This year marks the 100th year anniversary of the Caribbean islands of St Croix, St John and St Thomas being sold to the United States by Denmark and conversations addressing Denmark’s colonial history have come to the fore as the centennial is celebrated. I’ve been living in Copenhagen since September and as a black British woman of Jamaican descent (cue bashment horns) I’ve been increasingly intrigued by the discourse that has been created addressing Denmark and in turn Europe’s colonial past.
The importance of addressing colonial history has never been more necessary; our current political climate has completely normalised racism channelled through anti-immigration rhetoric. Recently, there has been an influx of elderly people who travelled from former British colonies who are being threatened with deportation after living in the UK for thirty, forty and even fifty plus years. The popular imagination of the white western world has committed itself to erasing the colonial legacies that riddle political structures, education systems and beyond.