Governing sexual citizens: decolonization and venereal disease in Greenland

ABSTRACT

In the post-WWII decolonization era, the prospect of an open, decolonized Greenland, with unrestricted mobility for inhabitants, intensified medical experts’ pre-existing concerns over sexually transmitted diseases. During the colonial phase, medical and administrative authorities could govern Greenlanders as subjects and accordingly control their mobility and interactions with Europeans. However, the decolonization agenda threatened to undermine this situation. Greenland could no longer remain a colony, enclosed and sealed off from the rest of world by trade monopoly and strict limitations on access to the country imposed by the Danish authorities. Doctors were concerned by two impending shifts that threatened to undermine efforts to control sexually transmitted diseases. First, Greenland’s decolonized status would entail more or less free access to the country. Second, after decolonization, Greenlanders would have the status as citizens, and authorities could no longer govern them as (colonial) subjects. This paper demonstrates how medical authorities struggled with the Greenlanders’ transition from controllable (sexual) subjects to rights-bearing (sexual) citizens. The paper provides a fresh perspective concerning this watershed moment, between colonialism and the process of decolonization in Greenland.

KEYWORDS:

• Decolonization
• Greenland
• venereal disease

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Sundhedsstyrelsens lægeekspedition til Grønland 1947–48.

2. I would like to thank my colleagues at the Saxo Institute at the University of Copenhagen, Gunvor Simonsen, Karen Vallgårda, and Niklas Olsen for their generous and productive comments on an early draft of the article.

3. As was the case in most colonial projects, colonial authorities had limited ability to govern colonial subjects in the initial phase. The governmental capacity, however, grew as the colonial project became more established and far reaching during the eighteenth and especially nineteenth centuries.

4. Especially since the 1990, the growing push for recognition of sexual diversity has secured inclusion of gendered and sexual ‘others’ in citizenship and has led to the formulation of the concept of ‘sexual citizenship’ (see for example Sabsay, “The Emergence,” 1 and Richardson, “Rethinking Sexual Citizenship”). As I explain below, I use the phrase sexual citizens in a different sense.

5. One notable exception is Todd Shepard’s study of Algerian decolonization and French sexuality (Shepard, Sex, France and Arab Men).

6. Fanon, Black Skin, 177 [Peau Noire, Masques Blancs, 1952].

7. Fanon, Black Skin, 177.

8. Said, Orientalism, 188. Elaborating on the interconnections between colonialism and sexuality, Anne McClintock writes that Europeans established Africa and the American continents as ‘porno tropics […] a fantastic magic lantern of the mind onto which Europe projected its forbidden sexual desires and fears’ (McClintock , Imperial Leather, 22). Megan Vaughan, in a similar vein, describes colonial discourse on Africa (including medical discourse) as ‘shot through with a male sexual imagery of conquest, penetration and subjugation’ (Vaughan, Curing Their Ills, 19).

9. Rud, Colonialism in Greenland, 26–27.

10. Seiding, “‘Married to the Daughters of the Country’”.

11. Seiding, “‘Married to the Daughters of the Country’”, 257.

12. Fanon, Black Skin, 251 [Les Damnés de la Terre 1961].

13. Vaughan, Curing Their Ills; Arnold, Colonizing; Anderson, Colonial Pathologies.

14. Vaughan, Curing Their Ills, 8.

15. Arnold, Colonizing, 9–10.

16. Anderson, Colonial Pathologies, 2.

17. Ludvigsen, Dagbøger.

18. During a visit to a small outpost in South Greenland, for example, Dr. Ludvigsen examined all unmarried Greenlanders for venereal disease. The ‘result became four Greenlanders’, and he discovered that one 14-year-old girl had been raped by a 21-year-old man. Ludvigsen seized the opportunity to take legal actions against the man. The authorities handled the case very swiftly, and the man ended up sentenced to two months’ penal labour the following day. The swift proceedings were possible – as Ludvigsen explains – since so many Danes (i.e. colonial authorities) were present. (Ludvigsen, Dagbøger, 118 – all translations from Danish in the article are by the author).

19. Nexø, “Undesired Contacts”.

20. Jansen and Osterhammel, Decolonization, 1. Other scholars use ‘decolonization’ as a broader concept, encompassing several waves of decolonization, ranging from the eighteenth century to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, see for example (Kennedy, Decolonization).

