Toppling statues an introduction .. How does Africa remember the symbols of the colonial era?

In the context of the protests of the "Blacks Life is Important", which has expanded globally; Belgium removed statues of the former king Leopold II, who historians described his colonial era as the bloodiest, when he ran the Congo and its wealth as his private property from Brussels.

But the experience of Namibia, which was colonized by Germany in 1884, was different. For a whole century, the statue of a passenger soldier on his horse remained prominent in the capital of Namibia and Ndhoch near the German Christian Church until 2013, when he was replaced by a bronze statue of Sam Nujoma, the founding president of independent Namibia as we know it today.

The rock sculpture symbolizes a soldier Stutztrope - the official name of the German colonial forces in Africa - who holds the gun in his hand and stares forward; To the imperial power of the former colony of Germany in southwestern Africa since its establishment in 1912.

The Herero and Nama genocide occurred in southwestern Africa between 1904 and 1908, and it was described as the first genocide in the 20th century, and many historians considered these massacres to be the precursors to the extermination of Jews by the Third Reich during World War II.

The memorial honors soldiers and civilians who died on the German side during the events of the suppression of the Herero uprising and Nama.

"I refer to similar examples in Congo and Cameroon," says Anna-Maria Brandstetter, a German expert in human ethnology. "The monument in Africa is not often overlooked, it is removed."

South Africa and Senegal

Professor Siraj Rasul of Western Cape University in South Africa has a similar opinion. "Many of the monuments are being redefined, as their former sites are being rededicated," he says.

"Every society goes through it in its own way."

However, Siraj Rasul viewed the fall of the Cecil Rhodes statue in Cape Town after student demonstrations in the coastal city seriously, and he said, "It was a metaphorical killing of the colonial figure."

But he says that the colonial ruins of Rhodes still exist. "There is a need to rethink the issue of the monument," he says. "It's not just about people toppling the monument."

The "Rhodes must fall" campaign, which started as a protest movement in early 2015, was successful. Removing a statue at the University of Cape Town commemorates Cecil Rhodes, who was Prime Minister of the British Cape Colony in South Africa at the end of the 19th century.

Brandstetter also talks about another way to deal with colonial inheritance. She says, "Remembering colonial eras is important, like remembering the decolonization process, but there are different images from the past as well between different countries and societies."

Thinking about the colonial experience in Africa is a shorthand for the different experiences of societies, says Brandstetter. "It is not for Europe to decide which experiments were important and which were not," she says.

In Senegal, for example, the name of Maidan on Jory Island was changed to former slaves. "The black man who died in the United States while in police custody," says Dudu Diya of the Gori Institute. "The former Europe Square was named Freedom and Human Dignity; a tribute to George Floyd."

Because of the island's history, its previous name, "Europe Square", was "highly controversial and contradictory."

Historical archive

In Namibia, representatives of the Herero and Nama ethnic group called for the removal of colonial monuments entirely.

"I believe that all colonial statues must be removed and placed in the numerous museums in Namibia, they represent and glorify those who occupied our people, and they have no meaning for our people at all," said ethnic chief negotiator of Herero and its chief official, Manas Christine Zerua, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

But these statues have a historical value for educational institutions, says Zeroa, who is participating in negotiations between Germany and Namibia over an apology and compensation for the genocide of Herero and Nama.

In Namibia, the process of renaming streets began long ago, with the aim of helping the country develop its identity.

From a European perspective, there appear to be some inconsistencies in local efforts aimed at remembering the past. For example, the Herero ethnicity wears costumes during memorial ceremonies that are similar to those used by former repressors. "In fact, it is a mixed fashion: German, British, and many individual modifications," says German race expert Godwin Kornis - who studied Namibia's colonial heritage -.

Hanna Arendt, a German philosopher, considered in 1951 that European imperialism played a crucial role in the development of Nazi totalitarianism and the associated genocide.