Cecil Rhodes

For other people named Cecil Rhodes, see Cecil Rhodes (disambiguation).

The Right Honourable
Cecil Rhodes
Rhodes, c. 1900
7th Prime Minister of the Cape Colony
In office
17 July 1890 – 12 January 1896
MonarchVictoria
GovernorSir Henry Loch
Sir William Gordon Cameron
Sir Hercules Robinson
Preceded byJohn Gordon Sprigg
Succeeded byJohn Gordon Sprigg
Personal details
Born
Cecil John Rhodes

(1853-07-05)5 July 1853
Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England
Died26 March 1902(1902-03-26) (aged 48)
Muizenberg, Cape Colony
Resting placeMalindidzimu, Matobo National Park, Zimbabwe
Political partyLiberal[1]
RelativesFrank Rhodes (brother)
Alma materOriel College, Oxford
Occupation
  • Businessman • politician
Signature

Cecil John Rhodes (/ˈsɛsəl ˈroʊdz/ SES-əl ROHDZ; 5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902)[2] was an English mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia), which the company named after him in 1895. He also devoted much effort to realising his vision of a Cape to Cairo Railway through British territory. Rhodes set up the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate.

The son of a vicar, Rhodes was born at Netteswell House, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire. A sickly child, he was sent to South Africa by his family when he was 17 years old in the hope that the climate might improve his health. He entered the diamond trade at Kimberley in 1871, when he was 18, and with funding from Rothschild & Co, began to systematically buy out and consolidate diamond mines. Over the next two decades he gained a near-complete monopoly of the world diamond market. His diamond company De Beers, formed in 1888, retains its prominence into the 21st century.

Rhodes entered the Cape Parliament at the age of 27 in 1881,[3] and in 1890, he became prime minister. During his time as prime minister, Rhodes used his political power to expropriate land from black Africans through the Glen Grey Act, while also tripling the wealth requirement for voting under the Franchise and Ballot Act, effectively barring black people from taking part in elections.[4][5] After overseeing the formation of Rhodesia during the early 1890s, he was forced to resign in 1896 after the disastrous Jameson Raid, an unauthorised attack on Paul Kruger's South African Republic (or Transvaal). Rhodes's career never recovered; his heart was weak, and after years of ill health he died in 1902. He was buried in what is now Zimbabwe; his grave has been a controversial site.

In his last will, he provided for the establishment of the international Rhodes Scholarship at University of Oxford, the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. Every year it grants 102 full postgraduate scholarships. It has benefited prime ministers of Malta, Australia, and Canada, United States President Bill Clinton, and many others.

With the strengthening of international movements against racism, such as Rhodes Must Fall, Rhodes' legacy is a matter of debate to this day.[6] Critics cite his confiscation of land from the black indigenous population of the Cape Colony, and false claims that southern African archeological sites such as Great Zimbabwe were built by European civilisations.[7][8][9]

  1. ^ Pinney 1995, p. 72.
  2. ^ The Times & 27 March 1902.
  3. ^ Rotberg 1988, p. 128.
  4. ^ Dowden, Richard (17 April 1994). "Apartheid: made in Britain: Richard Dowden explains how Churchill, Rhodes and Smuts caused black South Africans to lose their rights". The Independent. London. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  5. ^ History of South Africa Timeline (1485–1975) Archived 13 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Maylam, Paul (14 January 2016). "What Cecil John Rhodes said in his will about who should get scholarships". The Conversation. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  7. ^ "'Colonialism had never really ended': my life in the shadow of Cecil Rhodes". the Guardian. 14 January 2021. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  8. ^ "Cecil Rhodes was a racist, but you can't readily expunge him from history | Will Hutton". the Guardian. 20 December 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  9. ^ Koutonin, Mawuna (18 August 2016). "Lost cities #9: racism and ruins – the plundering of Great Zimbabwe". the Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2022.