point for a multidimensional discourse on racial and cultural identity, as well as trauma transmitted across generations. Contemporary novels such as The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson, Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall and A Visitation of Spirits by Randall Kenan, portray the Middle Passage not only as a historical event but also as an experience deeply embedded in the collective consciousness. This experience was passed down through generations, continuing to influence collective memory and shape the complex identity of Black communities on the American side of the Atlantic. The literary descriptions of the Middle Passage analysed in this article fulfil both a memory-forming and culture-shaping function, offering readers tools not only to better understand and process the difficult legacy of slavery but also reflect on the contemporary consequences of this chapter in human history.

Key words: Middle Passage, intergenerational trauma, cultural memory, neo-slave narratives, legacy of slavery

Bibliography

Araujo, Ana L. Shadows of the Slave Past: Memory, Heritage, and Slavery. New York: Routledge, 2014.

Barnett, Pamela E. „Figurations of rape and the supernatural in Beloved”. PMLA 112, 3 (1997).

Capri, Eric, Portia Owusu. „Slavery, lived realities, and the decolonisation of forced migration histories: An interview with Dr Portia Owusu”. Migration Studies 10, 1 (2022).

Deren, Maya. Bogowie haitańskiego wudu. Tłum. Małgorzata Wiśniewska, Zbigniew Zagajewski. Kraków: Wydawnictwo A, 2000.

Diouf, Sylviane A. Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Gadsby, Meredith M. Sucking Salt: Caribbean Women Writers, Migration, and Survival. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2006.

hooks, bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992.

Hopkinson, Nalo. The Salt Roads. New York: Warner Books, 2003.

Landsberg, Alison. Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.

Marshall, Paule. Praisesong for the Widow. London: Plume, 1983.

Misrahi-Barak, Judith, red., Revisiting Slave Narratives I: Les avatars contemporains des récits d’esclaves. Montpellier: Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier, 2008.

Morgan, Stacy I. „Dust tracks untrampled by the dinosaur of history: The Ibo’s Landing and Flying Africans narratives as mythic counter-memory”. Sycamore: A Journal of American Culture 1, 1 (1997).

Pinn, Anthony B. „Black bodies in pain and ecstasy: Terror, subjectivity, and the nature of black religion”. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 7, 1 (2003).

Plant, Deborah G. „Afterword”. W: Zora N. Hurston. Barracoon: The Story of the Last „Black Cargo”, red. Deborah G. Plant. New York: Amistad, 2018.

Sharpe, Christina. In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016.

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.04

This article examines the trajectory of the Memorial to the Enslaved Persons (Memorial às Pessoas Escravizadas) project in Lisbon, initiated by Djass, an association of people of African descent. Although the concept was approved by residents of Lisbon – particularly the African diaspora in the Portuguese capital – and funding was allocated from the city’s civic budget in 2017, the monument has yet to be erected at its designated place. The social debate and controversies surrounding this project are situated within the broader context of postcolonial or transcolonial relations, as well as the strategies aimed at the decolonisation of urban spaces. The genesis and subsequent developments of the project are explored against the backdrop of contemporary narratives regarding Portugal’s colonial past and responsibility for slavery. The text also discusses other projects and initiatives – artistic, educational and socio-cultural – related to the legacy of slavery. The theoretical framework draws on Sharon Macdonald’s concept of past presencing and Michael Rothberg’s theory of multidirectional memory.

Key words: slavery, Lisbon, past presencing, multidirectional memory

Bibliography

Castro Henriques, Isabel, Pedro Pereira Leite. Lisboa cidade africana: Percursos de Lugares de Memória da Presença Africana. Séculos XV–XXI. Lisboa: Marca d’Água, 2013.

Charchalis, Wojciech. Między luzotropikalizmem a luzofonią. Polityczne uwarunkowania przemian w literaturach afrykańskich języka portugalskiego. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2019.

Chmielewska, Katarzyna. „Pamięć wielokierunkowa i agoniczna a polityka pamięci”. Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały 17 (2021).

Díaz-Szmidt, Renata, red., Identidades Revisitadas, Identidades Reinventadas – transformações dos espaços sociais, políticos e culturais nos países de língua oficial portuguesa. Warszawa: Biblioteka Iberyjska, 2019.

Évora, Iolanda. „As (im) pertinências do método. Metodologia participativa e o estudo sobre a Afrodescendência em Portugal”. W: Áfricas, Américas y Caribes. Representaciones colectivas cruzadas (siglos XIX–XXI), red. Jean-Arséne Yao. Alcalá: Editorial Universidad de Alcalá, 2020.

Golemo, Karolina. „Decolonizing memory and spaces: Contemporary narratives about Portugal’s colonizing past”. Politeja 20 (2023).

Golemo, Karolina. „Lizbona afrykańska. Trudne dziedzictwo, relacje postkolonialne i międzykulturowe wyzwania”. Politeja 74, 5 (2021).

