Cast in Stone

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• 2019, Redvers Buller statue graffitied
• 2019, Seventeen of Sixty-Eight art exhibition
  Baltic Artists’ award winner Ingrid Pollard's Seventeen of Sixty Eight (2019) examined the representation of Black figures on pub signs and architecture across the United Kingdom. The title refers to the 68 pubs across the county that had "Black Boy" in their name in 2019. The work was shown again at Turner Contemporary in Margate in 2022.
• 2020 Open letter against the monument to Colbert in Paris
  On August 3, 2020, a collective of anti-racist organizers, scholars, intellectuals, politicians, journalists, and various personnalities co-signed an open letter addressed to the French minister of Justice. The letter openly supports the activist from Brigade Anit-Négrophobie who threw paint at Colbert's statue, underlining Colbert's legacy regarding colonialism and slavery. They point out a contradiction between France's 2001 law recognizing slavery and the slave trade as a crime against humanity, and the fact that the man responsible for this crime was represented in front of the place where the people of France would send its representatives to meet and decide the laws, under the country's motto of liberty, equality, and fraternity: "en 2001, la France s’est dotée d’une loi reconnaissant que l’esclavage des Africains pratiqué pendant plusieurs siècles était un crime contre l’humanité. Malgré cela, en 2020, le Responsable en Chef de ce Crime contre l’humanité, Colbert, trône encore à l’entrée du lieu de rassemblement des représentants de la Nation française dont la devise est « Liberté Égalité Fraternité », Nation qui a décrété dès 1789 que les « hommes naissent et demeurent libres et égaux en droit » (article 1er de la Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen de du 26 aout 1789)". The open letter called for various reparations to the descendents of slavery's victims, and for the removal of Colbert's statue.
• 2020-2021, Guerilla Installation of the Unknown Women Pyramid on the Robert Milligan plinth
• 2020, 'Nazi' sprayed on the statue of Nancy Astor in Plymouth
• 2020, "Doit-on déboulonner la statue du général Leclerc à Pontoise"
  Dans le cadre des élections municipales, la "Gazette du Val d'Oise" pose la question à chacune des listes présentées à Pontoise
• 2020, 2d Demonstration around the statue of Paul Bert
  Black Lives Matter" banners were hung on the statue, on the bridge on which it stands, on the Paul Bert street signs downtown and beside the Paul Bert secondary school.
• 2020, Address to the French people by the President of France
  An extract of Emmanuel Macron's speech: This economic, ecological and solidarity-based reconstruction will be the key to our independence. It will be prepared throughout the summer with our nation's driving forces so that it can be implemented as quickly as possible. France's independence also requires unity around the Republic if we are to live better. This is the second axis of this new stage. I see us dividing over everything and sometimes losing touch with our history. We need to unite around republican patriotism. We are a nation where everyone, whatever their origins or religion, must find their place. Is this true everywhere and for everyone? No. Our fight must therefore continue and intensify to ensure that everyone gets the qualifications and jobs that match their merits and talents, and to combat the fact that name, address and skin colour all too often still reduce the equality of opportunity that everyone should have. We will be uncompromising in the face of racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination, and strong new decisions will be taken. But this noble fight goes astray when it is transformed into communitarianism, into a hateful or false rewriting of the past. This fight is unacceptable when it is co-opted by separatists. I am telling you very clearly this evening, my dear compatriots, the Republic will not erase any trace or any name from its History. The Republic will not take down statues. Instead, we must take a clear-sighted look together at all our history, all our memories, our relationship with Africa in particular, in order to build a present and a possible future, from one side of the Mediterranean to the other, with a desire for truth and in no way to revisit or deny what we are. Nor will we build our future in disorder. Without republican order, there can be neither security nor freedom. The police and gendarmes on our soil are the guardians of this order. They are exposed to daily risks on our behalf, which is why they deserve the support of the public authorities and the gratitude of the nation.
• 2020, All Souls College decides to keep the Christopher Codrington statue in place
  All Souls College opted against removing the Codrington Statue and instead chose to 'investigate further forms of memorialisation and contextualisation within the library, which will draw attention to the presence of enslaved people on the Codrington plantations, and will express the College’s abhorrence of slavery'. The College also decided to cease referring to the College Library as the 'Codrington Library'.
