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Slave Trade, Colonialism Fuel Race Protests in Europe

Henry Ridgwell

   LONDON - Black Lives Matterprotests erupted for a second weekend in
   cities across Europe, fuelled by deep-rooted anger over a perceived
   lack of understanding of colonial history.

   The demonstrations originally broke out in solidarity with protests in
   the United States over the death of a 46-year-old black man, George
   Floyd, while in Minneapolis police custody. In recent days, protesters
   in Britain and other European states have increasingly focused on
   racialinequality in their own countries.

   In the city of Bristol,in western England,protesterstoredowna statue
   of17th-century slave trader,Edward Colston,on Sunday,amid cheers from
   thousands of demonstrators.

   The bronze statue was rolled through the city streets and dumped into
   theharbor,where Colston's slave ships used to dock after returning from
   Africa and the Americas.The monument had long been a divisive symbol: a
   tribute to a man who built schools and hospitals in the city, but who
   enslaved tens of thousands of black Africans, shipping them across the
   Atlantic.

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