Fair-skinned or not, colonisation is a mentality

Removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes from Cape Town university campus in April 2015. Flickr Stream Desmond Bowles. CC BY-SA 2.0

What should we make of the criticism levelled by Ukrainian architect Oleg Drozdov at British architect Norman Foster’s proposal to rebuild Kharkiv? Mr Drozdov called it “intellectual colonisation”. How to read Mr Drozdov’s fear that European companies’ help to displaced Ukrainian architects is “a new professional colonisation”?

Well, these are legitimate concerns. Of course, Ukraine will want to rebuild itself, as it sees fit, using its own professionals.

That said, it’s confusing that in the same breath as he challenged the alleged attempt to colonise his country, Mr Drozdov asked for “financial support”.

It’s worth thinking about Oleg Drozdov’s horror at the dependency of the colonised alongside his bold request for financial help.

This would go towards continuing the Kharkiv School of Architecture’s academic programme. The school, Ukraine’s first such private …