Hatton, Barry. Lizbona. Królowa mórz. Tłum. Barbara Gutowska-Nowak. Kraków: Wydawnictwo UJ, 2022.

Hatton, Barry. Os Portugueses. A história moderna de Portugal. O verdadeiro retrato de um povo único, fascinante e contraditório. Lisboa: Clube do Autor, 2011.

Lança, Marta. Memorial de Homenagem às Pessoas Escravizadas. Uma mnemónica aberta à cidade sobre a escravatura. Re-mapping Memories. https://www.re-mapping.eu/pt/lugares-de-memoria/memorial-de-homenagem-as-pessoas-escravizadas.

Łukaszyk, Ewa A. „Między litością a współodczuwaniem. O uważnym czytaniu świata, który już nie zawsze daje się uchwycić w postkolonialnych kategoriach”. Konteksty Kultury 16, 3 (2019).

Macdonald, Sharon. Memorylands. Heritage and Identity in Europe Today. New York: Routledge, 2013.

Martins, Bruno Sena, Adriano Moura. „Portugal e década internacional de afrodescendentes: a educação e os tempos da violência colonial”. Educação em Revista 34 (2018).

Miranda, Joana, Maria Isabel João, red., Identidades nacionais em debate. Oeiras: Celta, 2006.

Rothberg, Michael. Pamięć wielokierunkowa. Pamiętanie Zagłady w epoce dekolonizacji. Warszawa: Instytut Badań Literackich PAN, 2015.

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.05

In the African-American community, the memory of the slave experience, along with its artistic and ideological articulations, is continually revisited, not only in narratives and practices directly related to the past or its spectres haunting the postcolonial present but also in speculative texts that decisively imagine a fictional, yet conceivable, future. This article aims to identify, discuss and interpret Afrofuturist motifs, images and metaphors recurrent in contemporary texts, which can be effectively organised into specific sequences reflecting the transformations of the long-term cultural memory of the slave experience. These sequences include: (1) abduction, migration and exodus; (2) captivity, labour and relation of parasitism; (3) colonisation, settlement and terraforming; (4) humanity, race and otherness; and (5) knowledge, magic and technology. The article further explores how the conventional disguise of popular science fiction imagery – along with the mythology of ‘space conquest and colonisation’ and the topos of civilisational and technological progress – have become integral components of critical reflection on the social, political and cultural consequences of colonialism and slavery. The methodological
approach is a cultural analysis of Afrofuturist discourse, with particular emphasis on the opinions of those behind these narratives (artists, theoreticians and researchers), key concepts, metaphors and theories emerging from the narratives and practices of Afrofuturism.

Key words: slavery, Afrofuturism, science fiction, technology, Black Atlantic

Bibliography

Anderson, Reynaldo, Charles E. Jones, red., Afrofuturism 2.0. The Rise of Astro-Blackness. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2016.

Chude-Sokei, Louis. The Sound of Culture. Diaspora and Black Technopoetics. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2016.

Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic. Modernity and Double Consciousness. London: Verso, 1993.

Lavender III, Isiah, red., Black and Brown Planets. The Politics of Race in Science Fiction. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014.

Lavender III, Isiah. Race in American Science Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2011.

Linebaugh, Peter, Marcus Rediker. The Many-Headed Hydra. Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.

Lock, Graham. Blutopia: Visions of the Future and Revisions of the Past in the Work of Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, and Anthony Braxton. Durham: Duke University Press, 1999.

Szwed, John F. Space Is the Place. The Lives and Times of Sun Ra. New York: Da Capo, 1998.

Womack, Ytasha L. Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2013.

Youngquist, Paul. A Pure Solar World. Sun Ra and the Birth of Afrofuturism. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2016.

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.06

This article analyses the phenomenon of slavery as a metaphor for national conflict and explores how this metaphor is employed in Giuseppe Verdi’s operas Nabucco and Aida. The analysis begins with the thesis, supported by numerous researchers, that from the Middle Ages to the modern era slaves have been perceived on the Apennine Peninsula as ‘Strangers from the East’. The text proposes applying the concept of Orientalism – understood, following Edward Said, as a discourse in which Western civilisation and culture are presented as superior to the Orient – to the relations between northern and southern Italy during the country’s unification process (regional discourse), as well as between northern and southern Europe (nationalist discourse). Verdi’s works, particularly from the Risorgimento period, were interpreted by scholars (also in the 19th century) as both patriotic and nationalistic, with both operas analysed in the text undoubtedly contributing to the Italian discourse on national unification. In this discourse, slavery serves as a significant metaphor and slaves emerge as a historical symbol through which the composer and librettist explain to the contemporary European audience the political and social issues that affect them.

Key words: Verdi, slavery, opera, orientalism, Risorgimento

Bibliography

Bonazza, Giulia. Abolitionism and the Persistence of the Slavery in Italian States, 1750–1850. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

Bono, Salvatore. „Schiavi in Europa nell’età moderna. Varietà di forme e di aspetti”. W: Schiavitù e servaggio nell’economia europea secc. XI–XVIII, red. Simonetta Cavaciocchi. Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2014.

