During a national survey conducted in 2011, 847,000 people in Poland declared themselves as Silesian nationals: four times more than the 233,000 who feel Kashubian and more than the 148,000 as German. From that total of 847, however, half of them said they also feel like Polish nationals. A linguistics professor from the University of Silesia, Jolanta Tambor, believes Silesian meets the conditions to become a regional language, and the problem is that people tend to confuse it with the autonomy question:
In Silesia, there is a lot more resistance to acknowledging the regional language than in other regions.
Her grandparents used to speak in Silesian and sing in German. She also remembers how it was more frequent to hear Silesian in the shops. Now she does not use Silesian, the language of her childhood. During her youth, she was also ashamed to speak it, now she only uses it to make jokes; to make fun of an already discriminated language. At university, she says, some of her students speak to her in Polish, and when they turn around they start talking in Silesian with their friends.
What will Poland miss if it never acknowledges Silesian as a regional language? Tambor says: 'The more multicultural it becomes, the richer our national culture will be. It is a great wealth to see the world from different perspectives'. Professor Tambor does not see the Silesian language as a separatist threat: 'Things that aren’t taken care of, tend to disappear.'
In 2015, a new course began at the University of Silesia, a private programme that teaches the culture of the region. But that is not all. Several young artists are also promoting their regional identity with artistic projects. We can buy many of their artworks at Geszeft, a store located in Koszutka, or Gryfnie, another store in Miarka Square that promotes Silesian identity. These shops also sell the works of Silesian authors, suchs as Szczepan Twardoch or Professor Kadlubek, proving that Silesia, just as any other region, has its own writers, who in turn contribute to defining Silesian identity.
Local activism is also alive among the youths. A recent organisation called Napraw Sobie Miasto ('Fix the City Yourself') brought the Mayor of Katowice to a small bar called Kato, to discuss a way to involve local citizens in decisions regarding their neighborhood's budget.
Professor Kadłubek insists that so-called liquid modernity, as described by sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, has become irrelevant. More and more, people are looking for their own place to settle. Something that allows people to take care of their physical space.
Author: Alexis Angulo, Spring 2015; updated by AZ, Apr 2019