Relacje Międzykulturowe – Intercultural Relations (RMIR) is an open-access, semi-annual, peer-reviewed journal publishing articles in English and Polish. In spring each year, a volume is published in Polish, and in autumn, it is published in English. It serves as an interdisciplinary forum for academic scholars and professionals to present the latest theoretical and empirical advancements of various issues related to intercultural relations. The journal publishes, among others, papers on issues such as cultural studies, ethnic and minority-majority relations, migration and intercultural contact, intercultural psychology and pedagogy, globalization and integration processes, multicultural societies, and politics.
CLIMATE BIENNALE VIENNA 2024: THE FESTIVAL’S FIRST EDITION THROUGH A PHYTOFEMINIST LENS This article examines the first edition of Climate Biennale Vienna from the perspective of phytofeminism – a concept that brings together feminist viewpoints, sensibilities, and practices with the rapidly developing fields of vegetal humanities/critical plant studies, in the spirit of critical ecofeminism focused specifically on the world of plants. The analysis addresses selected curatorial practices and works by women artists that investigate the relationships of individuals or entire communities with ecosystems, primarily with the plant life that shapes them. These practices explore the similarities linking bodily and social experiences with the domains and characteristics of plant life; they draw attention to a range of practices situated at the intersection of nature and culture; they discuss stereotypes and metaphors (such as vitality, passivity, or forms of resistance); and they draw inspiration from plant processes in everyday life and in art – among others in photography and film, textile art, installations, and traditional painting. Furthermore, they expose abuses in human-plant relations and promote engagement in awareness and protection of the plant world through its decolonization and the restoration of balanced, relational bonds with it.
Copyright (c) 2026 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
ECO-NARRATIVES AND ECO-INTERVENTIONS: THE HIM DUB FESTIVAL IN RAPOULA DO CÔA The text examines the HIM DUB festival, dedicated to reggae and dub music as well as soundsystem culture. Held since 2022 several years in the Portuguese village of Rapoula do Côa, the event weaves together music, nature, and Rastafarian spirituality, maintaining a strong connection to the local ecosystem. The organizers promote the festival through econarratives, both symbolically and through participatory practices embedded in the event itself. Yet the implementation of ecological ideals is accompanied by tensions: aspirations toward sustainability and harmony with nature – central to dub and reggae culture – do not eliminate the risk of exploiting the riverside environment. The author offers a critical analysis of the dynamics between ecological ideas and their practical enactment, revealing the ambivalent character of contemporary forms of ecoengagement.
Cyberpunkowa wizja świata – jawa czy sen?
A CYBERPUNK VISION OF THE WORLD – WAKING OR SLEEPING? This article aims to familiarize the reader with the origins and characteristics of cyberpunk, with a particular attention paid to eco-narratives found within it, which can be perceived as a form of warning. In order to illustrate how these narratives address ecological and climate issues, selected examples from the world of the game Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red 2020) and a 2023 expansion Phantom Liberty are cited. Simultaneously, the text aims to encourage the reader to reflect on the message hidden within cyberpunk cultural texts, as well as the condition of the surrounding world.
A HUMAN (MAN) TOWARDS THE COLONIALISM OF ANTS: ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN AND ANIMAL WORLDS IN TRẦN DUY PHIÊN’S SHORT STORIES IN THE LIGHT OF SYLVIA WYNTER’S THEORY OF A HUMAN AS A NARRATIVE BEING This text provides an interpretation of the environmental narratives of Vietnamese author Trần Duy Phiên through the lens of Sylvia Wynter’s counter-humanism project and Denise Ferreira da Silva’s critique of modern subjectivity. The stories by Trần Duy Phiên titled Ants and Humans (Kiến và người, 1989), Termites and Humans (Mối và người, 1992), and Spider and Human (Nhện và người, 2012) express a shift towards environmental narratives and ecocriticism in Vietnamese literature during the reforms of the Đổi Mới era, aimed at integrating Vietnam into the global liberal economy. By situating these stories within the context of Đổi Mới transformations, the text indicates the adaptation of elements of internal colonialism in articulations of identity in Vietnam for the sake of governmental policies supporting settlements in forested highlands. Reading Trần Duy Phiên’s texts in the context of local politics and the global hegemony of human concepts derived from Western colonialism aims to highlight the potential of environmental narratives for the re-articulation of intercultural solidarity in the face of planetary climate changes, as well as the need to reconsider the relationship between human beings and the natural environment.
