THE Free Press has obtained exclusive pictures of the controversial H M Stanley statue set to be erected in Denbigh.
But the on-going argument over the explorer and journalist’s worth on Denbigh High Street is still being heavily debated by academics, authors and other prominent figures who have added their names to a petition opposing the statue.
The £31,000 bronze sculpture has already been commissioned and funded.
Plans for the life size statue, to be located in the forecourt of Denbigh library, have now been submitted to the county council.
The plans of the 250kg statue, which stands 1.8 metres high, show H M Stanley with an out stretched arm offering a handshake.
The town council said the design 'will encourage both visual and tactile engagement and it is expected that both local people and visitors will not resist the urge to have their photographs taken in the role of Henry Livingstone to whom H M Stanley is metaphorically extended.'
But Huw Jones and Selwyn Williams, a Bangor university lecturer in community development, are leading a campaign against bringing a statue to H M Stanley’s birth town. They believe he was guilty of crimes against humanity, aiding colonisation and slavery.
Mr Williams said: “The quality and range of signatories quashes any academic or historical case for the controversial statue.
“We ask the people of Denbighshire and of Wales to make sure that it is never erected.
"The resources should instead be used to provide an educationally valuable interpretive centre where a balanced view of Stanley's involvement in Africa could be presented."
Among those opposing the plans are poet Benjamin Zephaniah, writer Jerry Hunter from Bangor University whose works include study of slavery and anthropologist Goronwy Alun Hughes.
A spokesman for Denbighshire County Council said: "Whilst we appreciate people will have different points of view, a questionnaire, circulated throughout the area as part of our consultation process, generated a positive response from people in both St Asaph and Denbigh.”