My initial thoughts to the #RhodesMustFall campaign was a simple automated reflex of solidarity and agreement. The new knowledge that there were statues of Rhodes in a public space somewhere quite actually surprised me. Was this the same Rhodes I read about in my history classes, founder of De beers and British South Africa company? The great colonialist, imperialist and one of the architects of apartheid South Africa. That very same RHODES!? To learn that that very same Rhodes had his massive sculpture positioned at the entrance of University of Cape Town (UCT) for all black and minority students to peep up at his towering image every time they went for lectures; and across the oceans, his statue positioned at the lofty most position at the entrance of Oriel College Oxford for students to pass under like a majestic unreachable colossus. So yeah of course I was all for #RhodesMustFall , no doubt.
Now don’t get me wrong. I consider NOT myself a victim of our past colonial oppressors. In fact I feel empowered and proffered with all the grand opportunities any youth of the 21st century can possibly have. I have an exceedingly brighter prospect of a better life than the luck of my parents and their parents before them combined. I see and treat all races as though there were no racial divide. Some of my best friends are white people, plenty of Russians. Living in London I’ve seen some of the kindest and sweetest people I’ve ever met, people concerned with not offending others, but rather to live with the sentiments of “live and let live.” I’ve drank tea with one of my Russian friends into the night during a mooncake festival and warmly looked at him laughing at something I’d said and thought to myself how I couldn’t imagine that his ancestors (perhaps Russians have no history in Africa and therefore not the best example to use) had connection to oppression of minorities. Because he could have wondered the SAME about ME! Because I too acknowledge the history of my black ancestors who enslaved, plundered, killed and bullied neighbouring tribes because they had the numbers to do so. The Mfecane & Difaqane wars I studied about in text books where nothing but a result of the bulldozing expansion of the (black) Zulu nation under the infamous Shaka Zulu, with massive atrocities committed during this period…black nations looting, decapitating, killing, shaming, torturing, branding, castrating….and ultimately resettling entire tribes, pushing many into desert areas to die of lack…that is part of my heritage too as a black person. The past was a pretty nasty time, barbaric times stemming from ignorance of the times.
Thanks to increased interaction and exchange of ideas, stereotypical walls have been broken; people intermarry and colour is a thing of the past. So because we all appreciate the terrible ignorance of our ancestors and decry a lot of their acts, what gives us the right to erect statues and monuments in public squares in their honour? History and public education is one thing, in which these statues will do very well in museums and text books. I’m not only talking about the Rhodes statue, I’m also talking about statues of my own “great” black leaders like Shaka Zulu, who has an entire airport named after him (King Shaka International Airport near Durban) and Xhosa and Swati passengers having to transit through this airport hallowing the name of a person who committed terrible things against their people.
You see, that’s what I think is the significance of #RhodesMustFall , the idea that a sign of progressiveness is when a people is able to question cultural values and practices done out of routine without so much as considering the progenitors of such value systems, the very same ancestors we acknowledge had it all wrong. To most white people, attempts by disgusted minority to take down the Rhodes statue sounds unreasonable, and the same apathy can be extended to a black person of Zulu origion to the cry of a Xhosa, Swati or Sotho person decrying the praise of their people’s captor, Shaka Zulu.
This is a very broad topic and I have no intention of going further, perhaps only to point out universality of this kind of discussion, mushrooming in all places where the past clashes with the present; as in America, where college students are calling for renaming of buildings and faculties, as well as the moratorium on the use of the confederate flag last year. Rhodes must fall and all these similar campaigns are a sign of a thinking, contemplating and retrospective people writhing to the discomfort that their education and enlightenment brings to their young minds, and I LOVE IT! #RhodesMustFall was a necessary catalyst to initiate dialogue and debates of such issues…in this case… people proffered lofty statuses and busts at university entrances for donations they made, without considering the source of their wealth and from which people’s backs it was made from. Statues have been removed before because they have always been a reflection of the times, its no new thing. This is the 21st century, why not celebrate our own, have statues of people like Malala Yousafzai in Public Squares, surely we can derive more inspiration from a statue of someone who still lives and breathes like us, because it tells us that we TOO can make it in OUR times…so on and so forth…you get the drill right? Yeah you do
