Another divide in opinion about the removal of a statue. However, the argument that the person was aligning to values of the past and should not be judged by today’s standards is facile for two reasons.
One, the statue is in the here and now and the celebration is symbolised by it remaining in place. It may have served a purpose in the past but not now.
Two, to assume that everyone thought in the same way back then is as ridiculous as assuming everyone thinks the same now.
As former history teacher Joanne Oldale and others have pointed out:
‘Historical investigation shows us that Baden Powell sanctioned the massacre of thousands of African women, children and non combatants. And that’s in addition to him repeatedly applauding Hitler’s book Mein Kampf as ‘a great read full of useful ideas’.
With a massive thank you to my friend Emma Lang, a fellow Poole resident, for the following history lesson on local ‘hero’ Baden Powell:
‘This man was responsible for atrocities against the Zulu’s, stole beads from a dead Zulu woman’s body but claimed they were beads from the Zulu king, illegally executed a prisoner of war, allowed the massacre of women, children and non-combatants, supported fascism, supported Hitler (with his diary stating he read Mein Kampf and it is a wonderful book, with good ideas on education, health, propaganda, organisation etc), said his favourite sport in the world was “man-hunting”, made racist comments throughout his travel books and proudly told people that his name given to him by the Matabele people was “The Wolf That Never Sleeps”, despite the word meaning “Hyena”, which is an abusive and insulting word in their culture.
He commandeered all the food for the white population to save the garrison, leaving African’s starving in the town unless they left, which resulted in over 1,000 people dying, with many of those being women and children. Many African’s were also shot or flogged if they were caught stealing food during the siege, all whilst Caviar was being served in the hotel.
Baden Powell was a racist, war-monger and Nazi sympathiser and this should not be excused simply because of his creation of the Scout Movement (let’s not even get onto the fact he stole many of the Scout Movement ideas from his “friend” Seton with no credit)
It seemed that campaigners from across BCP had achieved their goal. An early press release today said that the statue was being taken down pending further discussions about its suitability. However, now the Deputy Leader has issued a further statement saying that the statue is only being removed temporarily on the advice of police. The statue will only be removed permanently if ‘extremely strong grounds’ are established. The fact that this man supported fascism and was prepared to see people starve to achieve his military goals doesn’t count as extreme? This isn’t ancient history. It’s several generations away. This stinks of white privilege.
Saying that, I am so pleased that we are finally shining a light on our colonial past. The Colston topplers have prompted people to question the history books and challenge the current orthodoxy. As a former History teacher, I believe that’s something to be celebrated.’
He was also rabidly homophobic and in an age when many want people to accept each other for their own identities many of the statues of the past were erected by and a celebration of people the 21st century should consign to the bin of history.
It is essential that we learn from the past but where it is malignant we do not ever celebrate it. Otherwise we are doomed to be stuck on repeat.
