Cecil Rhodes statue to be removed from Cape Town University

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...th-Africa.html

British colonialist is toppled by 'poo protest': South African university votes to remove bronze of Cecil Rhodes after students throw excrement at it

• University of Cape Town bosses have bowed to demands to remove statue
  
• Colonialist Cecil Rhodes donated the land that the university was built on
• Students launched a 'poo protest' saying statue made them feel alienated

A South African university has voted to pull down a statue of a British colonialist after students threw a bucket of excrement at it.

Bosses at the University of Cape Town bowed to demands to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes after a series of protests on campus.

UCT, the oldest university in South Africa and regularly ranked as the best on the continent, was built on land donated by Rhodes, a mining magnate who died in 1902.

A statue of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes is shown covered in plastic bags as part of a protest by students and staff of the University of Cape Town


Students and staff of the University of Cape Town stage a protest against the statue of Cecil Rhodes. Excrement was launched at the statue during one protest

But the 'poo protest' was launched by a small group of students earlier this month, sparking a series of demonstrations demanding that the statue be torn down.

Many of the students involved in the protests never lived under the injustices of white minority rule, but say they still experience racial discrimination 21 years after the end of apartheid.

The large statue of a notoriously racist Rhodes gazing across an Africa that he coveted for the British empire made them feel alienated on a campus still dominated by white staff, they said.

On Friday, the university senate voted 181 to one to remove the statue permanently from the campus, after vice-chancellor Max Price acknowledged 'the many injustices of colonial conquest enacted under Rhodes' watch'.

While the university council still has to endorse the move at a special meeting on April 8, the statue will be boarded up until it is handed over to government heritage authorities, university spokeswoman Pat Lucas said.

'It is certainly a victory for us,' said student representative council president Ramabina Mahapa.

'It means we are being heard by the larger community.'

But the disappearance of Rhodes is unlikely to end the debate on racial transformation launched by the protest, which gave rise to similar demands for change at two other universities.

In the east coast city of Durban, students at the University of KwaZulu Natal splattered white paint and anti-racism slogans on a statue of Britain's King George V.

And at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape, activists want the institution to be renamed.

The protests have also sparked debate among academics, historians, politicians and writers of letters to newspapers.

Students have dismissed the argument that Rhodes should be honoured for donating land for the campus, saying he stole it from black Africans in the first place.

Eusebius McKaiser, an author and commentator who attended Rhodes University and won a prestigious international Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, said in the New York Times: 'South African universities remain a testament to the country's colonial heritage in terms of what they teach, who does the teaching, and the morally odious symbols that haunt our campuses or lurk in their very names.

'At Rhodes, 83 per cent of senior management staff remain white and 77 per cent of "professionally qualified staff," a category that includes academic teaching staff, are white,' he said.

Whites make up about eight percent of South Africa's population of some 54 million.

Throwing poo at statues? So basically, and rather ironically, they're just returning to their pre-Dutch/British savage ways.

AND YES I WILL SAY THAT and boo hoo if you don't like it. Before those 'nasty whites' came and brought civilisation, southern Africa didn't even have the wheel invented and was a hellhole..... and every single part of Africa since that evil white man left has returned to the hellhole it was beforehand. Just look at the former Rhodesia and what Mugabe and his henchman have done to what was a paradise of progress in a nightmarish continent. If you are white, asian or happen to be an educated black South African then all I can say is state the obvious: get the hell out of that place whilst you can because Zimbabwe 2.0 is just around the corner, especially now that Mandela has gone as despite his terrorist ways at least he kept the more extreme nutters from coming to power but now he's no longer there who is to stop them?

Africa can remove as many French, British, Dutch and Ottoman statues as it wants but that still doesn't hide the fact that it was the French, British, Dutch and Turks who made those countries, built the roads, built the infrastructure and built the education systems which they're still using now. That's just the historical FACT and pulling down statues and renaming things won't change that: although in the interests of fairness, if they loathe it all so much then why not dismantle all the infrastructure and institutions that the likes of Rhodes brought to Africa too?

If you are offended (oooh boo ******* hoo) by what I say then take a walk and open up a history book because i'm not interested.

Thoughts?

[-:Undertaker:-]

Here's some of the best comments. Spot on too.

In many respects, you'd have to ask whether the likes of Rhodes would actually want their statues standing in what has become of Rhodesia and South Africa.

[Grig]

They need to find more harmony, like Singapore. Appreciate the foundation of a nation where mind you, boarders did not exist previously. Albeit that may be a bit controversial, but those nations wouldn't be without Sir Cecil. Some may view it negatively and fair do, but these people wanted nationhood that the British established. The ANC has simply not moved on beyond apartheid and Rhodes was simply a founder, did Raffles envision self-government, no, but he made the nation exist and set foot for some sort of infrastructure. I'm not sure how far Africa would have progressed as a tribal hinterland. Also, why can't the ANC move beyond petty politics, they will eventually loose, might take a couple more decades though.

[-:Undertaker:-]

They need to find more harmony, like Singapore. Appreciate the foundation of a nation where mind you, boarders did not exist previously. Albeit that may be a bit controversial, but those nations wouldn't be without Sir Cecil. Some may view it negatively and fair do, but these people wanted nationhood that the British established. The ANC has simply not moved on beyond apartheid and Rhodes was simply a founder, did Raffles envision self-government, no, but he made the nation exist and set foot for some sort of infrastructure. I'm not sure how far Africa would have progressed as a tribal hinterland. Also, why can't the ANC move beyond petty politics, they will eventually loose, might take a couple more decades though.

Problem is that most of them vote either on racial lines or tribal lines so no matter how bad they are they will get in.

Only have to see how Obama got 92% of the African American vote or something.

[GommeInc]

The fact it happened at a University is quite shocking. I hope these people never leave the country, as such appalling, tribal behaviour would not be tolerated in civilised society. It's a pity they decide to resort to this when they could just have acted a bit more appropriately.

[Grig]

Problem is that most of them vote either on racial lines or tribal lines so no matter how bad they are they will get in.

Only have to see how Obama got 92% of the African American vote or something.

The younger generation are starting to see different in SA though. Look at the young African line-up at the Democratic Alliance that was considered a "white party." In America, it's a different story, with all the events in the past year, it'll need a whole debate to talk about that.