Polish preschool’s blackface performance provokes controversy

A performance in which white members of staff at a preschool danced in blackface has provoked controversy in Poland. It revived a long-running debate about representations of race in Polish language and culture, drawing contrasting opinions from a government minister and opposition MP.

The event took pace in Kępno, a town of 15,000, to mark Children’s Day, which is widely celebrated in Poland each year on 1 June. It featured employees of a local preschool, half of whom wore black make up and “afro” wigs.

The performers, appearing in front of a jungle-style background, danced and sang, and one spoke in a mock “African” language that involved simply saying the sound “gool” repeatedly. A video uploaded to YouTube by local media outlet Radio SUD has so far amassed almost 100,000 views.

The costumes and setting were chosen because the staff were performing a classic Polish children’s poem Murzynek Bambo (which translates roughly as “Little Black Child Bambo”). The work, published by Polish-Jewish author Julian Tuwim in 1934, is about an African boy called Bambo.

The poem has in recent years divided opinion. Some argue that its message is intended to show that a black African child was no different to his white Polish counterparts, but others believe it perpetuates demeaning stereotypes.

The term “Murzyn” itself has also prompted growing debate. For many Poles, it is a neutral term to refer to black people, but many others – including some members of Poland’s black community – argue that it has become an offensive term.

The video of the Kępno preschool’s performance has proved similarly divisive, with the term “Murzynek Bambo” trending on Twitter in Poland this afternoon. Though comments are disabled on the YouTube video, a large number appeared on Radio SUD’s Facebook page, reports Onet.

Many were negative, with one user calling the performers’ behaviour “harmful and offensive” and another declaring it an “embarrassment”. Others, however, argued that the controversy was a “storm in a teacup”, with one saying “soon it won’t be possible to wear black t-shirts, because racism”.

Some Poles argue that, while blackface performances may be offensive in countries with a history of racial injustice and minstrel shows, in Poland, which was not involved in African colonisation or the slave trade, such displays are not racist.

Maciej Gdula, a sociologist and MP from The Left (Lewica), Poland’s second largest opposition group, condemned the performance, telling the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that it was “saturated with joyful racism”.

He called for Murzynek Bambo to be removed from school reading lists – or at least be “talked about critically” by teachers – because it perpetuates stereotypes and because the word “Murzyn” is itself problematic.

Earlier this year, Gdula also criticised another classic of Polish literature – young adult novel In Desert and Wilderness by Henryk Sienkiewicz, which is set in Africa – for using “not only racist language, for example ‘murzyn’, but also racist clichés about black people”.

His demands were, however, rejected by Tomasz Rzymkowski, a deputy education minister in Poland’s national-conservative government. “[The poem] was not then and should not today be treated as racist,” he told PAP.

“On the contrary, [it should be treated] as pleasant, warm, because every citizen educated in Poland knows Murzynek Bambo, where it is said that he is our friend,” Rzymkowski added.

“If we adopted Professor Gdula’s…very primitive and shallow view of literature…one dreads to think what works from the Polish canon would remain,” warned the deputy minister.

Main image credit: radiosud.pl/YouTube (screenshot)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.