University removes stone laid by ‘colonialist’ Leopold

A UNIVERSITY has removed a foundation stone laid by King Leopold II amid student complaints that he was a “genocidal colonist”.

Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) yielded to demands from activists from the Pan African Society who claimed that the stone represents “imperialism”.

Experts now fear that the “Cecil Rhodes effect” is spreading around the country. Earlier this year, Oxford University refused to give in to calls from the “Rhodes Must Fall” campaign to tear down a statue of the founder of Rhodesia over his links with Britain’s colonial past.

King Leopold II – first cousin to Queen Victoria – ruled Belgium from 1835 to 1909. He founded the Congo Free State, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he forced natives to work on rubber plantations.

Within weeks of the launch of a petition by activists from the east London university calling for the stone and its commemorative plaque to be taken down, the institution’s authorities gave in to the demands.

The petition, launched in June, said the plaques should be removed from their “uncritical” place in the Octagon Building and “relocated to a museum … dedicated to the memorialisation of the crimes of genocide, colonialism and imperialism”. A month later, the university told students that they had removed them “as part of ongoing refurbishment work”.

Emma Bull, director of student services at the university, told the leaders of the student protest at the time: “QMUL has no historical ties with King Leopold, other than he visited Mile End in April 1887, and then returned to lay the foundation stone in June 1887. The size and prominence of these inscriptions suggested a strength of association that was never the case, and as such the decision was taken to remove both from view.”

Dr Joanna Williams, a senior lecturer at the University of Kent, said universities are now so quick to respond to student demands that they are losing their ability to “hold the line”.

The actions of QMUL set a dangerous precedent of universities giving in to students and “whitewashing” history, she said. “It suggests a fear with the university authorities – as if they are scared of the students and pander to their demands to avoid attracting negative attention.”

Earlier this year, Jesus College Cambridge removed a bronze cockerel statue which had been looted during a British colonial expedition to Nigeria in the 19th century, after students asked for it to be repatriated.