A gift for denmark from the people of usvi

The bust of ‘Buddhoe’ is one of three statues, the people of the US Virgin Islands donated in 2016 to Denmark and Museum Vestsjælland. The gift also includes a bust of trade union leader David Hamilton Jackson and half the figure ‘Freedom’, which depicts a man with raised sugar knife while he blows into a conch shell. He symbolizes the release of the Danish enslaved, the struggle for freedom and the Danish colonial involvement. The statues were created in 1998 by sculptor Bright Bimpong to celebrate the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. The creation of the statues was initiated by Mr. Walter Brunner, whose heirs donated his copies of the statues to Denmark in cooperation with St. Thomas/St. John Committee of the Virgin Islands Historic Preservation Commission and St. John Historical Society as well as numerous citizens of the former Danish West Indies. The bust of David Hamilton Jackson is now part of the collection at the Workers’ Museum in Copenhagen. The bust of ‘Buddhoe’ is exhibited in Holbaek Museum. The statue ‘Freedom’ stands as a monument in the center of Copenhagen. It was placed in front of “Eigtveds Pakhus” in 2019.