Let’s talk about it – and not just erase the nasty history, say academics

Dundee University human geography lecturer Dr Susan Mains taught for nearly 10 years at the University of the West Indies-Mona in Kingston, Jamaica – an English colony from 1655 and a British colony from 1707 to 1962.

She became increasingly interested in the contradictions of living in a place promoted as a tourist destination while simultaneously having significant levels of emigration.

She said: “We have to ask ourselves: What is the role of a statue?

“If it is to memorialise, celebrate and hold aloft, then what is it we are celebrating?

“Do we value the permanence of statues, their aesthetics and their familiarity over the people who suffered as a direct (and indirect) consequence of the activities they supported?

“What new, more inclusive forms of recognition can we have in our public spaces?

“Statues and their meanings are going to vary a lot and the conversations we have about this will be varied too.

“But, most importantly, these discussions have to be about more than statues.

“Any changes that are made should be working towards reducing inequalities, improving social justice and increasing the diversity of voices that are heard and represented.”

Leven-based author and historian Lenny Low, who has campaigned for a memorial to those wrongly persecuted for being “witches” in 17th Century Fife, believes it is “absolute nonsense” to remove statues.

He said: “I’m from a village in Fife called Largo where Largo Castle – the home of the first Admiral of Scotland Sir Andrew Wood – was built by English prisoners as slave labour in 1488 onwards.

“My thoughts to this are exactly what they should be – a piece of history.

“History is here for us to remember our faults and learn by them. We are not here to erase the nasty history and leave the good stuff to remember.”