When we think of Rhodes Scholars immediately our thoughts revert to gifted students traveling to Oxford England and studying in their chosen fields. Only the very best with high IQ’s are excepted into this renowned institution known for research scholarships named after the British adventurist, Cecil John Rhodes, who died March 02, 1902.
But there is much more to Rhodes than scholarships. He was a capitalist and imperialist of the first order and a man-of-the-times who believed British Civilization superseded all others, and he became filthy rich exploiting the resources and people in Southern Africa.
To say that he was a die hard racist would not not be overstating the facts. He was very much involved in the illegal land grabs that has plagued Zimbabwe to this date, whereby land ownership was stolen from Blacks and distributed to White Afrikaans. Robert Mugabe leader of Zimbabwe is often blamed for securing land from White farmers and putting them back into the hands of Black Africans. He is shunned by western democracies as a thief, but Rhodes is is honored for being a thief. He owned so much land that they named “Rhodesia” after him, which is now known as Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In fact students at Oxford and other English Universities are trying hard to remove a statue of him on Oriel University property, where he was a student and because of his racist past.
“The native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must adopt a system of despotism in our relations with the barbarians of South Africa. I prefer land to niggers,” attributed to Rhodes speaking before house assembly at Capetown in 1887.
Acquiring land wasn’t his only prized possession. He turned to removing minerals below ground level and was the founder of DeBeers Consolidated Mines in 1988. He used brute force to get what he wanted in the mining of diamonds, similar to his land grab based on racial lines.
Rhodes acquired a charter from Britain and formed the British South Africa Company that gave him the rights to the mining fields in South Africa. He then formed BSACP or the British South Africa Company Police to protect the miners and put down the rebellion from Blacks who were denied mining rights on their own land.The BSACP were brutal and again thousands of Black South Africans were killed in the name of Rhodes and the British Empire.
He was the ultimate imperialist who hungered for power and to keep Britain financially strong. And that’s what he did as a politician, businessman and leader of the diamond cartel. He may not have pulled the trigger himself but diamonds and real estate bought him power.
This was at a period of British expansionism into Africa and Asia. God save the Queen and keep the Royals happy. Rhodes made millions for himself, his partners and White Afrikaans, and kept the Black Africans poor and subservient.
And now Black students in Oxford England are protesting his statue on campus because he was an evil man, who did bad things to Black Africans while alive. Rhodes was an industrialist who saw an opportunity and made the best of it, at the expense of the weak, I might add. The British or United Kingdom is 90 percent White, and the majority of its citizens are not inclined to be preached to, about who should be immortalized.
That’s like saying Black folks in the USA should protest the statues and busts of George Washington because he held hundreds of slaves and treated them miserable, forbidding them an education and not getting paid for their labor. What about slave owners Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee, president of the confederacy, should we demolish those statues also?
The British Empire adventurism started in Africa with the slave trade, and English and African settlements in America and the Caribbean Islands. Throw in the controlling interest of the British East India Company in China and India, and you’re talking about a powerful country getting rich off of cheap labor, brute force and a strong education system that allowed the economy to flourish.
Oxford University goes all the way back to the 11th century. One of the oldest continuous universities in the world. If they want to honor Cecil Rhodes-so be it. If South Africa or Zimbabwe wants to honor Cecil Rhodes, I have a problem with that.
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