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Cecil Rhodes Statue Will Not Be Removed

Despite protests to have the statue of Cecil Rhodes removed from outside Oriel College in Oxford, the decision was made by the university that it should remain. The decision followed months of campaigning by students to have it removed on the grounds that Cecil Rhodes was not a man to be celebrated anywhere, by anyone. A similar statue in Cape Town (pictured) was already removed in 2015 and in 2012, Zanu PF activists in Zimbabwe demanded that his remains be exhumed and returned to Britain.

The petition to remove the statue of Rhodes in Oxford began in late 2015 with an online campaign with the hashtag #RhodesMustFall.

 

The Response

 

The university always maintained that his statue’s pride of place above the Oriel College building was a matter of free thought and not one of cultural sensitivity. Understanding concerns about linking the institute with a man who, to many, is considered “South Africa’s Hitler” the Vice Chancellor said in January that students must be prepared to embrace freedom to think at university or be prepared to study elsewhere.

The consultation took place at the end of January. The result was that the college refused to remove the statue and would take steps to clarify why the statue was to remain in place and the cultural significance that it has for Oriel College and Oxford University.

It is understood that the college would have lost in the region of £100m of funding should the statue have been removed, but this was a secondary factor. The investigation cited overwhelming support for its continued placement on the Grade II listed building from the student body and university authorities. Responses ranged from glowing support to criticism of the campaigners, claiming that they were attempting to rewrite history and ignoring his important work.

 

Who Was Cecil Rhodes?

 

Cecil John Rhodes was born in 1853 and died in 1902. He was known as a businessman who made his riches from diamond mining. It is said that he nearly had a monopoly over the diamond trade, mostly in South Africa where he was Prime Minister between 1890 and 1896 when it was Cape Colony. In life, he founded what was also then Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe) and was a fervent imperialist and visionary – attempting to create a railway stretching from “Cape to Cairo”. None of which, of course, was objectionable in itself.

By today’s standards though, he is a racist and a white supremacist. He believe that the Anglo-Saxon race was genetically superior and destined for greatness, even going so far as saying it was the first race to arrive on the planet, seizing on the Social Darwinism that some had adopted during that time. He is recorded as saying that the black indigenous people needed to be treated like children to be kept in place “just as we had done in India”.

Either way, he is a vital figure to the history of southern Africa, and important to the foundation of the South African state.