From Port of Spain to Cape Town: The Global Unmaking of Colonial Icons

On the night of August 6, under the quiet glow of streetlamps, workers in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, began dismantling the bronze statue of Christopher Columbus that had stood in Columbus Square since 1881. For Mayor Chinua Alleyne, the timing — just days after African Emancipation Day — was deliberate.

“More than 140 years later, restoration and repair require that as we ensure that the yet-to-be-born revere our ancestors like Kwame Ture, we also ensure that they learn our colonial history in its most appropriate historical context,” he told crowds during the August 1 celebrations.

The statue’s removal follows years of public consultations, vandalism, and calls from First Peoples and African-descended communities to confront the violence Columbus’s arrival unleashed. It will be relocated to the National Museum, where officials say it will be displayed with historical context.

A Caribbean Reckoning

The decision is part of a broader cultural shift. In 2024, Trinidad and Tobago’s government began reviewing colonial-era monuments, even announcing plans to redesign the national coat of arms to replace Columbus’s ships with the steelpan — a homegrown symbol of resilience.

Activist Shabaka Kambon of the Caribbean Freedom Project called the statue “a global laughingstock” that undermined the nation’s calls for reparations. His words echo a sentiment heard across the Caribbean: that public spaces should reflect the values of independence, not the vision of former colonial masters.

The African Connection

This moment in Port of Spain resonates deeply with movements on the African continent. In South Africa, the Rhodes Must Fall campaign of 2015 began with the removal of Cecil John Rhodes’s statue from the University of Cape Town, sparking a wave of debates about decolonising education and public space.

Across Africa, the removal of colonial statues has been cyclical — some toppled at independence, others reinstalled in the 1990s under the influence of former imperial powers. In Kinshasa, for example, the statue of King Leopold II was controversially re‑erected in 2005, despite his brutal legacy in the Congo Free State.

These struggles are linked by what scholars call fallism — a movement that sees dismantling racist monuments and returning looted cultural heritage as part of the same decolonial project. Whether in Bristol, Cape Town, or Port of Spain, the act of removal is not about erasing history, but about reclaiming narrative power.

Diaspora Dialogues

For the African diaspora, the symbolism is potent. Statues of Columbus, Rhodes, and other imperial figures are not neutral artefacts; they are, as Frantz Fanon wrote, “the coloniser’s claim that their dominance was set in stone.” Removing them creates space — literally and figuratively — for monuments that honour those who resisted enslavement, colonialism, and systemic racism.

In Trinidad, that space will soon be filled with a new monument dedicated to the victims of genocide and the transatlantic slave trade. Part of Oxford Street will also be renamed Kwame Ture Way, in honour of the Trinidad-born Pan-Africanist whose activism bridged the Caribbean, Africa, and the United States.

A Shared Future

From the Caribbean to the African continent, these acts of removal are part of a long, unfinished conversation about who is remembered in bronze and stone. They are also about the living — about shaping public spaces that affirm dignity, truth, and self-determination.

As Zakiya Uzoma‑Wadada of Trinidad’s Emancipation Support Committee put it during public hearings, “After 62 years of independence, we continue to live in a space that reflects the ideals of our colonial masters”. Her words could just as easily have been spoken in Nairobi, Accra, or Cape Town.

The unmaking of colonial icons is not the end of history. It is the beginning of telling it on our own terms.

Image Credits

• Christopher Columbus monument, Moruga, Trinidad – Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Lynne M., CC BY‑SA 3.0.
• Rhodes Must Fall protest, UCT – Photo by Desmond Bowles, CC BY‑SA 4.0.
• Queen Victoria statue, Jamaica – Photo from Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
• Edward Colston statue toppled, Bristol – Photo by Wikimedia Commons, CC BY‑SA 4.0.
• Headless Queen Victoria statue, Nairobi – Photo from Africanews, editorial use only.
• Cecil Rhodes statue, Harare – Photo from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY‑SA 4.0.
• Mahatma Gandhi statue, University of Ghana – Photo by Daniel Addo, CC BY‑SA 4.0.
• Queen Elizabeth II statue, Lagos – Photo from Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
• Khedive Ismail statue, Cairo – Photo from Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
• King George V statue, Lusaka – Photo from Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

All Creative Commons-licensed images used under the terms specified by their respective licences. Public Domain images are free to use without restriction. Editorial use images used under fair use for news reporting, credited to their respective owners.