Protesters placed a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) hood and sign on the statue of Cecil Rhodes on the college outside High Street, with a sign reading: “Racists welcome here.” The demonstration comes days before Nathan Cofnas’ controversial talk at the college.
The activist group Led By Donkeys confirmed their responsibility for the demonstration to Cherwell. In a statement, the group told Cherwell they had deployed a cherry-picker and “gave [the statue] a makeover”.
The white pointed hood is a symbol associated with the American far-right hate group, the KKK. During the late 19th and 20th centuries, the group was famous for peddling white supremacist ideology and racial violence.
Led By Donkeys told Cherwell: “This intervention was in solidarity with decades of students attending this university who have opposed its cosy relationship with white supremacists.”
In their Instagram post, they mention the college’s hosting of Cofnas, describing him as a “white supremacist” who “kick-started the campaign against Professor Jason Arday”.
“But this is the college staying true to form”, the post says. “It continues to display this statue of Cecil Rhodes, the notorious imperialist who created brutally racist colonies in southern Africa.”
The statue of the 19th-century British imperialist has sparked numerous controversies in recent years. Rhodes has long been a polemic figure for his role in the British colonisation of Southern Africa. He was directly involved in the violent conquest of what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe as well as exploitative labour practices and racial segregation in South Africa as head of the De Beers mining company.
Rhodes was a former Oriel student and founded the eponymous Rhodes Scholarship scheme, which funds international postgraduate students at the University of Oxford. In recent years, the scholarships have been subject to much scrutiny due to Rhodes’ colonial legacy. Meanwhile, the Rhodes Trust , who fund the scholarships, have faced financial difficulties.
Protests have demanded the removal of his statue since 2015, when the #RhodesMustFall movement began. The murder of George Floyd in 2020 led to further demonstrations.
Rhodes Must Fall Oxford, who led the movement, have called the statue a “visual marker of the priorities of this institution. It offers a clear public reflection of who the University of Oxford was designed to serve and who it was designed to exploit”.
Rather than removing the statue, Oriel agreed to establish a task force to consider recommendations for contextualising it, in line with a commissioned report. This involved an exhibition last year aiming to “contextualise the legacy of Cecil Rhodes”.
Student societies condemned Oriel College’s decision not to remove the statue in 2021, despite recommendations from an independent commission. At the time, Oriel defended their decision to maintain the statue’s place, citing “regulatory and financial challenges.” Cherwell understands Oriel risks sponsorship loss should the college remove the statue.
The post on Led By Donkeys was shared in collaboration with Black Lives Matter UK, Misan Harriman, and the account Everyday Racism.
At yesterday’s Extraordinary Conference of Common Rooms (CCR), Lord Mendoza, Provost of Oriel, confirmed that the location of Cofnas’ talk has been changed within the college due to student welfare concerns.
 hood and sign on the statue of Cecil Rhodes on the college outside High Street, with a sign reading: “Racists welcome here.” The demonstration comes days before Nathan Cofnas’ controversial talk at the college.){kind=link}