The Historiography and Values of Statue Construction: Focus on Global Perspectives

Statues are an image or symbol which carries a dynamic site of meaning and these symbols are instruments of expression, communication, knowledge and control. They have power to tell all aspects of the society. They serve as a time capsule between the past, present and future. Statues also tell concrete evidence about the root identity of one nation. Hence, statues are constructed in the different parts of the world for various purposes. For example, people constructed statues to commemorate their patriots, heroes and heroines, to transmit mythical histories, to represent a nationhood, to preserve cultural heritage, to beautify cities and to legitimize authority. For these and other reasons, the history and values of statue should be clearly known. Accordingly, the main purpose of this paper is to describe the history of statue construction and its values for the society in particular and country in general. To achieve this purpose, different documents written by several scholars of history, geography, art, anthropology, and political sciences were reviewed. Using qualitative research design, discourse analysis is employed as analytic tool. The reviewed materials are categorized into themes and discussed qualitatively. The result of the review shows that the erected statues have their own history and have cultural, economical, aesthetic, political and religious values.


Introduction
Statue is sculpture that represents people or animal. The word statue came from the Latin word 'statua' means image and 'status' is standing for or position. Statue is an image which is erected for the purpose of commemorating important person, events or action of the past time (Bonţeanu, 2010;and Turner, 2003). Thus, statue is bounded by historical phenomenon and preserved for generations for the purpose of commemoration.
However, the term 'statue' is mostly used interchangeably with other words such as 'monument,' 'monolith' and 'obelisk'. Even though the terms seem similar, they are different in terms of their structure. The literal definition of monolith is a large tall block of stone, particularly in ancient times, used for religious purposes, while obelisk is a tall pointed stone like a pillar built to remind people or an event (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 2005).
Moreover, the term statue is usually included under the sculpture and monument. In fact, the terms are synonyms though they have technical differences. Literally, the term sculpture comes from Latin 'sculpere', which means 'to carve'. Sculpture refers to three-dimensional art curving an image of animal or human being. Similarly, the root word of monument is from Latin word 'monere' meaning to remind something which could be person, action or event and the term 'monumentum' shows memorial structure, statue, or tomb. Monument also defined as an object of special historical interest such as prehistoric fortifications and remains of old buildings and bridges often preserved by official bodies (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 2005; and Bonţeanu, 2010).
The conceptual explication of statue is more tied with its purpose of construction than its literal definition. Statues are basically constructed across the globe for the purpose of commemoration or remembrance. The logical question here is what is commemorated, when it is commemorated and the importance of these commemorations should be clarified. As USIP (United States Institute of Peace) (2007:2), "Commemoration is a process that satisfies the desire to honor those who suffered or died during the conflict and as a means to examine the past and address contemporary issues. It can either promote social recovery after violent conflict ends or crystallize a sense of victimization, injustice, discrimination, and the desire for revenge." Thus, the basis for the construction of several statues around the world is conflict/war. These conflicts/wars could be internal or external. Internal conflicts often erupt from lack of justice, equality, democracy, socio-economic and political interests among different political groups, classes, gender, ethnicity, religion and etc in the same country. For instance, Kigali memorial monument and museum center in Rwanda is constructed for the commemoration of people who lost their life during the genocide.
Statues are also constructed based on the incident of external conflict, when a country or a nation struggles with another country or nation. In this regard, in most African countries statues are constructed to commemorate their heroic leader or day they got independence from European colonial powers. For instance, Voortrekker Monument in South Africa (Grundlingh, 2001), Ugandans Independence Monument in Uganda (Duerksen, 2012) and African Renaissance Monument in Senegal (Ritter, 2011) and others were erected to commemorate the black Africans' struggle to overthrow colonialism. The constructed statues based on conflict/ war, (war memorial statue) are obviously erected to commemorate either the act or the people. For instance, for an 'act' of genocide, massacre, ethnic cleansing or terrorism, statues are erected to harness memory of victims and to learn lessons from the past act in an effort to avoid repeating it. At the same time, statues are constructed to commemorate innocent people, militants or gallant war leaders who lost their lives in a conflict/war. In short, statues are material sites that depict an image of people, animals or events that have values for the society in particular and county in general. Therefore, this paper critically reviews several literatures and analyze the history and values of statue construction focusing on global perspectives.

