As I observe the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests all over the world, witnessing how anger is being vented towards various statues of mostly white men who have contributed to blacks finding themselves in this historically unfortunate position globally, I cannot but wonder why the attention is not focused on the right thing instead, and that being the imperialist system. Meaning, the system of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring the holding colonies and dependencies. After all, you are in the First World as opposed to my Third World because of what?

Now, I am the first to agree with Kalpana Wilson when she says: “Just as the pulling down of Confederate statues in the southern US amid protests against police violence is an expression of the continuities between the contemporary racialised police and prison system and racial slavery and is essential to an abolitionist practice for today, the targeting of statues of slave traders and colonial white supremacists in Britain reflects that this wave of protests is connecting the horrors of police racism in North America, the UK and Europe with how the violence of race and white supremacy has been and remains today embedded in global structures of capital accumulation.”

Isn’t it convenient that we declare war on statues instead of war on the imperialist system? How does one undo the vestiges of slavery, colonialism and in our local case, apartheid? Isn’t that worth fighting for, but perhaps this sort of struggle cuts too close to the bone? Perhaps the ill-gotten fortunes and surpluses that now allow you to receive free healthcare, grants for simply being pregnant, free education and so much more, perhaps that is too difficult to give up? 

You cannot deny that all that opulence and wealth was obtained, and made possible on the back of what? Slavery, colonialism and apartheid. And who were the enforcers and/or perpetrators of such a system? The very persons whose statues you now want to desecrate and destroy or send off to museums. That’s a bit fresh is it not? Or is it a matter of misplaced loyalty or simply misdirection?

Why can’t the West together with Africans design a Marshall Plan for the continent? Why can’t we take all the current money in the coffers of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Bank and rebuild, reconstruct and develop Africa? We did it in Europe after WWII, did we not?

If you really care about black lives, then attack that imperialist system, march and protest for unconditional investments in Africa and the Third World, unconditional aid, infrastructure investments and compensation for all past injustices. Slave owners were compensated generously when they had to forfeit their ownership of slaves because it was a loss of revenue, so why can’t we Africans not be generously compensated for our loss of earnings and fortunes over the centuries?

Why can’t the West together with Africans design a Marshall Plan for the continent? Why can’t we take all the current money in the coffers of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Bank and rebuild, reconstruct and develop Africa? We did it in Europe after WWII, did we not?

In the article by Wilson for Open Democracy UK, with regards to calls that Churchill must fall, the author had the following to say and I concur: “‘Race’ – a concept both invented and horrifically real in its effects – and capital were inseparable at their inception and remain so. Of course, it is essential to know – and to teach in schools – that not only cities like Bristol and London, Glasgow and Manchester, but the whole edifice of British capitalism was built upon the profits of slavery and colonialism.

“And as Guyanese Marxist thinker Walter Rodney’s seminal ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ explained, it was built on reverse processes of impoverishment, extraction, the destruction of diverse livelihoods, thriving cities – and in some places pre-existing global centres of industrial production – creating unprecedented global inequalities. Colonialism also irrevocably changed relationships among those it colonised, producing new categories of gender, sexualities, class, community, and creating and entrenching the power of the classes who collaborate with imperialism, whom Frantz Fanon describes in ‘The Wretched of the Earth’.”

We must have an appreciation of history. It is important because it allows us to understand our past (good and bad), which in turn allows us to understand our present. It can indeed provide us with insight into our cultures of origin as well as cultures with which we might be less familiar.

Churchill, a racist, yes, but he did also defeat the Nazis, did he not? I read recently that “50 years after the end of World War II, few people are aware that Jews were not the only victims of the Nazis. In addition to six million Jews, more than five million non-Jews were murdered under the Nazi regime. Among them were Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, blacks, the physically and mentally disabled, political opponents of the Nazis, including Communists and Social Democrats, dissenting clergy, resistance fighters, prisoners of war, Slavic peoples, and many individuals from the artistic communities whose opinions and works Hitler condemned.” 

The historic importance of Churchill’s tenacity and determination in the face of opposition even from within his own party – surely we must also credit and acknowledge him for this? Insofar as Cecil John Rhodes goes, his money is now doing so much good, is it not? Should we not also celebrate this?

And then we have our own Nelson Mandela, standing tall in front of our Union Buildings, marching at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront as a Nobel Peace Prize winner and indeed in Sandton Square in Johannesburg. The father of our nation, we fondly call him. He who through his generosity and forgiveness could bury the hatchet towards his oppressors and convinced us all, black and white in our country, to reconcile and move forward as a nation. This was not an easy task and yes, none of us is under any illusion that this wasn’t a serious compromise. Negotiation, after all, we were told at the time, is a process of give and take. Did we do it properly and could we have optimised our position in those negotiations? Probably yes, but our civil political rights at the time were our main focus.      

Perhaps you are aware that already we have segments in our society, especially from the younger, more “woke” and born-free generation that are of the opinion that Mandela sold them out as black people. And I’m here using the term black in the broader sense, black-African, black-coloured and black-Indian. And so, it is conceivable that in the next few years, these same dissatisfied and disaffected persons will demand that Mandela must fall. 

We must have an appreciation of history. It is important because it allows us to understand our past (good and bad), which in turn allows us to understand our present. It can indeed provide us with insight into our cultures of origin as well as cultures with which we might be less familiar.

In the end, these protests and the war on statues are about expressing deep pain and also simultaneously about fighting for a different world, and this is why they are inspiring others across the globe, but let us target the very real issues that can indeed make a very real difference for black lives. I don’t think statues are going to do that for me. DM