Della Seta, Fabrizio. „‘O cieli azzurri’: Exoticism and dramatic discourse in Aida”. Cambridge Opera Journal 3, 1 (1991).

Gauthier, Christopher, R. Jennifer McFarlane-Harris. „Nationalism, racial difference, and «Egyptian» meaning in Verdi’s Aida”. W: Blackness in Opera, red. Noemi André, Karen M. Bryan, Eric Saylor. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2012.

Gossett, Philip. „Becoming a citizen: The chorus in «Risorgimento» opera”. Cambridge Opera Journal 2, 1 (1990).

Gossett, Philip. „Giuseppe Verdi and the Italian Risorgimento”. Studia Musicologica 52, 1–4 (2011).

Locke, Ralph P. „A broader view of musical exoticism”. The Journal of Musicology 24, 4 (2007).

Locke, Ralph P. „Beyond the exotic: How «Eastern» is Aida?”. Cambridge Opera Journal 17, 2 (2005).

Montemorra Martin, Roberta. „The censorship of Verdi’s operas in Victorian London”. Music & Letters 82, 4 (2001).

Nabucco. Dramma lirico in quattro parti di Temistocle Solera, musica di Giuseppe Verdi. Milano: Ricordi, 1865.

Said, Edward W. Orientalizm. Tłum. Witold Kalinowski. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1991.

Scott, Derek R. „Orientalism and musical style”. The Musical Quarterly 82, 2 (1998).

Verdi, Giuseppe. Aida. Opera in quattro atti di Antonio Ghislanzoni. Milano: Ricordi, [1913].

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.07

Jakub Bojko’s political pamphlet Two Souls (1904) has recently gained attention in the discussion on Polish folk history. It is often interpreted as a metaphor for the condition of the serf, though it more accurately reflects the mentality of the peasant class following the abolition of serfdom. This article examines the context in which Two Souls was written and characterises it as a text that addresses both the history of events (‘evental history’) and the broader socio-economic changes over time, drawing on the concepts of histoire événementielle and longue durée (as articulated by Fernand Braudel). The paper reconstructs the ‘logic’ underlying Two Souls, which unfolds in three stages: (1) identifying the serf mentality; (2) recognising its persistence despite changes in legal, political and social conditions; and (3) proposing conditions and possibilities for overcoming this mentality. Bojko refers to this mindset as a ‘slave mentality’, which positions him as a precursor to the 21st-century folk history movement in Poland. The text further clarifies Bojko’s use of the term ‘slave’ and its derivatives, demonstrating that he employed the term metaphorically rather than literally.

Key words: serfdom, slavery, serf mentality, state, law

Bibliography

Bohuszewicz, Paweł. „Kultura folwarczna: długie czy krótkie trwanie?”. Barok 26, 2 (2019).

Bojko, Jakub. „Dwie dusze”. W: Jakub Bojko. Gorące słowa. Wybór pism. Red. Franciszek Ziejka. Kraków: Universitas, 2002.

Bojko, Jakub. Dwie dusze. Grudziądz: Zakłady Graficzne Wiktora Kulerskiego („Gazeta Grudziądzka”), 1922. https://kpbc.umk.pl/Content/231649/PDF/Bojko_Dwie_dusze.pdf.

Braudel, Fernand. „Historia i nauki społeczne: długie trwanie”. Tłum. Bronisław Geremek. W: Fernand Braudel. Historia i trwanie. Przedmowa Bronisław Geremek, Witold Kula. Warszawa: Czytelnik, 1971.

Chwalba, Andrzej, Wojciech Harpula. Cham i pan. A nam, prostym, zewsząd nędza?. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2022.

Kasperek, Bogusław. Jakub Bojko 1857–1943. Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS, Lublin 1998.

Pobłocki, Kacper. Chamstwo. Wołowiec: Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2021.

Rauszer, Michał. Ludowy antyklerykalizm. Nieopowiedziana historia. Kraków: Znak, 2023.

Siemek, Marek J. Hegel i filozofia. Warszawa: Oficyna Naukowa, 1998.

Ziejka, Franciszek. „Chłopski Skarga”. W: Jakub Bojko. Gorące słowa. Wybór pism. Kraków: Universitas, 2002.

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.08

This article presents an analysis of the documentary film What if the War Ends Tomorrow directed by Martyna Wojciechowska and Hanna Jewsiewicka (Poland, 2023, 54 min.), which recounts the stories of women who endured sexual slavery before the full-scale war in Ukraine. Through the use of sound, image and narration, the film evokes emotional responses from the viewer, shaping the reception and interpretation of the presented facts. The analysis is based on a descriptive method using qualitative data derived from the narratives of the persons depicted in the picture. This approach allows for an exploration of the discursive framework within which the film operates and a reflection on how it portrays the experience of sexual slavery. The study engages with concepts such as secondary victimisation and rape as a war crime. The author also examines whether the film can be seen as a tool for political intervention and how the narratives presented in this documentary influence the perception of those who have experienced sexual violence. While these stories are personal, the author highlights their embeddedness in broader political and social structures, illustrating how sexual slavery becomes a weapon of war and oppression. The documentary is argued to serve an educational purpose, presenting both individual traumas and complex historical, socio-political and cultural contexts, while also suggesting the potential for political mobilisation and the transformation of the narrative regarding sexual violence.

