(Post)colonial Norway. Interdisciplinary Studies on Norway’s Entanglement with Colonialism and its Aftermath

IV. Thursday, 11th September, 14:30-16:30

K Nordic Colonialism

Locating (post)Colonial Norway within European Historiography. A History of the Margins of Europe

In a comparative perspective between Norway and other countries such as Switzerland, the paper will address characteristics, terms, and historiographic developments of countries which in newer research have not been understood as classical colonies but rather as “colonialism without colonies”. How can we reach a nuanced understanding of the different formations of European colonies and is there something specific about countries on “the margins of Europe” when referring to colonialism?

(Post)Colonial Norway. Interdisciplinary Studies on Norway's Entanglement with Colonialism and its Aftermath

In this presentation, I introduce the anthology (Post)colonial Norway: Interdisciplinary Studies on Norway’s Entanglement with Colonialism and its Aftermath and show how, unlike other anthologies on Norway’s colonial complicity in colonialism, we apply a longue durée approach. This means we begin earlier in our analysis of Norway’s colonial entanglement when Norway was the lesser of two kingdoms during the Denmark-Norway period when Norwegians owned enslaved people and plantations, for example, in the Caribbean. While discussing cases of Norway’s contribution to Europe’s High Imperialism, for example, in the case of Norwegian officers fighting in King Leopold’s army in the Congo Free State, I will not least present some cases of Norway’s promotion of colonialism even after World War 2 while dealing with the reminiscences of colonialism in the form of more recent racism. Also, unlike other anthologies on Norway, I consider both the inner forced assimilation and colonization of the Sámi people within Norway while presenting cases from the African and American continents, the Pacific, and Norway. The period, thus, stretches beyond the establishment of the Norwegian constitution in 1814 to counter methodological nationalism and better address transnational entanglements of colonialism. I will argue that (Post)colonial Norway aims to provide a different periodization by centering questions of culture, identity, representation, and epistemologies and to demonstrate that the history of colonialism belongs to Norway like any other significant event in its history.

Scientific collection/romantic trophy. Thor Heyerdahl's theft of human remains in the Pacific

The Biological Anthropology Collection (BAC) at the University of Oslo, formerly known as The Schreiner Collection, contains around 8,000 entries of human remains and related archival material. One notable entry is a cranium from Hiva Oa in the Marquesas Islands. This contribution explores the 1936-1937 expedition of a Norwegian couple, Thor and Liv Heyerdahl, who, backed by the University of Oslo, collected human remains during their honeymoon in the Pacific islands. Norway’s position in the periphery of the European colonial powers allowed institutions and individuals to purposefully align themselves with the colonizers in certain contexts while also ignoring or slipping away from postcolonial reckoning on their participation and roles in it. The Heyerdahls’ expedition to Marquesas and published accounts on skull collecting facilitated Thor Heyerdahl's rise as a prominent explorer his prevailing status as a Norwegian national icon.

This panel aims to introduce the work-in-progress anthology, "(Post)colonial Norway: Interdisciplinary Studies on Norway’s Entanglement with Colonialism and its Aftermath." (Post)colonial Norway addresses the question of Norway’s involvement in European and US colonialism while touching upon an "inner colonialism" against the Sámi people. The panel foregrounds Norway’s complicity in colonialism starting from the period of Denmark-Norway, over the Union with Sweden, and into full sovereignty in 1905. Moreover, the panel addresses postcolonial continuities in Norwegian society in the 1950s and the more recent present. The anthology provides examples of Norway's presence in various colonies from the Danish-Norwegian period through the height of imperialism in the 19th century and into the mid-20th century, where they continued to support colonial states such as the Belgian Congo. Despite decolonization efforts in Norway's relationships with those nations once colonized, the myth of Norwegian innocence regarding colonialism remains prevalent in the Norwegian public's consciousness and discourse. The panelists will present how the anthology (Post)colonial Norway fits into the concepts of Nordic colonialism and “Colonialism from the Margins.” How is Norway comparable to or different from other Nordic states involved in colonialism, and how does it compare to other European states from the margins complicit in European colonialism? What is specific to Norwegian historiography about colonial endeavors? The panelists will present these discussions and historiographies while contextualizing Norway in European history. We will also exemplify this colonial collaboration based on Norwegian subjects traveling and collaborating in trans-imperial networks. One case, among others, will be the University of Oslo scholar Thor Heyerdahl, removing human skulls in the Marquesas past the French colonial authority in the 20th century.