Calls for statue of controversial explorer to be removed from Denbigh town centre

Calls have been made for the statue of a controversial Victorian explorer to be removed from Denbigh town centre.

The tribute to locally born Henry Morton Stanley, more widely known as H.M. Stanley, was erected by Denbigh Town Council around ten years ago.

The sculpture shows the moment he uttered the famous phrase – “Dr Livingstone, I presume?” – when he found the explorer in east Africa in 1871.

The move to create it was criticised at the time as opponents said the nineteenth-century journalist and explorer was guilty of crimes against humanity and supported slavery.

A number of protests have been held against the presence of the statue in the town, which have seen it temporarily covered up.

But now a petition has been established calling for it to be taken away permanently after a statue of a slave trader was pulled down by Black Lives Matter demonstrators in Bristol over the weekend.

It has already received almost 300 signatures and Simon Jones, who created it, said the statue had “no place” in the modern era.

He said: “Out of respect to the Black Lives Matter campaign, the statue of Stanley should be removed from Denbigh town centre immediately.

“This man was known for his brutal treatment of Africans to the extent that he used to shoot black children from his boat to calibrate his rifle sights while sailing down river.

“A statue to a man like that has no place in Welsh society in 2020. It is an insult to African people that it stands pride of place in the town.”

It is understood that the statue is the responsibility of Denbigh Town Council which has yet to comment on the matter.

The petition can be found by visiting: https://www.change.org/p/denbigh-town-council-remove-the-statue-of-stanley-from-denbigh-town-centre?