Rhodes Must Fall: archives and counter-archives

Abstract

This article takes its departure point from the fact that the VIADUCT 2015 platform overlapped chronologically with the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ campaign at the University of Cape Town (UCT). I ask whether bringing some of the archival theory that was discussed and applied at the platform to bear on an analysis of the campaign against the statue of Rhodes at UCT – in conjunction with the existing literature around monuments – is helpful in deepening understandings of the campaign. After singling out some of the most interesting literature on monuments and monumental iconoclasm, I explore the ways in which Derridean- and Foucauldian-inspired readings of the archive might be applied to the colonial memorial landscape. I propose that the campaign was sustained by a substantial archive of iconoclasm, and that the protesters consciously tried to extend and elaborate on the archive/counter-archive.