Kali is a Sudanese character in the 1911 novel ''

In Desert and Wilderness ''In Desert and Wilderness'' ( pl, W pustyni i w puszczy) is a popular young adult novel by the Polish author and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz, written in 1911. It is the author's only novel written for children/teenagers. It ...

'' ( pl, W pustyni i w puszczy) by Polish writer

Henryk Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz ( , ; 5 May 1846 – 15 November 1916), also known by the pseudonym Litwos (), was a Polish writer, novelist, journalist and Nobel Prize laureate. He is best remembered for his historical novels, especi ...

. He is one of the earliest Polish literary depictions of a black person and has thus been cited as having shaped Polish perceptions of black people.

Plot

A Polish boy, Staś, and an English girl named Nel, are caught up in the outbreak of the

Mahdist War The Mahdist War ( ar, الثورة المهدية, ath-Thawra al-Mahdiyya; 1881–1899) was a war between the Mahdist Sudanese of the religious leader Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who had proclaimed himself the "Mahdi" of Islam (the "Guided On ...

in Sudan. They end up travelling through the desert accompanied by two

black people Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...

, Kali (the son of a tribal chief) and a girl named Mea, whom Staś has freed from Arab rebels. They encounter a number of wonders and perils. During these adventures, Kali is "brave, creative and honourable" and later he becomes "a fair and successful leader of his people."

Kali in Polish culture

Kali speaks broken English and many of his phrases have become frequently quoted, especially "Kali jeść, Kali pić" which means "Kali eat, Kali drink" (the lack of verb-subject agreement and conjugation being due to his lack of knowledge). According to Time Magazine, 'Kali has been immortalized in the Polish language in the saying, “Kali’s morality,” which means “

double standard A double standard is the application of different sets of principles for situations that are, in principle, the same. It is often used to describe treatment whereby one group is given more latitude than another. A double standard arises when two ...

"' Kali says at one point: “If somebody takes Kali’s cow, it’s a bad deed. If Kali takes somebody’s cow, it’s a good deed.”

References

Afro-Polish history Black people in literature Literary characters introduced in 1911 {{fictional-character-stub