Rhodes Grave Under Threat? Here Is The Argument

It looks as if coloniser Cecil John Rhodes is getting no love at the moment.

: Cecil John Rhodes grave in the Malindidzimu ShrineKanzis / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

So you know that University of Cape Town students have had enough of his statue and what it taken down. Well while they are at it they must get rid of so many colonial relics at that institution and deal with the imbalance in academic representation what what. But that is a matter for another day.

Not keen to be left out, it is said Zanu-PF activists – youths as they are called in these parts – want Rhodes’s grave moved from his current location in the Matopos.

Well the war vets tried it a few years ago and president Robert Mugabe was having none of it.

We’re conflicted about this. On the one hand, having him still claim a space in this country shows the successes of colonialism chief among which was to conquer and wipe out the history and heritage of a nation. Having him claim that space means noone talks about the Malindidzimu Shrine in which he is housed. The identity of that space is now his.

When you look at when US-led powers took over Iraq, the first thing they did was to take down the statue of the dethroned Saddam Hussein. It felt liberating not to have an albatross around their necks that remind them of a time under his rule. Not that it is better now you get the drift.

On the other hand you understand the need for context, a reminder that says, never again must this happen to the country again. Removing such things may mean that history might be coloured differently. The future may even deny colonialism happened because proof has been erased.

And of course Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi will think of those dollars from visitors coming to see the whole thing.

It’s a hard one really. It really is.