Oxford students organize campaign to topple British Colonist monument

Students Oxford are fighting to demolish a statue on the campus of Cecil J. Rhodes, a British colonist in South Africa. They argue that the monument reveals Britain's imperial heritage in all its glory, and criticize the institution's management for racial and ethnic discrimination.

"The Rhodes Must Fall" is the name of the action organized by Oxford activists.Last week, they secured the removal of a memorial plaque bearing the name of Cecil Rhodes from the wall of one of the buildings. Now their task is to completely dismantle the sculpture and further develop activities to improve the rights of minorities studying at the university.

One of the campaigners said that students were inspired by recent events in South Africa, where young people from the University of Cape Town doused a statue of a colonizer with waste and paint. Cecile J. Rhodes was accused of stealing and exploiting land and diamonds, massacres of the black population of the country and imposition of a regime of exploitation of civilians.It is noted that his actions were the apartheid of his time.

Cecile John Rhodes was a student at Oxford in the 1870s. Then he went to South Africa and founded a diamond empire there, becoming one of the richest people in the world and the Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. It is noted that his policy was extremely brutal, aimed at discrimination and segregation of the local African people. Despite this, a statue of him flaunts at the entrance to one of the colleges in Oxford, and one of the scholarships for international students is named after him. Thus, the dismantling of the monument will become an anti-racist act, which will entail new measures to establish a favorable atmosphere for Oxford students from different countries and cultures.