A monumental showdown
Justice Minister sparks debate over future of statues linked to slave trade
‘Why have statues of slave owners?’
COUNCILS should consider removing statues linked to the slave trade, the Justice Secretary said yesterday.
Humza Yousaf questioned why the country had monuments celebrating the life of people connected to the trading and imprisonment of slaves.
Instead, he suggested memorials should be erected for those who fought for abolition and fronted anti-slavery campaigns. But some voiced fears that would ‘alter history’ and remove proof of racism.
It comes after a statue of Edward Colston, a 17th century slave trader, was toppled by protesters attending a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Bristol before it was thrown into the city’s harbour.
Statues of men with links to the slave trade in Edinburgh and Glasgow, including
Viscount Melville, philosopher David Hume and Sir Robert Peel, were defaced during protests in Scotland.
Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme yesterday, Mr Yousaf said the country still had a ‘long way to go’ to tackle overt and structural racism.
He said at nearly all of the workrelated meetings he attends, he is the only ethnic minority in the room, adding that talks are taking place with the Education Secretary about increasing teaching about Scotland’s involvement in the slave trade at schools.
Mr Yousaf said: ‘In Scotland we have got many abolitionists, many anti-slavery campaigners that we should be celebrating and frankly putting statues up.
‘There’s a very important conversation to have with councils. Why do we have statues of slave owners still up? I really do wonder that. I do scratch my head at that.
‘Now clearly it would be for councils to make a decision to take them down, but I think it is a conversation that is certainly worth engaging in.’
Hundreds of people have signed a petition calling for the Melville Monument in St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, to be removed.
It was erected in 1821 in memory of First Viscount Melville, Henry Dundas. The former Home
Secretary delayed the abolition of slavery in 1792.
The petition states the statue must be removed to ‘rectify his fallacious reputation and denounce his involvement in the slave trade during the 18th century’.
But Sir Geoff Palmer, Scotland’s first black professor, instead called for plaques to be added to statues to give truthful accounts of links to the slave trade. He has previously led calls for a plaque to be put below the Melville Monument.
Sir Geoff, professor emeritus at Heriot-Watt University, said: ‘I don’t want statues to be taken down. My view is you remove the evidence, you remove the deed.
‘Racism is a consequence of the past. Removing it is very tricky because we are altering history.’
Sir Geoff argued that there is a better alternative to tearing down monuments out of ‘guilt’.
He said: ‘If we take something down, in 100 years’ time, will they thank us for it? They’ll want to know why we moved it. Was it because we were so guilty because we did nothing about the representation of black people in our society?
‘Is it because we’re guilty about a white policeman with his knee on the neck of a black person?’
City of Edinburgh Council has been considering the way Henry Dundas is remembered in the capital for at least two years, but has still not come up with a solution.
Edinburgh council leader Adam McVey said: ‘The statue of Henry
Dundas at the very least requires a more representative story to be told on-site and, although the statue doesn’t belong to the council, we’ve previously done what we can to facilitate discussions around how this might look.
‘We need a resolution now to make a change and I have called a meeting of the owners of St Andrew Square [including the statue], Edinburgh World Heritage, Professor Geoffrey Palmer and an expert from the University of Edinburgh with a view to agreeing a new form of words as quickly as possible.’
In Glasgow, the council has appointed academic Dr Stephen Mullen to review street names, civic buildings and statues to uncover links to the slave trade.
Many of the city’s main thoroughfares are named after merchants who made their money through sugar and tobacco, harvested on slave plantations in the Caribbean and eastern United States.
Last year, Glasgow University pledged to pay £20million in reparations following its historical links to the transatlantic slave trade, benefiting financially by as much as £198million.
The money is being used to fund a joint centre for development research with the University of West Indies.
Council leader Susan Aitken said there were periods and people in Glasgow’s history which should make us all feel ‘deeply uncomfortable’.
She added the street names review would also take an ‘in depth view’ of the city’s role in slavery.
She added: ‘Once complete, it is essential our community takes an informed and collective view of how the modern city should deal with the wounds of its past – and the scars that remain today.
‘I am committed to a public discussion and consultation to determine how Glasgow should respond to the findings.
‘This will give a voice to all of Glasgow’s people but, in particular, those whose lived experiences are a legacy of colonialism.’
At the weekend, activists in Glasgow replaced signs of streets in the city named after tobacco merchants and slave owners.
More than 11,500 people have signed a petition to rename streets linked to slave owners since it was launched last September.