Key words: sexual slavery, Ukraine, documentary, trauma, secondary victimisation

Bibliography

Albright, Erin, Kate D’Adamo. „The media and human trafficking: A discussion and critique of the dominant narrative”. W: Human Trafficking Is a Public Health Issue, red. Makini Chisolm-Straker, Hanni Stoklosa. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.

Alvarez, Maria B., Edward J. Alessi. „Human trafficking is more than sex trafficking and prostitution: Implications for social work”. Affilia 27, 2 (2012).

Andrijasevic, Rutvica, Nicola Mai. „Trafficking (in) representations: Understanding the recurring appeal of victimhood and slavery in neoliberal times”. Anti-Trafficking Review 7 (2016).

Dryjanska, Laura. „Objectification of trafficked women and the general public: An ontological humanization?”. Papers on Social Representations 26, 1 (2017).

Gasztold Aleksandra, Kornela Oblińska. „Przemoc seksualna związana z konfliktem (CRSV) w wojnie rosyjsko-ukraińskiej”. Studia Polityczne 50, 4 (2022).

Johnston, Anne, Barbara Friedman, Autumn Shafer. „Framing the problem of sex trafficking: Whose problem? What remedy?”. Feminist Media Studies 14, 3 (2014).

Kyckelhahn, Tracey, Allen J. Beck, Thomas H. Cohen. Characteristics of suspected human trafficking incidents 2007–2008. Bureau of Justice Statistics special report. Washington DC: Department of Justice, 2009.

Majic, Samantha. „Beyond ‘victim-criminals’: Sex workers, nonprofit organizations, and gender ideologies”. Gender & Society 28, 3 (2014).

McCarthy, Lauren A. „Human trafficking and the new slavery”. Annual Review of Law and Social Science 10 (2014).

Penley, Constance. „Crackers and whackers: The white trashing of porn”. W: Porn Studies, red. Linda Williams. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004.

Plummer, Ken. Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change and Social Worlds. London: Routledge, 1994.

Raymond, Janice G. Not a Choice, Not a Job: Exposing the Myths about Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade. Washington DC: Potomac Books, 2013.

Sontag, Susan. Widok cudzego cierpienia. Tłum. Sławomir Magala. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Karakter, 2023.

Vasiljevic, Milica, G. Tendayi Viki. „Dehumanization, moral disengagement, and public attitudes to crime and punishment”. W: Humanness and Dehumanization, red. Paul G. Bain, Jeroen Vaes, Jacques-Philippe Leyens. Hove: Psychology Press, 2013.

Williams, Linda. „‘White slavery’ versus the ethnography of ‘sexworkers’: Women in stag films at the Kinsey Archive”. The Moving Image 5, 2 (2005).

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.09

This article seeks to reconstruct the specificity of contemporary social conflicts in the political dimension of the public sphere, framing them as cultural conflicts that involve the exercise of symbolic power through the establishment of specific forms of collective identification. The erosion of the rational dimension in the public sphere as a space for alleviating social tensions and antagonisms is discussed. The cultural dimension of contemporary social conflicts is analysed in terms of the structural impediments to the intersubjective process of the consensual negotiation of meaning. The problem of the symbolic domination, which undermines the key principles of public order and civil society, is interpreted as a fundamental ontological conflict – the rejection of differing ways for defining reality and, consequently, the loss of a rational basis for social dialogue. The analysis draws on Jürgen Habermas’s normative theory of the public sphere and the Hegelian Master–Slave dialectic as a metaphor for the battle for recognition and the conflict of identity claims. The article also presents an ideologically neutral framework for understanding contemporary struggles for recognition, suggesting that it could offer a normative horizon for mitigating radical social conflicts.

Key words: symbolic power, cultural wars, identity politics, struggle for recognition

Bibliography

Alexander, Jeffrey C. „Obywatel i wróg jako symboliczna klasyfikacja: o polaryzującym dyskursie społeczeństwa obywatelskiego”. W: Znaczenia społeczne. Studia z socjologii kulturowej. Tłum. Stanisław Burdziej, Jacek Gądecki. Kraków: Zakład Wydawniczy Nomos, 2010.

Bourdieu, Pierre, Jean-Claude Passeron. Reprodukcja. Tłum. Elżbieta Neyman. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2012.

