{"id":32065,"date":"2017-01-25T01:25:44","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T01:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/joshua-nott-rhodes-must-fall-activist-wins-rhodes\/"},"modified":"2017-01-25T01:25:18","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T01:25:18","slug":"joshua-nott-rhodes-must-fall-activist-wins-rhodes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/joshua-nott-rhodes-must-fall-activist-wins-rhodes\/","title":{"rendered":"Joshua Nott: Rhodes Must Fall activist wins Rhodes scholarship"},"content":{"rendered":"

{A South African activist who campaigned to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes has been given a place at Oxford – as a Rhodes scholar.}<\/p>\n

Joshua Nott, 23, has been branded a hypocrite on social media for accepting the \u00a340,000 ($49,925) scholarship.<\/p>\n

Mr Nott was a key figure in the Rhodes Must Fall movement at the University of Cape Town.<\/p>\n

The campaigners called the British mining magnate a backward-looking symbol of racist colonialism.<\/p>\n

Following a Twitter outcry in Spring 2015, they succeeded in their bid to have the Cape Town statue removed.<\/p>\n

Students at Oxford University then mounted an unsuccessful campaign to remove a Rhodes statue at Oriel College, where the businessman was educated.<\/p>\n

Oriel resisted the pressure after a consultation showed “overwhelming” support for keeping it.<\/p>\n

Mr Nott, who compared the Cape Town statue to “a swastika in Jerusalem”, will now receive tens of thousands from Rhodes’ legacy.<\/p>\n

{{Twitter disgust}}<\/p>\n

The activist, who is the son of a wealthy South African lawyer, has been widely condemned on social media and accused of selling out.<\/p>\n

While some branded him an “arrogant hypocrite”, others questioned whether poorer South Africans might not be more deserving of a \u00a340,000 scholarship.<\/p>\n

But Mr Nott has said he will “never toast Cecil John Rhodes” and will use the opportunity to fight against the ideals that Rhodes represented.<\/p>\n

He does not plan to participate in the anti-Rhodes movement while at Oxford.
\nThe Rhodes Trust has defended its choice of candidate, praising Mr Nott’s commitment to social justice.<\/p>\n

A spokesman said: “We pick young people of enormous ability without regard to any particular political affiliation \u2026 Mr Nott has been involved in a wide range of social change initiatives. He made this clear.”<\/p>\n

{{Controversial figure}}<\/p>\n

Rhodes was a revered figure in the days of the British Empire, but some now view him as an imperialist who profited from South Africa’s resources at the expense of the local people.<\/p>\n

He believed that the English were naturally superior, and was once quoted as saying: “I contend that we are the first race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race.”<\/p>\n

His sizeable trust was established at Oxford over a century ago to fund postgraduate awards for non-British students.<\/p>\n

{{Famous predecessors}}<\/p>\n

Previous Rhodes scholars include former US President Bill Clinton, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the astronomer Edwin Hubble, and country singer Kris Kristofferson.<\/p>\n

Almost 8,000 Rhodes scholars have graduated from Oxford since the scheme was established in 1902.<\/p>\n

\"Rhodes<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{A South African activist who campaigned to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes has been given a place at Oxford – as a Rhodes scholar.} Joshua Nott, 23, has been branded a hypocrite on social media for accepting the \u00a340,000 ($49,925) scholarship. Mr Nott was a key figure in the Rhodes Must Fall movement at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32065"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32065"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}