• 2020, Annonce que la statue de Belain d'Esnambuc sera déboulonnée
  Le maire de Fort-De-France annonce qu’il soumet au conseil municipal du 28 juillet la proposition de déposer la statue et demande à la commission « Mémoire et transmission » de décider du sort à réserver à la statue après cette déposition
• 2020, Anticolonial graffiti on the monument to Gallieni in Paris
  Following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in the United States, antiracist protests inspired by Black Lives Matter flourish in France in the Spring of 2020. On June 16, the monument to Gallieni is graffitied with blue spray paint reading "Déboulonnons le récit officiel" (Let's take down the official narrative) on the front plinth, "Dans un musée" (In a museum), and "Etat responsable" (Responsible State) on the other sides. Next to the front graffiti, a different hand wrote: "89 000 † à Madagascar, ni oubli ni pardon" (89,000 deaths in Madagascar, no forgetting nor forgiving).
• 2020, Anticolonial protest on the Gallieni monument in Paris
  On June 18, only a couple of days after the graffiti, antiracist activists climbed onto the monument to Gallieni and covered his statue with a black veil. Police came and arrested the people who had climbed on the statue. It is unclear whether the city pressed charges for "dégradation de bien public". French celebrity Vikash Dhorasoo, former soccer player and left-wing activist, was present and answered a journalist from Russia Today on a video that was published on twitter (see sources). Here is what he said: "On s'est dit après l'allocution de Macron qui avait un peu clos le débat, voilà c'est comme ça on déboulonne pas, on discute pas des noms de rue, des noms de stations de métro, et surtout on soutient les forces de police, on dit deux-trois petits mots sur le racisme... Alors voilà, nous on pense qu'il y a un vrai problème, qu'il y a des vrais combats qui se mènent, alors que le maire de Londres a déboulonné une statue, à Bristol ils ont fait la même chose, et nous on peut pas en discuter. Donc on voulait remettre le débat très vite sur la table. On doit, dans une démocratie, pouvoir en discuter : qu'est-ce qu'on met dans l'espace public ? C'est une question de justice, vraiment. Et puis aussi interpeller la maire Anne Hidalgo parce qu'elle est en campagne en ce moment, alors j'ai l'impression qu'elle est plus à inaugurer des pistes cyclables et des jardins partagés qu'à s'intéresser à ce qui se passe dans sa ville, notamment sur les violences policières. Pourquoi, pourquoi on s'attache à ces symboles du colonialisme, de l'esclavagisme ? C'est quelqu'un qui a tué 700 000 personnes je crois à Madagascar, pourquoi on peut pas en discuter, pourquoi on pourrait pas les mettre ailleurs, et puis raconter une autre histoire ? Parce que ça c'est une histoire des vainqueurs qu'on raconte à chaque fois. Moi je pense qu'on pourrait raconter autrement." Under this video tweet, reactions are mostly hostile, between justifications for the French Empire: "Encore un génocide totalement bidon que l'on met sur le dos des occidentaux. Gallieni a réprimé, éxécuté des caciques hostiles à la France mais développé les écoles, les hôpitaux, le chemin de fer sur l'île. Comme si le peuple de cette ile était plus heureux avant, et après!" ; calls for Dhorasoo to leave France: "Ces donneurs de leçons nous font chier, ça les empêche de vivre ces statues. La France a des traditions et valeurs ainsi qu une histoire. Allez voir ailleurs si le monde est meilleur." ; and inversions of colonial narratives inspired by the Great Replacement theory: "Les colons demandent à ce que les statues des français soient détruites pour être remplacées par celles de non français".
• 2020, Article on "statues that hurt the eye" like Germain
  Cet article fait le lien avec la mobilisation pour George Floyd et les déboulonnages de statues. Sont mentionnées les statues de Jacques Chirac et de François Hollande, tous deux élus de Corrèze, inaugurées en septembre 2020, le monument Germain et les statues de Bugeaud.
• 2020, banner in front of the monument to General Faidherbe. Photography: Lille insurgée.
• 2020, Chelsea Physic Garden says it is unable to move the statue of Hans Sloane
• 2020, "Stop colonialism" collage on the monument to General Faidherbe
  A march against police violence is organized in Lille, during which demonstrators put forward the idea that the structural racism that generates violence stems in part from colonial history. A "stop colonialism" collage is affixed to the pedestal of the Faidherbe monument, and a banner calls for the destruction of colonial statues "from Lille to Boston".