21. As noted by many scholars, the number of members states in the UN have grown significantly, from 51 members in 1945 to 193 members in 2021 (Jansen and Osterhammel, Decolonization, 11; Kennedy, Decolonization, 1). Jansen and Osterhammel insist on the relevance of asking when in fact decolonization has occurred. They argue that trajectories towards state independence can be woven ‘into more comprehensive and intricate processes of ending colonial rule and extending political, economic and cultural sovereignty’ (Jansen and Osterhammel, Decolonization, 2).

22. See for example Petersen, Grønlandssagens; Sørensen, “Ophævelsen”; Beukel, Jensen, and Rytter, Phasing Out; Heinrich, Eske Brun; Olesen, “Between Facts and Fiction”; Sørensen, Denmark-Greenland; Olesen, “Et helligt hverv”; Gulløv, Danmark og kolonierne.

23. This position is informed by the postcolonial scholarship, which, as noted by Jansen and Osterhammel ‘arose from the disturbing observation that ‘colonial’ habits of thinking have not automatically gone away with the loss of colonialism’s importance as a political institution’ (Jansen and Osterhammel, Decolonization, 33). The decolonization process includes the political development leading to Home Rule in 1979 and Self-Government in 2009 as well as the efforts to come to terms with the colonial past. For example the statue of colonizer/missionary Hans Egede was painted with the word ‘decolonize’ in summer 2020.

24. See for example Petersen, Grønlandssagens; Sørensen, “Ophævelsen”; Beukel, Jensen, and Rytter, Phasing Out; Heinrich, Eske Brun.

25. Beukel, Jensen, and Rytter, Phasing Out; Olesen, “Between Facts and Fiction”; Olesen, “Et helligt hverv”.

26. Sørensen, Danmark-Greenland; Beukel, Jensen, and Rytter, Phasing Out; Heinrich, Eske Brun; Gulløv, Danmark og kolonierne.

27. Beukel, Jensen, and Rytter, Phasing Out.

28. See for example Petersen, Grønlandssagens; Sørensen, “Ophævelsen”; Beukel, Jensen, and Rytter, Phasing Out. Changes were underway in Greenland well before WWII. Negotiations between Greenlanders and members of Danish parliament’s Permanent Committee on Greenland took place in Copenhagen in 1939. The war, however, cut off connections with Denmark and became a catalyst for the decolonization process. Greenlanders experienced widened room for political manoeuvre and noted the effectiveness of local administrative procedures. While there was an articulated desire to resume connections with Denmark, it was nevertheless obvious that things had to change (Sørensen, Denmark-Greenland; Gulløv, Danmark og kolonierne).

29. In spite of the exceptionality of the ‘integration as decolonization model’, we can connect the development schemes in postwar Greenland with the widespread welfare and development-oriented reform policies instigated by colonizers to reaffirm the ties to their colonies. In their 1976 introduction to History of East Africa, Vol. III (Low and Smith), Low and Lonsdale called the development plans and social engineering schemes of the pos- WWII period a ‘second colonial occupation’ (Low and Lonsdale, 12). See also Jensen, Postcolonial Denmark, 102–27.

30. In Danish: Sundhedsstyrelsens lægeekspedition til Grønland 1947–48. The Danish National Health Service made no secret of the fact that healthcare in Greenland was far from satisfactory (Grønlandskommissionen 1950b).

31. Erik Lynge left the expedition in summer 1947 due to a medical problem. Vagn Sindbjerg-Hansen continued the activities, conducting the remainder of the visits, primarily to the northern part of the west coast, during the winter by dogsled. Sindbjerg-Hansen was the single author behind the expedition report. According to the report, the doctors visited 90–95% of the population (Grønlandskommissionen 1950b, 13–16).

32. Grønlandskommissionen 1950b, 16.

33. Tuberculosis patients occupied around 70% of existing hospital beds, and Sindbjerg-Hansen deemed the capacities for treating and testing the disease deeply unsatisfactory (Grønlandskommissionen 1950b, 41).

