Public Memorialisation and the Politics of Historical Memory in Africa

Abstract

In 2020, a global wave of anti-racism movements contributed to widespread reconsideration of previously honoured people. From Bristol’s slave trader Edward Colston, to confederate generals across the American South, to King Leopold II of Belgium, statues now seen as symbols of white supremacy have fallen.1 Campaigns in Africa challenged state-endorsed memorialisations, thus contributing to the recent groundswell of alternative interpretations of the past. In the Ethiopian town of Harar, Oromo groups toppled a monument to Haile Selassie’s father, Ras Makonnen, seeing both father and son as imperialist oppressors.2 In Cape Town, a statue of white supremacist Cecil Rhodes at Rhodes Memorial on the slopes of Table Mountain was decapitated.3 In 2015, protests over another statue of Rhodes located at the University of Cape Town (UCT) channelled memories of past injustices into widespread mobilisation for change, a movement known as #RhodesMustFall (RMF).4