Almost a century after the last Confederate monument was erected in the heart of Richmond, the state capital of Virginia, a new counter-monument was installed in 2019 by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Modelled after its neighbouring Confederate statues, the equestrian statue of a Black man is a rare… Read More
The Monument to the Flags is a monument in São Paulo, Brazil, that commemorates the Bandeirantes Paulistas. A group of colonists explored the territory of the Portuguese colony as Brazil expanded its limits. The Monument, designed by Victor Brecheret, is one of the most significant statues in the state. The… Read More
In February 1913, the killing of three settlers by Aboriginal people in 1864 was commemorated with the unveiling of the Explorers’ Monument. Yet the history remembered by the memorial was just one side of the story – its plaque failed to mention the deaths of almost 40 Aboriginal people by… Read More
On February 6, 2020, a historical plaque marking the site of a slave auction went missing in Charlottesville, Virginia. For some residents, the removal of the plaque revived complaints about the inadequacy of the memorial; others felt the removal erased Black history. Five days later, police arrested a local activist… Read More
The Duke of Sutherland statue from 1837 has been contested already since the 1990s, when organisations and locals from the Highlands asked for its removal due to the Duke’s involvement in the Highland clearances. In the last decades there have been different petitions and actions asking for its removal, for… Read More
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