‘Don’t ventriloquise Madiba!’ Oxford dons tear into vice-chancellor

Oxford University’s vice-chancellor has been condemned by dons who have accused her of making “unwarranted claims” about Nelson Mandela.

Prof Louise Richardson has been criticised by 14 of her university’s own professors, who warned that she should not “presume to speak for black students or people of colour”.

Writing to The Telegraph, the academics said it was “inappropriate” for her to “ventriloquise” the late antiapartheid leader.

The row comes amid rising tensions in Oxford, which faces renewed calls to tear down the statue of Cecil Rhodes from Oriel College over his links with Britain’s colonial past.

The academics’ intervention follows remarks made by Richardson last week.

Asked whether Mandela would have opposed the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, she said: “I think he was a man of deep nuance who recognised complex problems for what they were.

“And I don’t think he sought simplistic solutions to complex problems.

“The question is, how do we judge people? How do you judge Cecil Rhodes?

“Do we judge him by our values today or do we judge him by the context of his time?

“This is what education is all about. I don’t think we can pretend our history is different from what it was.”

Richardson pointed to a speech by Mandela in 2003 to launch the Mandela Rhodes Foundation, a partnership with the Rhodes Trust to offer scholarships to African students.

“He said that we have to acknowledge our past but focus on the future.

“Hiding our history is not the route to enlightenment.

“We have to understand our history and we have to confront our history,” she said.

The group of history, English, law and politics academics said they supported the Rhodes Must Fall campaign and criticised Richardson for drawing on Mandela’s own words to “defend colonial-era statues”.

“This would be inappropriate ventriloquising in any context,” their letter said.

“It is especially so now, when universities need to listen to, not presume to speak for, black students and people of colour.”

Richardson declined to respond to the letter.