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Greenland Has Been Fighting Off Americans for Over a Century
Greenland Has Been Fighting Off Americans for Over a Century was written by Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory in 2025. The article was published online by The Walrus.
The author discusses how the Kalaallit think about their shared history of exploitation by both the Danish and Americans, but particularly in the context of recent American threats to annex Greenland.
The author charts a history of American aspirations in the region, dating back to "[trying] to include Greenland in the Alaska Purchase in 1867". At first, the U.S. investments were received as an opportunity to shake off Danish imperialism. The Kalaallit are necessarily bilingual, but English has rapidly transitioned from a third language to the lingua franca. "At first, the use of English was a defiant challenge to the ubiquity of Danish as a colonizing language in Greenland, and its use was encouraged. ... Now, the use of English has become necessary to protest the American takeover attempt."
A motif of this shared history, as examined through this lens, is "aqaatit (singular aqaaseq)--pet songs, nonsense words, oft-repeated sayings, witty aphorisms, and exaggerated noises of affection, mostly directed at children but which often spill into adulthood and stick for life". Most important are the aqaatit learned from the wave of American soldiers who began to appear during World War 2 and would frequently proposition women: "Bang bang tonight ok ok."