Time to (de)face the music

This was the fourth monument which was defaced, following a student throwing human excrement on the statue of Cecil John Rhodes at UCT, in March.

This was soon followed by the #RhodesMustFall campaign, by UCT students, and shortly thereafter by the #RhodesSoWhite campaign, by Rhodes University students.

Students in UKZN threw white paint on the statue of King George on the Howard College campus and EFF members torched the war memorial statue in Uitenhage.The debate around the removal of these ”colonial” monuments has sparked a lot of talks around race, transformation, white privilege, the legacy of apartheid, heritage and history and other subjects that most South African would rather avoid.

I haven’t had a lot of time to think about what the removal of these statues would mean for black South African students, but, from what I’m hearing and reading, it’s only the tip of the iceberg in the move towards transformation in tertiary institutions.

The students have deep concerns about where they can find, within the curriculum and on their campuses, monuments to which they can, as people of colour, relate.

There have been a lot of dismissive responses to their cause, with the students being told that they should simply take the statue as ”just a statue” and, if they are really unhappy, change universities.

But it’s not that simple to flee from white privilege, which is at the core of what their cause is.

I am fully aware that all these monuments are a part of our history and heritage and we can’t erase chunks of it to appease those of us who are not happy with it.

Maybe these monuments should have all been moved to where they really belong: in museums with other historical artifacts.

Although I’m still on the fence with all of these events, I’m glad young South Africans are engaging with issues collectively and vocally; perhaps it’s time we all started talking instead of happily hiding behind the façade of the rainbow nation. SN