UK Students Want Cecil John Rhodes’ statue Destroyed
12 July 2015
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Sky News/Agencies|Barely a few months after South African students effected the removal of British business explorer and imperialist Cecil John Rhodes’ statue, some British students based in Oxford are now calling for the removal of another of Rhodes’ statues stationed on British soil.
The student group at Oxford University is calling for the statue at the institution to be taken down because it is claimed to symbolise racism and colonialism.

Rhodes' statue at Oxford Uni
Rhodes’ statue at Oxford Uni

The statue of Cecil Rhodes – dubbed by some the founding father of Apartheid – is more than 100 years old and sits in a Grade II listed building at Oriel College.
The group wants the university to follow the example of the University of Cape Town which pulled down its statue of the white supremacist in April.
Annie Teriba is a member of Oxford University’s Rhodes Must Fall movement. The second year history and politics student told Sky News the statue represents institutional racism.
“It’s a reminder, more than being a statue, that when this university was built it wasn’t built with us in mind it was built off the back of exploiting labour and the colonial project and it’s something that still gets celebrated in the form of a statue. That’s something that students of colour really take seriously.
“There’s a violence to having to walk past the statue every day on the way to your lectures, there’s a violence to having to sit with paintings of former slave holders whilst writing your exams – that’s really problematic.”
She and other members of the movement take inspiration from fellow students in South Africa. In April they successfully campaigned to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes at Cape Town University.
In life, Cecil Rhodes was ruthless in his pursuit of the British Empire. In 1888 he launched De Beers consolidating mines in southern Africa. There, policies he fought to implement paved the way for racial segregation. Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe – was named after the diamond magnate.
His estate currently endows one of the world’s most prestigious awards, the Rhodes Scholarship.
The postgraduate award brings students – which have included former US president Bill Clinton – from around the world to study at Oxford University.
Oxford student Brian Kwoba says Cecil Rhodes’ legacy can be redeemed by his financial contributions.
“It wasn’t Rhodes’ money, it was money taken from the labour of southern African miners, who he exploited, that created the wealth that now endows the scholarship that is in his name,” he said.
“Similarly, at All Souls College there’s a library called The Codrington Library [which is] named after a slave owner who had plantations in Barbados in the Caribbean and exploited that labour and then took the money to then endow the library that exists.
“As soon as we start raising these issues a natural question becomes who should actually benefit from these scholarships.”
A spokesperson for Oriel College told Sky News: “When Cecil Rhodes died in 1902 he left 2% of his estate to Oriel College, where he had been a student.
“His legacy helped to fund the construction of a new building, opened in 1911, which is now Grade II* listed. The building frontage included a statue commemorating his benefaction.
“Now, over a century after the building was constructed, Rhodes is thought of very differently. The College draws a clear line between acknowledging the historical fact of Rhodes’ donation and in any way condoning his political views.
“Oriel College is committed to being at the forefront of the drive to make Oxford University more diverse and inclusive of people from all backgrounds.”
But the calls have been labelled retrogressive and misguided by a large section of the British community. Commented one white Zimbabwean based in Yorkshire, “Cecil Rhodes the founder of Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe did more for that country than anyone of the natives of that country but since the white population was driven out by them and the British government.
Annie Teriba and her mates should go to Zimbabwe and look at the state the people are in – well half of them, those who are not members of the ruling tribe. When the whites were driven out the blacks took over the farms and businesses and within a year the whole lot was in ruins because they were either incapable of running then or just too blasted lazy. Under the country that Rhodes founded they had homes, food and money now most of them have no jobs, money or homes worth living in.
Annie Teriba is just an attention seeker looking to make a name for her self – she should sod off back to her own country – it’s certainly not an English sounding name.” – SkyNews/Additional Reporting

7 Replies to “UK Students Want Cecil John Rhodes’ statue Destroyed”

  1. I do not understand the sense in removing the statues of people that caused havoc several generations ago instead of dealing with people that are committing humanitarian crimes at present. We have people like Mugabe walking scotch free despite the several atrocities they committed and are currently committing or perhaps you want to pull down his statue at some learning institution in twenty years time?? It is such academic madhouses that keep churning out arrogant, snobbish, hypocritical and pee minded bastards that do nothing but influence policies that worsen this Babylon called earth. I mean what do we gain from pulling down stone artifacts??

  2. Whatever these individuals in Africa have touched, they’ve destroyed! The minute they kick the previous white colonialists out if the country they ALL go on a massive looting, plundering, pilaging campaign and within a couple of years that country is a total wreck, a basket case that becomes totally reliant on food aid and financial aid from the Western White folk, the very folk that they preach hatred against in their own country yet cannot obtain a passport fast enough to come and live amongst us. Get one thing straight comrades, we have absolutely no time for any of you, you’ve bought your filth to our mother England and we want you ALL out of England like you backward tribalistic peasants want the white folk out of Africa!!! We all know that the reason you don’t want us in Africa is that you don’t want to be shown up as a bunch of ignorant useless fools who we ALL refer to as a bunch of “BORN THIEVES”!!! Now get out of England you semi literate fool and leave Rhodes statue alone. We want to be reminded of what he did in Africa and I want my children to remember him as a good man…whereas what do you blacks have to bring to the party, oh yes, a Mugabe and a bunch of savages who have taken the country back to the era of mud huts, use oxen as opposed to tractors, walking instead of driving a car, drawing water from a river instead of a borehole and so the list of negatives associated with you lot goes on and on!!!

  3. I think we currently have the biggest and dangerous statue in Zimbabwe which needs to be removed, instead of focussing on Rhodes a dead man who died long long years ago before Mugabe was even born.
    Lets currently focus on removing Mugabe who is killing abducting and harassing his own people. Rhodes and Smith never harassed their own people but rather protected them unlike Mugabe who is also a racists.

  4. They must campaign for the removal of Mugabe who is causing them hardships as of now, They are diverting attention from real problems to talk about removing the stature of man who is long gone, Rhodes. You cannot change history by removing the stature, but rather shape your future, by talking about removing a man who is destroying your country as we speak right now.
    The dead cannot do us any more harm.

  5. Muchenjere not to bite the finger that feeds you.mvamwe vakazviita and Rhodes scholarships were withdrawn, leaving them with a bleak future with no education in today’s world!

  6. If they resent the statue of Rhodes so muchthe answer is simple- find a university built by a person of colour and go there!! We can’t stand by and let these people dictate to us anymore. Go to a uni in Saudi Arabia – but get out – our country -our rules!!!

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