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
In the summer of 2020, a monument to the victims of Stalinist political repression was unveiled in the city of Tayshet in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. On July 4, 2020, the monument was vandalised and defaced, making the inscription illegible. During Soviet rule, the Gulag camp Taishetlag was located near the… Read More
On Vallabhai Jhaverbhai Patel’s 143rd birthday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled India’s tribute to him in the form of the world’s tallest statue. Standing at 182 metres, the Statue of Unity is almost double the height of the Statue of Liberty. It was revealed with military celebration and Hindu inaugural… 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
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
The Statue of Queen Victoria, commissioned for her Golden Jubilee in 1887 and installed in Hong Kong in 1896, has been a prominent feature of Victoria Park since 1952. Initially symbolising British colonial legitimacy, it has become a complex symbol in post-colonial Hong Kong. While most locals view the statue… Read More
From 1955 to 1960, the Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (EOKA) waged a campaign of violence and terror against the British authorities occupying Cyprus with the goal of enosis — union with Greece. Under the leadership of Georgios Grivas, EOKA was an insurgent group that carried out tactical sabotages, riots, and… Read More
Italo Balbo was an Italian fascist General who served as Mussolini’s Marshal of the Air Force andthen as Governor of Libya. While being celebrated for his aerial feats, he remains a controversialfigure as the Governor of Libya. In 1933, the Illinois monument was erected after his transatlanticflight to Chicago to… Read More
The Indro Montanelli statue in Milan was built in 2006 by the then-mayor Gabriele Albertini. Initially, criticism arose for the funeral aesthetic and impression of the statue; some described it as a ‘funerary mummification.’ However, in the last years, it has been contested for Montanelli’s link to colonialism, fascism and… Read More
On February 15, 2020, work began on re-erecting the Marian Column Monument in Prague, which had been torn down on November 3, 1918. The column had stood in Old Town Square for more than 250 years before becoming the focus of tensions between religious and nationalist groups. Proponents of its… Read More
The Matilda Newport Monument in Monrovia, Liberia, commemorates the victory of American free Black settlers over the indigenous population in battle in 1822. The protagonist of the story, Matilda Newport, is credited with lighting a cannon that resulted in the defeat of the native people. The monument has stood in… Read More
On February 27, 2016, several Czech citizens started a petition to rename Prague’s Under the Chestnuts Square, the site of Russia’s Embassy in the Czech Republic, in honour of the murdered Kremlin critic, Boris Nemtsov. The Prague City Council finalised the renaming on February 27, 2020. In response, the Russian… Read More