A Wartime Settlement at Nyabyeya
By August 1942 the war had brought an unlikely community to Nyabyeya, a few miles from Masindi Hotel. Polish families deported to the Soviet Union, released after the amnesty of 1941, were carried out through Iran and East Africa and settled here in their thousands.
How They Arrived
Following the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement of 1941, Poles released from Soviet labour camps were evacuated through Iran alongside the army being formed under General Władysław Anders. Civilians among them were dispersed to British colonies, including Uganda.
Life at the Settlement
Nyabyeya was a town in its own right. By December 1944 it held 6,435 people, with its own schools, scout troops and a theatre. The families who lived there built the church that still stands.
After 1947
The settlement closed in 1947. Most of its people moved on to Britain rather than a Poland now under communist rule, and the community at Nyabyeya dispersed. The church remains, and the Sybir Memorial Museum's exhibition on this history now travels to Masindi Hotel.
Visiting
The church is at Nyabyeya, about twenty kilometres from Masindi. Masindi itself is roughly three and a half hours by road from Kampala, and local guides can direct visitors on from the hotel.
Related reading: the fuller account, with sources, is on our Legacy page.