Since its unveiling in 1935, the ‘Van Heutsz’ Monument has faced controversy surrounding the legacy of Dutch colonialism in Indonesia, attributed to General Jo van Heutsz. The monument has survived defacement, two bomb attacks, and years of decay. In 2001, in response to increasing scrutiny, the Amsterdam Oud-Zuid district council… Read More
In May 2020, two statues of French administrator Victor Schoelcher were destroyed in Martinique by members of the local youth group Ligue de Défense Noire Africaine (LDNA/Black African Defence League). Despite being a celebrated figure for his role in abolishing slavery in the French colonies, Schoelcher’s legacy has come under… Read More
Martyrs’ Square, a public space in Beirut, Lebanon, has a century-long history as a cultural symbol and centre of political resistance. Throughout multiple transformations and governmental regimes, Martyrs’ Square has represented the confl icts and turmoil of Lebanon itself. The contemporary role of Martyrs’ Square is that of a political… Read More
In 2014, the Ahn Jung-geun memorial was inaugurated in Harbin railway station, China. Itspurpose was to commemorate the Korean patriot who assassinated the Japanese statesman ItoHirobumi in 1909, in this very station, as an act of resistance against Meiji Japan’s imperialexpansion. The memorial, constructed with the joint endorsement of the… Read More
In 2015, the student organisation Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford began to place sustained pressureon All Souls College to confront the legacy of their ‘Codrington Library’ – named for the enslaverand benefactor Christopher Codrington. Across two ‘waves’ of targeted protest in 2015-16 and2020, the College made a range of concessions:… Read More
The repatriation of artistic artefacts to their places of origin is a topic that has become increasingly significant in cultural and political discourse worldwide. This process restores historically and spiritually valuable objects to the communities that created them, recognising their right to preserve and reinterpret their heritage. The debate extends… Read More
Inspired by historian Benjamin Stora’s recommendations on French-Algerian reconciliation regarding their tumultuous shared colonial history, the Amboise town council, backed by the Elysée Palace, commissioned a sculpture to commemorate Emir Abdelkader, an anti-colonial fighter who was imprisoned in the city during the nineteenth century. He later moved to Syria, where… Read More
Mexico City was the only city known to have two statues of Cristopher Columbus. Themonuments were both 19th-century statues placed within walking distance of each other – inPaseo de la Reforma and Calle Buenavista, in the heart of Mexico City. Given its visibility andposition in a heavily trafficked street, the… Read More
In the 1960s, two decades after India’s independence from colonial rule, certain sections ofthe society demanded the removal of specific memorial markers of the colonial past. Thincluded the statues in the Coronation Park in the capital of the country, New Delhi. TheCoronation Park harks back to the times of coronation… Read More
On September 29, 2005, a statue of three dikgosi (kings) who visited England in 1895 to protestagainst the imminent handover of their lands to the British South Africa Company was unveiledin Botswana’s capital city, Gaborone. The three dikgosi are seen as ‘Founders of the Nation’ andthe monument also tells the… Read More
In 2020, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin sparked controversy during his visit to Algeria after posting a video on Twitter attending a memorial at the Monument of the Martyr (makam el-chahid) in Algiers. The monument was inaugurated in 1982 to mark the 20th anniversary of Algerian independence from France and… Read More