Peaceful protest planned for city’s Rhodes monument

WITS senior researcher Dr Thina ‘Matryoshka’ Nzo and a group of poets, writers, heritage and creative industry practitioners will host a peaceful #Rhodesmustfall campaign today at the Rhodes Monument in Kimberley from 12 noon onwards.

The protest, being held amidst the worldwide ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests, will take the form of the reading of anti-colonial, anti-apartheid and anti-racism poetry

“Cecil John Rhodes fell at the University of Cape Town, Cecil John Rhodes has fallen in London, Cecil John Rhodes will fall in Oxford. The genocider-in-chief King Leopold II has fallen in Brussels, the brutal slave trader Edward Colton has fallen in Bristol,” Nzo said in a statement regarding the protest.

“Through public poetry and text as a form of class, race and gender resistance, we commemorate those who lost their lives and suffered under brutal slavery, rebellion wards against colonialism, diamond and gold mining labour exploitation, racial and class segregation and apartheid police brutality.”

“This is part of a global international solidarity movement of #Blacklivesmatter, #Racismmustfall and #Decolonization of our public spaces in the Republic of South Africa. We say it’s long overdue, now is the time for the monumentalisation of the colonial imperialist Cecil John Rhodes to fall in Kimberley, Northern Cape.”

The attire of the event is all black.

Dr Nzo holds a PHD in African Studies (University of Edinburgh) and a Masters in Local Government Studies (University of Birmingham).