Calls for school to get rid of ‘Rhodes’ name

A PRIMARY school is facing calls to ditch “Rhodes” from its name in the wake of the Black Lives Matters movement, despite its founder having no links to infamous colonialist Cecil Rhodes.

Former pupils at Rhodes Avenue School in Wood Green, north London, are among those calling for a clean break with “Rhodes” because of the assumed associations with empire.

But it is understood the school’s name was adopted after Rhodes’s great uncle, Thomas, who was once a wealthy local landowner.

While no evidence implicates Thomas Rhodes with colonialism, campaigners argue that the Rhodes family “has a legacy born in white supremacy, imperialism and apartheid”.

Alex Wiffin, a former pupil, told the Ham & High newspaper: “What we really want to stress is that, whatever the link to the family, the fact is that when most people hear the name, they do immediately think about Cecil Rhodes and Rhodesia.

“Trying to find ways around that is missing the point.”

A petition has now been initiated calling for the school to be renamed after Oliver Tambo, a prominent anti-apartheid activist.

Frances Browning, the founder of the petition and former pupil at the school, Rhodes “is a family name which cannot be disentangled from the pursuit of white supremacy and the dehumanisation and subjugation of black people”.

Joseph Ejiofor, the Labour leader of Haringey council, said: “If we were naming roads today, we would never choose Rhodes Avenue. The head of the school hopes to

‘When most people hear the name, they do immediately think about Cecil’

be guided by the mayor’s commission regarding the changing of the school’s name.”

However, Trevor Phillips, a former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, told The Mail on Sunday: “I find it puzzling that the most important thing about this school is thought to be its name, which refers not to Cecil Rhodes but to Thomas.”

Haringey council and the school have been contacted for comment.