Dear Lord Mayor and KCCA, today we have raised over 3100 signatures - in three days - on a petition to remove icons, symbols and names of personalities that invoke colonial and cultural oppression or supremacy from our Capital City and elsewhere.
Many countries have started on this journey aimed at restoring respect to the right to dignity and freedom of the victims of slavery, colonialism, racism and discrimination as well as ending impunity. We invite you to follow their example. A few cases below demonstrate a global movement to deal with histories and legacies of oppression and exploitation.
1. A 93-year-old statue commemorating Christopher Columbus in Richmond, Virginia was brought down by demonstrators. Another Columbus statute was beheaded in Boston. Columbus opened the Americans for conquest of the natives and imposition of a European hegemony.
2. In Belgium, a statue of King Leopold II was removed from the city of Antwerp after being defaced by anti-racist protesters. During his absolute rule of the Congo, an estimated 10–15 million Africans died which led to the first use of the term "crime against humanity."
3. The statute of Edward Colston a famed slave trader was removed by protestors in the UK. Colston's company transported more than 100,000 enslaved men, women, and children from West Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas between 1672 and 1689. At least 20,000 died during the crossings due to conditions on the boats — their bodies thrown overboard.
4. Robert Milligan, a prominent British slave trader who owned two sugar plantations and enslaved more than 500 people in Jamaica, was removed by London city officials on 06.09.2020. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for a review of similar monuments across the capital.
5. In South Africa, a statue of Cecil Rhodes was successfully removed from the University of Cape Town in 2015 through student campaigns. Cecil Rhodes was a British imperialist who wanted to continue British rule in South Africa, and considered the Afrikaner population to be less-than the British.
6. The Winston Churchill monument in London was vandalized with graffiti labeling the former prime minister a racist. Critics have highlighted Churchill's documented support of eugenics and his role in the 1943 Bengal famine, which resulted in the death of 3 million Indians from starvation.
7. In Nova Scotia, the Halifax's city council has voted to take down a statue of Edward Cornwallis, the city's founder and a dark symbol of colonialism. Cornwallis was a British military officer credited with founding Halifax in 1749. He also issued what's called the "scalping proclamation," which offered a bounty for every Mi'kmaq person killed. He also established a bounty for Mi'kmaq women and children taken prisoner.
8. In Australia, campaigners are promoting the removal of the statue that commemorates 19th century politician, Charles Cameron Kingston, considered to be the architect of the ‘White Australia’ policy. Protestors have also called for monuments of colonists and explorers such as Captain James Cook in Sydney - considered offensive to indigenous Australians - to be taken down.
There are many more cases. We count on you to take appropriate action to end this problematic legacy in Kampala City. Thank you.
Apollo N. Makubuya