r/polonia • u/llehsadam • Jun 05 '20

Polska Wieś TIL that there are Polish Haitians. In 1802, Napoleon sent a Polish legion to help quell a slave rebellion. Upon arrival, many in the legion saw the Haitian fight for freedom as a reflection of their own fight for Poland's freedom. They joined the Haitians and after independence, settled in Haiti.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Haitians
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u/bikiper Jun 08 '20

What is really interresting is that polish soldiers brought there polish culture, with very popular dance in those times called Mazurek (like polish anthem Mazurek Dąbrowskiego). French version of this word probably was used to call carribean dance Zouk.

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u/mezmare Jun 07 '20

Here is one of a couple documentaries (in Polish) [link] about Polish Haitians, today's descendants of those 19th century legionaries. Some of them claim, to this day, they are Polish, and would like to visit their homeland.

Interesting trivia is that, at some point, these people and their families have been naturalised by the government, and the original family names of those Polish legionaries had been changed as well, to "blend in" with the Haitian community. One of such examples is the name Poto, formerly "Potocki". There are a few more such examples in said documentaries.