Britain's imperial monuments face a bitter account amid the Black Lives Matter protests

On sunday, The issue of black life Protesters in Bristol, United Kingdom, pulled a statue of seventeenth-century slave trader Edward Coulston and rolled it on the streets before being unofficially dumped into the Avon River.

Some applauded the move, while others criticized what they called the “mob base”.

With Colonial history It spanned centuries – an obsession with statuary in the nineteenth century – British towns and cities full of relics for figures such as Colston.

For some, the statues melted against the background of everyday life, but many people now question whether they should stand on their pillars.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced on Tuesday a committee to study the future of monuments around the British capital, including frescoes, street art, street names and statues.

The Public Domain Diversity Committee aims to improve “diversity across the public domain in London, to ensure that the features of the capital city properly reflect London’s achievements and diversity.”

Actions against statues associated with the slave trade and imperialism also gained momentum in other parts of Europe Protesters in Belgium Many of the effects of King Leopold II distorted in the last days.

In the United States, a series of Confederate statues Have been removed By the authorities in the wake of widespread protests over the death of George Floyd.

While these measures divided public opinion, they fueled a growing conversation about what should happen to statues of individuals such as Colston, who had benefited from much suffering.

Winston Churchill

The Winston Churchill statue in London’s Parliament Square denigrates the phrase “he was racist” written after his name, after a black life demonstration on June 7, 2020. credit: Isabel Infants / AFP / Getty Images

Winston Churchill, Britain’s wartime prime minister, is an example of inspiring leadership, and he presides over the country’s defeat of Nazism. In 2002, topped BBC nationwide poll To find the Greatest 100 Britons, his photo is now appearing in the UK note worth £ 5.

However, it is also known that he had views regarding societal hierarchies that could be considered racist today, The policies were blamed Causing the famine of Bengal in 1943, which is estimated to have claimed more than three million lives. In March 2019, the soil analysis study was used for the first time to say that famine was caused by Churchill’s policies rather than severe drought.

During Sunday’s protest against a “black life”, a Churchill statue was stood standing in Parliament Square in London with the phrase “… racist”.

Cecil Rhodes

Uriel College has thus far preserved the statue of Cecil Rhodes despite the ongoing campaign to remove it. credit: Carl Kurt / Getty Images

Cecil Rhodes, who helped build the British Empire in South Africa, is immortalized in a statue outside Orel College, part of Oxford University.

In 2016, the college refused to remove the job despite earlier concerted pressure Rhodes should be located in Oxford The campaign group, which continued its efforts to remove it.

“There is no place for statues to venerate sordid racism in South Africa, the United States, Bristol, or Oxford.” chirp On Sunday, she invited people to a college protest on Tuesday.

Neither Oxford University nor College College responded to CNN’s request for comment.

In 2015, the Rhodes statue was removed from the University of Cape Town University in South Africa.

“It represents the former colonial representation of this country – sovereignty, racism and hatred of women,” said Ramapina Mahaba, chairwoman of the student group that led the campaign to remove the statue at the time.

David Hume

A banner was used to protest the statue of the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume, criticizing his racist views. credit: Jpi media

In Edinburgh, a statue of 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume was decorated with a painting citing his views on white supremacy.

Hume is considered one of the most important thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, and his bronze statue sits on the royal inclination in Edinburgh, the main road to the city’s old city.

But Hume’s reputation has become distorted in recent years, with an increased focus on his views on race. The sign on the statue contains a line from Hume’s article “From National Characters,” saying he “is able to suspect that niggers … are inferior to whites.”

Nelson Column, topped with a statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson, towers over Trafalgar Square in central London. credit: evenfh / Shutterstock

Henry Dundas

Scottish politician Henry Dundas stands above the Melville statue in Edinburgh.

Dundas, who held a number of government positions, including the Home Minister, is known to support delays in abolishing slavery at the end of the eighteenth century.

The memorial was painted during Sunday’s protests Online petition now demanding the removal of the Dundas statueAnd to rename the streets in his honor.

Instead, activists recommend naming the streets the name of the Jamaican Scottish slave Joseph Knight, who has succeeded in liberating himself in the courts by proving that Scotland’s law did not recognize slavery.

Different approaches

There were also calls to remove statues intended for Admiral Horatio Nelson – who famously conquered Napoleon and is now immortalized on a pillar in Trafalgar Square in London – because of Opposition to the abolition of slavery.

Similar appeals have been made about filming William Gladstone, The former prime minister who helped his father, the servant, demand compensation from the British government after the trade embargo.

William Gladstone served as British Prime Minister four times in the nineteenth century. His father owned slaves. credit: Photo view / Global photo collection / Getty Images

Tearing down statues is a form of ancient protest, from dropping the statues of Lenin when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989 to the fall of Saddam Hussein’s monument in Baghdad in 2003.

These cases of destruction have been well received in the Western world, but recent campaigns to remove statues of controversial figures in places such as the United States and the United Kingdom have divided public opinion.

An alternative approach was taken in Paraguay, where Carlos Colombino was asked to re-imagine a statue of former dictator General Alfredo Strosner, who ruled the country from 1954 to 1989. Instead of destroying the memorial, Colombino enveloped some of its most recognizable parts between two huge blocks of cement As a memory of the victims of dictatorship.