“Ever since I researched the meanings of monuments in the cultural landscape in Mexico City, I’ve been fascinated by the cultural politics of memory and heritage. The removal of a statue is a cultural 180, acknowledging what was once honored and revered is now something that is not worthy of that distinction. This sort of change is not without protests on both sides and a cultural rearticulation of who ‘we’ are when ‘we’ make a public memorial.”

Source: geographyeducation.org

Cecil Rhodes was the namesake for the Rhodes scholarship at Oxford University and the colonial names of Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) and Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia).  He was deeply connected to British colonialism and was one of the most ambitious colonizers that expanded the British Empire.  This week a statue of Cecil Rhodes on the University of Cape Town campus was removed.  See the BBC article, Yahoo News!, and PRI podcastfor more details. 

Questions to Ponder: Why do you think this monument to Cecil Rhodes was established in 1934?  Why was it removed in 2015?  What does this say about South African politics and culture?  How might we characterize the supporters and opponents of the statue?

Tags: South Africa, Africa, historical, colonialism, political, landscape.