Frozen Colony

Uncovers the dark truth behind Denmark’s exploitation of Greenland, its oppression of Inuit identity and its attempts to thwart global calls for self-determination. As Donald Trump threatens to ‘take’ Greenland, the vast island occupies the public spotlight like never before. Much has been written about who might claim its future—but little about the colonial history that still shapes its present. Anne Kirstine Hermann reveals the untold story of Denmark’s successful campaign to retain its last colony. With the United Nations demanding self-determination after World War Two, Greenland was officially decolonised in 1954. But instead of granting full independence, Denmark convinced the international community that the island was a natural Danish possession and incorporated it as a Danish province. While Greenland was hailed as a model territory and Denmark a humane coloniser, Copenhagen implemented numerous programmes to refashion Greenland in its own image, suppressing indigenous language and culture and uprooting communities. Inuit children became pawns in this operation, coerced into Danish-language boarding schools or forcibly adopted by Danish parents. So-called decolonisation became one of the most oppressive chapters in the island’s history. Through extensive archival research and the vivid recollections of Greenlanders, Hermann documents the hidden human cost of Greenland’s unfinished decolonisation. Reveals Denmark's 1954 ‘decolonisation’ as one of the most oppressive chapters in Greenland's historyBuilt on archival research and first-hand testimony that hasn't been told beforeTimely against the backdrop of the US / Denmark deal on Greenland