Habermas, Jürgen. Faktyczność i obowiązywanie. Teoria dyskursu wobec zagadnień prawa i demokratycznego państwa prawnego. Tłum. Adam Romaniuk, Robert Marszałek. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2005.

Habermas, Jürgen. Kultur und Kritik. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1973.

Habermas, Jürgen. Strukturalne przeobrażenia sfery publicznej. Tłum. Wanda Lipnik, Małgorzata Łukasiewicz. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2007.

Habermas, Jürgen. Teoria działania komunikacyjnego. T. I: Racjonalność działania a racjonalność społeczna. Tłum. Andrzej M. Kaniowski. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 1999.

Habermas, Jürgen. Teoria działania komunikacyjnego. T. II: Przyczynek do krytyki rozumu funkcjonalnego. Tłum. Andrzej M. Kaniowski. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2002.

Hegel, Georg W.F. Fenomenologia ducha. Tłum. Światosław F. Nowicki. Warszawa: Fundacja Aletheia, 2010.

Honneth, Axel. Walka o uznanie. Moralna gramatyka konfliktów społecznych. Tłum. Jakub Duraj. Kraków: Zakład Wydawniczy Nomos, 2012.

Hunter, James D. Cultural Wars. The Struggle to Define America. New York: Basic Books, 1991.

Kołakowski, Leszek. „Etyka bez kodeksu”. W: Kultura i fetysze. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2009.

Leder, Andrzej. Prześniona rewolucja: ćwiczenie z logiki historycznej. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, 2014.

Markowski, Michał P. Wojny nowoczesnych plemion. Spór o rzeczywistość w epoce populizmu. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Karakter, 2019.

Mouffe, Chantal. Agonistyka. Polityczne myślenie o świecie. Tłum. Barbara Szelewa. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, 2015.

Rawls, John. Liberalizm polityczny. Tłum. Adam Romaniuk. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 1998.

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.10

The aim of this article is to present Roger Casement, who at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was regarded as an icon of the movement advocating for indigenous peoples’ rights and the fight against colonial enslavement. The introduction outlines his early contacts with Africa, followed by an account of his report documenting the crimes committed by the Belgians in the Congo. The subsequent section focuses on his second report, which exposed the scale of slavery on rubber plantations in Putumayo. Casement’s involvement in the cultural and socio-political emancipation of Ireland, as well as his collaboration with Germany during the First World War is also discussed. The paper further details the tragic circumstances surrounding his death, including the trial during which – following a media campaign orchestrated by British services – Casement was portrayed not only as a traitor to the Empire but also as a homosexual, a pimp and a paedophile. Finally, the text examines Casement’s multidimensional legacy in the social memory of his compatriots, as well as his reception among contemporary scholars in the fields of slavery studies, genocide studies, subaltern studies and queer studies.

Key words: Roger Casement, Congo, Putumayo, Ireland, slavery

Bibliography

Casement, Roger. „Correspondence and Report from His Majesty’s Consul at Boma respecting the Administration of the Independent State of the Congo”. House of Commons, Sessional Papers, 2 lutego – 15 sierpnia 1904.

Casement, Roger. „Correspondence respecting the Treatment of British Colonial Subjects and Native Indians employed in the Collection of Rubber in the Putumayo District”. House of Commons Sessional Papers, 14 lutego 1912 – 7 marca 1913.

Casement, Roger. The Crime against Europe. The Causes of the War and the Foundations of Peace. Berlin: The Continental Times, 1915.

Hawkins, Hunt. „Joseph Conrad, Roger Casement, and the Congo Reform Movement”. Journal of Modern Literature 9, 1 (1981–1982).

Hochschild, Adam. Duch króla Leopolda. Opowieść o chciwości, terrorze i bohaterstwie w kolonialnej Afryce. Tłum. Piotr Tarczyński. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Świat Książki, 2012.

Inglis, Brian. Roger Casement. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1974.

Kiernan, Ben. „From Irish Famine to Congo reform: Nineteenth-century roots of international human rights law and activism”. W: Confronting Genocide, red. René Provost, Payam Akhavan. New York: Springer, 2011.

Louis, William R. „Casement and the Congo”. The Journal of African History 5, 1 (1964).

McDiarmid, Lucy. „The posthumous life of Roger Casement”. W: Gender and Sexuality in Modern Ireland, red. Anthony Bradley, Maryann G. Valiulis. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1997.

Mitchell, Angus, red., The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement. London: Anaconda Edition, 1997.

Ó Síocháin, Séamas. „‘More power to the Indians’. Roger Casement, the Putumayo, and indigenous rights”. Irish Journal of Anthropology 14, 2 (2011).

Ó Síocháin, Séamas. Roger Casement: Imperialist, Rebel, Revolutionary. Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2008.

Taussig, Michael. „Culture of terror – space of death. Roger Casement’s Putumayo Report and the explanation of torture”. Comparative Studies in Society and History 26, 3 (1984).

Vargas Llosa, Mario. Marzenie Celta. Tłum. Marzena Chrobak. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Znak, 2011.

