King Gustav III Statue in Stockholm

In June 2020 the chairman of Afrosvenskarnas riksförbund (the Afro-Swedish National Federation) called for the removal of a statue of Gustav III, the king who brought Sweden into the transatlantic slave trade and made Sweden a colonising power through his purchase of the Caribbean island of Saint-Barthelémy in 1784. However, politicians and journalists in Sweden were largely against the removal of statues, citing either the supposedly iconoclastic nature of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement or the importance of resisting ‘historical revisionism’. Some suggested the importance of preserving and presenting all sides of history, including aspects which were more difficult to address. This case study highlights the unique nature of Swedish debates on its colonial past and concepts of Swedish ‘white innocence’, as well as the resistance to the removal of contested statues in Sweden’s capital.