HELSINKI (AP) - Two artists have unveiled a statue of a black woman - a piece questioning the Nordic country’s colonial past in the Caribbean and its role in slavery - in the Danish capital.
The nearly seven-meter (23-feet) tall sculpture, dubbed “I am Queen Mary,” is said to be the first statue of a black woman publicly displayed in Denmark.
It depicts a black woman sitting proudly in a chair, holding a torch in one hand and a cane cutter in the other in a reference to plantation slaves’ struggle for freedom.
Virgin Islands-based artist La Vaughn Belle and her Danish colleague Jeannette Ehlers said Wednesday the figure represents Mary Thomas, a slave who led an uprising in the former Danish colony of St. Croix in 1878.
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