College plaque makes Rhodes look like ‘devil incarnate’

Oxford academics criticise ‘explanatory panel’ for controversial statue as lacking context or balance

ORIEL COLLEGE has come under fire for erecting a plaque above its main entrance that portrays Cecil Rhodes as the “devil incarnate”, academics have claimed.

The Oxford college has put up a new explanatory panel about the Victorian empire builder next to his statue.

But it has been accused of pandering to the Rhodes Must Fall movement by portraying him in an overly negative light.

The plaque describes Rhodes as a “committed British colonialist” who “obtained his fortune through exploitation of minerals, land and peoples of southern Africa. Some of his activities led to great loss of life and attracted criticism in his day and ever since”.

It adds: “In recent years, the statue has become a focus for public debate on racism and the legacy of colonialism. In June 2020, Oriel College declared its wish to remove the statue but is not doing so following legal and regulatory advice.”

Academics intend to write to Lord Mendoza, Oriel’s provost, to express their concerns.

“I think the fundamental point is the lack of balance,” said David Abulafia, emeritus professor of Mediterranean history at Cambridge.

“I am not trying to defend Rhodes’ career right across the board. This is a man who was a great benefactor of Oxford University and who – it may seem strange to us – actually thought he was bringing benefits to the people who fell under his control.

“The notice is only concerned with linking him to racist and imperialist policies. This is clearly a reaction to the Rhodes Must Fall campaign and it’s simply not how you do it.”

Prof Abulafia said that the sign should be “balanced and measured”, adding: “It should look at the whole of Rhodes’ career, explaining properly who he was and what he was trying to do. One needs to explain where he stands in the context of the attitudes of his day.

“He believed he was bringing benefits to Africa. We might now argue that he did more harm than good but one has to understand what his intentions were. He is portrayed here as some sort of devil incarnate.”

Students began campaigning for the Rhodes statue to be taken down in 2015, and the toppling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol at the height of last summer’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations reignited the Rhodes Must Fall protests.

Rhodes, who founded Rhodesia and served as prime minister of the Cape Colony in the 1890s, donated a huge sum to Oriel in his will. He was not a slave trader but supported apartheidstyle measures in southern Africa.

‘We are pressing for a balanced plaque to be put up ... presenting both his flaws and his virtues’

In 2020, Oriel’s governing body said it was their “wish” to remove the statue and it established an independent commission to examine the key issues surrounding it. Earlier this year, the commission said it backed the college’s original wish to remove the statue. But Oriel’s governing body decided it should stay for the time being on the basis that it would take too long and cost too much to remove it.

Prof Abulafia and other academics from the History Reclaimed campaign – which seeks to challenge the “woke” narrative of the past – hope Oriel College will review the plaque’s wording.

Dr Zareer Masani, a historian specialising in the British Empire, said: “I think the concern among our group, and several members have voiced this, is that the plaque is a very negative way of presenting Rhodes to anyone who might not know about him. It does not present him as a rounded character.

“We are pressing for a balanced plaque to be put up, possibly with fairly minimal information but presenting both his flaws and his virtues.”