Rhodes Must Fall: The Struggle to Decolonise the Racist Heart of Empire - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1786993902 ISBN 13: 9781786993908

Publisher: Zed Books (UK), 2018

Synopsis

When students at Oxford University called for a statue of Cecil Rhodes to be removed, following similar calls by students in Cape Town, the significance of these protests was felt across continents. This was not simply about tearing down an outward symbol of British imperialism – a monument glorifying a colonial conqueror – but about confronting the toxic inheritance of the past, and challenging the continued underrepresentation of people of colour at universities. And it went to the very heart of the pernicious influence of colonialism in education today.

Written by key members of the movement in Oxford, Rhodes Must Fall is the story of that campaign. Showing the crucial importance of both intersectionality and solidarity with sister movements in South Africa and beyond, this book shows what it means to boldly challenge the racism rooted deeply at the very heart of empire.

About this title

About the Author

Rhodes Must Fall is a protest movement that began on 9 March 2015, originally directed against a statue of British Imperialist Cecil Rhodes at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The campaign for the statue's removal received global attention and led to a wider movement to decolonise education, by inspiring the emergence of allied student movements at other universities across the world.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Rhodes Must Fall

The Struggle to Decolonise the Racist Heart of Empire

By Roseanne Chantiluke, Brian Kwoba, Athinangamso Nkopo

Zed Books Ltd

Copyright © 2018 Roseanne Chantiluke, Brian Kwoba and Athinangamso Nkopo
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78699-390-8

Contents

Preface Kehinde Andrews, ix, 
Introduction from the Editors Roseanne Chantiluke, Brian Kwoba and Athinangamso Nkopo, xv, 
PART I: RHODES MUST FALL IN OXFORD!, 
1 Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford Founding Statement RMFO, 3, 
2 Protesting the Rhodes Statue at Oriel College Ntokozo Qwabe, 6, 
3 Wake Up, Rise Up André Dallas, 17, 
4 Skin Deep: The Black Women of Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford Athinangamso Nkopo, Tadiwa Madenga and Roseanne Chantiluke, 21, 
5 Dreaming Spires Remix Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, 38, 
6 Ignorance Must Fall Princess Ashilokun, 40, 
7 Letter of Support: The Codrington Legacy in Oxford Michelle Codrington, 44, 
8 Codrington Conference: 'What is to be Done?' Dr Simukai Chigudu, 52, 
9 Britain's Black Debt: Reparations Owed for the Crimes of Native Genocide and Chattel Slavery in the Caribbean Sir Hilary McDonald Beckles KA, 62, 
10 Reparations in the Space of the University in the Wake of Rhodes Must Fall Patricia Daley, 74, 
11 Interviewing for the Rhodes Scholarship Julian Brave NoiseCat, 90, 
12 The Rhodes Scholarship: A Silver Lining? Brian Kwoba, 98, 
13 Decolonising Whiteness: White Voices in Rhodes Must Fall Arthur (Eirich), Anasstassia Baichorova, Claudio Sopranzetti, JanaLee Cherneski, Max Harris and Roné McFarlane, 103, 
14 Anti-Blackness, Intersectionality and People of Colour Politics Athinangamso Nkopo and Roseanne Chantiluke, 136, 
PART II: SISTER MOVEMENTS, 
15 Black Feminist Reflections on the Rhodes Must Fall Movement at UCT Kealeboga Ramaru, 147, 
16 Of Air. Running. Out. Athinangamso Nkopo, 158, 
17 Decolonising SOAS: Another University Is Possible Akwugo Emejulu, 168, 
18 Colston: What Can Britain Learn from France? Olivette Otele, 174, 
19 Student Voices from Decolonise Sussex Lavie Williams, Isabelle Clark and Savannah Sevenzo, 179, 
20 The Pro-Indo-Aryan Anti-Black M.K. Gandhi and Ghana's #GandhiMustFall Movement Odádélé Kambon, 186, 
21 Harvard: Reclaim Harvard and Royall Must Fall Rena Karefa-Johnson, 207, 
22 An Interview with Princeton's Black Justice League Asanni York, 212, 
23 #LeopoldMustFall: Queen Mary University of London QM Pan-African Society, 227, 
PART III: GLOBAL REFLECTIONS AND REVERBERATIONS, 
24 Resisting Neocolonialism from Patrice Lumumba to #RhodesMustFall Kofi Klu, 247, 
25 Decolonising Mathematics Kevin Minors, 259, 
26 To Decolonise Math, Stand Up to its False History and Bad Philosophy Chandra Kant Raju, 265, 
27 Decolonising Pedagogy: An Open Letter to the Coloniser Lwazi Lushaba, 271, 
28 'British Values' and Decolonial Resistance in the Classroom Roseanne Chantiluke, 285, 
29 Decolonising Reparations: Intersectionality and African Heritage Community Repairs Esther Stanford-Xosei, 309, 
30 Decolonisation, Palestine and the University Anonymous, 319, 
31 The Struggle to Decolonise West Papua Benny Wenda, 337, 
32 Why Does My University Uphold White Supremacy? The Violence of Whiteness at UCL Ayo Olatunji, 351, 
Notes, 361, 

