The concept of vandalism arose during the French Revolution. It designated the destruction of public objects and monuments by revolutionaries. The word “vandalism” comes from the Vandals, an East German tribe that pillaged Rome during the Sack of 455 CE.). It was as a reaction to such destruction that the notion of national heritage was born. Patriotism and the French term for “heritage”, patrimoine, share the same root (as they do with patriarchy). It is pater, father: he who commands. But what are the stories told by our heritage? Is the tearing down of public statues that praise colonisation an act of vandalism ? For the French academic Maboula Soumahoro, the issue is not such much whether to be “for” or “against” the tearing down of public statues, but rather to examine how a national narrative has been set up in the public space, in order to trigger structural changes (in particular, the question of reparations).