Cemetery in Polish settlement in Ngesi, Zimbabwe

In 2021, thanks to the help of local residents, in Ngesi, Zimbabwe, Polish scouts managed to find the ruins of a Polish hospital, chapel, bar and theater. They also found the site where the Polish church used to stand. Houses from the settlement of Polish refugees are still preserved in Ngesi, located 150km away from Zimbabwe's capital Harare.
About eighteen thousand Polish refugees were sent to Africa during World War II; their fate is linked to the story of the formation of General Anders' Army. These were Polish families deported at the beginning of World War II by the authorities of the USSR from the eastern lands of the former Second Polish Republic deep into Russia. Of the approximately one hundred and forty thousand deportees, many managed to join Gen. Anders' army, which was being formed from 1942, while others, including some 18,000 children, made their way to the Middle East together with the army when it evacuated to Iran. From the camps in Iran, those who did not join the Army were sent to India, Mexico and even New Zealand. About 18,000 were sent to settlements in the British colonies in Africa: to Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania (then Tanganyika) and Uganda.
They were sent to settlements built for them specially; the largest was in Tengeru in today's Tanzania, in the Kilimanjaro Massif. These settlements had schools, hospitals and chapels, theaters, sports teams, newspapers and radio stations. In the memories of many Polish refugees who ended up in Africa as children, it was a happy, carefree time.
In 1947 a decision was made to close these settlements. Poles were to be repatriated to their homeland, some people emigrated to other countries. What remains of more than twenty settlements of Polish refugees in Africa are just a few buildings and cemeteries.

Projects of POLONIKA Institute
2021-2022 - Grant Program VOLUNTEERS - tyding up and documentation of the cemeteries in old Polish settlements in Zimbabwe