'Virtue-signalling' Oxford dons should stop 'throwing tantrums' over statues, says Oriel College's only African tutor
Oxford dons should stop 'throwing tantrums' over statues and focus on fighting today's inequalities, Oriel College's only African tutor warned today, calling their never-ending protests a 'dazzling sign of Western privilege'.
Dr Marie Kawthar Daouda – from Morocco – said she was 'perplexed' over the fuss surrounding the keeping of a statue of Cecil Rhodes at the college.
Dr Daouda added ‘anti-Rhodes virtue signalling’ shows students that ‘even respectable academics… cannot see a statue without throwing a tantrum’. She called the fuss a ‘dazzling sign of Western privilege’.
Just last month her left-wing colleagues still demanding the removal of the statue - saved in May - said they would give lectures to Oriel College's 300 undergraduates, but deny them the chance for in-depth discussion in small groups or one-to-one sessions until the monument to the colonialist is toppled.
Critics said the row about the centuries old statue at Oriel was at the heart of Britain's culture wars led by a 'woke Taliban' who are bent on 'sitting in judgement of history and trying to assert moral authority over the past'.
Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Dr Daouda said fellow academics should be promoting equality by 'raising awareness about places…where there is still much more work to be done than under the dreaming spires'.
Dr Daouda said: 'I would be glad to see less emotivity in the way some members of the university deal with Rhodes and with the whole race craze in general.' She added that patriarchy in Victorian Britain was 'in many ways still better than the conditions girls and women currently endure in several African countries'.
Dr Marie Kawthar Daouda – from Morocco – said she was 'perplexed' over the fuss surrounding the keeping of a statue of Cecil Rhodes at the college
At the height of Black Lives Matter protests last summer, 'Rhodes Must Fall' protests sprang up outside Oriel
Mass protests were sparked and Oriel was accused of racism when it decided the statue should stay
Rhodes, a 19th century industrialist and imperialist who donated a huge sum to Oriel in his will, supported apartheid-style measures in southern Africa.
Rhodes Must Fall: A timeline of events that saw the Oxford University statue saved (for now)
The monument, which was the target of BLM protests last year, needs to be taken down along with a plaque to the colonialist in the city, the commission claimed
March 2015: Students at University of Cape Town begin protest to remove statue.
April 2015: After a vote by the university's council, the statue is removed
May 2015: A vote is held at Rhodes University, South Africa, to change the name of the university. The vote is defeated.
January 2016: Vote held by Oxford students in Oxford Union, not affiliate to Oxford University, vote to remove the statue.
January 2016: Leaked report reveals the university faces huge funding loss if it removes the statue.
June 2020: The Rhodes Must Fall campaign is thrown into the spotlight among growing anti-racism protests by the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of American George Floyd. It gains particular attention following the toppling of a statue to slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol.
May 2021: Oriel College said they had decided not to remove the monument due to 'considerable obstacles', including financial costs and 'complex' planning processes
At the height of Black Lives Matter protests last summer, 'Rhodes Must Fall' protests sprang up outside Oriel.
Dons said his statue was a 'source of shame'. But in May, Oriel's governing body ruled it will not be removed, which the Department of Politics and International Relations condemned.
Oriel College's said they had decided not to remove the monument due to 'considerable obstacles', including financial costs and 'complex' planning processes
It came after a long-running campaign demanding the removal of the British imperialist's monument.
An independent inquiry to examine Rhodes' legacy was set up in June last year in the wake of BLM protests after the governing body 'expressed their wish' to remove the statue from outside the college.
A majority of members on the Commission supported the college's original wish to remove the Rhodes' statue.
But Oriel College said in May: 'In light of the considerable obstacles to removal, Oriel's governing body has decided not to begin the legal process for relocation of the memorials.'
The Rhodes Must Fall campaign then accused Oriel College of 'institutional racism'
The campaigners - which staged protests last summer over the statue of the British imperialist - are urging the college 'to reconsider their position immediately' as they pledged to continue their fight.
The college said in a statement: 'The Commission backed the College's original wish (made in June 2020 and reaffirmed again by the College yesterday), to remove the statue, whilst acknowledging the complex challenges and costs presented by its removal in terms of heritage and planning consent.
'The governing body has carefully considered the regulatory and financial challenges, including the expected time frame for removal, which could run into years with no certainty of outcome, together with the total cost of removal.'
The College said it will instead focus its time and resources on 'improving educational equality, diversity and inclusion amongst its student cohort and academic community'.
Lord Mendoza, provost of Oriel College, said: 'It has been a careful, finely balanced debate and we are fully aware of the impact our decision is likely to have in the UK and further afield.
'We understand this nuanced conclusion will be disappointing to some, but we are now focused on the delivery of practical actions aimed at improving outreach and the day-to-day experience of BME students.
'We are looking forward to working with Oxford City Council on a range of options for contextualisation.'
Robert Poll from Save Our Statues said: 'I am saddened but not surprised to hear the verdict of the Commission, which was a foregone conclusion from the start,' Pictured: A protest in Oxford last June
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson tweeted: 'Sensible & balanced decision not to remove the Rhodes statue from Oriel College, Oxford - because we should learn from our past, rather than censoring history, and continue focussing on reducing inequality.'
Meanwhile, Dr Samir Shah, vice-chair of think tank Policy Exchange's History Matters Project, said: 'Oriel has rightly decided not to spend time on a fruitless effort to change the past, but to plough resources into trying to change the future, especially for ethnic minority young people.'
A statement from the Rhodes Must Fall campaign said: 'No matter how Oriel College might try to justify their decision, allowing the statue to remain is an act of institutional racism.
Government warns Oxford students could win compensation after protesting dons REFUSED to tutor them in Cecil Rhodes statue row
Last month the government warned that Oxford students could win compensation if they are affected by a planned teaching boycott by 150 rebel academics protesting over the Cecil Rhodes statue, as Jacob Rees-Mogg said, 'We must not allow this wokeness to happen'.
Left-wing dons say they will still give lectures to Oriel College's 300 undergraduates, but deny them the chance for in-depth discussion in small groups or one-to-one sessions until the monument to the colonialist is toppled.
Proponents of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign claim the small statue high up on Oriel's main building 'glorifies colonialism', but the college last month decided it would stay following a backlash from donors.
Today a No 10 spokesman said universities had a duty to provide good-quality teaching and that the Government would expect 'appropriate action' to be taken if that was disrupted.
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg also weighed into the row, describing the academics concerned as a 'useless bunch', adding: 'We must not allow this wokeness to happen.'
'The morality of the decision of whether to remove the statue above High Street has been subsumed into a cost-benefit analysis, one that does not take into account the human cost of letting the statue remain.
'Pretending that this is a choice made due to financial costs is a slap in the face with the hand of white supremacy, fed by the value system of profit before humanity, the same value system that justified enslavement.'
The campaigners added: 'We are disappointed at the refusal to listen to not only the voices of the people who have called for the removal of the statue of Rhodes for many years, but their own governing body and the recommendations of the independent commission.
'We will continue to fight for the fall of this statue and everything it represents.'
Councillor Susan Brown, leader of Oxford City Council, said: 'I am personally deeply disappointed that Oriel College have chosen today to backtrack on their previous decision to remove the Rhodes statue and ignore the views of the commission on this crucial part of their work.
'For people in our city this was the most important action that Oriel College could have taken to show an acknowledgement of the discrimination of the past and they have failed to act.
The inquiry was launched by Oriel last June as the Black Lives Matter movement picked up steam.
Its findings were expected in January but have faced delays due to the Covid pandemic and the huge number of submissions to the commission.
The Guardian reported earlier the inquiry has said the statue should be ripped from the wall and a King Edward Street plaque should be taken away.
It wanted Oriel's governing body to issue a statement sharing the college's view on its relationship with Rhodes.
The newspaper reported college material should be rewritten to match its thoughts towards the mining magnate
A further recommendation by the commission was for Oriel to fund two fellowships in courses on Rhodes' legacy.
And it wanted the college to open scholarships for people from southern Africa and bring in an annual warts and all lecture on Rhodes.
Robert Poll from Save Our Statues told MailOnline: 'I welcome the decision by Oriel College not to remove the statue of Rhodes.
'It recognises two important facts: that our heritage is protected by planning law, and that the people do not want to see it destroyed.
'Over a thousand people wrote to the commission and the majority were in favour of keeping the statue.
'We must stop sitting in judgement of history and trying to assert moral authority over the past. Calls to remove statues only inflame tensions and sow division. Let this be the last call for a statue to fall.'
General Secretary of the Free Speech Union Toby Young added: 'This is a victory for common sense over the woke Taliban.
'We cannot cleanse our past of historical figures whose views we now find distasteful and the attempt to do so, by pulling down statues and renaming buildings, is a hallmark of a totalitarian society.
'The Rhodes Must Fall movement has caricatured Rhodes as an evil racist, determined to oppress black and brown people, but that is over simplistic.
'He was a member of the Liberal Party, he funded the newspaper in South Africa that became the mouthpiece of Nelson Mandela's ANC and he created a scholarship programme that was open to all, regardless of ethnicity, saying 'no student shall be qualified or disqualified for election to a Scholarship on grounds of his race'. By the standards of his time, he was actually pretty woke.
'I hope this sensible decision encourages other institutions to stop self-flagellating themselves about their own links with 'problematic' historical figure and instead treat their statues and busts as an opportunity to learn more about the past.
'Cancelling the dead in a frenzy of moral indignation is not the best way to understand our rich and complex history.'
Who was Cecil Rhodes and why is he so controversial?
Cecil Rhodes, pictured, who died in 1902, was the founder of the De Beers diamond company who was accused of exploiting his black miners. He was also a proponent of racial segregation which led to the Apartheid strategy in South Africa
Cecil Rhodes was born in Bishop Stortford, Hertfordshire in 1853. He was the son of a vicar.
Rhodes left England in 1870 for South Africa to work on his brother's cotton farm. Though he later moved into the diamond business - co-founding De Beers - which at one stage controlled more than 90 per cent of the world's supply.
The tycoon had wanted to build a railway from Cairo to Cape Town in order to colonise much of the continent of Africa.
He had even plans to bring the United States back under Crown control.
It wasn't until the 1880s that he attended Oriel College, Oxford, which he left a substantial fund upon his death in 1902.
He was supported by Queen Victoria in expanding British territory in southern Africa, colonising Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia - now Zambia and Zimbabwe.
He once claimed: 'Why should we not form a secret society with but one object, the furtherance of the British Empire and the bringing of the whole world under British rule, for the recovery of the United States, for making the Anglo-Saxon race but one Empire?'
He was the Prime Minister of Cape Colony - now South Africa - between 1890 and 1896 and is credited with creating the conditions for the second Boer War.
In 1895, Rhodes sent British troops into Transvaal, which was an independent Republic, in order to overthrow it's prime minister Paul Kruger and seize the area's gold mines.
The Jameson Raid failed miserably.
Though, the battle over gold rights in the region led to war in 1899, which lasted for more than three years.
British troops operated a scorched earth policy, burning farms and placing women and children into concentration camps where thousands died.
Some 500,000 troops - including soldiers from Australia, New Zealand and Canada were involved in the conflict.
The conflict claimed the lives of 25,000 Afrikaners - many of them in concentration camps.
Some 22,000 British troops as well as a further 12,000 Africans died in the conflict.
Who was Cecil Rhodes and why is he so controversial?
Cecil Rhodes, pictured, who died in 1902, was the founder of the De Beers diamond company who was accused of exploiting his black miners. He was also a proponent of racial segregation which led to the Apartheid strategy in South Africa
Cecil Rhodes was born in Bishop Stortford, Hertfordshire in 1853. He was the son of a vicar.
Rhodes left England in 1870 for South Africa to work on his brother's cotton farm. Though he later moved into the diamond business - co-founding De Beers - which at one stage controlled more than 90 per cent of the world's supply.
The tycoon had wanted to build a railway from Cairo to Cape Town in order to colonise much of the continent of Africa.
He had even plans to bring the United States back under Crown control.
It wasn't until the 1880s that he attended Oriel College, Oxford, which he left a substantial fund upon his death in 1902.
He was supported by Queen Victoria in expanding British territory in southern Africa, colonising Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia - now Zambia and Zimbabwe.
He once claimed: 'Why should we not form a secret society with but one object, the furtherance of the British Empire and the bringing of the whole world under British rule, for the recovery of the United States, for making the Anglo-Saxon race but one Empire?'
He was the Prime Minister of Cape Colony - now South Africa - between 1890 and 1896 and is credited with creating the conditions for the second Boer War.
In 1895, Rhodes sent British troops into Transvaal, which was an independent Republic, in order to overthrow it's prime minister Paul Kruger and seize the area's gold mines.
The Jameson Raid failed miserably.
Though, the battle over gold rights in the region led to war in 1899, which lasted for more than three years.
British troops operated a scorched earth policy, burning farms and placing women and children into concentration camps where thousands died.
Some 500,000 troops - including soldiers from Australia, New Zealand and Canada were involved in the conflict.
The conflict claimed the lives of 25,000 Afrikaners - many of them in concentration camps.
Some 22,000 British troops as well as a further 12,000 Africans died in the conflict.