Latest Twist in Rhodes Memorial Saga
August 01, 22
(IDEX Online) - A plaque honoring De Beers founder Cecil Rhodes at Oxford University has been given government protection.
The plaque is located yards from the statue that prompted the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. Critics accuse the diamond magnate, who died in 1902, of being a racist, a white supremacist and the father of apartheid, and have called for his statue to be removed.
It's the latest twist in a long-running saga over the statue and how Rhodes is remembered. The governing body of the college he attended at Oxford University says it wants to remove the monument (pictured), but it would be too difficult and expensive.
A plaque in his memory has now been given Grade II listed status after Britain's culture secretary Nadine Dorries said she felt it was of "special historic interest".
A spokesperson at the Department for Culture Media and Sport said: "We are committed to retaining and explaining our heritage so people can examine all parts of Britain's history and understand our shared past."
Rhodes gave his name to the territory that was once Rhodesia and endowed the Rhodes scholarships that have been paying for 8,000 students (including former US president Bill Clinton) to attend Oxford University.
He was born in England in 1853, sent to South Africa as a teenager and established De Beers empire in 1888, gaining near-complete domination of the world diamond market.