Rhodes Must Fall: The Struggle to Decolonise the Racist Heart of Empire PDF
Preview Rhodes Must Fall: The Struggle to Decolonise the Racist Heart of Empire
RHODES MUST FALL ABOUT THE MOVEMENT Rhodes Must Fall is a protest movement that began on 9 March 2015, originally directed against a statue of British imperialist Cecil Rhodes at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The campaign for the statue’s removal received global attention and led to a wider movement to decolonise education, by inspiring the emergence of allied student move- ments at other universities across the world. R H O D E S M U S T F A L L THE STRUGGLE TO DECOLONISE THE RACIST HEART OF EMPIRE Written by the Rhodes Must Fall Movement, Oxford Edited by Roseanne Chantiluke, Brian Kwoba and Athinangamso Nkopo Rhodes Must Fall: The Struggle to Decolonise the Racist Heart of Empire was fi rst published in 2018 by Zed Books Ltd, The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London SE11 5RR, UK. www.zedbooks.net Copyright © Roseanne Chantiluke, Brian Kwoba and Athinangamso Nkopo 2018. Copyright in this Collection © Zed Books 2018. The right of Roseanne Chantiluke, Brian Kwoba and Athinangamso Nkopo to be identifi ed as the editors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. Typeset in Avenir and Haarlemmer by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon Cover design by Clare Turner All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978–1–78699–389–2 hb ISBN 978–1–78699–390–8 pb ISBN 978–1–78699–391–5 pdf ISBN 978–1–78699–392–2 epub ISBN 978–1–78699–393–9 mobi C O N T E N T S Preface ix Kehinde Andrews Introduction from the Editors xv Roseanne Chantiluke, Brian Kwoba and Athinangamso Nkopo PART I: RHODES MUST FALL IN OXFORD! 1 Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford Founding Statement 3 RMFO 2 Protesting the Rhodes Statue at Oriel College 6 Ntokozo Qwabe 3 Wake Up, Rise Up 17 André Dallas 4 Skin Deep: The Black Women of Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford 21 Athinangamso Nkopo, Tadiwa Madenga and Roseanne Chantiluke 5 Dreaming Spires Remix 38 Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh 6 Ignorance Must Fall 40 Princess Ashilokun CONTENTS 7 Letter of Support: The Codrington Legacy in Oxford 44 Michelle Codrington 8 Codrington Conference: ‘What is to be Done?’ 52 Dr Simukai Chigudu 9 Britain’s Black Debt: Reparations Owed for the Crimes of Native Genocide and Chattel Slavery in the Caribbean 62 Sir Hilary McDonald Beckles KA 10 Reparations in the Space of the University in the Wake of Rhodes Must Fall 74 Patricia Daley 11 Interviewing for the Rhodes Scholarship 90 Julian Brave NoiseCat 12 The Rhodes Scholarship: A Silver Lining? 98 Brian Kwoba 13 Decolonising Whiteness: White Voices in Rhodes Must Fall 103 Arthur (Eirich), Anasstassia Baichorova, Claudio Sopranzetti, JanaLee Cherneski, Max Harris and Roné McFarlane 14 Anti-Blackness, Intersectionality and People of Colour Politics 136 Athinangamso Nkopo and Roseanne Chantiluke PART II: SISTER MOVEMENTS 15 Black Feminist Refl ections on the Rhodes Must Fall Movement at UCT 147 Kealeboga Ramaru vi CONTENTS 16 Of Air. Running. Out. 158 Athinangamso Nkopo 17 Decolonising SOAS: Another University Is Possible 168 Akwugo Emejulu 18 Colston: What Can Britain Learn from France? 174 Olivette Otele 19 Student Voices from Decolonise Sussex 179 Lavie Williams, Isabelle Clark and Savannah Sevenzo 20 The Pro-Indo-Aryan Anti-Black M.K. Gandhi and Ghana’s #GandhiMustFall Movement 186 Odádélé Kambon 21 Harvard: Reclaim Harvard and Royall Must Fall 207 Rena Karefa-Johnson 22 An Interview with Princeton’s Black Justice League 212 Asanni York 23 #LeopoldMustFall: Queen Mary University of London 227 QM Pan-African Society PART III: GLOBAL REFLECTIONS AND REVERBERATIONS 24 Resisting Neocolonialism from Patrice Lumumba to #RhodesMustFall 247 Kofi Klu 25 Decolonising Mathematics 259 Kevin Minors 26 To Decolonise Math, Stand Up to its False History and Bad Philosophy 265 Chandra Kant Raju vii CONTENTS 27 Decolonising Pedagogy: An Open Letter to the Coloniser 271 Lwazi Lushaba 28 ‘British Values’ and Decolonial Resistance in the Classroom 285 Roseanne Chantiluke 29 Decolonising Reparations: Intersectionality and African Heritage Community Repairs 309 Esther Stanford-Xosei 30 Decolonisation, Palestine and the University 319 Anonymous 31 The Struggle to Decolonise West Papua 337 Benny Wenda 32 Why Does My University Uphold White Supremacy? The Violence of Whiteness at UCL 351 Ayo Olatunji Notes 361 viii P R E F A C E Kehinde Andrews Kehinde Andrews is the founder of Europe’s fi rst Black Studies programme at Birmingham City University. Rhodes Must Fall at Oxford was a movement that could not be ignored, either by the establishment or by those of us who have campaigned and worked to develop critical education. In the heart of whiteness, students mobilised to reject not only their colonial schooling but the hidden curriculum embodied by the statue of racist Cecil Rhodes. We cannot underestimate the power of this movement happening in one of the most prestigious universities in the world. The backlash was swift and expected because the students had the temerity to challenge their own educational institution. Oxford’s prestige is founded on its elite status, which is code word for its whiteness. By challenging the racial status quo the students were biting the hand that fed them by undermining a founding principle of Oxford’s appeal. For example, when Ntokozo Qwabe was criticised for accepting a Rhodes Scholarship and then being part of the campaign, he was being told that he should be more grateful and not rock the boat he had boarded. Of course the elite rallied round to protect what they saw as the destruc- tion of history and framed their objections in the need to ix
The list of books you might like
