Decolonization of public space
The decolonization of public space is a social movement that appeared at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century in several nations around the world, in the face of the persistence of colonialist symbols such as place names and statues. The movement and its actions emanate from anti-racist and anti-colonial associations, or from descendants of communities that suffered from European colonization. It is the most publicized example of de-commemoration.
This process began in the former colonies after they gained independence in the second half of the 20th century. From there, it then spread to the Western world at the beginning of the 21st century. This demand reached its peak among the Māori in New Zealand in the 2010s. It did not reach its peak in North America, in Belgium, or the United Kingdom until 2020 in the wake of the demonstrations against racism and police brutality following the murder of George Floyd, who was killed by the police on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.
History of the movement
The questioning of the public markers of European colonial history began in the 1960s, during the independence of many formerly colonized regions. Initially occurring in the former colonies, this movement would spread to Europe itself as a result of the advancement and spread of postcolonial studies.This protest gained particular import in 2020, when the emotion aroused by the murder of George Floyd in the United States spread in the Western world, relaunching the Black Lives Matter movement. As a result, there were then many militant depredations, destructions, and removals of statues that activists expressed a desire to de-commemorate, such as those of Christopher Columbus in the United States, of the explorer James Cook, and of the British naval commander John Hamilton in New Zealand, of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis, of the slave traders Edward Colston and Robert Milligan in Bristol, England, of Queen Victoria, of the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and of Robert Baden-Powell, founder of world-wide Scout Movement, after being accused of racism, homophobia, and links with the Nazi regime.
Modes and fields of action
Modes of action
The decolonization of public space can be achieved through spontaneous removals, during popular demonstrations, or through long negotiations or awareness campaigns. Similarly, intermediate solutions can be found such as the installation of explanatory plaques.Some activists cover monuments and statues with militant inscriptions or spray them with red paint, a symbol representing blood. The activists of this movement, who refute the term "vandalism", consider their actions as a form of strongly symbolic street art.
Fields of action
In the public space, colonialist references and the memory of atrocities are made up of very diverse elements. These may be statues or monuments, names of public roads or places, national symbols, cultural elements or even commercial signs.In Africa
South Africa
Within the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the Rhodes Must Fall movement broke out in 2015. This collective, composed of students and staff members, demanded and obtained the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes that stood at the entrance to the campus. Erected in 1934 in gratitude for the land he left to the university, the monument paid tribute to Cecil John Rhodes, former prime minister of the Cape Colony, white supremacist, and symbol of British imperialism at the end of the 19th century. Subjects of discontent were invoked by the collective, such as the under-representation of non-whites within the management and teaching staff, and the supposed persistence of institutional racism, notably via the numbers of registration or tuition fees, or the housing conditions of non-white students.Although unorganized, the Rhodes Must Fall movement spread throughout the country. Julius Malema, founder of the Economic Freedom Fighters, called for the destruction of all monuments related to the history of white South Africa. Other statues symbolizing white domination were vandalized over several weeks, including the Statue of Queen Victoria in Port Elizabeth, the equestrian statue of Louis Botha and the Rhodes Memorial in Cape Town, the statue of King George V at the University of Durban, the statue of Johannes Strijdom in Krugersdorp, several statues of Paul Kruger, as well as various monuments commemorating the Second Boer War such as the Uitenhage War Memorial and the Horse Memorial in Port Elizabeth. At the University of the Free State, it was against a backdrop of violent racial and social tensions that the statue of Charles Swart, president during the apartheid era, was set on fire, toppled, and thrown into a pond. The protests were rekindled in July 2020, following the murder of George Floyd in the United States. Colonialist monuments were once again targeted in the country. The bust of Cecil Rhodes, located in his memorial in Cape Town, was then decapitated with a grinder.
Democratic Republic of Congo
A statue of Leopold II, inaugurated in 1928 by Albert I, was installed in Kinshana in front of the Palais de la Nation, the current presidential building.The monument was torn down in 1967 on the orders of Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko, at the height of his policy of a "return to African authenticity", and then forgotten for nearly 40 years.
In 2005, Congolese Minister of Culture Christophe Muzungu decided to put the statue back in place, arguing that colonial history should not be forgotten "so that this does not happen again". Initially re-installed near Kinshasa's main train station, it was removed less than a day later.
The statue finally joined the heights of the park of the National Museum of Kinshasa. Rehabilitated in 2010 with the help of the United Nations Mission in Congo, it is accompanied by the statue of his successor Albert I, of founder of Leopoldville Henry Morton Stanley, as well as a sculpture in memory of the Congolese soldiers of the colonial army. According to the historian Isidore Ndaywel, "The idea was to make an open-air museum".
Zambia
The term "Rhodesia" refers to the possessions of the British South Africa Company in Southern Africa within the Limpopo-Zambezi basin region. This toponym was made official by the BSAC in May 1895, and by the United Kingdom in 1898. It pays tribute to Cecil Rhodes, British businessman, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, and the founder and administrator of the BSAC. In 1911, the colonies of North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia merged to become Northern Rhodesia, administered under royal charter by the British South Africa Company until 1924, then as a protectorate by the government of the United Kingdom.In 1953, the British founded the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, grouping together three of their colonies: Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia, and Southern Rhodesia. This colonial experiment, which aimed to create a multi-racial society where political collaboration between the races would reign, had the objective of taking back control of the territory by London in the face of the rise of the Afrikaners from the Union of South Africa, the economic development of this region of southern Africa, and was to delay the desires of independence among the African population. The establishment of the federation granted certain political rights to blacks, but the white minority continued to dominate political life. The arrangement met with opposition from the majority of the inhabitants, both the small white settlers and the African leaders who were violently hostile to it.
The election of a segregationist party in Southern Rhodesia led to the breakup of the Federation of Rhodesia-Nyasaland, which was dissolved on 31 December 1963. Southern Rhodesia remained in the hands of white settlers, and became the only "Rhodesia". Nyasaland declared its independence and took the name Malawi. Finally, Northern Rhodesia, which also gained independence, abandoned its reference to Cecil Rhodes as a symbol of British imperialism at the end of the 19th century, and became Zambia in 1964.
Zimbabwe
Country name
When Zimbabwe gained independence in April 1980, its new authorities led a major campaign to decolonize its public space, both in its monuments and in its toponymy. This began in particular with the change of the country's name. Formerly called Southern Rhodesia in reference to the British colonizer and businessman Cecil Rhodes, the country was renamed Zimbabwe.Monuments toppled
In May 1980, the portrait of Cecil Rhodes was removed from the reception room of the Government House and sent to the National Gallery in Salisbury. In July, his statue, erected in 1928 on Jameson Avenue, was removed by the government a few hours before the official visit of Mozambican President Samora Machel to carry out ceremonies for the inauguration of the avenue bearing his name. The statue has since been on display on the grounds of the National Archives of Zimbabwe. This was followed in 1981 by another statue of Rhodes, then located on Main Street in Bulawayo which was relocated to Centenary Park, near the city's National Museum.Famous places
The capital Salisbury, named after the British Prime Minister Lord Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, was renamed after its main township, Harare, on the second anniversary of independence in April 1982, thus paying tribute to the Harawa tribal leader.In 1984, Rhodes-Matopos National Park, where Cecil Rhodes' grave is located, was renamed Matobo National Park. Similarly, Rhodes' Rhodes-Inyanga National Park in eastern Mashonaland was renamed Nyanga National Park in the early 1980s.