Rationale
Across the world, statues are erected to attain the societal values. Statues have power to tell the all aspects of the society. They serve as the material site between the past, present and future. What statues symbolize are also concrete evidence and assets of knowledge to know the root identity of one nation. Of course, a range of papers are written on specific aspects of statues. For instance, Whelan (2001) explores the origins of projects to erect monuments to Kings William I (1701), George I (1722), George II (1758) and Queen Victoria (1908) and interprets the significance of the locations in which they were unveiled to British monarchs in Dublin before and after the achievement of political independence. Dresser (2007) examines public monuments in London and their relationship to slavery and abolition. Larsen (2013) also investigated power, politics and public monuments as a history of cultural artifacts used by the colonizer to dominate and subjugate the colonized in Nairobi, Kenya. However, this monograph tries to review and analyze the history and the values of statues construction at different parts of the world. Therefore, this article review will helps the readers to have the general understanding of statues and their pivotal values.

Methodology
The main purpose of this paper is to describe when and how the constructions of statue begin and its basic function for the society. To achieve those objectives, several papers written by geographers, historians, ethnographers, artists, political experts on the history and value of statue are reviewed and analyzed. To do this, qualitative research approach is employed where discourse analysis is used as analytical tool to analyze and discuss the historiography and values of statue construction globally. The analyzed data also thematically presented and conclusion is drawn from the discussion.

Discussion
Under this section, the gathered data are analyzed and presented according to the objectives of this article. As it is already mentioned, this paper reviews the historical background of statue construction and their values across the globe. Therefore, the historiography of statue construction first discussed and then their values are thematically presented in the following sections.

The Historiography of Statue Erection
There is no exact and explicit period where and when statue construction began. But, as statue is a freestanding sculpture, the history of statue construction is highly intertwined with the history of sculptural fine arts (Honour, 1982). The chronology of sculptural fine arts began from prehistoric sculpture period around 35,000 BC in the form of carvings of birds and animals and passed through different eras. In the classical antiquity period (400BC -1100 CE) sculptural art of different societies in the world, like the metallic sculpture of Celtics' and Romanians, were highly shown. Then, in the Gothic era (1150-1300), especially sculptures of God and even the figure of pope and archbishops were curved for religious purposes. From the beginning of Renaissance period to the first half of the twenty century, however, sculptures were curved to entertain various ideologies. For instance, a number of statues like the African Renaissance Monument (2010) in Senegal, and other several statues in different African countries are erected to depict the socio-political and cultural artifacts of their nation (Harrt, 1989;and Jonson, 1966).
Basically, the history of statue construction can be seen from three major historical eras: The Antiquity, Middle Ages, and Modern Era. In the period of antiquity around 30,000 to 40,000 BC, statue of Lion-man, Ivory carvings of Mammoth, Lion, and Horse were predominantly curved. For instance, outstanding statues curved during this period are Vogelherd Cave (33,000 BCE) the oldest known animal carving (Mammoth) and Venus of Hohle Fels (38,000-33,000 BCE) which called the Venus of Schelklingen also the oldest known carving of a human figure in the antiquity period (Encyclopedia of World Art History, 1983; and Encyclopedia of Art, 2008). Hence, estimation could be taken that the history of statue construction began in this period. Then after, statues in the form of a cult image were constructed in ancient Egypt, Greece and Roma. For instance, ancient Egyptians curved an image of their kings on a pyramid. Similarly, Romans erected the statue of Queen of Diana in this antiquity era (Stevenson and Kelly, 1998;and Harrt, 1989).
Contrary to the antiquity period, the construction of statues reduced in the middle ages. This is due to the mistrust of the Orthodox Church in Rome particularly the art of statue construction for worshipping idols. However, the Byzantine (eastern Roman) art of curving statue was shown until the fall of Constantinople. In this period, the statue of different empress and emperor were curved. For instance, the statue of Justinian in Byzantine (6 th C) was constructed and stood until the fall of Constantinople in the 15 th C (Honour, 1982;Stevenson and Kelly, 1998; Encyclopedia of World Art History et.al, 1983).
In the modern era, the construction of statue took a different turn exhibiting different ideological manifestations like realism, naturalism and others. Statues different famous individuals and ideologies also began to be depicted through statues. Hence, the construction of statues shifted from direct representation of a physical body to the representation of abstract ideologies. As Whelan (2001) notes, the representation of idea in the statue form as 'Statuemania' peaked between 1870-1914 throughout Europe and North America and attained a social and political role. The intense nationalism of these years gave rise to widespread and sustained attempts to commemorate national histories through statues. Since the 20 th C, various messages are communicated through statues. Their function and design also become complex and abstract than the previous eras (Bonteanu, 2010). Hence, statues are begun to entertain various societal values in the modern era.