CHAPTER 1

RHODES MUST FALL IN OXFORD FOUNDING STATEMENT

RMFO (Facebook, 28 May 2015)

Cecil Rhodes has fallen. His statue has been removed and the uncritical memory of his legacy has been discredited at the University of Cape Town – where the Rhodes Must Fall Movement – a movement to decolonise education, targets the still-active tentacles of colonial relations in Africa.

But Rhodes – and more importantly the culture that inculcated his imperialism in the first place – remains unscathed. Indeed, this culture is alive and imbibed in 'The Colonial Comeback', the cocktail the Oxford Union recently served up at its Reparations 'Debate' (see on p. 104). But brutality must not be debated.

And so, Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford.

The University of Oxford is an institution that has, for centuries, produced, profited from, and memorialised the violent conquests of Rhodes and other 'great' imperial men – including Codrington, Jowett, Pitt Rivers and many others. It is a place choked with buildings, monuments, libraries and intellectual legacies raised from colonial pillage. And it continues to uncritically exist at the centre of an empire that remains untouched.

We stand here, in Oxford, in solidarity with all those people on empire's periphery, and bring the world's decolonising fight to its heart.

Rhodes Must Fall.

In Oxford, the spirit of imperialism is not simply kept alive by buildings but also by what is inside them. The habits of mind and ways of relating that stoked colonialism continue to hang in Oxford's halls and infuse its institutional cultures. Oxford continues to colonise the minds of future leaders through its visual iconographies, the concepts and histories on its curricula, the networks of power, the cultural capital, and the 'civilised' culture of 'taste' in which students are steeped.

At Oxford, survivors of imperialism find their own history held hostage, bequeathed to the archives by their oppressors. At Oxford, so many find their histories excluded, or almost unidentifiable in Oxford's imperial iconographies of space. Here, people experience the pain of cognitive dissonance because there is no 'legitimate' language for their own experience and knowledge and few curricular resources to invoke to change that. Within the Pitt Rivers Museum, survivors find their families, their ancestors, their 'selves' unapologetically disciplined into objects of inquiry.

In the University, resisting spirits are carved up through Eurocentric relations cut through with epistemic violence. Our minds are intellectually disciplined instead of engaged – on equal footing – as autonomous, creative intellectual agents.

Rhodes must therefore fall.

But it must be emphasised that this movement is about more than Rhodes. Rhodes, as an agent of empire, signifies a perspective that is the product of a seemingly innocuous approach to education. He is the product of an institutional culture and a colonisation of the mind that reaches far more deeply than the figure of one individual.

So for Rhodes to truly fall, Rhodes must first stand.

Rhodes must be made to stand, revealed for what he really represents: the mutually productive culture of violence, racism, patriarchy and colonialism that to this day remains alive, aided and abetted by the University of Oxford, which continues to stand as an uncritical beneficiary of empire.

Rhodes, and Oxford, must therefore stand trial in the court of public opinion that is rising on the edges of empire.

Here, in the inner halls of imperialism, Rhodes Must Fall.

#RhodesMustFallOxford1

CHAPTER 2

PROTESTING THE RHODES STATUE AT ORIEL COLLEGE

Ntokozo Qwabe

On 6 November 2015 more than 250 Oxford students gathered in front of Oxford University's Oriel College to call for the statue of Cecil John Rhodes to fall. The protest lasted for more than two hours and chants such as 'Rhodes was bailed out, we were sold out!', 'Rhodes Must Fall! Take it down!', 'De-de-decolonise', were shouted throughout. Vice Provost Prof. Annette Volfing and Senior Dean Dr Francesco Manzini of Oriel College came out to receive a petition, but were told by students to sit down with them as equals. The representatives from Oriel as well as the entire crowd sat down as Rhodes Must Fall Oxford organising member, Black South African Rhodes scholar, and UCT alumnus Ntokozo Qwabe, presented the 85-page petition. The petition had more than 1,900 signatures and 45 pages of comments from signatories. What follows is Ntokozo's powerful speech given before he presented the petition to Oriel College.

I can no longer be silent and complicit in the glorification of colonialism. I am quite unwell today and I was wondering whether or not I would be able to do this and in fact, yesterday I went to see a doctor who said I must stay in bed. Amandla!

Crowd responds: Awethu!

After that I rejected the suggestion that I should stay in bed while you are out here fighting the continuation of a brutal system. Thank you for taking the fight to this institution. You guys are making history. You are the first people to come out and do this at Oxford in years. You are the ones that history has been waiting for. You are the ones that history will remember. Amandla!

Crowd chants: Awethu!

Now, before I address the authorities of Oriel College I have a special request that I want to make of the authorities. Often when we engage with these authorities we are often suffocated by the institutional titles behind which they hide. Alright? So often we engage with them as the Provost of Oriel College, the Dean, the so-and-so of Oriel College and we don't engage as human beings. And that in itself is a process of dehumanisation because I, as a descendant of the people that Rhodes brutalised, am told that I should talk to some institution and not to a person who interacts with me as an equal and as a human being. Amandla! So the request that I'm going to make is that I'm going to sit down, this is a trend which the South African movement has adopted when engaging authority, OK? So, we sit down with the authorities. Alright? So we ask the authorities that they sit down with us so that we engage at the same level. Amandla! So we asked the authorities that they sit with us and that they sit with me. I know that I am a person of colour but we don't bite so I would very much appreciate if we can sit down and engage as equals rather than as a student and as authorities of Oriel.

Crowd chants: Please sit down! Please sit down!

So now I would like to request that you comrades sit down with us because we are doing this as a collective and we are engaging with the authorities of Oriel as equals, seated down because there are our representatives that we have entrusted with power but they are one of us at the end of the day. How does it feel to sit down with me? Amandla!

Crowd chants: Awethu!

Amandla!

Crowd chants: Awethu!

Forward with Rhodes falling forward!

Crowd chants: Forward with Rhodes falling forward!

Forward! Amandla!

Crowd chants: Awethu!

Alright, now that we've gotten that business out of the way, a few things. This is how the process of handing over the petition will follow, so I will read you excerpts from the petition. I might read the entire thing in case Oriel needs to hear the entire thing in order to get it that Rhodes must fall!

Crowd chants: Take him down!

Rhodes must fall!

Crowd chants: Take him down!

So, I will read the petition and then I will read a few comments from people from Oriel College because we mustn't paint everyone who is within Oriel College as the enemy. The enemy is the institution. The enemy is the college. The enemy are the titles behind which people hide. But there are progressive people at Oriel and there are people who have told us that they stand with us in our call to decolonise Oxford and in our call for the statue to fall. Because they recognise that silence is violence!

Crowd chants: Silence is violence!

Silence is violence!

Crowd chants: Silence is violence!

We can no longer be silent!

Crowd chants: We can no longer be silent!

Amandla!

Crowd chants: Awethu!

So after reading if you have those comments I will then read something of my own to the authorities of Oriel, not as an activist but as a child of my ancestors and as a person who has to deal everyday with the legacy of this man who is glorified in this place, and who has to deal with the everyday violence that comes with the mass impoverishment of South Africans in South Africa, which Oriel apparently celebrates because you know, violence is nice. Amandla!

Crowd chants: Awethu!

Now, let me read you excerpts from the petition. The petition is here comrades, the petition is here. We had to protect it from the elements.

Crowd laughs.

Unfortunately there is no one to protect us in Oxford, but you know. Now, I'm sure that the authorities might have already had a glance at the petition so I want to read the entire thing and in any event, I think like, they can just utilise Google and frankly just download it themselves. Amandla!

Crowd chants: Awethu!

Now, the petition reads, and in your voice as the students of Oxford who are tired in being complicit in the racist glorification of the brutal colonial project:

'We the undersigned call upon Oriel College to take down the statue of Cecil Rhodes that sits overlooking the High Street. This statue is an open glorification of the racist and bloody project of British colonialism. An architect of apartheid in South Africa, Rhodes is the same apartheid colonialist who said' – and I will not sanitise this part, I will not sanitise it. I will see it as he said it. Rhodes, to my people – 'I prefer land to niggers. I prefer land to niggers. The natives are like children, they are just emerging from barbarism. One should kill as many niggers as possible.' Rhodes to my people – 'and in putting his murderous colonial project into practice' – instead of tacit complicity, like we are seeing here at Oriel College.

Crowd cheers.

Amandla!

Crowd chants: Awethu!

Amandla!

Crowd chants: Awethu!

Down with racist symbols down!

Crowd chants: Down!

Down with racist symbols down!

Crowd chants: Down!

Amandla!

Crowd chants: Awethu!

'We find it deplorable that Oriel College continues to glorify an international criminal through its uncritical, deeply violent iconography. As long as the statue remains, Oriel College and Oxford University in general continues to identify with Rhodes' values and to maintain a toxic culture of domination and depression. We believe that colonialism, racism and patriarchy, that the statue is steeped in, has no place in our university. The removal of the statue would be a welcome first step in the university's attempt to redress the ways in which it has been an active beneficiary of empire. While it remains standing, the statue of Rhodes remains a celebration of not just the crimes of the man himself, but the imperialist legacy on which Oxford University has thrived and continues to thrive. While the statue remains, Oxford University continues to condone the persistent racism that shadows this institution even today. For centuries Oxford University has produced, profited from and memorialised the violent conquest of Rhodes and other great Imperial men, including of course, Christopher Codrington, Benjamin Joab and Augustus Pitt Rivers and many other racist colonialists whom, frankly, it would take the whole day to list and mention individually. The university is strewn with visible symbols of its colonial inheritance and remains at the intellectual heart of unjustly attained global privilege. At Oxford, those whose histories, like myself, have been marked by imperialism, are shadowed by statues of their oppressors as they walk through the University and find their history held within the archive of oppression. Here, at Oxford, at Oriel College, a growing number of students are plagued by the absence of legitimate critical means to articulate their experiences and are excluded from a culture rife with Imperial apologism.' Amandla!

Crowd chants: Awethu!

'This exclusion violates the university's own purported commitment to fostering an inclusive culture which promotes equality, values diversity and maintains a working and learning social environment in which the rights and dignity of all its staff and students are respected. The University of Oxford continues to colonise the minds of future leaders through its visual iconography, the concepts and histories on its curricula, the gross underrepresentation of people of colour and other marginalised groups in its staff and student community, the exclusionary networks of power, the cultural capital. This will never be able to change if statues of racist and murderous men maintain their position and visibility as part of Oxford.'

Crowd cheers.

'There is no place for Cecil Rhodes on the High Street, at Oriel College, at Oxford university or anywhere else in the world.'

Crowd cheers.

'The statue must therefore fall.'

Rhodes must fall!

Crowd chants: Take him down!

Rhodes must fall!

Crowd chants: Take him down!

Rhodes must fall!

Crowd chants: Take him down!

Now, before handing over the petition, which I will do in a moment, I want to say something to Oriel College and to the authorities of Oriel College who are here with us today. Oriel College has made a number of statements regarding this issue and many of them I find, quite honestly, offensive and violent, as a descendant of the people that Rhodes wronged, and the people that Rhodes butchered and brutalised. Now, what even hurts me the most is that this violent language that Oriel uses is couched in progressive speak. Oriel goes telling people in its pseudo progressive rhetoric that it is proactively acting to deal with the question of Rhodes. It mentions how it has offered to meet with us and how it is somehow leading the project to make Oxford an inclusive space. But where is the proactivity? Where is the proactivity? The fact that it took an entire movement for you to recognise that actually, a statue of a racist colonialist is a problem. The fact that it took an entire movement and hundreds of students at Oxford sitting down with you for you to get the message, and to even come out is an indication that you are not proactive. So please stop lying to us. Down with lies, down!

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Rhodes Must Fall by Roseanne Chantiluke, Brian Kwoba, Athinangamso Nkopo. Copyright © 2018 Roseanne Chantiluke, Brian Kwoba and Athinangamso Nkopo. Excerpted by permission of Zed Books Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Zed Books (UK)
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1786993902
• ISBN 13: 9781786993908
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 406
• Editor: Brian Kwoba, Roseanne Chantiluke, Athinangamso Nkopo