Rhodes Must Fall
| Rhodes Must Fall | |
|---|---|
The statue at the centre of the controversy: a statue of Cecil Rhodes by Marion Walgate (1934)
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| Date | 9 March 2015 |
| Location | University of Cape Town |
| Caused by | Perceived lack of transformation in South Africa following colonialism and apartheid |
| Goals | Removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes on campus, "decolonisation of education" and "racial transformation" at the university |
| Methods | |
| Resulted in | Statue removed 9 April 2015 |
Rhodes Must Fall (#RhodesMustFall) is a protest movement that began on 9 March 2015, originally directed against a statue at the University of Cape Town (UCT) that commemorates Cecil Rhodes. The campaign for the statue's removal received global attention and led to a wider movement to "decolonise" education across South Africa. On 9 April 2015, following a UCT Council vote the previous night, the statue was removed.
Rhodes Must Fall captured national headlines throughout 2015 and sharply divided public opinion. It also inspired the emergence of allied student movements at other universities, both within South Africa and elsewhere in the world.
The bronze statue of a seated Cecil Rhodes was sculpted by Marion Walgate (née Mason), wife of architect Charles Walgate, who worked with J.M. Solomon in designing and constructing the new buildings at the University of Cape Town (UCT). It was unveiled in 1934. Calls for the statue's removal had been slowly increasing for several decades, with Afrikaner students first demanding the removal of the statue in the 1950s.
Rhodes Must Fall describes itself as "a collective movement of students and staff members mobilising for direct action against the reality of institutional racism at the University of Cape Town." Whilst initially being focused on the removal of the statue of Cecil John Rhodes, Rhodes Must Fall states that "the fall of ‘Rhodes’ is symbolic for the inevitable fall of white supremacy and privilege at our campus."
The movement was initially about the removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes, a symbol which the protesters felt was oppressive, and grew to encompass institutional racism, the perceived lack of racial transformation at the university, and access to tertiary education and student accommodation.
Students made use of occupation, civil disobedience, and violence during the protests. Actions included throwing human faeces at the Rhodes statue, occupying UCT offices, and burning art, vehicles, and buildings. Students also made use of the internet; protesting students created a Facebook page entitled 'Rhodes Must Fall' and promoted and made use of the hashtag '#RhodesMustFall' on Twitter.
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