The demand for a radical decolonization of the public memory landscape received strong impetus from the much publicized '#Rhodes must fall' campaign, organized by students at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2015. The removal of the Cecil John Rhodes statue on the UCT upper campus was the symbolic front for a wider set of student demands, including the 'decolonization of the curriculum' and academic knowledge production, as well as a fundamental transformation of the entire university system perceived as racist, exclusive and largely irrelevant to the needs and aspirations of the black majority. The focus on the Rhodes statue more generally critiqued the role of media, images and public symbols in perpetuating the legacies and value systems of colonialism.
With public memory thus embedded in a socio-economic and racial context of historical justice, the campaign strategically connected – mostly through social media - with transnational sites of similar contestation, notably at universities in the U.K. and the United States. The #Rhodes must fall campaign moreover sparked monument vandalism and the call for the removal of 'colonial statues' across South Africa. Media coverage drew comparisons with monument controversies elsewhere, especially protests over Confederate statues in Virginia and elsewhere in the U.S.
While the #Rhodes must fall campaign promoted a simplistic understanding of decolonization as radical iconoclasm, this perspective is not shared across the heritage sector. This paper examines how the term decolonization is understood in South Africa and 'mobilized' by different social actors and what it might mean in relation to the field of cultural heritage and public memory. Focusing specifically on statues and commemorative monuments, I explore issues of transformation, postcolonialism and decolonization during the postapartheid period, highlighting some of the conceptual and logistical challenges in implementing change. It will become evident that despite ostensible similarities with the international, including American context, there are also fundamental differences in the role public memory and heritage play in South African society.
Keywords: South Africa, Rhodes, statues, decolonization, public memory
