Rhodes Must Fall: The Struggle to Decolonise the Racist Heart of Empire

407 Pages·2018·0.983 MB·English

by  The Rhodes Must Fall Movement, Rhodes Must Fall, Oxford

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