Colonial historical statues: Should they stay or should they go?
Since the tragic death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a police officer pinned him to the ground and knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, a global movement has erupted.
As protests were held worldwide, statues of prominent historical personalities who were linked with events today deemed to have been inappropriate have been either pulled down or damaged.
In the US and UK, a number of petitions are circling online demanding the removal of such monuments or statues which are now deemed controversial.
In the UK alone, protestors have toppled the statue of slave trader Edward Colston, dragging the bronze monument into the harbour. In the US, a number of statues have been removed or vandalised; in Boston a marble statue of explorer Christopher Columbus was beheaded.
The discussion has reached the shores of the Maltese Islands, where now there have been calls for the removal of monuments and landmarks associated with Malta’s colonial past, including the one of Queen Victoria in front of the national library in Valletta.
Should Malta consider removing certain colonial monuments and landmarks? Does the removal of such statues alter our history? How does removing or vandalising such landmarks help with the anti-racism movement?
“While it is important and healthy for our society to debate and discuss such matters, I do not believe that particular historical monuments should be removed,” National Heritage Minister Jose Herrera told The Malta Independent.
“What is definitely not up for debate is any vandalism act. The events of the past should be interpreted in their historical context and background of that time.”
Herrera also echoed his opinion in Parliament on Wednesday evening, stating that removing such statues is a “ridiculous idea”. “Destroying monuments will in no way alter history.”
Removal of images that do not appeal to us puts us in denial: Historian
“I distinguish between an act of spontaneous anger by a crowd, and a calculated official policy. Shutting down images of the past that do not appeal to us is a form of censorship at worst, at best puts us in denial,” said Professor Dominic Fenech, Historian and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Malta.
When contacted to express his views on the current debate, he said that he believes that a more positive act would be to erect more counter-monuments, to honour and commemorate those people who fought against such wrongdoings. “That way this generation and future ones will get both sides of the picture.”
Regarding whether Malta should re-consider removing her statues and monuments, Fenech stated that the removal of meaningful monuments is “shortsighted.”
“Most monuments, at the time of their elevation, would have enjoyed majority approval. When time passes we look back at history with clearer hindsight and may no longer agree with what a particular monument symbolized, but we would be wrong, and arrogant, to judge past generations by the way that we see things today.”
He did however state that he would applaud the removal of a large number of monuments erected in the past 50 years, but for a different reason entirely. “They are ugly, an affront to aesthetics and a scar on the landscape. Once upon a time we had sculptors who could render to a monument its symbolism with refined artistic taste. Sciortino is the best example; Apap a more recent one. I don’t know what happened, as many statues and monuments are lacking artistic value and taste.”
When asked whether the removal of such controversial monuments is a good step forward for the BLM movement, he said that the part which sympathises with the BLM would answer ‘ yes’ to the question. “But then, every monument anywhere has the approval of some and the opprobrium of others. There have been mentions of removing a statue of Mahatma Gandhi. That’s just a case in point. Is there one historical personality who has universal acceptance?”
Fenech noted that this is not the first time in history that statues were torn down by protestors; for example Joseph Stalin’s statue was torn down during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. In more recent times, after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, activists had pulled down Ukraine’s largest Vladimir Lenin monument. What is the difference between what is happening now to what has happened in the past? “I don’t find anything different. I think the removal of communist monuments from the former Soviet Union and the communist bloc was an act of drawing a line under a way of life and the people rejected. Of course, that is not to say that all the people were pleased to see them go.” He highlighted that it is important to distinguish between a spontaneous act of popular upheaval and an official policy. “I don’t agree, for example, with the changing of city names in Russia, which is the same thing really: Erasing historical memory. I find it particularly stupid and offensive that they changed the name of Stalingrad, the site of the single most meaningful act of WW2 heroic resistance and contributed so much to the defeat of Nazism.”
The conversation which brought about the discussion is much more important than the statue: Maria Pisani
Integra Foundation director Maria Pisani said: “I am much more interested in the debate, rather than the statue.”
“Sure we can remove the Queen Victoria statue, but we can’t eradicate our past, nor should we. If she were to be moved, I think it’s important to discuss why, and this is a discussion we should all be having. Why is she there? What did she represent then? And today?”
Pisani was part of the activists who organised and took part in the Black Lives Matter demonstration in Valletta which took place earlier this month. “Perhaps the conversations we have will lead to her removal or displacement, but we need to have this conversation. We need to start asking more questions regarding post-colonial history. What is our own relationship with ‘the west’ and ‘the rest’ today?” Pisani said that it is interesting that there are less than a handful of monuments of women. “What does that tell us about women’s position in Maltese society?”