‘He’s no hero to us’: Petition to remove Lord Nelson statue gathers steam in Barbados
As the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the United States continues to inspire persons across the world, in Barbados local activists are renewing their call for the government to remove the statue of controversial war ‘hero’ Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson.
The bronze statue of Nelson, located smack in Bridgetown’s National Heroes Square, is a towering reminder of British colonialism, and a demanding the Barbadian government’s attention (and action) is gaining traction.petition
According to the petition’s organiser, Alex
Downes, Lord Nelson cannot be the symbol that encapsulates freedom as he was
against the abolition of slavery in the 1830s.
“In a country where approx. 95 per cent of
the population is also black, why do we continue to proudly force ourselves to
relive the traumas our people have faced by having this statue stand in Heroes
Square?” Downes asked.
“The time to start addressing our racist
past is NOW. The time to remove Lord Nelson’s Statue from Bridgetown is NOW,” he
declared.
More than 3,100 persons have signed the #NelsonMustGo petition since launching on Sunday (June 7), with the initial target set at 5,000 signatures.
For over 200 years, Downes argues, Nelson’s
classification as a hero is not in the interest of Barbados as he fought the
Battle of Trafalgar for the British to ensure the island didn’t fall into the
hands of France.
Formally called Trafalgar Square, Nelson’s
Statue was erected in 1813 and predates Nelson’s Column in London by some 30
years.
The bronze statue has been a contentious issue in Barbados for many years; whenever plans to remove it surfaced, a vigorous debate would then ensue derailing the effort.
Nelson’s statue saw its last attempt at
removal in 1999 when Trafalgar Square was renamed Heroes Square. Once again, a
fierce debate only resulted in it being turned around.
Contempt for the statue hasn’t waned,
however, and it was defaced in protest on Independence Eve (November 29th) in
2017.
“The statue of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson should be removed from Heroes Square and replaced with an appropriate symbol of freedom,” Downes wrote.