Wizualne i narracyjne przedstawienie katastrofy klimatycznej w kinie katastroficznym na podstawie filmu Interstellar
VISUAL AND NARRATIVE REPRESENTATION OF CLIMATE DISASTER IN DISASTER FILM BASED ON CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S INTERSTELLAR Disaster film is a genre focusing on picturing a catastrophe or a tragedy. Often pursued subject is a climate disaster, in which the changes in the environment create unstable, dangerous living conditions. By using a visual medium, disaster film creates an image of an environmental disaster, and shapes the public perception of this phenomenon, building narration in a way that enables the interpretation of real or possible events. It performs an entertainment function, while also acting as an educational tool and building environmental awareness in society. An example of such movie is Interstellar (2014), directed by Christopher Nolan. In this article, based on selected fragments, it gets interpreted in order to answer a question: How does disaster film create a social perception of a climate crisis and what interpretations does it propose to the audience?
Chrześcijaństwo wobec relacji między człowiekiem a zwierzętami
CHRISTIANITY TOWARDS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAN AND ANIMALS: THE “ECOLOGY” OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI Christianity and philosophy, as foundations of European culture, have for centuries shaped – and continue to shape – the attitudes of Europeans. The issue of relation between man and the natural world have been present both in philosophical concepts and in the books of the Old and New Testaments. Authorities have also played a significant role in the formation of the Christian worldview, among whom Saint Francis of Assisi occupies an important place. The primary sources expressing his spirituality include the medieval works The Little Flowers of Saint Francis and The Canticle of the Creatures which are analyzed taking into account eco-narrative context. Franciscan reflections on the relationship between humans and animals have inspired many contemporary theologians and environmentalists, and St. Francis himself is called the precursor of modern ecology and eco-ethics. The aim of the article is to look at Franciscan spirituality (both medieval and contemporary) from the perspective of contemporary eco-criticism.
Estetyczna cisza szumu morskich fal, czyli o utracie źródłowego doświadczenia
THE AESTHETIC SILENCE OF THE SOUND OF SEA WAVES: ON THE LOSS OF ORIGINARY EXPERIENCE The article presents the history of the formation of aesthetics as a philosophical discipline from the perspective of the relationship between human beings, art, and nature. As a theory of sensory cognition, this discipline emerged from a primordial and embodied experience of the external world. Kant’s concepts of beauty and the sublime, still in the Critique of Judgment, referred to the subject’s response to objects and phenomena of the natural world; however, in the philosophies of Schiller and Hegel they were narrowed to works of art alone, understood as products of artistic practice. Although nature did not disappear entirely from the field of aesthetic inquiry, it was drastically marginalized. The modern program of aesthetics thus identified the aesthetic with the artistic, rendering the experience of the natural world secondary to the experience of art. This process was met with criticism in the mid-twentieth century by Theodor W. Adorno, who undertook – ultimately without bringing it to completion – an attempt to restore significance to the experience of nature.
Recenzja książki Susanny Kwan Awake in the Floating City
Czy Zły Króliczek może uratować ropuchę?
CAN BAD BUNNY SAVE THE TOAD? POPULAR CULTURE TEXT AS A SPACE FOR ECO-NARRATIVES ON THE EXAMPLE OF BAD BUNNY’S PROJECT DEBÍ TIRAR MÁS FOTOS Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny is an adamant and critical voice of the young generation of Boriquas who comments on the current socio-economic situation of Puerto Rico. This voice sounds extremely expressive in the latest project of the artist DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment 2025). The aim of the text is a visual analysis of selected elements of the project as a voice in the discussion on the protection of the human and non-human world, as well as human and non-human beings in Puerto Rico. The article analyzed three elements of visual narrative: the cover of the DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS vinyl album, the thirteen-minute short film DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS and the music video for the song KETU TeCRÉ. Those elements present Bad Bunny as an artist who creates an eco-narrative that can be treated as a form of pop culture post-colonial ecocriticism.
