TROPICAL TROPES IN DANISH IDENTITY

Karen Fog Olwig

(SH, C-U)

(translated by Gilbert Sprauve and Karen Fog Olwig)

Editor's Note: This article is included in the manual in order that certain issues related to the psyche, self-concept and cultural expression of Virgin Islanders might be raised. While it is often claimed that the Danes exercised very little cultural influence on these islands--especially at the vernacular level--, we caution against rampant underestimation of the Danish factor. (A case in point would be the concept of the press held by D. Hamilton Jackson, which is presented in our section on "Resistance.") No doubt, some of the second guessing of the U.S. Naval administration and its policies by Rothschild Francis and some of our older informants was in part driven by reminiscences of how the Danes did things.

Below, we suggest how a reading of this article might inform a substantive discussion of ethnicity in the Virgin Islands.

During the summer of 1992 a number of images from the former Danish West Indies were showcased in the Nikolaj Gallery, a cultural center located in a former church in inner Copenhagen. Entitled "The Danes in the West Indies" the exhibit marked the 75th anniversary of the sale of the islands in 1917 and it was sponsored by the Danish West Indian Society in conjunction with the Nikoaj Gallery. It was reviewed in many of the country's newspapers under headlines such as "A Puff of West Indian Fairy tale," "Three Little Live Wires," and "Golden Memories." (1) It was seen by about 350 visitors a day, a better than average number according to the staff at the Nikoloj Gallery. The exhibit therefore can be said to have been well received in Denmark.

The exhibit generated a much cooler reception among a group of visiting scholars who were attending a conference on West Indian history near Copenhagen. They found that it was characterized by a one-sided Danish perspective which was dominated by colonial and racist perceptions. When the foreign guests asked the Danish hosts at the conference why the exhibit had this cast the Danes were unable to provide a ready explanation. They replied that the primary organization behind the show, The Danish West Indian Society, consisted mainly of persons with direct ties to the former Danish West Indies. They therefore could be expected to nurture a rather nostalgic perception of the old Danish colonial mindset. And like any society, Denmark contained its share of ethnocentric people. But this reply did not offer any explanation for the fact that an exhibition, which would be viewed as blatantly racist and paternalistic in other, comparable, Western countries, was received so positively in Danish society in general.

I shall attempt to shed some light on this question by analyzing the West Indian exhibit as an example of a particular form for narrative about the development of Danish society which emerged during the nineteenth century. The importance of particular narratives in shaping our interpretation of the past has been discussed by the American anthropologists Edward Bruner (Bruner 1986). In a discussion of ethnographies of American Indians he argues that most ethnographic works can be seen to be constructed around a dominant narrative structure which, in turn, constitutes and interprets the people we study in a mode. He shows that the dominant narrative of North American Indians was, for many years, one which described a proud people with a rich cultural heritage, who, upon American colonization, experienced a loss of cultural traditions, so that they had no choice but to become assimilated into North American society. In the course of the past decades a new narrative has emerged in North American society in which the American Indians are represented as having had a past of oppression and exploitation, followed by a future of resistance against cultural denigration. While the narrative of assimilation can be seen to conceal the oppression which Indians have been exposed to, the narrative of resistance serves as a justification for the Indians' demand to reclaim lost rights. Furthermore, whereas the assimilation narrative renders the Indians inarticulate and mute, the resistance narrative invites them to speak out for themselves. After a period of confrontation between the two narratives, the narrative of resistance has become dominant, and the narrative of assimilation is no longer of significance in ethnographic writing on native Americans, as they are termed in contemporary ethnography.

I shall argue that the Danish and the foreign views of the West Indian exhibition similarly can be seen to reflect two different narratives about Danish West Indian history, the one informed by Danish national ideology, the other by the critique of colonialism emanating from circles concerned with the fate of third and fourth world people. In the case of the Danish West Indies, however, no confrontation of narratives has taken place, largely because the Danish nationalist narrative has flourished within post-colonial Danish society, while the narrative critical of colonialism has been directed primarily toward the dominant colonial or neocolonial powers of the latter part of this century. The two narratives have thus not co-existed within the same cultural space, and it has been possible for the Danish narrative to develop into a domestic genre that says more about Danish cultural identity and self-understanding than about the Danes in the West Indies, let alone the West Indian population in the West Indies.

