#RhodesMustFall originally targeted a statue of which imperial figure?

Rhodes Must Fall originally targeted a statue of Cecil Rhodes. The campaign began at the University of Cape Town on 9 March 2015, when students demanded the removal of a monument commemorating the British imperialist and mining magnate.

Rhodes had played a major role in British expansion in southern Africa and promoted policies associated with white supremacy and colonial rule. For protesters, the statue represented more than one historical individual: it symbolised institutional racism, colonial power and the slow pace of transformation at the university.

The movement’s protests helped prompt UCT’s council to remove the statue on 9 April 2015. The campaign then spread to other South African universities and became linked to broader demands for decolonised education and racial transformation.

A common mix-up is to confuse Rhodes Must Fall with later campaigns against other colonial or apartheid-era figures. Its original target was specifically Cecil Rhodes’s statue at UCT, although the movement later addressed wider questions about monuments, memory and power.