Henryk Jankowski was an eminent cleric in Poland renowned for his role in the anti-communistSolidarity movement during the 1980s. After the fall of communism in the 1990s, he becamefamous for his outspoken attitude. During his sermons, he would make political comments andanti-Semitic remarks that stirred controversy in Poland. After his… Read More
In 1941, Japan occupied Malaysia in the context of World War II. That same year, they built a stone monument in Alor Setar to honour three Japanese soldiers who were killed while securing the city’s bridge to cut off Allied troops. The restoration of the memorial in 2019, officiated by… Read More
The Brotherhood in Arms monument was the first post-Second World War monument placed in Warsaw in Vilnius Square. The public contestation of the monument began after Poland gained independence in 1989, although grievances against it might have been aired within opposition circles in prior years, too. After the exit of… Read More
Filipina Comfort Women was a statue erected on 8 December 2017 along Baywalk, Roxas Boulevard, in Manila. The contestation began days after the statue’s installation with a request for background information by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Japanese Minister for Internal Affairs and Communication Seiko Noda later regretted the… Read More
In the years after the Confederate States of America (often referred to as the ‘Confederacy’) lost the American Civil War in 1865, several groups established memorials to Confederate leaders across the South. Five Confederate statues were erected on Monument Avenue in Richmond, once the capital of the Confederacy and the… Read More
João Maria Ferreira do Amaral was the Portuguese Governor of Macau between 1846-1849, his commitment to formalizing Macau and Portugal’s colonial relationship, lead to his assassination by Chinese peasants. He became emblematic of the ambiguous colonial relationship between the two countries, leading to his statue being removed during the decolonization… Read More
In 1899, a statue of the engineer of the Suez Canal, Ferdinand De Lesseps, was erected at its northern entrance, where it stood until 1956 when it was moved into a warehouse. In 2014 an announcement that the statue would be reinstalled sparked controversy due to De Lesseps’s colonial legacy… Read More
Curt von François (1852-1931) was a German military officer and colonialist, most well known in Namibia for his role in the genocide of the Namaqua and Herero peoples. A statue of him was erected in 1965 in Windhoek, Namibia, to mark the 75th anniversary of his supposed ‘founding’ of the… Read More
This week, activists in Europe and the United States attacked statues of historical figures because they are seen as colonialists, imperialists, slave-traders, and racists. Will these symbolic acts result in the structural and systematic changes that are needed? Steven Stegers, Marie-Louise Ryback-Jansen, 10 June 2020, The Hague/Berlin A monumental movement… Read More
Yesterday, protestors in the English port city of Bristol toppled a statue of an 18th Century slave- trader, dragged the life-size bronze through the streets, and heaved it over a stone embankment into the Bristol harbour. Hundreds of Bristol residents looked on and cheered. (See appended link). The statue’s unauthorized… Read More
A day after this blog post was originally published, the statue was removed. For details see local news report at NBC Philadelphia. During this past weekend , the city of Philadelphia, like dozens of cities across America, erupted in mass protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, an… Read More
Soviet memorials have been the subject of removals in Poland since the 1980s, with the Monument of Gratitude to the Soviet Army have faced the same destiny. After 70 years of reminding locals of the country’s soviet past in Legnica, Poland, the monument was removed in 2018 and moved to… Read More