The Exhibit's Narrative

The exhibit "The Danes in the West Indies" consisted primarily of a number of images (lithographs, water colors and photographs) which were made by Danes who, in the course of the last two centuries, stayed for shorter or longer periods in the islands. According to a newspaper interview with one of the organizers of the exhibit (2), it was divided into two sections: one offers a presentation of artists and their works; the other provides a historical background for different themes such as town life, the functioning of the plantations, and the sale of the islands.

The exhibition can be seen to be structured into two phases: 1) the Danes colonize the islands from the latter part of the seventeenth century and develop an economic system based on plantations and commerce; 2) the islands experience a period of economic depression which leads to their sale to the Americans in 1917. The turning point in this course of events is the abolition of slavery which took place in 1848 during the rule of Danish governor-general Peter von Scholten.

1) Danish Colonization and Economic Enterprise

The first phase was characterized by a great deal of Danish enterprise in the form of colonization of the three islands, construction of forts to defend the colony, establishment of sugar plantations, especially on St. Croix, and the initiation of a transatlantic emporium based on St. Thomas. This required a determined, if somewhat harsh effort. In order to control the many slaves who were needed as a work force in the enterprise an especially firm hand was needed. West Indian slaves are described as belonging to some of Africa's most boisterous and quarrelsome races, and they were therefore difficult to subdue. (3) For this reason it was necessary, it is explained, to institute a strict regime of punishment, which involved whipping, the lopping off of ears and, in the worst cases, hanging and decapitation. To appease a modern clientele at the exhibition, which might perceive this punishment as being barbaric, it is stated that such punishment was certainly no different from the punishment which was dealt to Danes at home. That such punishment was "necessary" is made abundantly clear at the end of this text where reference is made to the St. John Slave Revolt--the bloodiest and most violent in the islands' history, when slaves, "through cunning," surprised an entire, unprepared, company of Danish soldiers at the fort and killed all except one, who managed to escape.

The exhibit also attempts to defuse the objections which the modern Dane might hold against the slave trade, not to mention slavery itself. It is explained that field labor was too hard for Indians and White Europeans and that production was only possible with the aid of Black slaves that Danes obtained at their forts on the Guinea coast. Having pointed to the need for African slave trading and slavery in this manner, the text notes that Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas could boast the world's largest salve market.

The Turning Point

This rough sketch of Danish West Indian history is brought to a close with the abolition of slavery. Focus is here on the Danish governor-general who is characterized as a person with great sympathy for "the colored population." Not only did he establish a school for the slaves, but he also liberated them in 1848--against the planters' will. This cost him his post as governor-general. The description of Peter von Scholten's freeing of the slaves is placed close to a picture illustrating the decline, which began in the second half of the nineteenth century.

2) Economic Decline and Loss and the Colonies

Under the heading "Economic decline and sale" the text gives the impression that Peter von Sholten's humane action had catastrophic results in the colonies. It is stated, without further explanation, that "abolition of slavery and economic recession at the end of the nineteenth century brought about a fall in the population." The decline obviously would not be reversed, ant it became necessary to dispose of the islands. After several efforts Denmark finally succeeded in selling them to the U.S.A. in 1917. The economic problems are reflected in Hugo Larsen's pictures which are described as being marked by realism. It is stated that he showed sensitivity for the tired person, in a slumped posture, who apparently hardly has the energy and will power to live after the workday is over. This impression of a worn down people is counterbalanced by many of the other images from the last part of the Danish period, which give an idyllic impression of the islands and their population. They show the islands' Black population as loyal servile souls who diligently scour floors and devoutly care for little blond Danish children, or as rather exotic and romantic folk who live in peace and quiet from their petty trade. The exotic is most apparent in the paintings by Frederik Visby about whom we are told that he painted Black women with long dragging skirts, twisted up like a couple of trousers, a characteristic scarf hanging from their neck an a cigar in the mouth. That the humane Danish government was behind this idyllic image is sensed, for example in the picture of West Indian children being taught in a school originally established by Peter von Scholten.

The narrative which emerges in this exhibit can be summed up as one about a proud and enterprising Danish past, sacrificed by the noble abolition of slavery which was accompanied by economic and demographic problems which led to the loss of the colonies. In the light of this loss and the many problems caused by the abolition of slavery the Danes appear as humanists and the late Danish period as an idyllic and benign time. The Danish narrative was seriously challenged when it met head on with the narrative of the foreign researchers who visited the exhibit.

