HARARE – Zimbabwe could exhume the remains of imperialist Cecil Rhodes and send them to former colonial power Britain where he was born, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said.
Mnangagwa told traditional leaders in Harare on Friday that there was no place for them in his country.
Rhodes, the imperialist, businessman and politician who founded Rhodesia as a British colony, died in 1902 and was buried at Matopos National Park in Matabeleland South.
“We still have Rhodes’ remains in Matobo (Hills). What do you think about it? If you go to the shrine, you don’t know whether you’re talking to Rhodes or our ancestors. His remains must be returned to where he hailed from and we can also have our ancestral remains, which are being kept in Europe,” said Mnangagwa.
His predecessor, the late Robert Mugabe, blocked members of his ruling Zanu PF party from exhuming Rhodes’ remains in 2012, saying his legacy was part of the country’s history.
The University of Cape Town in South Africa removed a statue of Rhodes in 2015. A statue at Oxford University, where Rhodes studied, remains in place, despite a campaign to have it removed.
