Luke Reader, SAGES English Writing Instructor, has written a column for History News Network about the current controversy over the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College at Oxford University.

Rhodes established an empire in the areas of modern-day South Africa, Zimbabwe (which, before independence, was named Rhodesia, after him) and Zambia. Rhodes Scholarships, in which high-flying American students study at Oxford, were established thank to a bequest in Rhodes’ will. The lion shot last year by an American dentist on safari in Zimbabwe, was named Cecil, after Rhodes. At university campuses across Britain, students have demanded  the removal of statues depicting Rhodes, because of his links with colonialism, and his laying the foundations of apartheid.

Reader described the controversy in his op-ed, which is available here.