34. Grønlandskommissionen 1950b, 126–27.

35. Grønlandskommissionen 1950b, 123.

36. Ibid.

37. Grønlandskommissionen 1950b, 126.

38. Grønlandskommissionen 1950b, 163.

39. Li, The Will to Improve, 7–10.

40. See note 35 above

41. Bertelsen, Grønlandsk medicinsk statistik, 153.

42. Doctors were concerned about venereal diseases in Greenland from early on in the colonial project. When cases of gonorrhoea appeared in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and sporadic outbreaks of syphilis appeared, doctors worked to limit and control the diseases.

43. Bay-Schmith, “Gonorrhoeundersøgelser.”

44. Bay-Schmith, “Gonorrhoeundersøgelser,” 15.

45. Bay-Schmith, “Gonorrhoeundersøgelser,” 1.

46. Bay-Schmith, “Gonorrhoeundersøgelser,” 14.

47. Lange, “Bemærkninger,” 42.

48. Helms, Syfilis i Grønland. Helms’ conclusion was disputed by Søren Hansen (MD) and Carl Lorentzen (MD) (Hansen, “Syfilis i Grønland”; Lorentzen).

49. See for example Nexø, “Undesired Contacts”; Christensen and Rud, “Arctic Neurasthenia”; Rud, Colonialism in Greenland; Rud, Den rette blanding.

50. Merry, “Law and the Colonial State,” 890.

51. Mamdani, Citizen and Subject.

52. In the previous year (10 July 1926), the Provincial Council for South Greenland had debated the same proposition (Tvungen Befolkningsundersøgelse under veneriske Sygdomme). The district doctor had raised the matter, together with the municipal council in Julianehaab district (today Qaqortoq) in response to the occurrence of gonorrhoea in the area. The (Greenlandic) councilors adopted the proposition with support from the Danish chairman, after a lengthy discussion (Grønlands Styrelse 1928, 634).

53. Grønlands styrelse 1928, 768–69.

54. Ibid.

55. Grønlands Styrelse 1933, 63–64.

56. Grønlands Styrelse 1933, 64.

57. Gulløv, Danmark og kolonierne; Gad, Grønlands historie; Gad, Grønlands historie 2; Gad, Grønlands historie 3; Rud, Den rette blanding; Rud, Colonialism in Greenland; Rud, “Governance.”

58. Steinmetz, The Devil's Handwriting.

59. Phillips, Sex, Politics, 2; Nexø, “Undesired Contacts”; Seiding, “Married”; Rud, Colonialism in Greenland; Rud, Den rette blanding.

60. See also, Seiding, “Married.”

61. Rud, “A Correct Admixture”; Gulløv, Danmark og kolonierne; Rud, Den rette blanding; Rud, Colonialism in Greenland.

62. Rud, “Policing.”

63. Preliminary instructions for the Holsteinsborg police force: Nunatta allagaateqarfia – Grønlands National Arkiv, Box 33.08.001, Holsteinsborg syssel, sysselretten.

64. Police register: Nunatta allagaateqarfia – Grønlands National Arkiv, Box 33.08.001, Holsteinsborg syssel, sysselretten.

65. Ibid.

66. Grønlandskommissionen 1950b, 127.

67. Ibid.

68. Grønlandskommissionen 1950a, 26.

69. Grønlandskommissionen 1950b, 6.

70. See note 38 above.

71. Grønlandskommissionen 1950b, 130.

72. Fenger, “Grønlandskommissionens Betænkning,” 607.

73. Grønlandsposten 28. februar 1948 (opråb fra oversundhedskommissionen).

74. Grønlandskommissionen 1950a, 105.

75. Grønlandskommissionen 1950b, 7.

76. Grønlandskommissionen 1950a, 1950b.

77. Grønlandskommissionen 1950a, 44–78.

78. Kayser in Rink, Samling, 63.

79. Ronnenberg, “Problemer.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Søren Rud

Søren Rud is associate professor at the University of Copenhagen (Saxo-Institute, Department of History). His work has focused on the development of modern governmental techniques across metropole and colony. Resent work centres on the great reform schemes that aimed to transform Greenland into a welfare state in the 1950s and 60s, and the intersection between expert knowledge and political power. Important publications include Colonialism in Greenland: Tradition, Governance and Legacy, 2017, Cambridge: Palgrave Macmillan. (Cambridge Imperial and Postcolonial Studies) and Political Power and Social Theory: Rethinking the Colonial State Ivarsson, S. & Rud, Søren (eds.), 2017, Emerald Group Publishing.