Last week a cake in the shape of a stereotypical depiction of an African woman turned out to be food for discussion. Swedish Minister of Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth started an event about freedom of expression by cutting the lower part of the cake. While she did, all smiles, the head started to scream. The message of the action was against female genital mutilation suffered by women across the African continent. Afro-Swedish artists Makode Linde was commissioned to make an artwork for the 75th anniversary of the Swedish Artists’ National Organisation at Moderna Museet on April 15. The purpose of the work was to make the audience uncomfortable. The event itself was about freedom of expression, the struggle against censorship and the freedom of art. The Afro-Swedish population, however, wasn’t very pleased with the role of the Minister of Culture. According to Afrosvenskarnas Riksförbund, it is an act of racism and Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth should step down.
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