BETWEEN BOTANY AND THE POETICS OF RELATION: AFFIRMATIVE HUMANITIES STRATEGIES IN URSZULA ZAJĄCZKOWSKA’S PATYKI, BADYLE This article examines Urszula Zajączkowska’s essay collection Patyki, badyle through the lens of affirmative humanities and plant studies. It argues that Zajączkowska’s writing exemplifies a relational form of eco-narrative situated between botany and poetics, in which scientific knowledge does not function as a tool of domination over nature but as a medium for recognizing non-human agency. The analysis focuses on several key dimensions of the text: the hybrid construction of the narrative subject as both botanist and poet, the practice of phytography understood as “reading” plant anatomy, strategies of vitalization, and the project of socalled “rescue history.” Particular attention is given to the affirmative treatment of movement, decay, and death as constitutive life processes, as well as to the ethical significance of linguistic gestures such as restoring forgotten plant names. The article introduces the author’s original concept of worldattentive literature, understood as a form of engaged writing grounded in attentiveness, relationality, and the idea of the “tender narrator.” From this perspective, Patyki, badyle emerges as an example of literature that not only diagnoses the ecological crisis of the Anthropocene but also proposes affirmative models of multispecies coexistence.
Okolico-zwrotność jako artystyczna praktyka na czas szóstego masowego wymierania
SITE-RESPONSIVENESS AS AN ART PRACTICE FOR THE TIMES OF THE SIXTH EXTINCTION. CASE STUDY OF TRACY HILL’S PROJECTS Hill as an extension of purely visual artifacts by inclusion of elements that engage other senses, allowing audience to recognise their position in the face of the sixth mass extinction. Methodology is based on Mirzoeff’s tactics containing a “direct element of action” as appropriate tools for recognizing oneself in the catastrophe, e.g. ecological one, and the concept of site-responsive art as an approach to restoring subjectivity to areas degraded by human activity. The author also draws on selected aspects of post-media performance theory by M. Dancewicz. The research goal of the article is to introduce the term “sztuka okolico-zwrotna” as the Polish translation of site-responsive art. This is related to the observation of increasingly frequent changes in artistic activity in a given place towards cooperation with a specific place. In this practice, socio-historical context is less important than the materiality of a specific site, its rhythm, impact, and the processes occurring within it over time. The artist enters into a deep relationship with such defined reality and then strives to enable the audience to experience similar sensations and emotions. Such a creative practice—due to its inherent sensitivity and mindfulness—may constitute one of art’s possible responses to the ecological crisis we find ourselves in the midst of.
Muzeum (bez) pamięci – Museu Nacional da Escravatura w Luandzie i dziedzictwo transatlantyckiego handlu niewolnikami w Angoli
MUZEUM (BEZ) PAMIĘCI – MUSEU NACIONAL DA ESCRAVATURA IN LUANDA AND THE LEGACY OF THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE IN ANGOLA This article examines the role of the Museu Nacional da Escravatura in Luanda as a site of both memory and oblivion, embedded within Angola’s broader postcolonial heritage and historical politics. Based on field research conducted in 2023, the author explores the museum’s history, exhibition, and spatial-symbolic context. The institution, while officially commemorating the transatlantic slave trade, does so through a narrative that omits the complexity of local actors and historical nuances. Drawing on Ruy Llera Blanes’s concept of “places of no history,” the museum is interpreted as a space where memory is simultaneously revived and sanitized. The article addresses the selectivity of historical narratives, the instrumentalization of heritage, contemporary identity politics, and the marginalization of community-based memory practices.