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.11

This article examines Louisiana plantation museums as tourist attractions from a postcolonial perspective, analysing the narratives presented to visitors through the lens of the enslaved and their experiences. Drawing on texts from scholars who have personally participated in tours of various plantation museums, as well as the museums’ online promotional materials, the author explores the extent to which the perspective of enslaved individuals is incorporated – or, more often, neglected – in what is presented to tourists. Many museums offer a nostalgic portrayal of plantation life, reminiscent of Gone with the Wind, which appeals to certain segments of American society, particularly the political right. The romanticised narrative often omits the troubling legacy of slavery. The paper contrasts the narrative at Houmas House Plantation, which largely ignores the history of slavery, with those at Oak Alley Plantation and Whitney Plantation, which progressively are integrating the perspective of the enslaved. In light of these transformations – or resistance to them – the article poses key research questions. How does the tourist experience of plantation museums change when a postcolonial perspective is adopted? How can the postcolonial narrative be conveyed in the most socially responsible way?

Key words: slavery, tourism, United States, postcolonial analysis

Bibliography

Banaszkiewicz, Magdalena. „Tanatoturystyka: doświadczenie, pamięć, etyka”. Politeja 12, 25 (2015).

Bardes, John. Plantation slavery in antebellum Louisiana. 64 Parishes, 30 stycznia 2023. https://64parishes.org/entry/plantation-slavery-in-antebellum-louisiana.

Binczycka-Gacek, Elżbieta. „Turystyka trudnego dziedzictwa: przypadek Africatown po odnalezieniu wraku ostatniego statku niewolniczego Clotilda”. Turystyka Kulturowa 128, 3 (2023).

Castellón, Idna G. „Cancer Alley and the fight against environmental racism”. Villanova Environmental Law Journal 32, 1 (2021).

Enelow-Snyder, Sarah. An ethical guide to plantation tours. Condé Nast Traveler, 10 maja 2021. https://www.cntraveler.com/story/an-ethical-guide-to-plantation-tours.

Gandhi, Leela. Teoria postkolonialna. Krytyczne wprowadzenie. Tłum. Jacek Serwański. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, 2008.

Harnay, Melaine. „Slavery and plantation tourism in Louisiana: Deconstructing the romanticized narrative of the plantation tours”. Mondes du tourisme 21 (2022).

Houmas House. https://houmashouse.com.

James, Wesley, Jia Chunrong, Kedia Satish. „Uneven magnitude of disparities in cancer risks from air toxics”. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 9, 12 (2012).

McKercher, Bob, Aaron Yankholmes. „Rethinking slavery heritage tourism”. Journal of Heritage Tourism 10, 3 (2015).

Oak Alley Plantation. https://oakalleyplantation.org/.

Rapson, Jessica K. „Refining memory: Sugar, oil and plantation tourism on Louisiana’s River Road”. Memory Studies 13, 4 (2020).

Shrider, Em. Poverty Rate for the Black Population Fell Below Pre-Pandemic Levels. Census, 12 września 2023. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/09/black-poverty-rate.html.

Stone, Philip. „A dark tourism spectrum: towards a typology of death and macabre related tourist sites, attractions and exhibitions”. TOURISM: An Interdisciplinary International Journal 54, 2 (2006).

Whitney Plantation. https://whitneyplantation.org.

Younes, Lylla, Al Shaw, Claire Perlman. In a notoriously polluted area of the country, massive new chemical plants are still moving in. ProPublica, 30 października 2019. https://projects. propublica.org/louisiana-toxic-air/.

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.12

This article explores how a comparative approach to literary and cultural studies can advance the field of postcolonial and revisionist studies. The analysis begins with the recognition of deficiencies in colonial archives and a reflection on the historical value of the documents and testimonies they contain, while acknowledging their (ongoing) influence on contemporary knowledge of the colonial and pre-colonial past. This influence is particularly evident in the ontological perception of slavery and its essentialist interpretation. The paper critiques this limited understanding by highlighting incongruous evidence of cultural and identity resistance, as well as the strategies of rebellion, escape and survival employed by enslaved Africans and Caribbeans. Through a multi source analysis of Caribbean oral literature, the study demonstrates how the artistic realm of the spoken word enabled the preservation of a sense of freedom, even in the face of colonial violence and European administrative control. The key interpretative tool is the concept of the trace, as articulated by Édouard Glissant. This concept sheds light on the unique workings of memory – its selectivity, transformative nature and the necessity for researchers to complement archival gaps with grassroots and literary sources.

Key words: postcolonialism, archive, slavery, Caribbean literature, oral literature

Bibliography

Bieżuńska-Małowist, Iza, Marian Małowist. Niewolnictwo. Warszawa: Czytelnik, 1987.

Chamoiseau, Patrick. Le conteur, la nuit et le panier. Paris: Seuil, 2021.

