Hic sunt leones. Analiza percepcji przestrzeni Afryki we wspomnieniach Polaków

The aim of the article is to analyse the perception of sub-Saharan Africa according to the testimonies of Poles between 1945 and 1989. At the beginning the planetary consciousness – a Eurocentric idea conceptualised by Mary Louise Pratt – was described. After that the different mechanisms of the exotisation of the territory of Africa and its inhabitants were presented. In the last part of the article the gated communities constructed by Polish expatriates were described as an example of the limitation of the acculturation process.