• 2020, "stop colonialism" collage on the pedestal of the monument to General Faidherbe. Photography: anonymous colleuse
• 2020, Colston statue retrieved from canal
  Bristol City Council retrieved the statue of Edward Colston from the Bristol canal, where it had been thrown by protesters on 8 June.
• 2020, Communiqué officiel du préfet de la Martinique
  Condemning the destruction caused by the unacceptable actions of a violent minority, and adding: "Memorial commissions have been set up in several communes. These initiatives will enable local councils to make decisions that respect both convictions and historical facts. The State supports these initiatives because they enable dialogue and are part of the democratic debate", he wrote, asking that ‘the memorial commissions be allowed to do their work’.
• 2020, Creation of the Project TRUTH steering group in Bristol
• 2020, Critical social media posts about the monument to Gallieni in Paris
  Following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in the United States, antiracist protests inspired by Black Lives Matter flourished in France in the Spring of 2020. On June 10, the popular content creator behind Histoires Crêpues, a YouTube channel, Instagram and Twitter account, shared a 4 minutes Instagram video in front of Gallieni's statue. He reposted various versions of it on Twitter and YouTube in the following days. He mentioned that on June 7, antiracist protesters took down the statue of Edward Colston, and pointed out that in France also, the streets were full of homages to colonizers and slave traders. He gave historical context on Gallieni's colonial career, his invading the then called French Sudan, in Tonkin (Vietnam), and sent to quash resisting forces in Madagascar. He linked sources to Gallieni's writings, including a passage of Gallieni's Rapport d'ensemble sur la pacification, l'organisation et la colonisation de Madagascar, where Gallieni talks about "la politique des races", a military occupation strategy where France would pit Madagascar's different ethnicities against one another, focusing on destroying the ethnic group that was the most hostile to French colonialism. The content creator argued that Gallieni was in that sense relying on Arthur de Gobineau's racist theories. While racist ideologies underpinned the entire French colonial project, with the idea that France was superior to the populations it invaded and submitted to its rule, Gallieni's doctrine required to study local power dynamics and the cultural specificities of each ethnic group to France's advantage. He asked why Gallieni had so much presence in French public space, citing a métro station, and the avenue Gallieni in Paris, a prestigious street that connects the Seine to the Invalides building, deploring that it was dedicated to the colonial hero who designed "la politique des races". He deplored that not knowing this history was making it more difficult to combat racism in contemporary France. (From the video: "elle est consacrée au héros colonial concepteur de la politique des races. C'est à peine croyable, comment peut-on espérer lutter contre lutter contre le racisme en France quand personne ne connaît cette histoire ?") He then goes around the monument and describes its component, insisting on the allegories of the pedestal, point out that they are "clichés" linked to Gallieni's colonial career and that the Africa woman is bare-chested. He also points out that the monument was commissioned by the Ligue Maritime et Coloniale Française, reading the inscription on the plinth. "Ce sont ces quatre personnages qui représentent les peuples qui ont été colonisés par Gallieni et qui le portent. Franchement, c'est extrême. Franchement, je sais pas, en tant qu'afrodescendant, tu te balades dans la rue, et tu vois ce genre de monuments en l'honneur d'un héros colonial, ça fait mal en fait, c'est... franchement, je sais même pas quoi dire." He ends this video asking whether these public homages are still necessary, or if more context would be needed to fully understand the history alluded to by the monument, suggesting that it might be better to place it in a museum. Finally, he asked municipal and state power what the message was to the population, by keeping these colonial monuments without explanation, and urged for more education about history of French colonialism and slavery to combat racism today. "Est-ce que nous avons vraiment besoin de tous ces hommages coloniaux ? Ne seraient-ils pas mieux dans des musées qui pourraient clairement nous expliquer cette histoire ? Je m'adresse directement à la mairie du 7e arrondissement de Paris, au Ministère de la Culture, et à Emmanuel Macron, président de la République française. Je demande : quel est le message que vous voulez nous faire passer en conservant ces hommages coloniaux sans nous donner aucun contexte historique pour mieux les comprendre ? On veut des réponses. Je crois que continuer à creuser notre histoire coloniale c'est un bon moyen de lutter contre le racisme tel qu'il existe aujourd'hui dans notre pays la France. Un racisme directement lié à notre histoire coloniale et notre passé esclavagiste français." In the following days, comments and reposts on social media engage with the contents of the video about the monument, both critical of Gallieni, and critical of Histoires Crêpues.