Copyright (c) 2025 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Inculturation of “Pasahat Ulos Saput” in the Death Tradition of “Saur Matua” of the Batak Toba Tribe in the Catholic Church’s Blessing of the Body
This article analyses one of the death traditions in Indonesian society, specifically the Saur Matua death tradition of the Batak Toba tribe. It explores a particular ritual as an entry point for inculturation within the Catholic Church’s funeral rites. A qualitative, ethnographic approach was employed, involving in-depth interviews with four informants recognised by the Batak Toba community as experts in Batak culture (known as Raja Parhata, ceremonial public speakers). Interview data were enriched with insights from books and scholarly articles. The analysis yields several conclusions regarding possible inculturation. Firstly, the Church may include the ritual “Pasahat Ulos Pucca as Ulos Saput” as an inculturated element within the Blessing of the Body. The ritual shares the same intention as the funeral service, seeking God’s blessing for the deceased. The Church prays for and blesses the body by sprinkling holy water; Tulang or Hula-hula blesses the body by bestowing “Ulos Pucca as Ulos Saput.” Secondly, after blessing the earth and flowers as symbols of Christian hope for the dead, the Church may also bless the Sijagaron, a distinctive symbol in the Saur Matua ceremony. The overall aim is to enable Batak Toba Catholics to appreciate the Saur Matua tradition as a celebration of faith so that traditional elements can be carried out reverently.
The Surge of Brain Drain Emigration in Nigeria
The paper answers the puzzle of the protracted surge of brain drain emigration over the years despite interventions through policies and reforms by the Nigerian government. Brain drain has affected the country both politically and economically as well as socio-culturally. Skilled professionals are the powerhouse of any country, as they are the determinants of growth and development. Nigeria has suffered from a pandemic of a highly skilled labour force seeking better opportunities abroad, which – in turn – drains the progress of the country. The study identifies the less-explored structural drivers that have a stronger influence on the surge of emigration in Nigeria. Therefore, this paper investigates the deeply rooted systemic and structural factors that influence the persistent increase in the emigration of skilled professionals, causing brain drain in Nigeria. To achieve this, it adopts case study methods, which delve into an in-depth study to uncover structural or systemic drivers and their impacts on the Nigerian milieu. The approach evaluates the effectiveness of the policies and reforms in reducing brain drain emigration over the years, observing the periods they were implemented and their remarkable impact, utilising published statistics. The data is sourced from secondary materials such as government publications, reports, survey results, websites, books, journal articles, newsletters and dissertations. The emphasis on Nigeria, among other African countries, is critical because Nigeria is known to be one of the African countries with a very high number of emigrants to Europe and North America.
Managing Infertility in Contemporary Africa
This article raises the question of whether contemporary legal mechanisms in Africa can effectively address infertility issues. In particular, the relationships between international legal norms and their impact on the erosion of customary law and the changing perception of infertility are discussed. It highlights the multifaceted challenges posed by infertility, which have significant social, cultural and health implications, particularly for women. Legal responses to infertility are shaped by deep-rooted traditions and legal pluralism, with increasing influence from international law. However, cultural resistance and traditional norms hinder the effectiveness of legal interventions. Public health policies related to infertility are limited, leading individuals to seek alternative practices such as witchcraft and herbalism due to constrained access to assisted reproductive technology. The article emphasises the need for comprehensive reforms and increased visibility of infertility issues on national and international agendas. It suggests that legal reforms and greater attention to law as a regulatory instrument may facilitate the development of effective strategies to address infertility in Sub-Saharan Africa and combat culturally and traditionally rooted biases and discrimination against women.
Karate as a Tool of Soft Power and Cultural Diplomacy for People with Albinism in Tanzania
This article explores the role of non-governmental organisations and sports institutions in advancing social inclusion and cultural diplomacy, using Tanzania as a case study. It particularly examines karate as a tool for the integration of people with albinism – a group facing social exclusion and violence. Through an analysis of organisations such as the Japan Karate Association Tanzania and the New Heroes Youth Development Organisation, the article highlights how sport can foster social transformation while also contributing to Tanzania’s international image-building efforts. The research is grounded in autoethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2015 and 2025, combined with organisational documentation. It demonstrates how local sports initiatives intersect with global soft power strategies and contribute to broader narratives of social justice and human dignity.