Chivallon, Christine. „Between history and its trace: slavery and the Caribbean archive”. Social Anthropology / Anthropologie Sociale 24, 1 (2016).

Domańska, Ewa. „Dekonstruktywistyczne podejście do przeszłości”. Historyka. Studia Metodologiczne 50 (2020).

Engmann, Rachel Asaa Ama. „Slaving and slave trading in Africa”. Annual Review of Anthropology 52 (2023).

Glissant, Édouard. Poétique IV: Traité du Tout-Monde. Paris: Gallimard, 1997.

Hazaël-Massieux, Marie-Christine. „Y a-t-il des représentations de l’esclavage dans la littérature orale créole des Antilles?”. W: Esclavage et abolitions. Mémoires et systèmes de représentation, red. Marie-Christine Rochmann. Paris: Karthala, 2000.

Lowry, James. „Introduction. Displaced archives”. W: Displaced Archives, red. James Lowry. New York: Routledge, 2017.

Mrowińska, Agata. „Potrzeba opowiadania. O językowym tworzeniu historii, etyki i tożsamości w karaibskiej oraliturze”. W: Religia, historia i przyszłość w kulturze afrokaraibskiej, red. Jakub Bohuszewicz, Dariusz Brzostek. Kraków: Wydawnictwo UJ, 2022.

Porra, Véronique. „Des lieux d’oubli à l’hypermnésie: remarques sur la gestion mémorielle postcoloniale dans l’espace francophone”. W: Les lieux d’oubli de la Francophonie, red. Danielle Dumontet, Véronique Porra, Kerstin Kloster, Thorsten Schüller. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2015.

Sajewska, Dorota. „Perspektywy peryferyjnej historii i teorii kultury”. Didaskalia. Gazeta Teatralna 156 (2020).

Taylor, Eric R. If We Must Die: Shipboard Insurrections in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006.

Vété-Congolo, Hanétha. „Caribbean interorality: A brief introduction”. W: The Caribbean Oral Tradition. Literature, Performance, and Practice, red. Hanétha Vété-Congolo. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

Vété-Congolo, Hanétha. Interoralité caribéenne: le mot conté de l’identité. Saint-Denis: Connaissances & Savoirs, 2016.

Williams, Eric. Capitalism & Slavery. Richmond: The University of North Carolina Press, 1945.

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.13

One of the least explored and reflected upon aspects of the Nazi occupation of Polish lands, particularly in the area known as the General Governorate Warsaw (German: Generalgouvernement Warschau), is the German authorities’ approach to the aquatic environment. To date, the most comprehensive contributions to the Polish academic literature on this subject have been made by Józef Marszałek in Obozy pracy w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie w latach 1939–1945 [‘Labor camps in the General Governorate in 1939–1945’] (1998) and Czesław Pilichowski in Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939–1945. Informator encyklopedyczny [‘Nazi camps in Polish territories 1939–1945. Encyclopaedical reference book’] (1979). However, these foundational studies are primarily lexicon-like in nature, offering limited in-depth analysis of the regulatory and drainage works in the Vistula River basin, which were significantly expanded under the General Governorate, using the forced labour of thousands of oppressed people. This article aims to: (1) highlight the role of forced labour in water management camps in shaping the aquatic space; (2) critique the inadequacy of the term ‘slavery’ when applied to the Nazi exploitation of populations in the General Governorate; and (3) propose the term ‘enslavement of space’ as a more appropriate description of how the German occupiers managed land and water resources in the occupied territories.

Key words: forced labor, Holocaust, hydropolitics, genocide, ecocide

Bibliography

Blackbourn, David. The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.

Johnson, Walter. River of Dark Dreams. Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom. London: Harvard University Press, 2013.

Jurkiewicz, Ewa. Sprawozdanie z przeprowadzonego śledztwa w sprawie OKL/Ds. 249/67, dotyczącej obozu pracy dla ludności żydowskiej w Ossowie, pow. Włodawa, akta IPN.

Jurkiewicz, Ewa. Sprawozdanie z przeprowadzonego śledztwa w sprawie OKL/Ds. 391/67, dotyczącej obozu pracy dla ludności żydowskiej w Kłodzie Dużej, pow. Biała Podlaska, akta IPN.

Juszczyk, Włodzimierz. „Przepływ ryb przez turbiny Zapory Rożnowskiej”. Roczniki Nauk Rolniczych 57 (1951).

Kucharczyk, Grzegorz. III Rzesza Niemiecka. Nowoczesność i nienawiść. Warszawa: Biały Kruk, 2022.

Łotysz, Sławomir. Pińskie błota. Natura, wiedza i polityka na polskim Polesiu do 1945 roku. Kraków: Universitas, 2022.

Marszałek, Józef. Obozy pracy w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie w latach 1939–1945. Lublin: Państwowe Muzeum na Majdanku, 1998.

