Explore Travel/Destinations/International

Missteps beyond the comfort zone

An Uncomfortable Oxford tour is exactly that, but for the wrong reason.

Missteps beyond the comfort zone

By Mark Dapin

Updated April 1, 2025, first published June 13, 2023

An Uncomfortable Oxford tour is exactly that, but for the wrong reason.

I like to think I've done my share of uncomfortable travel - backpacking through Central America on "chicken buses" and trekking in the Himalayas in Nepal without porters or a guide. But I've always felt cosy in Oxford in England.

The controversial Rhodes statue at Oxford. Picture: Shutterstock

So I didn't sign up for the Original Uncomfortable Oxford Tour looking for hardship, but it did turn out to be a harrowing experience. The tour was supposed to look at the politics of memory. Our group met beneath the 12th-century Carfax Tower and our guide walked us over to the medieval University Church of St Mary the Virgin.

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Across the road stands Oriel College and its statue of the colonialist, diamond magnate and university benefactor Cecil Rhodes, which became the focus of the local Rhodes Must Fall movement. Rhodes looks like he's about to fall anyway, as he takes a small step off his third-floor plinth.

The placement of his statue mirrors the position of the Virgin Mary at the front of the church. Rhodes is elevated above two kings and two bishops, as if he were a god - rather than a ruthless businessman and heavy-handed politician.

I agreed with most of what was said. So why did I find it painful?

When protestors labelled Rhodes a racist and steps were taken towards removing the statue, college benefactors threatened to withdraw their support and the government ensured that even the plaque lauding Rhodes' achievements was listed as a Grade II heritage item. In response to criticism, the university installed another, cheaper plaque, noting that some of Rhodes' activities "led to great loss of life" in Africa.

Our guide compared the veneration of Rhodes to the denigration of Oxford's first black African student, Christian Cole, who was caricatured in a newspaper grinning and playing the banjo. Our group agreed there should be a memorial to Cole and, at various other sites, we concurred there should be more monuments to women in general and black women in particular.

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The tour was well conceived and thought-provoking, and I agreed with most of what was said. So why did I find it painful? The guide - who was new - just wasn't up to the job. We got little more than a (haltingly) read description of the college system - "it's like Hogwarts" - which was risible. There was little knowledge of anything much about Rhodes. The "debate" encouraged among the group was shallow and simplistic. The "trigger warnings" - about discredited opinions, rather than racist language - were needless and silly.

One day, I imagine, every large, historic "western" city will have a tour like Uncomfortable Oxford (it's easy to imagine its equivalent in Sydney, for example). They will be great experiences if the guides know their stuff and there's a comfortable hotel waiting at the end. Because, after 90 uncomfortable minutes of touring, I treated myself to beer-battered haddock and triple-cooked chips at the 17th-century King's Arms near the Bodleian Library - and that perfect pub meal will be my lasting memory of Oxford.