The Polonia Mission Station in the Transvaal Republic (1885-1914) as Covered in the Press of the Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of Poland

Abstract

“Take up the White Man’s burden...,” these words from of the well-known poem by Rudyard Kipling created a specific ideological banner wielded by the 19th-century colonial states. However, it is common property that the reality was far from the idea of service espoused by the poet, and the European empires did not “send forth the best ye breed” to attend to the needs of indigenous peoples.

In that reality, particularly noteworthy were the attitudes of individuals who, somewhat contrary to the contemporary mindset, sought to recognise the subjectivity of indigenous tribes and communities and wished to encourage them to change rather than imposing anything. Some of such individuals were the founders and staff of the Polonia Mission Station operated as a splinter of cooperation between the Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of Poland and the Hermannsburg Mission. The facility was located in South Africa, 30 km northwest of Pretoria, and operated thanks to contributions from the faithful. This initiative of the relatively small Lutheran community in the Polish territory under the Russian rule remains almost unknown.