The statue of a controversial German colonial officer in Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, has been taken down following pressure from activists.
Curt von François’s statue was erected in 1965 to celebrate him as the city’s founder.
Activists dismissed the claim as a “lie”, and said he was a symbol of “colonial oppression”.
Local artists performed rituals to reclaim the land where the statue stood before workers took it down. It is the latest statue to be removed in a worldwide campaign against symbols of the colonial era. Two years ago in neighbouring South Africa, a statue of British imperialist Cecil Rhodes was decapitated.
Von François was a senior military officer in what was then known as South West Africa between 1889 to 1894, during its time as a German colony.
He was the commander of an operation in the 1890s to put down a rising rebellion by the Nama people, resulting in the killing of at least 80 people, mostly women and children. It later became known as the massacre of Hoornkrans.
The campaign for the statue’s removal was led by a group calling itself A Curt Farewell.
Credit: bbc.com