The Values of Statue
There are several reasons that societies often erect statues. Societies have used monuments to represent or symbolize both material sites and ideas or concepts. As material sites, they serve as a rallying point for shared common memory and identity and, hence, they are used as a collective remembrance. On the other hand, as idea signifiers, they are used to immortalize an intended concept or ideology (Osborne, 2001). Stressing this, Choudhury and Armstrong (2006:45) states: The monuments are highly symbolic and ideological [representations] that define a world in social, cultural, and political terms. They have the power to create and define the public sphere, community, and identity. The monumental landscape is a world of the past but also the tension of the past with the present. It is a world of gentility with clear boundaries, from class divisions to cultural and societal values, between what is real and what is not. These characteristics limit the ways in which the people within the landscape may define themselves, interrelate, express themselves, the power they may claim, and the boundaries they must break to escape these restrictions.
Statue play indispensable role through representing the history, culture, socio-political system of the society. They function as gathering place to strengthen the society's cohesion. This paper tries to discuses the major values of statue across the globe in the following sub-sections.

Religious Value
Statues have a religious value in the society. The construction of statue was begun in the antiquity period primarily for spiritual activities. People have been curving statues as replica of their God/goddess or/and angels for worship. For instance, in most Asian countries, statue of Buddha for Buddhism and statue of Indiana goddess for Hinduism were highly worshipped among the believers. Statues as supportive tool for religious activity began to be used in the ancient civilization of Egypt, Greek, Mesopotamia, Indus valley, and China (Jonson, 1966;Kleesing 2003;Henig et.al, 1983). Statues are still serving as symbol of religion in the modern period. For instance, the statue of Christ the Redeemer which is constructed 1926 -1931 in Rio de Janeiro is one of iconic statues of Brazil that symbolizes Christianity.
Even though statues are erected for the fulfillment of religious practices, the way they serve the religion dogma differ in terms of the kind of religion and the way the worshipping process takes place. For instance, around 15 th C and 16 th C in ancient Greece, worshippers dedicated statues as votive offering called 'anathemata' and as decorative materials of religious area. On the other hand, in ancient Roma, statues were curved to represent their gods believing that the statue has guardian spirit that protects their home and family (Kleesing, 2003;and Henig, 1983). Thus, Statues are serving the religious functions in two ways. First, statue is used as symbol that represents the religion. In this regard, they are taken as the replica of their God/ Angle. For instance, the statue of Christ the Redeemer (1926 -1931) (Hartt, 1989).
Secondly, the religion followers' use has used statue as votive offering for their gods. However, in this case, the size of the statue was smaller than the normal size of a freestanding statue. In Africa, such small size statues were considered to have a link to witchcraft. Different kinds of terrifying animal statues including mask, and triptych sculpture has used as representation of supernatural powers mostly the bad that could harm the members of the society. Besides, the statues of religious leaders are constructed to commemorate their contribution and dedication for the religion. For instance, statue of Pope John Paul II in Rome, statue of Archbishop Fulton Sheen of Dublin, the statues of Archbishop Makarios III in Cyprus, Ireland are an exemplary statues for the followers of the religion. Sometimes such statues are also used as a gathering place for the followers to worship or celebrate different religious ritual (Kleesing, 2003;Hartt, 1989;Willett, et.al, 1985). Therefore, since ancient period statue are curved in different form and size to attain the religious purpose. They used as the symbol of the religion to support the dogma and constructed to create cohesion among the followers.