From the mid-twentieth century, the independence of African states and the mobility of young intellectuals to Europe made migration a central site for negotiating identity and belonging. This article examines exile as a structural condition in two Francophone African novels: Cheikh Hamidou Kane’s Ambiguous Adventure (1961/1972) and Abdourahman Waberi’s In the United States of Africa (2006/2009). In Kane, exile is framed as spiritual and intellectual displacement within colonial modernity; in Waberi, it is reworked through a satirical reversal in which Africa becomes a destination for European refugees. Engaging work on postcolonial subjectivity (Achille Mbembe), Afrotopian imagination (Felwine Sarr), transnationalism (Dominic Thomas), and recent studies on liminality and identity (Okechukwu Ugwuezumba, Nkiru Onyemachi, Joanna Suffern), the article argues that Kane and Waberi write from divergent positions (Afropessimism and Afrofuturism) yet address the same concern: how identity is reconfigured when social and cultural worlds are divided. The comparison shows exile as a continuing framework for understanding both decolonization and contemporary forms of global belonging.
Manu Herbstein – author of Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade
This paper presents a comprehensive literature review examining the application and relevance of Ubuntu philosophy to conflict resolution among refugees in Uganda, specifically focusing on its profound implications for refugee and migration contexts and the accompanying transformation of African identities. The review aimed to evaluate the application of Ubuntu in conflict resolution within Ugandan refugee settings, benchmark Ubuntu-influenced integration programmes, identify implementation challenges and opportunities, deconstruct Ubuntu’s role in social justice and reconciliation and compare indigenous approaches with global refugee frameworks. Amidst the ongoing refugee crisis and diverse internal conflicts, the paper explores how the intrinsic values of communal harmony, interconnectedness and shared humanity inherent in Ubuntu inform both traditional and contemporary approaches to conflict resolution across various Ugandan settings, including prominent refugee settlements. By synthesising existing scholarly works, this review argues that Ubuntu principles provide a powerful indigenous framework for reconciliation; their efficacy is contingent upon navigating the profound tensions between communal ethics and the material realities of displacement. By positioning Ubuntu as a framework for relational identity formation, the review concludes that a critical application of Ubuntu is essential for transforming refugee identities from passive recipients of aid into active agents of peace and social cohesion. This, therefore, contributes to discourses on Africa’s agency in transnational humanitarian governance beyond Uganda.
Translating Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade
More than 4 million enslaved Africans came to Brazil between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Almost a million of them came from the west coast of sub-Saharan Africa, known as the Coast of the Mine, which included present-day Ghana, Benin and Togo. In 2002, a South African engineer named Manu Herbstein, who had relocated to Ghana, decided to write a novel about this violent history. Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade narrates the capture and forced displacement of Ama, a young woman from the Bekpokpam people, through the networks of enslavement that connected West Africa to Brazil. This project interrogates the methodology and cultural imperative of translating this novel into Brazilian Portuguese as part of decolonising storytelling practices and as a means of reinforcing identity connections between Brazil and Ghana.
Utopias, Possible Worlds, Imaginary Histories
This article explores the concept of “imaginary history” within speculative fiction narratives, particularly those addressing migration, colonization, and decolonization. These narratives are not merely artistic projections, but function as metaphors for contemporary real-world processes. Drawing on Malcolm Ferdinand’s Decolonial Ecology, the study uses the philosophical perspectives of Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt to frame these fictional histories, offering reinterpretation from an African cultural standpoint. The paper delves into the themes of “dwelling”, “terrestrial nature”, and “colonial inhabitation” to examine the speculative portrayal of potential futures where human and post-human life embarks on cosmic migrations, transforms extraterrestrial environments, and constructs artificial habitats. The paper critically assesses the sustainability of human and non-human life in shifting environments, both natural and artificial, offering a speculative framework for understanding these narratives. It analyzes Cristina de Middel’s photobook The Afronauts, which envisions an African space program from the 1960s; the exhibition O Futuro na Lista de Espera, which showcases both dystopian and hopeful visions of the future; Anthony Joseph’s African Origins of UFOs; and the works of Polish speculative fiction writer Jacek Dukaj. Through these lenses, the article investigates how migration, survival, and environmental transformation intersect in speculative fiction, proposing a critical perspective on the survival of life in continually evolving landscapes.
„Rewolucja oddycha przez gwiazdy” – gwiazdy sceny ballroomu
Naród rozproszony. Recenzja książki Beaty Umubyeyi Mairesse pt. All Your Children, Scattered (wyd. Europa Editions, Nowy Jork 2022, 192 ss., ISBN: 9781609457853, tłum. Alison Anderson)