Rhodes and George V

On Monday I wrote a blog post about the statue of John Cecil Rhodes at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Some students and staff wants it removed.

These feelings have now spread to our university but not to our campus. At Howard College Campus in Durban the statue of King George V has been defaced. I read about on News 24. But it also came a message from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).

The Executive Director: Corporate Relations of the UKZN had issued a communique and says amongst other things:

The University of KwaZulu-Natal is deeply saddened and disappointed by the group of protestors who chose not to raise their concerns regarding the King George V statue through the proper channels established within UKZN. The University supports the students’ rights to exercise lawful freedom of expression and encourages open debate and discussion …….. The University will convene an urgent naming committee meeting to review the status-quo of all statues on all our campuses.

The more I think about it, the more I understand that this is a tough question. I don’t support the idea, that old statues must be smashed. I think that a society needs to be aware of its history. At the same time it is offensive that leaders, who were – even by the standards of that time – oppressive, should be taking up the central stage, as in this case right outside the main building of a university campus.

The idea to move rather than remove statues is a good one. By doing this the community will admit that even those persons are part of the history, but they will be given a less honourable space to occupy.

The question is: where does one find such a space?

John Cecil Rhodes has been compared to Hitler, Stalin, Khmer Rouge’s Pol Pot and Idi Amin. Would any society want to have one of them as a statue – anywhere?

It is a dilemma. I am glad that the university wants to engage in debate and discussion.