Cultural Value
Architecture is the physical representation of cultural symbols. Among architectural arts, statues play a pivotal role in depicting cultural values of the society. As the word 'culture' is broad and multifaceted, it encompasses various elements. It includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, custom, and habits of the specific society (Quinn, 2006;Abulnour, 2013;Grundlingh, et.al, 2001). Hence, statues are taken as cultural materials which represent any of those complex constituent elements of culture Statues as one elements of cultural heritage, they have power to connect the past generation to the present generation. They create sense of 'we-ness' among the people who share similar background. The way one society behaves, communicates, and involves in different ritual ceremonies and commemorations depends on cultural identity of that society. So, statues have power to tell the culture of the society. For instance, statue of Buddha found across the world depict the clothing style of Buddhism followers. Artists mold statues in way the society can easily make relation to what the statue represents. The society easily makes attachment and gives interpretation to the representation of the statue when it has great attachment with the society's culture. With this regard, any statue erected for different purposes in the specific society implicitly or explicitly depicts at least one cultural aspects of that society. In addition, statues are purposely constructed in order to represent the culture of the nation or ethnic group. For instance, more than 80 ethnic groups are found in Ethiopia. These ethnic groups have their own culture of clothing, marriage, grief and etc. As a result, different statues that depict their unique culture have constructed at their area.
Particularly, in the 21 st C when modernity is challenging and reducing the social cohesion of specific society sharing similar culture, statues play pivotal role in protecting ones cultural identity from risk. They are means of asserting group values, expressing identity and restoring dignity and self-esteem. They are central to cultural identity and crucial for awareness and development of one's identity and transfer the cultural practices to the next generation. Stressing this, Lynch (1972) and Hein (2011) states culture sites like statues are important aspects of one's cultural identity. Such sites are the legacy of the past, where we now live, and what is transferred to the following generation. Statues as one kind of cultural heritage evoke specific kinds of meanings and serve as spatial coordinates of identity. They have relationship and depict the custom, belief, and rituals of the specific society. Due to this, organizations like UNESCO (United Nations Educational and Scientific and Cultural organization) and ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) provide fund for different countries to preserve statues/ monuments for the generation to come (Choudhury andArmstrong, 2006 andNypan, 2003). (Vale, 2008;Kenan, 2010;Torre, et.al, 2002).
Therefore, statues as one of cultural values, they represent society's way life. Culture can give people a connection to certain social values, beliefs, religions and customs. It allows them to identify with others of similar mindsets and backgrounds. Statues as a part of cultural heritage, they create a sense of unity and belongingness within a group and allows us to better understand previous generations and the history of where we come from.

Economic Value
Monuments as one of tourism attraction sites are at the forefront for the economic development of a country. Most of historical statues are considered as tourist sites and are visited by many local and international visitors. Tourists are often charged for admission to visit these monuments. Of course, the tourism sector is now one of the world's largest industries and one of its fastest growing economic sectors. For many countries tourism is seen as a main instrument for regional development, as it stimulates new economic activities. It may have a positive economic impact on the balance of payments, on employment, on gross income and production. As United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2013:3-4) states, "The tourism sector's potential to stimulate and facilitate growth and development in the manufacturing, construction and transport sectors …... The sector's direct effects on the demand for manufactured products, ranging from simple products such as bed linens, towels, soap and furniture, to high-tech or capital intensive manufactured products that the construction and transport industries need in order to provide high quality and competitive tourism service…... The expansion of the sector often boosts demand for the construction of tourism facilities such as hotels, ports, roads, and modern airport facilities and the provision of vehicles and other means of transport to tourist sites. This, in turn, generates multiplier effects along the value chain and in sectors as diverse as mining, energy, water supply, and the manufacture of products with higher knowledge content, such as inputs into the construction and transport sectors. Further, the construction of transport infrastructure benefits not only tourism but also facilitates trade. In countries where tourist sites are located in remote areas, the construction of a transport network could have a beneficial impact on rural development." Many developing countries consider tourism to be important for economic progress and poverty reduction. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2013) see the importance of tourism sites through global and national perspectives. Tourism generated 5% of global gross domestics (GDP) and 6-7% creates job opportunity all over the world in 2011. Around one billion tourists also travelled internationally in 2012. With regard to national perspective, these tourist sites have direct contribution to GDP, employment, income and foreign exchange earnings more in developing countries that are largely dependent on tourism. Today, developing countries account for over 45 per cent of world tourism arrivals and more than 35% of international tourism receipts.
Among the tourism sites, statues play vital role to the economy of one country due to such sites are the nodal points of tourist travel, both local and foreign. They are powerful sites that could depict the civilization of one society. Thus, statues are visited by tourists to understand and even amazed on various aspects of society they represent. However, the constructions of some statues have an adverse effect on the economic development of the country. Since their construction is highly interwoven with gaining and legitimizing a political power, political leaders spent a lot of money to construct monuments for political consumption. For instance, in Africa, the renaissance monument in Dakar, Senegal cost 27 million dollar. Despite the fact that the monument serve as a symbol of national pride for the Senegalese, many objected because it failed to take into account the grinding poverty in the country (Ritter, 2011). What is more, such kinds of expensive monuments are often displaced, ignored or destroyed during political shift. As a result, a huge expense incurred constructing such monument often ends up as sheer wastage. In short, monuments as a tourist sites are becoming one of the economic determinants in the twenty first century. Particularly, statues that have historically grounded narratives are usually visited by tourists and become the economic source of the country.