• 2020, Crowd gathers to defend statue of Robert Clive in Shrewsbury
  A group of around fifty individuals gathered in the market square of Shrewsbury to show their support for the statue of Robert Clive.
• 2020, Daniel Kawczynski, M.P. for Shrewsbury and Atcham, calls for peaceful discussion over the statue of Robert Clive and praises the British Empire
  Responding to two petitions to remove the statue of Robert Clive from the Market Square in Shrewsbury, Conservative politician and Member of Parliament Daniel Kawczynski calls for peaceful discussion. He noted that he would be carrying out 'blow-by-blow' research on Clive's life and career and stated that the British Empire 'was a tremendous force for good during its time.'
• 2020, De la peinture blanche est à nouveau versée sur le buste
  Inscription "White Lives Matter" sur le socle
• 2020, Déboulonnage du buste d'Ernest Deproge
  Le buste et son socle sont renversés et laissés sur place.
• 2020, Decision by Westminster City Council that it does not have the authority to remove the statue of Robert Clive
  The Westminster City Council declared: 'Westminster City Council’s role in relation to the potential removal or repositioning of the statue is limited to the consideration of an application for Listed Building Consent to remove the statue, as it is Grade II listed. The statue is owned by English Heritage under a licence from Historic England which runs until 2023 and therefore the Council has no power to order its removal. Instead, the decision rests with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as the central government department responsible for Historic England.
• 2020, Photo Challenge “Take a picture with the ‘Maroon’ Memorial statue”
  The Collectif Moun Gwadloup, after repainting the Maroon statue with gold paint, created a “#Bayloaychallenge”, open to citizens, inviting them to take a photo next to the statue “restored” by the collective, publishing it on Facebook, with a view to supporting the association's action
• 2020, Demande de retrait du monument Colomb
  La Confédération Unie du Peuple Taïno de la Guadeloupe, section de l’United Confederation of Taino People, rejette le projet de la mairie de placer à nouveau une statue représentant un « Indien caraïbe » à côté de la statue et demande le retrait de la statue
• 2020, Members of the Collectif Moun Gwadloup repaint the Maroon statue
  Four male members of the collective repaint the statue with gold paint, as a sign of political action to valorize the statue and the figure it embodies. The message is clear, and broadcast on social networks
• 2020, Destruction de la statue de Joséphine
  Activists, aided by onlookers, destroy the statue and broadcast the video of their action almost live on social networks. The video shows the group using ropes to force the statue, which is still standing on a pedestal that has already been partially destroyed. As it falls, shouts of joy erupt, followed by people jumping on what's left of it.
• 2020, Dispute between The Daily Telegraph and York Minster over Constantine statue
  On June 29, 2020, The Daily Telegraph published an article claiming that York Minster's statue of Constantine was being 'looked at' following alleged complaints that the Roman Emperor had supported slavery. However, York Minister denied that they had received any such complaints, with a spokesperson stating that "Contrary to what has been reported, we have not received a single complaint about Emperor Constantine’s statue” and “We are not removing Emperor Constantine’s statue. Nothing is happening: there is no discussion, action, intention or even thoughts about it".
• 2020, Equestrian statue of Prince George is graffitied
  The plinth and front relief of the statue were graffitied with BLM (Black Lives Matter) tags.
• 2020, Equestrian statue of William III in Glasgow graffitied
• 2020, Far-right protest "in defence" of the Winston Churchill statue
• 2020, Graffiti and paint thrown at the monument to Colbert in Paris
  On 23 June 2020, an activist from Guadeloupe, member of the Brigade Anti-Négrophobie (BAN), spray painted the words "Negrophobie d'Etat" in red, onto the plinth of Colbert's monument in front of Assemblée Nationale. He also threw red paint onto the statue's chest, and onto the document it is holding in its hands. The police, always in front of the AssembléeNationale, intervened immediately and arrested the activist on the spot. The State pressed charges for "dégradation de bien public". A video of the action and the activist's arrest was posted on BAN's Twitter account. The activist explained: “Vous voyez, les racistes sont de l’autre coté de l’Assemblée. Ça c’est une statue qui vient prôner la négrophobie, le meurtre des Noirs, le viol des Noirs, la torture des Noirs”.
• 2020, Graffiti on the Winston Churchill statue
  The Churchill statue's plinth was graffitied with the words 'was a racist' during the Black Lives Matter protests.
• 2020, Graffiti on the Winston Churchill statue
  The Churchill statue's plinth was graffitied with the words 'is a racist' during a climate change demonstration.
• 2020, Tag on the statue of Churchill
  Inscription : "big racist"
• 2020, Tag onthe bust of Gandhi, Fort-de-France
  "Gandhi, le négrophobe"
• 2020, Graffiti sur le buste de Gandhi à Fort-de-France
  Peinture blanche sur le nez et sur les yeux "Raciste"
• 2020, Graffiti on the Marchand monument
  Let's Decolonize Paris
• 2020, graffiti sur le socle de la statue de Belain d'Esnambuc
  « Déclaration des droits des militants martiniquais. Plus jamais un militant ne tombera sous les coups des forces coloniales » « #Justice pour Kéziah » militant blessé lors de son interpellation le 16 juillet
• 2020, Graffiti sur le socle de la statue de Jacques Coeur à Bourges
  "Colonialisme" écrit à la peinture rouge en bas du socle. Aucune revendication n'explique les liens entre Jacques Coeur et le colonialisme. Sa statue à Bourges insiste sur ses liens avec la Méditerranée orientale en puisant dans le registre de l'orientalisme. On peut également supposer que cette accusation reprend l'image de Jacques Coeur comme "financier colonial" construite en 1928 par un ouvrage d'inspiration colonialiste qui présente Jacques Coeur comme un lointain précurseur de la domination française en Syrie et au Liban après la première Guerre mondiale. Ouvrage dont quelques pages sont consultable sur Gallica et qui a été réédité en version numérique en 2020.
• 2020, Incendie au pied de la statue de Belain d'Esnambuc
• 2020, Artistic installation of a rope on the neck of the Bugeaud statue
  ADNX and Klemere set up the installation “Tirons sur la corde, dans le sens de l'Histoire” (Let's pull on the rope, in the direction of history): they passed a rope around the neck of the statue of Marshal Bugeaud, inviting the public to pull on it in order to bring the statue to the ground.
• 2020, Installation of the A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) sculpture
• 2020, Interpretation board placed by the former plinth of the William Huskisson statue
  The text on the interpretation board reads as follows: "William Huskisson 1770–1830 whose statue once stood on this plinth was MP for Liverpool from 1823 to his death in 1830. He first entered parliament in 1796 and as M.P. for Liskeard voted for the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. During his time representing Liverpool many of his supporters in the town were plantation owners and were not in favour of an end to slavery in Britain’s colonies. These pro-planter sentiments led Huskisson to oppose the abolition of slavery; and in 1826, rather than support calls for immediate abolition, Huskisson championed the passing of the Consolidated Slave Law, introduced as a compromise between those agitating for the abolition of slavery and the planters who wanted to maintain it. Huskisson did not live to see the abolition, he was killed on the 15 September 1830 whilst attending the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Slavery was finally abolished by the British in 1834. In the early hours of July 22, 1982, the statue was removed from the plinth by a group of activists offended at Huskisson’s role in supporting slavery."
• 2020, Jake Thompson's petition to remove the statue of Robert Clive in Shrewsbury gathers more than 5000 signatures
• 2020, Jet de peinture sur les allégories des colonies d'Asie et d'Afrique à Marseille
  Défilé militant devant les statues au pied des escaliers de la gare Saint-Charles pour dénoncer l'héritage colonial et exotique dont elles sont l'allégorie. Inscriptions : "Les colonisés d'Afrique niquent la France” (sur la statue d'Afrique en bas à droite) et sur l'autre plaque (celle de la statue d'Asie, en bas à gauche) : "Les colonisés d'Asie nikent la France".
• 2020, Lille mayor Martine Aubry announces that she is thinking of installing an explanatory plaque