One of the most dramatic features of the wave of “Black Lives Matter” public demonstrations that swept across the world in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis has been the attack on statues, monuments and other structures perceived as historical symbols of slavery and oppression of black people.
It is a quaint fact of American life, indicative of the complicated nuances of its history that the names and images of prominent figures, effectively traitors, who fought and lost a civil war against their nation adorn prominent sites in the nation, including city halls and military bases. The flag of the Confederacy – the banner under which the civil war was fought by the losing side, is part of the state flag of Mississippi to this day.
The marching crowds, made up mostly of black and white youths, have resorted to direct action on these symbols. They started by tearing down, defacing and burning dozens of statues celebrating the leaders of the Confederate States of America and its military. As time went on, they expanded the scope of their targeting to include statues of Christopher Columbus, the man credited with “discovering” America, but who in reality, alongside other “colonisers”, was responsible for the genocide of large numbers of native American people- the original “owners” of America.
Next, they began to press for the removal of statues of other prominent figures in American history, including some former Presidents. George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson and Ulysses S Grant – towering figures in the common narrative, but slave owners, responsible for the expropriation of native American populations.
More controversially, there was an effort to take down the statue of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts movement, in Poole, south coast of England. Baden-Powell, later in his life, distinguished himself by founding the Boy Scouts, a movement to develop the positive energy of youth
Even less controversial figures became targets because of the way they were depicted for public view. A statue of Theodore Roosevelt in New York City showing him on a horse with a native American man and a black man on their feet beside him, became a target because it depicted the other races as being inferior to the white man on the horse.
Across the Atlantic, in the United Kingdom, where “Black Lives Matter” protests were carried out with intensity, the first major target was Edward Colson, in the city of Bristol. He was a man of remarkable contradictions who made a fortune from the Atlantic slave trade and ploughed much of his fortune into philanthropic works in his native Bristol. His name was on many structures in the city, including commercial edifices and a local College.
A statue of him occupied a prominent position in the city Centre. For several years, the city authorities had been receiving requests from young black people who found themselves daily having to confront the majestic image of a man they found so abhorrent. Now, the impetus of “Black Lives Matter” drove them over the edge. They toppled the Colson statue and rolled it off the edge of the harbour into the river.
Plans were quickly made to remove “tainted” monuments in London and elsewhere in England, including, famously, the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College in Oxford University. More controversially a statue of Winston Churchill, the popular war-time Prime Minister, was defaced in Parliament Square and had to be boarded up to prevent further damage.
In Edinburgh, Henry Dundas, was a philanthropist and Tory politician who used his influence during his tenure as Home Secretary to delay the abolition of slavery in Great Britain by fifteen years. The Melville Monument, a structure dedicated to him in the city centre, was vandalised by protesters.
More controversially, there was an effort to take down the statue of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts movement, in Poole, south coast of England. Baden-Powell, later in his life, distinguished himself by founding the Boy Scouts, a movement to develop the positive energy of youth. But earlier he had fought in the Boer Wars in Southern Africa and behaved with the atrocious racism characteristic of “Rhodesians” killing black men and forcing them off their land. A photograph found in his scrapbook shows the bodies of black men dangling from a tree, while their white killers look on. The picture is titled “The Christmas Tree”.
There is an African side to the toppling of slavers’ monuments which has received scant attention to date. It was brought home dramatically by the story of Dilibe Onyeama – the second black African to attend Eton College, the famous “public school” where British royalty and the elite are groomed. He experienced extreme racism in the school, and wrote a book titled “Nigger At Eton” to describe his experience. With their conscience pricked by “Black Lives Matter”, the school is now reaching out to him, inviting him to visit and offering a personal apology.
But Dilibe Onyeama got to Eton because his father, Dadi Onyeama was a Judge of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and served on the International Court of Justice. Dadi Onyeama received education to reach such stellar heights because his own father was a powerful warrior-merchant at Arochukwu. He made a fortune from selling slaves captured in local raids. If white slave traders are having their statues toppled and their institutions are apologising, what about the black men who sold their fellows into slavery?
Dilibe has advanced a disingenuous argument to exculpate his grandfather, claiming he lacked education and awareness. It is untenable, after Achebe has told the world that Africans “had a story” before the white man, and so are accountable, like everyone else. The sins of Africa’s slave-trading forebears must be acknowledged.
Their statues, physical and mental, must be toppled too. School children must be taught to see the Madam Tinubus, the Efunsetan Aniwuras, Oba Dosunmu and other slave trading monarchs, Dilibe’s grandfather and all others who profited from the evil trade as villains and not heroes as many are portrayed in history books. Anything less would render the passionate African support for “Black Lives Matter” a display of lack of insight and lack of readiness to take responsibility and truly right the wrongs of History.