The Visitor's Narrative

The visitors' narrative, which has characterized historical/anthropological research in the last decades, is closely relate to that which was seen to have dominated ethnography on American Indians during recent decades. In the West Indian variant, the present day West Indians are seen to have lived through a long history of oppression, but through their long battle with this oppression they have developed strong cultural traditions which today form the basis of modern West Indian society. This narrative can, for example, be seen to have constituted the structure behind a conference which took place in Utrecht, Holland, in 1992 under the theme "Born out of Resistance: Caribbean Creativity as a Response to European Expansion." (4) The foreign researchers who came to Denmark were particularly offended by the fact that the Danish exhibition did not let the Afro-Caribbean people speak and that they were used only as a back drop against which to set the stage for Danish accomplishments in the colonies. This was regarded as being highly problematic because, in their view, it tended to reduce the Afro-Caribbean population to an inarticulate and helpless group of subhumans.

1) Muteness and Missing Dignity

The muting of the Afro-Caribbean population was seen to be evident in the introductory chronological summary of Danish West Indian history which was placed at the entrance to the exhibit. This survey was supposed to present some of the most significant and relevant events and data on the Danish West Indies, yet one of the most central post-emancipation events for the Afro-Caribbean population after the slave rebellion did not figure in it. This was the great labor rebellion that took place on St. Croix in 1878 as an act of resistance against the social and economic problems which the emancipated experienced after the abolishment of slavery in 1848.(5) Emancipation did not result in a major improvement in the condition of the freed, largely because the Danish authorities introduced a labor law which forced them to enter into work contracts which bound them to the plantations where they had previously served as slaves. Wages were barely at subsistence level, ant it was difficult for them to see the difference between their newly gained freedom and their former slavery. The economic and social problems caused by these labor contracts were the main reason for the decline in population, mentioned in the exhibit. Indeed, there was an extremely high infant mortality rate on the islands, and a great number immigrated from the islands--or fled, if they were not able to annul their labor contracts. It was only after the revolt in 1878, 30 years after the abolishment of slavery, that the Danes abolished these labor laws.

By ignoring this watershed in post-emancipation West Indian history, where the Afro-Caribbean population staged a revolt against the repressive colonial system, the exhibit avoided dealing with some of the more unpleasant aspect of Danish West Indian history. The only even in Danish West Indian history. The only event in Danish West Indian history, between the slaves' emancipation in 1848 and the islands' sale in 1917, which appeared to be worth of mention in the chronological survey was the Danish Prince Valdemar's visit to the islands.

The exhibit's representation of emancipation, which was also occasioned by a rebellion, was likewise seen by the foreign visitors to be characterized by a missing Afro-Caribbean perspective. The chronological summary mentioned briefly that Governor-general Peter von Scholten liberated the slaves after a slave revolt led by the freedman "Moses `Buddhoe' Gottlieb." It is only Peter von Scholten who is given a central position at the exhibit itself, where his emancipation of the slaves is viewed as illustrating his great humanitarian role. The Black population's active role in the course of events leading to emancipation is not presented.

The visitors also took offense at the exhibit's description of Africans as particularly well suited to physically hard work in the cane fields and to slavery descriptions which in other societies would be considered strongly racist. These objections were fueled by descriptions of Africans as being absolutely terrified by exaggerated fears concerning the destiny awaiting them in the West Indies, which cast them in a comic light. The text explained that Africans thought that Whites used their skins to make shoes, or that they would be eaten and their bones used to make gunpowder. Compared to these alleged fantasies West Indian slavery comes to be seen as an almost humane institution. But the price is that the African people are deprived of their dignity.

2) Living Life for the Moment

The account of the Black as unruly and ignorant savages, and then as grateful, free people who faithfully served their Danish masters and in their spare time lived an idyllic existence occupied by petty trade and domestic duties, equipped with a large cigar, did not leave the West Indian people with much tradition upon which to build. This was reinforced by a slide show on the contemporary American Virgin Islands which presented the image of the Black population as a carefree people, who tend to live for the moment. Accompanied by lively calypso rhythms, this show gave the impression that West Indian life, for the most part, consists of songs, games, dance and feasts, only interrupted when nature interferes in this little earthly paradise, as happened, for example, in 1989, when hurricane Hugo wrought violent damage on the islands. The image of a carefree people is reinforced by Greenlandish artist Hans Lynge's paintings which depict West Indians more or less without clothes, as one with nature.(6)

A Danish Matter

The historians Svend E. Green-Pedersen and P.C. Willemoes (1983) have criticized Danish research on colonial history for having been carried out from an almost exclusively Danish perspective. They argue that Danes have concentrated on Danish economic and political concerns which are analyzed from the point of view of the industrialized West, and that they have carefully avoided representing Danish colonies as objects of imperialistic exploitation. Similar criticism has recently been voiced by another historian Niels Brimmes (1992), who emphasizes that the foreign societies have figured only as a troublesome and demanding setting for Danish industry abroad.

Danes are not alone in writing colonial history from a narrow, national point of view. Historians from most major colonial powers, however, have been exposed to sharp criticism during the last decades from a growing number of well educated third and fourth world historians who have begun to conduct their own research. Many of them have therefore had to broaden their scope of research to include the local populations [involved]. Much recent colonial history has situated itself [at] a vantage point between European rulers and local populations where both are seen to have played an essential role in the course of history (Cohn 1980, Olwig 1985b). This is reflected, for example, in Danish colonial history on Greenland which has been challenged and subject to critical discussion, led, not the least, by Greenlanders themselves.

Danish research on the former tropical colonies, however, has only a very limited degree been challenged by people representing the third world. This, as Green-Pedersen and Willemoes J¢rgensen suggest in their article, may sell be because these former colonies were sold off by Denmark many years ago. There has not, for this reason, been a common cultural, or linguistic, space, where the narrative of the old colonial power could be challenged by the narrative espoused by the third and fourth world today. Indeed, it has been possible for Danes to maintain a provincial; colonial history, such as the one expressed at the exhibit at the Nikolaj Gallery. The Danish narrative about the West Indies has therefore become an exclusively Danish matter which says relatively little about the West Indies, but a great deal about how Danish cultural identity and self worth is generated through reflection on Danish deeds abroad.

I have argued that the West Indian exhibit was revealing of a narrative about a past of enterprising and honorable people who asserted themselves among the most prominent of world powers. With the emancipation of the slaves, the Danes experienced a long period of social and economic decline which ended with the loss of the last colony in the tropics. Due to a humane act, the Danes therefore lost their status as a colonial power--their glory was replaced by magnanimity. Their economic and political loss was compensated for by their moral gain.

This Danish colonial narrative finds a parallel in a Danish narrative on the development of the modern Danish nation. The present land boundaries belie a Danish past of territorial possessions extending well beyond present national borders to Great Britain, Germany, the Baltic and northern countries, as well as to far-away colonies in distant continents. The loss of these possessions, however, was turned into an internal moral victory when the Danish monarch magnanimously reformed Danish agricultural society by liberating the peasants from serfdom, abolishing cruel and capricious forms of punishment, providing schools and aiding the peasants to acquire their own farms. The freed and independent farmers, rooted in the Danish soil, then, as the narrative goes, assumed leading role in the social, economic or political development of Danish society. These farmers ar thus seen to have created the foundations of the modern, democratic Denmark that we think we know today (Kjaergaard 1985). As the Danish historian Fugue Oestergaard had demonstrated in an article about Danish farmers and national identity (Oestergaard 1992), the prominent role of the Danish farming population in the emergence of the modern Danish nation has become consolidated in a dominant narrative. In this narrative Danes are viewed as freedom loving, egalitarian and tolerant people who place equality, welfare and fairness before grandeur, might and honor. This narrative has obtained hegemonic status that has been so strong that it has dictated the limits of public discourse, including the academic one.

This narrative can be seen to have been transferred to Danish West Indian history in spite of the fact that it is only by choosing and interpreting historical data in an extremely selective manner that the Danes in the West Indies can give the impression of being a people who, on the altar of humanism, sacrificed their greatness. Danish society from the middle of the nineteenth century was characterized by an economic, political and cultural growth which benefited the farmer class (the rural small holders and proletariat, on the other hand, was exploited and impoverished and many immigrated to America). The Danish West Indies of the same period was hardly characterized by economic growth and political progress towards a more democratic society, however. Here, the old autocratic rule continued in the style of the absolute monarchy with little consideration for the welfare and desires of a large Black population. This actually was noted by some of the Danes who visited the Danish West Indies during this period. One of the most prominent was the journalist Henrik Caving who, in 1894, published the book The Danish West Indies. There is not much tropical nostalgia to be found in his description of the tiny Danish community on the islands. His skeptical attitude towards the Danish government should be seen in the light of his affiliation with the daily newspaper Politiken, which was highly critical of the Danish political system at the time, and which defended the rights of the rural small holders and proletariat in Denmark.

The problem of inscribing accounts of the Danish West Indies into a dominant Danish national ideology emerges fully when the Danish presence in the West Indian colony is subjected to closer scrutiny. It becomes apparent that throughout Danish West Indian history, the Danes made up a small minority on the islands, not only in relation to the large Black majority, but also within the White minority on the islands. At the West Indian exhibit in Copenhagen it was stated that "Even if the Danish population comprised a small number, they managed to give the islands a Danish imprint." (7) The architecture in the cities and the Danish street names were mentioned as examples of this influence. There is, however, little doubt but that the Danish influence was limited almost entirely to the field of colonial administration, and that the islands' economic and social life was entirely dominated by people of foreign origin. On St. Thomas and St. John most of the plantation owners were Dutch, on St. Croix they were British, and the great merchant houses on St. Thomas were almost without exception owned by foreigners or persons of foreign background. Many different languages were spoken on the islands, and in the course of the nineteenth century English became the dominant language. It was not before the end of the Danish period that Danish economic and cultural initiatives took place, supported by nationalist forces in Denmark, which were intended to counter the impending sale of the islands to the United States. The purpose of these measures was to revive the weakening economy of the islands and to teach the Black population Danish language and culture. These economic investments, however, were too limited to have any effect, (8) and the effort to promote Danish culture came too late to leave a mark on the islands. (9) Thus, despite the 250 years of Danish colonial rule it is difficult to point to the existence of a proud Danish past, except within the colonial bureaucracy.

It is also questionable, however, whether the colonial governmental itself was entirely Danish, because many of those who were influential in colonial rule were of foreign background. This was the case with Ernst Schimmelmann who, as minister of finance in Denmark, was one of the main forces behind the establishment of a commission to investigate the transatlantic slave trade. Schimmelmann was of German origin and strongly oriented toward German culture, and the report of the commission was written in German (Green-Pedersen 1970-71). The abolishment of the slave trade was emphasized a the exhibit which described Denmark as "the first colonial power's to ban "all trade with slaves" in 1802. (10) Peter von Scholten, who was praised at the exhibit for his efforts to help the Black population of the islands, was also of foreign origin, the family having come to Denmark from Amsterdam (Lawaetz 1940:229).

It was quite natural that many of the Danes who became influential in the West Indian colonial administration were of foreign origin. Until the latter part of the eighteenth century Denmark was dominated by a small elite which had immigrated to the country from elsewhere in Europe, primarily Germany. The proud Danish past was therefore to a great extent the product of these European immigrants and their descendants. Indeed, Denmark has been described as being a multi-cultural society until the end of the eighteenth century (Feldbaek 1992: 91). At this time the growing Danish middle class began to feel restricted by the dominant position of this internationally oriented elite, and a certain amount of hostility developed toward this elite which was now defined as non-Danish. This was most clearly expressed in the anti-German attacks which erupted in 1789. Ernst Schimmelmann responded to this by criticizing Danish "cultural mediocrity" and the Danish penchant for "putting narrow personal interests before common humanity" (ibid.: 90).

Most of Danish West Indian history should undoubtedly be written in "multi-cultural"" terms. The Blacks, who comprised the majority of the population, descended from slaves of many different African backgrounds, and the White population derived from a number of European countries. If one is to point to one characteristic which most poignantly captures what was particularly Danish about the Danish West Indies, it may be the fact that such cultural complexity was permitted and allowed to flourish, particularly with respect to the White population It would have been natural if the exhibit "Danes in the West Indies had been presented in this light. This would have put the Danes on the map as a tolerant, freedom loving and egalitarian people. Instead a more narrow, nationalistic viewpoint was chosen, which astonished and angered the visiting West Indian historians. When their viewpoints were presented, at their request, in a small article in Politiken, one of the leading Copenhagen newspapers (Olwig 1992),(11) these arguments were completely rejected by the leader of the Nikolaj Gallery, Lise Funder. She stated in a rejoinder (Funder 1992) that the exhibit only showed "a small corner of the life and nature of the three islands as seen with the eyes of Danish artists," and the exhibit in no way presented incorrect information, but merely explained "how conditions actually were...."

An imagined world

The positive interest shown the West Indian exhibit, coupled with the rejection of critical voices from abroad, might lead one to conclude that Danes have established such a well defined cultural identity that they are incapable of conceiving of other narratives than the one which supports this identity. This conclusion is in line with the generally accepted view of Denmark as a culturally homogeneous society. The existence in Denmark of historical conceptions and narratives of the Danish West Indies which are different from those outlined above, does not support this conclusion, however. I have already mentioned the critical voices which emerged during the Danish colonial period, and referred to historians who have criticized the way in which Danish colonial history has been conducted.

That this more critical approach to colonial history is known outside narrow academic circles is apparent in a review of the West Indian exhibit published in Politiken (Lindboe 1992).(12) In a rather ironic vein it is remarked that "the West Indies has come to represent a golden nostalgic memory of the times when Denmark was a colonial power." At the exhibit one can "experience a sensation from the golden days, when plucky Danish merchants sailed on the West Indies, and where a very special culture developed on the three exotic islands."The review finally notes that one might easily remark "that many of the artists idealized the islands and the life out there." This was in the good old days, before anybody discussed the "exploitation of the third world, and the colonies." It is therefore suggested that the exhibit reflects the continued presence of a way of thinking associated with a geographically and historically distant colonial setting. In the mental enclave of Danish West Indian history, ideologies, which are no longer acceptable, can still flourish freely.

Because it is so far removed from any West Indian reality Danish West Indian history can be said to have entered the realm of an "imagined world" to borrow an expression from Indian anthropologist Arjun Appadurai (1991). According to Appadurai, "imagined worlds" play an important role in the modern world, because it is characterized by a [welter ???] of disparate and disjoined economic, political, cultural and technical flows which make it difficult to create an orderly and coherent life. By drawing on the creative resources of the imagination, however, people are able to construct imagined worlds, which constitute meaningful frameworks of life. Some of these imagined worlds are associated with a distant place with which people identify, because they and/or their ancestors have formerly lived there or otherwise been closely associated with it. Such displaced, imagined "homelands" can become quite "fantastic and one-sided", because they are not confronted with the actual places to which they refer (ibid.:193).

It is possible to understand the Danish West Indian exhibit as a form of imagined world created and maintained by people who have only limited contact with the lived world which it represents. This is certainly the case with respect to the Danish West Indian Society, the prime organizer of the exhibit [..]. The society can trace its origins to a group of "Danish civil servants and gendarmes" who met in 1917, shortly after the colony had been transferred to the United States. It is explained in a special issue of the Danish West Indian Society's journal, which was sold at the exhibit, that during colonial times Danish officials hoisted the Danish flag, the Dannebrog, every morning "at the Danish forts, the military barracks and the governmental buildings to assert the Danish role on these exotic tropical shores." When the Dannebrog was lowered for the last time, "it was cut into small pieces, and every one of the parading gendarmes c his little piece of the historic flag (Thorval 1992:7). When these people met a couple of months later in Copenhagen on the Danish flag day, Valdeman's Day, in order to celebrate Dannebrog, they decided to found an association called "The Danish West Indies." This organization met for many years in the premises of the Danish regional "homeland societies in Copenhagen. (13) When most of the older members with direct ties to the West Indies had passed away, the association was turned into a more cultural and historical society presenting lectures, slide shows and films about Denmark's colonial history.

For many years this society had dominated and sustained the Danish interest in the former Danish West Indian colony. It has also organized a number of highly successful exchange vists with its sister organization "The Friends of Denmark" in the Virgin Islands. The visits usually take place late in March [in] connection with "Transfer Day", a public holiday in the Virgin Islands, when the islands' transfer from Danish to American rule is remembered by flying the Danish flag in the morning. Since the 1950s the Virgin Islands have become a popular tourist destination. The islands' Danish past has been an important attraction in the tourist industry because it is seen to give the islands a particular "Old World" charm. The old Danish street names and the historical buildings from the Danish period have been emphasized as some of the most important elements in the islands' Danish heritage in the tourist brochures. The impression that the islands hear the imprint of a significantly Danish past is therefore rather easily affirmed by a brief tourist visit.

