The purpose of a statue is to honour greatness. Yet, Britain is peppered with statues to those who have harmed people, such as slave traders and colonialists. Events in the summer of 2020 sharpened the focus as the world reeled in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. This was a symbolic catalyst. Since then, an incredible seventy UK statues, dedicated to slave traders, colonialists and racists, have been removed. But, far too many still remain. Dismantling such symbols of oppression is, in my opinion, entirely justified. Why on earth would we glorify those who wronged and harmed people?
Statues celebrate the glorious, so why keep the inglorious on display? Statues usually commemorate the honourable. Surely then, it is contradictory to keep those commemorating dishonourable slave traders. Who wants to immortalise those who traded in human misery? Until June 2020, Bristol city centre was dominated by the towering bronze figure of 17th-century slave trader, Edward Colston. From the 16th century to the 19th century, an estimated 10 to 20 million slaves left Africa. Forced from their homes, and families, they were transported to the Americas to work in plantations. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most horrific stains on our humanity. Why then do we continue to accept the presence of statues to these ogres? And big names are among them: there is the famous explorer, and murderous slave trader, Sir Francis Drake; then there is Henry Dundas, a Scottish politician, who prevented the abolition of the slave trade for fifteen years after it should have been eradicated in 1792, which ultimately led to 630,000 slaves having to wait more than a decade for their freedom. After all, in other contexts, in other places, statues of the shameful have been toppled. Take the tearing down of a monument to Saddam Hussein, in 2003. Iraqi strongman, Kadhem Sharif “al-Yabani” Hussen took a sledgehammer and smashed the statue of the shamed dictator known as the ‘Butcher of Baghdad’. Obviously, he understood the contradiction of a statue celebrating a disgraceful man.
Moreover, since the UK is more multicultural than ever before, many are offended by the continued presence of statues celebrating colonialists. With changing attitudes, a large chunk of society now sees the British Empire as pernicious; yet, statues glorifying colonialists remain. Modern-day Britain is struggling with racial tensions, much of which springs from colonialism. These tensions are heightened by the myriad colonialist statues that still stand. Take the statue of Cecil Rhodes. Standing proudly outside Oriel College, Oxford, Rhodes is a controversial figure. Today, many view him as the 19th century poster-boy for everything that is disgusting about Empire. He epitomises white supremacy, colonialism and unalloyed racism. In 1895, his British South Africa Company established the southern African territory of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, as a British colony. In 2015, a protest group called Rhodes Must Fall, started at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, which also has a Rhodes statue. The movement insisted that it was not targeting Rhodes himself. Rather, that by continuing to prominently display the statue, it legitimises the colonialism he stood for. Surely, that is indisputable. His will leaves no doubt of this. In it, he admits that his, “… true aim and object whereof shall be for the extension of British rule throughout the world…” Surely, leaving Rhodes’ statue standing outside one of the most prestigious UK universities suggests that those in power still harbour visions of racial superiority.
Undoubtedly, many of our inherited statues are no longer compatible with today’s progressive values and so should be removed. They should be replaced with structures that are truly representative of contemporary Britain. According to the 2011 Census of England and Wales, out of a population of over 56.1 million people, 14% identified their ethnicity as non-White European. That’s 7 million people. Yet, out of the 950 UK statues standing today, a mere 16 are of black people. This is wrong. We need statues to represent who we are in today’s society. We need statues that represent how we want the rest of the world to view us. And surely that is not as a country where being white, being a man and being privileged is truly representative of the population as a whole. Therefore, it should be celebrated that in September 2021, a public statue was raised in Cardiff to Betty Campbell. Notably, she was not male, or white or posh. During the 1970s, she was the first black, working-class woman to reach the position of headteacher in a Welsh school. Just as notably, her statue was erected as a result of a public vote. Her school, Mount Stuart Primary in Butetown, Cardiff, was an example of, “…best practice in equality and multicultural education throughout the UK”. Therefore, the Welsh people who voted to commemorate her, in a statue, are sending out a vision of themselves as inclusive. And she is not the only person to have done good for their community. There are many people who could better represent our society. Marcus Rashford is a good candidate. There is already a mural to him in Manchester, which states underneath: ‘Take pride in knowing that your struggle will play the biggest part in your purpose’. In the summer of 2020, Rashford campaigned successfully for the continuation of free school meal provision for underprivileged children. Despite his wealth and fame, he exemplifies social conscience. Certainly, this is the image of the UK that should proudly beamed out – not that of a disgusting, colonial past.
However, the British Government does not wish to see such statues dismantled as it believes that they are part of our history. The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has stated that, “To tear [statues] down, is to lie about our history”. In fact, the Government is so concerned that it has brought in new laws to protect statues. These will ensure that historic memorials are ‘retained and explained.’ They think that it is a better to keep statues and have a plaque nearby to explain the actions – good and bad – of the person honoured.
If the UK Government believes statues to murderous slave traders must be preserved, why did Spain, Germany, Ukraine and Georgia, amongst others, tear down statues of equally murderous men like Franco and Stalin? For example, in 2007, Spain’s Historical Memory Law, demanded, “the removal of all Francoera symbols from streets and buildings”. In 2010, a statue of Stalin was removed from Gori, Georgia. Did these nations not care about history as much as Boris Johnson does? More likely, they wished to signal how much they disapproved of what these men did. The UK Government’s failure to recognise that the continued presence of statues, like that of Edward Colston, was offensive suggests that it does not wholly disapprove of how Britain’s wealth was built off the backs of enslaved people. Ben Luke, editor of the Art Newspaper agrees that, “Statues are not history; often they are impediments to truth because they are erected to glorify the powerful as a fig leaf for their flaws and iniquities.” Edward Colston was a powerful man who had many such flaws and iniquities, most prominently the enslavement of human beings. What is his statue if not a glorification of the slave trade?
Ultimately, no matter how greatly a city, or country, benefited, in the past, from evildoers’ contributions, this is nullified by the fact that they made that contribution at the cost of human lives. Statues to such individuals are an eyesore. They misrepresent what Britain wants to be today. Instead, we must strive to be what Robert Louis Stevenson described as an inclusive, non-exploitative community of, ‘multifarious, incongruous, and independent denizens’. And the statues erected must reflect this.
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