Greenland was colonised by the Danish. This statement might seem neither here nor there to most, but the concept of colonialism is outright offensive to some Danes, particularly if referring to Greenland’s current status. It’s taken me a while to really accept this information, as it is so strange to me that people can reject something that seems pretty obvious. On quite a few occassions I’ve encountered discussions where the word colony has been raised and I have witnessed – with incredulity – the discomfort, irritation, dismissal, and sometimes outright anger that suddenly results. Many Danes completely reject the idea that Greenland is, or even was, a Danish colony.
Initially I just brushed these strange encounters aside as anomalies. But they keep happening. Just the other day, a respected colleague was the latest in the line of Danes who have become visibly upset in my presence at the concept that Greenland is a Danish colony. “Outrageous”, he called it. “Ridiculous!” that Greenlanders would use such a word.
But hang on a minute. Something’s wrong here. Do I not understand the word colonize? Here is what colonize means according to the Oxford and Cambridge English Dictionaries respectively,
“To send settlers to (a place) and establish political control over it,”
“To send people to live in and govern another country.”
Could the Danish word for colony have a slightly different connotation? Well, I don’t think so. Here’s an English translation of the Danish word koloni,
“land area that a state has acquired outside its own original territory, often in another continent, which is in a political and economic dependency relationship with that state,” (Den Danske Ordbog).
This sounds like Greenland to me. And not just the Greenland of the past, but the Greenland of the present.
Here’s what happened in Greenland. In 1721, believing the Norse settlements in Greenland to be still in existence, the Danes-Norwegians sent a Christian mission to Greenland and developed trading colonies along the coast. One of those was the capital, Nuuk, where kolonihavn (colonial harbour) is the original settlement. In 1953, a change to the Danish constitution saw Greenland officially change from a colony to an overseas consituency of the Danish Realm. But for some time after that there were no fundamental changes to the system of government or administration. In 1979, Greenlanders voted in favour of Home Rule, leading to greater autonomy. And in 2009 Self Rule was established, seeing transfer of authority over education, health, fisheries, resources, environment, and climate. Denmark still retains sovereignty over the police, courts, defence, national security, the monetary system, civil law, and foreign affairs. Greenland also relies on an annual block grant from Denmark amounting to about 25% of Greenland’s gross domestic product.
Today’s situation, with shifting powers, may be more nuanced than the past. Probably noone really wants to use the term colony anymore. And officially Greenland isn’t a colony. But what about in practice? Did Danes move to Greenland and establish political control? Yes. Do Danes still live in Greenland and retain significant political and economic control? Yes. Is Greenland a Danish colony? Well…yes.
