Several places overseas have a showdown with the painful story, but it should not be swept under the carpet, says a researcher.
In England, protesters have been working on Sunday to overthrow statues and memorials . And in Belgium, a statue of King Leopold 2 has been smeared with blood-red paint as a whisper’s comment on the country’s past as a colonial power.
Episodes that followed the case of 46-year-old American George Floyd’s disputed death during a police action. Followed by numerous Black Lives Matter-led demonstrations that sharply focus on the past with a desire to get right before the law and eliminate racism.
Similar initiatives have taken place in the United States, where activists have removed a number of statues and monuments that symbolized the country’s slave past or paid tribute to the Southern Civil War heroes of the American Civil War.
The question is whether the trip will also come to Denmark. And what we here at home will have to do away with from the more painful chapters of Danish history.
In many places in Denmark, roads are named after Danish ministers and traders, who played a significant role in the slave trade from both the Caribbean and now the US Virgin Islands and Ghana. It created a wealth where both Danish streets, castles and mansions were either built by or for slave traders.
Denmark was so deeply involved in the trade in slaves that at one point it was one of the world leaders in the field.
The industry was largely concentrated around Copenhagen, and it is also here that most of the monuments from time to time remain.
This is explained by historian Anders Bjørn, who specifically mentions five buildings, to TV 2:
