Rhodesmustfall Movement
On 9 March 2015, Chumani Maxwele threw human excrements at a statue of Cecil John Rhodes that was situated on the campus of the University of Cape Town, on Rugby Road. This action became a catalyst for heightening student activism and movements throughout universities in the country, stimulating political discourse within South Africa as well as around the world.
Maxwele’s protest, staged as a political performance, was in response to the lack of attention given to the symbols on campus that are physical reminders of White supremacy and Black subjugation and oppression that is rooted in South Africa. By taking human excrement from Khayelitsha, his action sought to make a connection with the lack of human dignity given to Black people living in townships. The subsequent question therefore will be: Who was Cecil Rhodes?
Cecil John Rhodes, born on 5 July 1853, was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his British South Africa Company colonised the southern African territory of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia), which the company named after him in 1895. South Africa’s Rhodes University is also named after him. Rhodes set up the provisions of the Rhodes Scholarship (funded by his estate), which until 1976, candidates had to be unmarried white males between the ages of 19 and 25.
Rhodes entered the Ca