Aesthetic Value
The term Aesthetics is fluid and there is no universally accepted definition and the way different artistic scholars look into aesthetic value is different. As Cole (2009:9) contends, Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy which concerns itself with the nature of beauty and its relation to the perceiver or beholder, especially as applied to the fine arts…. This indicated that while beauty is the quality of a given work or form felt by the beholder in viewing it, aesthetics is the organization of concepts and ideas relating to this quality of beauty.
Since aesthetics is all about beauty, the term beauty itself is complex and subjective. The perception people hold about beauty depends on the concept they have either it is natural or artificial. As the saying 'beauty is in the eyes of beholder', whether that beauty is physical or thought, the way we look into the aesthetic value of something is different.
The aesthetic value of statue can be seen from Artists and the society's perspectives. The artist's perspective is highly focuses on the artistic/ dramatic ways of constructing and understanding the symbolism of statues. Artists could construct statue for art sake. As Amir, Zahra and Parisa (2015), the aesthetic value of statues particularly, statues that are included under dramatic (Artistic) types of statues are abstract and all people might not understand the symbolism of the statue. Such statues may not have always historically grounded narratives about the society. Due to this, artistic statues are not frequently seen in the streets of cities. They are mostly found in the museums.
On the other hand, there are statues constructed based on the historical incidents or narratives of the society. They are erected to immortalize different historical events and to commemorate an influential person of specific society. Beyond their representations of the society's culture, history, religion and socio political, they simultaneously have aesthetic values (Cole, 2009 andTorre, 2002). In this regard, aesthetic values of statue refer to the visual qualities of the statue that contributes in the process of beautifying the environment for the wellbeing and good life of people. They are valuable sites for the sensory experience and they often become recreational centers. For instance, statue of liberty is one of the world's most recognizable monuments that beautify USA.
In some cases, there is a push-pull factor between the sites of monument and urbanization. The aesthetic quality of several statues, obelisk, and other old edifies sites attract people. Consequently, different infrastructural activities such as road, electricity, hotels, hospitals and etc are constructed around these sites. In short, monuments have great aesthetic values for one country.

