London finally decided to maintain two controversial statues of politicians who had enriched themselves through slavery, but contextualizing their action on plaques or explanatory notices, she announced Thursday (October 7th).
It thus reconsiders a decision taken at the end of January to withdraw the two statues, on the recommendation of its working group against racism, in the midst of a debate on the question of the British colonial heritage.
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The statues represent William Beckford (1709-1770), a former Lord Mayor of London who had built his fortune on plantations in Jamaica and owned African slaves, and the merchant, MP and philanthropist John Cass (1661-1718), a responsible for the Royal African Company, active in particular in the slave trade.
"
We have carefully considered this issue, taking into account the very strong feelings on both sides, and have done what we believe to be a reasonable and proportionate response
," the chairman of the working group said in a statement. the statues, Doug Barrow.
“
We cannot be blind to the fact that the history of the City is inextricably linked to slavery, which is a stain on our past,
” he added.
But he underlined the City of London's commitment to “
fight against modern slavery in our areas of influence
”.
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Revolt movement
In the wake of the Black lives matter movement after the death of George Floyd, a black American killed by a white policeman in May 2020, disputes, questioning and introspection have spread in the United Kingdom around the colonial past and its representation in the public space . In June 2020, protesters unbolted and threw the statue of slave trader Edward Colston into the water in Bristol, southwest England. In Oxford, hundreds of demonstrators demanded the removal of a statue of colonizer Cecil Rhodes from the facade of one of the university's establishments. The latter finally gave up on abolishing it, citing the cost and the legal complexity of the operation.
In front of Westminster, a monument to Winston Churchill had been tagged with the inscription "
racist
".
An incident that Prime Minister Boris Johnson evoked on Wednesday in a speech at his party's congress, to castigate the “
cancel culture
” (culture of erasure).