Pouring shit on Cecil Rhodes, Cape Town University
On 9th March at the University of Cape Town, a statue of arch-imperialist bag of scum, Cecil Rhodes, had a load of human shit emptied on it. Since then, students demanding a removal of the statue and an end to institutional white supremacy have been holding daily protests and sit-ins at the site.
On 20th March, a demo ended in hundreds of students and others taking control of the admin block at the University. They have remained there since, holding protests and workshops and inspiring anti-colonial protests with similar demands at universities elsewhere in the country.
King George V statue attacked at the University of KwaZulu-Natal
One of numerous attempts to hide Rhodes’ statue
Can’t get rid of the bloody thing
Occupying the Bremner building at the University of Cape Town
From the Rhodes Must Fall mission statement [FB link]:
“We are an independent collective of students, workers and staff who have come together to end institutionalised racism and patriarchy at UCT. This movement was sparked by Chumani Maxwele’s radical protest against the statue of Cecil John Rhodes on Monday 9 March 2015. This has brought to the surface the existing and justified rage of black students in the oppressive space cultivated and maintained by UCT, despite its rhetoric of ‘transformation’. We want to be clear that this movement is not just concerned with the removal of a statue. The statue has great symbolic power; it glorifies a mass-murderer who exploited black labour and stole land from indigenous people. Its presence erases black history and is an act of violence against black students, workers and staff – by “black” we refer to all people of colour. The statue was therefore the natural starting point of this movement. Its removal will not mark the end but the beginning of the long overdue process of decolonising this university. In our belief, the experiences seeking to be addressed by this movement are not unique to an elite institution such as UCT, but rather reflect broader dynamics of a racist and patriarchal society that has remained unchanged since the end of formal apartheid.”
The occupiers’ list of demands
“Our immediate demands are that we receive a date for the removal of the statue from campus grounds, and that the university investigation of student protesters be withdrawn. We find it unacceptable that management has presented a date on which council will discuss the statue; we reject the notion that the university has any decision to make here. Our position is clear and will not be hampered by bureaucratic processes which management hides behind. Our pain should be the only factor taken into consideration, and therefore the statue’s removal from UCT must be a non-negotiable, inevitable outcome.
Our long-term goals include:
- Remove all statues and plaques on campus celebrating white supremacists.
- Rename buildings and roads from names commemorating only white people, to names of either black historical figures, or to names that contribute to this university taking seriously its African positionality.
- Replace artworks that exoticise the black experience (by white, predominantly male artists) which are presented without context, with artworks produced by young, black artists.
- Recognise that the history of those who built our university - enslaved and working class black people - has been erased through institutional culture. Pay more attention to historical sites of violence, such as the slave graves beneath the buildings in which we learn.
- Implement a curriculum which critically centres Africa and the subaltern. By this we mean treating African discourses as the point of departure - through addressing not only content, but languages and methodologies of education and learning - and only examining western traditions in so far as they are relevant to our own experience.
- Provide financial and research support to black academics and staff.
- Radically change the representation of black lecturers across faculties.
- Revise the limitations on access to senior positions for black academics. This includes interrogating the notion of “academic excellence” which is used to limit black academics and students’ progression within the university.
- Increase the representation of black academics on the currently predominantly white, male decision making bodies which perpetuate institutional racism.
- Re-evaluate the standards by which research areas are decided - from areas that are lucrative and centre whiteness, to areas that are relevant to the lives of black people locally and on the continent.
- Introduce a curriculum and research scholarship linked to social justice and the experiences of black people.
- Adopt an admissions policy that explicitly uses race as a proxy for disadvantage, prioritising black applicants.
- Remove the NBT as a requirement for admission because it systematically disadvantages all students except those who attend Model C schools and private schools.
- Improve academic support programmes.
- Meaningfully interrogate why black students are most often at the brunt of academic exclusion.
- Develop an improved financial aid system.
- Radically reduce the currently extortionate fees.
- Improve facilities which deal with sexual assault, as well as facilities which help black students deal with the psychological trauma as a result of racism.
- Implement R10 000 pm minimum basic for UCT workers as a step towards a living wage, in the spirit of Marikana.
- Get rid of the Supplemented Living Level, which prescribes a poverty wage.
- Stop using the Consumer Price Index which ensures that wages never really increase, leaving workers in poverty.
- End outsourcing. The companies must go, the workers must stay.
- There should be no capitalist companies making profits at this public sector institution. Workers must know that their job is safe, has decent working conditions and ensures comfortable lives.
- Education for workers and their families must be free.
- Stop the victimisation and intimidation of workers. No worker must be penalised in any way for supporting and joining protest action, including strike action, at UCT.
- Workers must be able, without penalty of any kind, to refuse work that is a danger or hazard to their health and safety.
- Provide workers with access to services dealing with labour, family, housing issues.
- Provide workers with avenues through which to report and address experiences of racism, sexism and other forms of abuse. These avenues must assist in enforcing legal action against the perpetrator.
In solidarity,
The Rhodes Must Fall Movement”
Meanwhile, in the UK, students at the University of London have entered into occupation at LSE, KCL, Goldsmiths, and UAL (FB links).