Colonial symbols.

IN the aftermath of the George Floyd tragedy, a movement has started in many parts of the world where protesters have been pulling down or defacing statues of figures seen as instrumental in the subjugation of colonised peoples. In the British city of Bristol, demonstrators recently toppled the statue of 18th-century slave trader and politician Edward Colston, and chucked it into the harbour. In several US cities, people have attacked statues of Christopher Columbus, the man who discovered the Americas, paving the way for European colonisation of the continents, and the marginalisation of its native peoples. Meanwhile, in Belgium statues of Leopold II have been targeted; this was the man who treated Congo as his personal fiefdom, and under whose watch millions of Africans were killed or maimed. Clearly, the time for revisiting the colonial era has arrived, as people of colour and former subjects of empire the world over question the violence their forefathers were subjected to - which still shapes attitudes towards minorities in many places - and ask for amends.

Far from being a benign influence, colonialism devastated cultures and upended societies as conquistadores and slavers exploited the 'new world' for profit. Indeed, today much of the wealth and power of the so-called First World is based on the...