Ruffled feathers in Sweden
Bird watching has long been a popular and seemingly harmless weekend activity in Sweden. Its innocence, however, came to an abrupt end when many of the country’s bird lovers were suddenly confronted with allegations of racism.
For centuries, it has now been revealed, the Swedish had given birds some names that now could be considered offensive to certain groups. One species, for instance, was called “gypsy bird,” whereas another was named “negro.”
The insult “caffer,” which was used by whites against blacks in South Africa, also resembled a Swedish bird species called “kaffer.”
There were other offensive bird names in Sweden, such as “Hottentot” — apparently inspired by the name of the language of an indigenous southwest African tribe called Khoikhoi, yet also a derogatory term for that tribe.
Despite the prominence of bird watching among Swedes, the existence of these names and others like them had sparked little outrage and publicity until recently. When Sweden’s Ornithological Society completed its first global list of all 10,709 Swedish bird names recently, the organization also announced some awkward name changes: “negro” bird, for instance, will now be called “black” bird.
“When working on the list, it became obvious that some older names no longer were appropriate,” said Anders Wirdheim, a spokesman for the Swedish Ornithological Society.
Wirdheim does not think that the bird names should be used to draw broader conclusions about the Swedish society. “Out of thousands of names, there were only 10 that could be understood as condescending or even racist,” he said.
Nevertheless, Sweden’s Ornithological Society was surprised by how serious some have taken the racism allegations. “We had expected a few responses, but certainly not the flood of comments that followed the publication,” Wirdheim said.