University of Cape Town Removes Rhodes Monument, 9 April 2015
Assignments, Documentary
On Thursday evening, a controversial statue of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes was hoisted from its plinth at the University of Cape Town (UCT), sealing a round of protests against institutional racism that started with a bucket of human excrement exactly one month earlier, on 9 March 2015.
Demonstrators surged forward to attack the bronze sculpture as it was lowered onto a truck, draping it in chains and striking it with their fists. Rhodes was doused in fake blood. His face was smothered in plastic. Dancing bodies crowded around him as the truck driver pulled away.
After a Month of Protests, University of Cape Town Removes Major Monument.Thursday’s events were set in motion a month ago when Chumani Maxwele, a 30-year-old political science student, flung feces at the Rhodes statue, which has occupied a prominent position in the middle of campus since being erected in 1934. “Seeing the statue every day pained me; it made me very angry,” Maxwele said. “Rhodes dispossessed and killed black people. His footprints are all over our country.”“This movement is not just concerned with the removal of a statue,” they wrote in a widely publicized mission statement. “Its removal will not mark the end but the beginning of the long overdue process of decolonizing this university.”On April 8, at the end of a meeting disrupted by students, UCT’s council ruled that the statue would be removed the following day.“As a black man, I never used to think about this statue, but now I do,” added his friend. Both students asked not to be named.“This is the biggest day in the history of this university,” said one third-year student as he jostled to watch the spectacle among thousands of other onlookers.Besides calling for the removal of offensive statues and plaques on campus, the movement insisted on increased financial support for black students, greater representation of black academic staff—UCT has just five black South African senior professors—and the adoption of pro-worker policies.