Political Value
Politics is one aspects of human activity. It is interwoven with culture, economics, aesthetics, religion and other societal values of the society. In this regard, statues have a long history in the political arena. In the era of kingdoms, the image of Kings and Queens were constructed at the gate of their palaces. Similarly, in the monarchial period, statues of emperors/empress were curved in different parts of the world. However, from 19 th C onwards, statues were often designed and reconstructed to convey historically grounded power and different current political ideologies. Artists use their art of making statue to reinforce the primacy of contemporary political power. Even though the construction of monuments often claimed for remembering the past, implicitly they are a means of cultivating popular support and making power concrete in the political landscape (Harrt, 1989;Bonteanu, 2010;Wusten, 2012;Whelan, 2001;Larsen, et.al, 2013).
Political actors give high attention for the construction of statues that have great political narratives. Their constructions are contingent upon the current political system and they are used as nexus between political ideology and political actors. For instance, the statues of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin were constructed across different countries which had ties with Soviet Russia. They are an intentional product of legitimizing political power and state institutions to build a collective political identity (Leib, 2002;Neiven, 2008;Guava, et.al, 2011).
Statues are used in political discourse in two ways. First, they are intentionally constructed to instill the political ideology of the political actors and legitimize the authority so that they get support and acceptance from the public. This is due to statues have power to legitimize the politician's claims on power. They declare publicly which groups and histories the official sphere recognizes as central to the state's identity. They reveal the state's level of inclusiveness, not simply by designating who belongs to and in the state, but who may legitimately aspire to political power. The iconography of statues exposes how class, 'race', and gender differences are negotiated in public space (Forest andJohnson, 2001 andLeib, 2002).
Second, old monuments which were erected for representing the nation's history, civilization or war leaders are removed/ displaced or their normative narratives are counter narrated according to the current political ideology. In this process, monuments are regarded as the place for political contestation among different political actors. Forest and Johnson (2010: 2-4) also contend that, The physical transformation of places of memory reflects the struggle among political actors for the symbolic capital embodied in and represented by these sites. By co-opting, creating, altering, contesting, ignoring, or removing particular monuments, political actors engage in a symbolic dialogue with each other and with the public in an attempt to gain symbolic capitalthat is, prestige, legitimacy, and influence derived from being associated with status-bearing ideas and figures. Through this process, political leaders and interest groups attempt to define the historical figures that become official heroes and establish the historical incidents that frame state identities. Viewed in this way, monuments represent weapons in the political battle for hearts and mind... manipulating such monuments can be especially politically contentious, reflecting and providing potent sources of symbolic capital.
This shows that statues are erected for political power contestation. Public statues which are erected for the public serve as an important source for unraveling political shift. For instance, in Kenya, Nairobi, the statue of King George V was removed and replaced by the statue of Kenya's first president Jomo Kenyatta (Larsen, 2013). Similarly, in Ethiopia when the Derg regime replaced the imperial monarchy, several statues constructed during the period of imperial monarchy were dismantled and replaced by new that manifest the political ideology of socialism. Again, when the EPRDF came to power, the statue of Lenin and Marx which are the iconography of socialism were removed. As Leib (2002:290) also states, "Public monuments, the symbolism of the monuments and the landscapes in which they are situated is not static and is always open to debate, redefinition and change. These political conflicts over how to memorialize the past have more to do with the struggle for power in the present than with commemorating the past".
Statues are not used only to legitimize the authority and concrete the power, but they are also used to resist the regimes or challenge the authority. In the post-colonial era, different statues were often erected for their revolutionary hero and thereby objectify the ideas of resistance or struggle over colonization. For instance, the statues of Nelson Mandela are constructed at different cities in South Africa. Among of which at the capital Johannesburg, the statue Nelson Mandela was erected in conjunction with the 10 th anniversary of South Africa's first democratic election in February 2004. The statue symbolizes that the Mandel's heroic journey to build today's democratic South Africa. However, in the multi-ethnic nation where different ethnic groups are contesting for political power, the members of political parties or ethnic groups are engaged in symbolic dialogue through either protesting the constructed monument or erecting new statues (Whelan, 2002;Leib, 2002;Wusten, et.al, 2012)

Conclusions
Statue is a three dimension image that is constructed mainly to commemorate or remember a person or important event, or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or as an example of historic architecture. It is difficult to tell where and when the construction of statue/monuments begun on this globe. However, the history of statue construction can be seen in relation with the history of sculptural fine arts which is estimated around 35,000 BC in the form of carvings of birds and animals. Since then across the world statues are curved in different design for various purposes. But, the history of statue construction can be seen from three major historical eras: The antiquity, middle ages, and modern era. At these eras, statues were constructed to attain various purposes. Basically, statues have religious, cultural, aesthetic, economic and political values across the globe. They are constructed as fulfillment of religion practices though the way they serve the religious dogma differ in terms of the kind of religion and the way the worshipping process takes place. They are also erected to show the society's cultural manifestations. Statues are central to cultural identity and crucial for awareness and development of one's identity and transfer the cultural practices to the next generation. In addition, statues play a pivotal role in beautifying the environment as they often become a recreation center and contribute on the economy of the country. They are one of smoke less industry that attracts a lot of tourists. Moreover, statues have political values. They are erected to commemorate revolutionary heroes and leaders who fight for the freedom and independence the country. Besides, statues are constructed by political actors to legitimize their authority and build a collective political identity.