Parenti, Christian. „Tworzenie środowiska w epoce kapitałocenu: ekologia polityczna państwa”. W: Antropocen czy kapitałocen? Natura, historia i kryzys kapitalizmu, red. Jason W. Moore. Tłum. Krzysztof Hoffmann, Patryk Szaj, Weronika Szwebs. Poznań: Wojewódzka Biblioteka Publiczna i Centrum Animacji Kultury, 2021.

Perechodnik, Calek. Spowiedź. Oprac. David Engel. Warszawa: Ośrodek Karta, 2018.

Pilichowski, Czesław, red., Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939–1945. Informator encyklopedyczny. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1979.

Rojtafel, Israel. „In lager Osowa”. W: Sejfer Kock = Sefer zikaron li-kehilat Kock, red. Elijahu Porat. Tłum. Alicja Gontarek. Tel Awiw: Irgun Jocej Kock be-Israel be-ezrat Irgun Jocej be-Argentina u-we-Carefat, 1961. https://kozirynek.online/blog/2019/06/16/niemiecki-oboz--pracy-dla-zydow-w-ossowie/.

Sloterdijk, Peter. Co się zdarzyło w XX wieku?. Tłum. Bogdan Baran. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Aletheia, 2021.

Snyder, Timothy D. Czarna ziemia. Holokaust jako ostrzeżenie. Tłum. Bartłomiej Pietrzyk. Kraków: Znak Horyzont, 2015.

Sofsky, Wolfgang. Ustrój terroru: obóz koncentracyjny. Tłum. Małgorzata Łukasiewicz. Warszawa: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma, 2016.

Węgrzynek, Zbigniew. „Nazistowski obóz pracy przymusowej w Wildze 1941–1944”. Zeszyty Historyczne Ziemi Garwolińskiej 17 (2011).

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.14

This article analyses the cooperative board game Freedom: The Underground Railroad, in which players assume the roles of abolitionists helping enslaved people escape from plantations. The game’s mechanics and narrative are first described, followed by an examination of the broader context in which the game was created, particularly how colonialism is addressed in contemporary games of this type. Comparisons are drawn to other productions, which depict colonialism in a positive light, highlighting that Freedom aims to critically engage with these themes. The next section delves into the game mechanics and its portrayal of enslaved African Americans, assessing how the game reflects historical narratives about the Underground Railroad and the denial of enslaved people’s subjectivity. This analysis critiques the creators’ subversive intentions, revealing that Freedom ultimately reinforces a hegemonic narrative that centres on white abolitionists, further marginalising the voices of the enslaved. The final part of the text explores the biopolitical and necropolitical aspects of the game, drawing on the ideas of Achille Mbembe. It reflects on how deeply embedded cultural representations of slavery continue to be shaped from this perspective.

Key words: slavery, board games, biopolitics, necropolitics, Underground Railroad

Bibliography

Agamben, Giorgio. Homo sacer. Suwerenna władza i nagie życie. Tłum. Mateusz Salwa. Warszawa: Prószyński i s-ka, 2008.

Booth, Paul. Board Games as Media. New York: Bloomsbury, 2021.

Fernández Morgade, Manuela. The Underground Railroad in history and fiction. Universidade de Santiago de Compostella, 2020–2021. https://minerva.usc.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10347/27473/1/GLLI_-_Fern%C3%A1ndez_Morgade%2C_Manuela%5B1%5D.pdf.

Flanagan, Mary, Mikael Jakobsson. Playing Oppression. The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games. London: The MIT Press, 2023.

Harris, Christopher, Patricia Harris. Teaching the Underground Railroad through Play. New York: Rosen, 2015.

Hudson, J. Blaine. Encyclopedia of Underground Railroad. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2006.

Matsey, David. „Slave play, or the imperial logic of board game narrative”. Caribbean Quaterly 65, 3 (2019).

Mayer, Brian. Freedom. The Underground Railroad. Academy Games, 2013.

Mbembe, Achille. Necropolitics. Tłum. Steven Corcoran. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019.

Mukherjee, Souvik. Videogames and Postcolonialism. Empire Plays Back. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

Robinson, Will. „Orientalism and abstraction in eurogames”. Analog Games Studies, 2 grudnia 2014. https://analoggamestudies.org/2014/12/orientalism-and-abstraction-in-eurogames/.

Sterczewski, Piotr. „Czytanie gry. O proceduralnej retoryce jako metodzie analizy ideologicznej gier komputerowych”. Teksty Drugie 138, 6 (2012).

Sterczewski, Piotr. „This uprising of mine. Game conventions, cultural memory and civilian experience of war in Polish games”. Games Studies 16, 2 (2016). https://gamestudies.org/1602/articles/sterczewski.

Taylor, Jack. „Slavery and biopolitics. Douglass’s My Bondage and My Freedom as biopolitical theory”. Interdisciplinary Literary Studies 20, 1 (2018).

Woods, Stewart. Eurogames. The Design Culture and Play of Modern European Boardgames. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2012.

doi.org/10.26112/kw.2024.128.15