It is no wonder that the Danish West Indian Society's view of the former Danish West Indies is influenced by its founders' close personal ties to the former colony. It is remarkable, however, that this view has been so generally accepted in Danish society that few reacted against the exhibit at the Nikolaj Gallery, or supported the protest levelled against the exhibit by the West Indian visitors. The reason should be found, I have argued in the fact that the view of the Danish West Indies which the exhibit represents, has become an integral part of the dominant Danish perception of the nation's history.. Furthermore, the imagined Danish West Indies world, which the exhibit represented [...], can be seen to be highly relevant for modern Danish self-understanding. It grants to Danish life great moral human value at a time, when this life is lived in a highly shrivelled national space, and when Danes find themselves in the margins of a world dominated by foreign superpowers and an array of different technical, economic, cultural and social flow from foreign metropoles. The Danish West Indian world imagined in Denmark may bear little relation to the lived world of the former Danish West Indies. It rather constitutes a representation of a powerful internal Danish mindset which has thrived for many years and, ...as such, is real enough. Adopting another view of Danish West Indian history hence involves much more than revising Danish views [the] historically and geographically distant subject of Danish rule. It involves revising many Danes' view of themselves.

Notes

1 In the first headline, the Danish word eventyr means both adventure and fairy tale. These reviews appear in Borhnolmeren, Kristeligt Dagblad, and Pilitiken.

2 Bornholmeren August 1, 1992.

3 The texts at the exhibit are excerpts of articles published in the book Kunstnere i tropesol [Artists in the tropical sun] (1992). This book was published by the Danish West Indian Society in collaboration with Nikolaj Gallery in connection with the exhibit.

4 For an analysis of the Danish West Indies from this point of view see my book on St. John (Olwig 1985a).

5 The labor rebellion and the economic and social problems which led to it is discussed in Jørgen O. Bjerregaard's historical review in Kunstnere i tropesol (1992). He argues that it had been necessary for the authorities to introduce the labor regulations which, in many ways, can be seen to have caused the rebellion. See also Tyson (1995).

6 One of Hans Lynge's paintings is shown on the cover of the exhibition publication Kunstnere i tropesol. It shows a Black woman on a beach dressed in a bikini which does not cover her breasts.

7 The exhibit contained texts both in English and Danish. Unfortunately, I only noted the Danish texts. My English translation of the Danish texts may therefore be slightly different from the English texts at the exhibit.

8 The Danish West Indian Company, which was founded toward the end of the Danish period, was one of the most ambitious Danish projects of the time. It was later purchased by the Danish East Asiatic Company and was for many years an important economic factor on St. Thomas due to the fact that it owned a major part of the harbor in Charlotte Amalie. It was sold to the Virgin Islands government recently.

9 One result of the Danish cultural politics in the West Indies which has been noted by many Danish visitors o the islands is that many of the older people who attended Danish school were able to sing Danish children's song. *An example can be found in Fra Slav sang til Soca [From Slave Song to Soca], a book and tape which provides fine illustrations of the cultural complexity which has always characterized the islands (Bjerregaard et. al. 1991).

10 There has been a major debate in Denmark whether the ban of the slave trade was motivated by humanitarian or economic causes. This is discussed in Green-Pedersen (1970-71; 1981). The Schimmelmann family was one of the few from Denmark which owned great plantations in the Danish West Indies. The family remained in Denmark and managed its estates through overseers (Degn 1974).

11 I had called the article "Danes in the West Indies - and West Indians in Denmark", but when it was published it had been changed by the newspaper to "Racist exhibit".

12 The Danish writer Thorkild Hansen's trilogy The Slaves' Coast (1967), The Slaves' Ships (1968) and the Slaves' Islands (1970) also belong within this more critical history tradition. The last volume, which describes slavery in the Danish West Indies, focuses on the emancipation of the slaves, and Peter von Scholten's role in this.

13 "Regional `homeland'" is rather loose translation of the Danish word hjemstavn and the German equivalent Heimat.

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DISCUSSION: In two consecutive paragraphs on pp. ?? and ?? Ms. Olwig demonstrates certain commonalities between a significant segment of the Danish underclass in Denmark and the enslaved in the Danish West Indies. Cite these two paragraphs and tell whether or not these class affinities facilitated betterment of the condition of Blacks in the West Indies. How do you suppose the struggle of the Danish underclass influenced the later struggles of D. Hamilton Jackson for a free press in the Danish West Indies?