Protests at Rhodes statue gain momentum across southern Africa

For years Cecil John Rhodes, the Victorian-era mining magnate and politician, lorded it over South Africa, building an empire and amassing a fortune while treating Africans with disdain.

But now, 113 years after the Englishman's death, South African students at one of the country's most prestigious universities have been seeking revenge with dramatic effect. The saga began this month when Chumani Maxwele, a fourth year political science student, threw excrement at a statue of Rhodes on the Upper Campus of the University of Cape Town.

The "poo protest" - which Mr Maxwele says was intended as a critique of "institutional racism" and linked to the "transformation agenda" at UCT - rapidly gathered support, becoming a trigger for an emotive debate on the pace of racial transformation in academia and beyond.

This week, a student body at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape called for its name to be changed, while a statue of King George V was defaced at KwaZulu Natal University. In Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, there were reports that ruling Zanu-PF party activists want Rhodes' grave removed.

The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, established by Archbishop Tutu, who is often seen as South Africa's moral compass, waded into the debate on Friday saying the student had sparked an important debate about the monuments and statues that symbolise South Africa's "divided past." But in a statement it said they had no right to "destroy our history" or hold institutions hostage.

As the debate has picked up momentum, it has laid bare the raw, racial sensitivities lingering in South Africa 21 years after the first democratic election. It also exposed the complexities the young democracy faces as it grapples with its oppressive past - symbols of which are ubiquitous, whether in the form of statues and memorials or road and place names.

"It's about time we see real transformation in our society," Mr Maxwele says, who voiced surprise at the level of support for his protest. "Our parents have been dancing around white people; our parents have been massaging white fears and white guilt and so on."

The protesters claimed a partial victory this week as Max Price, UCT's vice-chancellor, announced that the university's senior leadership agreed the statue should be moved from its current location. That proposal will be put before the UCT's council next month. The university said it had been implementing a transformation plan for a number of years, but "acknowledges that we have fallen short on some issues".

<

The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.

Ramabina Mahapa, president of UCT's Student Representative Council, says students, frustrated with everything from the low number of black academics to its "Eurocentric" culture, were waiting for a rallying point.

"When the student threw poo at the statue, finally there was something that they could support and say, 'now let's talk about the issues of transformation'," Mr Mahapa says. "Students are saying enough is enough."

Black academics have joined the protest calls. Xolela Mangcu, an associate professor at UCT, says there "was a racial majoritarianism at UCT driving black students and staff crazy". In 2013, just five of 223 UCT professors were black Africans, compared to seven out of 183 in 2004.

"In many ways it's an articulation of how black people have been feeling . . . It scares me that white society continues to be deaf to these things that [black] people are saying," says Mr Mangcu. "White people have failed to reciprocate and instead they have a certain defensiveness around the past."

Others, however, are more sanguine. Adam Habib, vice-chancellor at Wits University, agrees that frustration at the pace of transformation is an issue across universities. Yet he says if the protests had happened when South Africa was prospering they would be been seen as "simple student activism".

But set against a backdrop of tough economic times, gaping inequalities and a government prone to scandals, they are "seen as another manifestation of unhappiness; of polarisation". "Then people give it a symbolism that is more dramatic than it is," he adds.

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation