S6 E3: Pleeeazzzzz decolonize African public space!

My African Cliches (English)

My African Cliché of the day is a British man, called Lawrence. No no, not Lwrence of Arabia, but Lawrence Westgaph, a young British political activist, from Nigerian and Jamaican descents, who has set up a fundraising campaign to finally erect a statue in Liverpool to honor African slaves’s role in building the UK economy. He also produced the BBC program "Read the signs» that examines the history of Liverpool street names. Now let’s remind ourselves that statues just like street and cities’ names are meant to celebrate a person, and sometimes horrible persons in history. And we now know that France will not remove statues of slavers and colonial settlers who killed many in the colonies. President Macron said they don’t want to re-write history. He probably forgot that France did re-write its history, when all streets and places named after Marechal Petain, an army guy who did so well during World war 1 but then messed up during the second. France was so ashamed of his attitude that all those streets were renamed, the last one in 2013.

But while France is hiding behind excuses, isn’t the real question we the Africans? What are our leaders’ positions, in this debate about the representation of history in public space? Shouldn’t we be questioning why so many cities (Brazzaville, Port Harcourt, Fort Portal, Francistown and Monrovia for example, are still named after settlers and weirdos involved in the scramble for Africa and its enslavement?

Dear friends, in 2020, how many avenues cities, hospitals, squares and schools are still named after British Queen Victoria, after French General Charles de Gaulle? Or after Portuguese missionaries?