Cecil Rhodes protest: Protesters warn campaign to remove statue could spread to other historical figures

Oriel College’s recently decided to retain the statue before a consultation over its future had been completed

Richard Garner
Education Editor
Monday 01 February 2016 15:22 GMT
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The controversial statue of Cecil Rhodes on the front of Oriel College, Oxford
The controversial statue of Cecil Rhodes on the front of Oriel College, Oxford

Campaigners have said they will “redouble” their efforts to remove a statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes from an Oxford University college.

They also issued a warning the campaign could spread to encompass the removal of tributes to other historical figures, arguing that “murderous colonists and slave-holders belong in books and museums, not on the side of buildings”. “This requires the removal and rehousing of statues and portraits and the renaming of buildings,” they added in a statement.

They accused Oriel College of “selling out” and warned the university it was critical that it “reckon” with its past colonial history apologise for its links with the “ideological violence of empire”.

The decision to carry on with the campaign emerged at a meeting of the Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford group in the wake of Oriel College’s decision to retain the statue before a consultation over its future had been completed.

“We are not backing down and we will be redoubling our efforts to take the struggle to the university as a whole,” said Sarah Atayero, one of the campaign organisers.

However, the group did not announce details of its future strategy other than to say it would be holding further assemblies to discuss the issue. It said it did not have and did not intend to draw up a list of other plaques and monuments that it felt should be removed.

Rhodes was a student and member of Oriel College in the 1870’s. He left money to the college on his death which has allowed scholarships to be made available to more than 8,000 overseas students.

The college has distanced itself from his political beliefs described by opponents as “apartheid-style” and “racist”, saying: “Rhodes was ... a 19th century colonialist whose values and world view stand in absolute contrast to the ethos of the scholarship programme today and to the values of a modern university.”

The plea from campaigners to pull the statue down met with a barrage of criticism from former Rhodes scholars - including, as The Independent revealed, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, himself a former Rhodes scholar.

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