Now, it seems he’s moved on to much more than just a statue. Qwabe, who is the co-founder of the #RhodesMustFall movement back home at UCT, claims that the University is racist, because of its curriculum and lack of black lecturers — the UK’s black demographic makes up about 3% of the population, the second smallest ethnic group in the United Kingdom –.

Now, while back home he’s had some success with his campaigns, across the pond the Brits aren’t as lenient with statements like these and have been lashing out at Qwabe for his views.

Even so, he remains head of #RhodesMustFall in Oxford: “an organisation determined to decolonise the space, the curriculum, and the institutional memory at, and to fight inter-sectional oppression within, Oxford”.

Qwabe, a former law student at KwaZulu-Natal, received the Rhodes Scholarship to further his studies at England’s Oxford University.

In an interview with SABC, he said that “the struggle goes beyond a statue”, claiming ‘structural violence’ within Oxford, one of the world’s most famous and accomplished universities; with alumni including Stephen Hawking, Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, Edwin Hubble, T.S Eliot, C.S Lewis and our very own J.R.R Tolkien.

“Those things are not just exceptions, they go to the very heart of how Oxford is configured, and how Oxford, as a space is, to be quite frank, racist. That blatant, violent, assault and racism is unacceptable at a university that purports to be inclusive,” Qwabe said.

You can have a look at the interview here…

