Jesse Dyep Thomas

BIOGRAPHY ABOUT CECIL JOHN RHODES

Cecil Rhodes is a figure of the 19th century who remains a deeply controversial figure especially because of his exploits in Africa, mainly the southern part. Being a British imperialist, Rhodes played a very paramount role in the expansion of the British Empire, particularly in Southern Africa. His course of actions and legacy, however, bring about confusion about whether the man should be celebrated or condemned as a failure. My objective with this essay is to explore the controversies that surround his work and relate it to his statue that was toppled in South Africa.

My semester aim is about a British imperialist and businessman, Cecil John Rhodes. He was born on July 5th, 1853 in Bishop’s Stortford, England. He was the 6th child and 5 more came after him. He came from a very big family. His father was a reverend and his mother was from a wealthy family. Cecil Rhodes displayed great signs of ambition and intellect at a young and tender age. In his early teenage age, he was diagnosed with asthma which led to him being unable to study for long periods and was eventually forced to leave school and continue home-schooling under the tutelage of his father. After he was done with school, Cecil Rhodes decided to choose a career in law but his family feared for his health. In 1870, when he was 16 years old, Cecil Rhodes received an invitation letter from his elder brother (Hebert) who had left two years ago to start a venture cultivating cotton in the British colony of Natal, on the southern-eastern tip of the continent of Africa. He got approval from his parent and even his doctor, considering the dry climate in Africa would be good for his present condition and lungs.

Rhodes at the age of sixteen by Unknown author, CC 2.0

After a year of overseeing his brother’s cotton plantation, in September 1871, Cecil decided to join his brother who had left the cotton field in search of new expenditure in the diamond field. Rhodes quickly amassed wealth and power through his exploits in the diamond and gold mining industry. He became very successful in that business and he founded the De Beers diamond firm and the British South Africa Company which controlled global trade until recently. But his ambition was way beyond economic influence and recognition. He was more focused on establishing British dominance in Africa starting from South Africa. He was such a controversial figure during his time and after his death. He acquired wealth and vast land by forcefully taking them from people. He assigned mercenaries to attack and take land from people. He also used explosives from his mines to blow up caves which women and children used as a refuge. He gave out scholarships allowing overseas students an opportunity to study at Oxford University and there are still scholarships in his name to this day. Many institutions benefitted from his generosity (including Cape Town University, which is the focus of this project). He conquered so many lands in southern Africa with the British South Africa Company which was in support of his works and ambition. Some of the lands were even named after Cecil Rhodes. Both Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) were named after the man. He became the prime minister of the Cape colony from 1890-1896. During his reign as prime minister, he engaged in discrimination against the black majority. He was considered to be a racist, and also one of the individuals who helped set the path for apartheid (separation, setting aside) by altering laws concerning voting and land ownership. He limited the black vote by raising the standard of financial and educational qualifications.

Cecil Rhodes — **CECIL RHODES, UNKNOWN**, CC 2.0

His ‘Confession of Faith’ is based on his belief that the ‘Anglo-Saxon Race’ was superior to every other race. It was no debate that he thought of the English race as a ‘Master Race’. Everything he did was an attempt to create an international movement to extend British influence in the whole world. Even though it ended up a failure, he gave support to the Jameson raid in 1895 to overthrow Paul Kruger as Afrikaner president of the gold-rich Transvaal republic. As a result of the raid, the Second Boer War started and it claimed so many lives. Now we will see how his actions affected people’s view of him and his monuments.

ABOUT THE MONUMENT

My focus is on the monumental statue of Cecil Rhodes in Southy. The statue was located in Cape Town University, South Africa. It was made of bronze and placed on a concrete pedestal. It was a denkmal that showed recognition to a man of influence and power. The statue was a seated Cecil Rhodes who had his palm to his chin, almost as if he was thinking. This pose was a suggestion from the former viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. The statue was commissioned in remembrance of Rhodes’ bequest of land to the university. It was located in the center of the university, so it was hard to ignore or not take notice of. It was sculpted by Marion Walgate, Wife to the architect, Charles Walgate. The statue was finally unveiled in the year 1934, 32 years after the death of Cecil John Rhodes, and it stood up for 81 years. The message that was being portrayed was that Cecil Rhodes still holds great impact and control. It shows that he still has a great effect on the political and educational sections of the country. There were no clear feelings shown towards the statue when it was put up but I believe that the people bottled up the feeling of dissatisfaction until they couldn’t anymore.

University of Cape Town – Statue of Rhodes by Marion Walgate. Unveiled in 1934, and commissioned by a state-run university, Danie van der Merwe, CC 2.0

The demand for the removal of the statue began due to a realization from the citizens that this was a step to take for change to begin because they still felt tied to his philosophy and beliefs. The demand for the removal of this statue appears to be “a metaphorical call for the transformation of the university’s curriculum, culture and faculty, which many blacks feel are alienating and still reflect a eurocentric heritage”. The people were not accepting of the legacy that Cecil left behind.

“It is the statue that continues to inspire [white people] to think that they are a superior race and it is through collapsing of these types of symbols that the white minority will begin to appreciate that there’s nothing superior about them”
Julius malela, leader of the economic freedom fighters

The protest for the removal of the statue began on March 9th, 2015, when Chumani Maxwele threw a bucket of feces on the Cecil seated statue. To show how controversial Cecil was, at the same time there was another movement led by Ntokozo Qwabe taking place at Oxford University in the UK. The whole movement was named #RHODESMUSTFALL. The statue was finally toppled on April 9th, 2015. It took them only a month to gain permission to take the statue down. I think the removal of the monument helped the people to gain a little closure about the past as Cecil really did a lot of harm to the people and the land. And of the things I really love about this is that they took the process of asking for the statue to be removed instead of just vandalizing the statue. Yes, they were wrong to throw things on the statue and write on it but they followed procedure after that, had a whole debate on why the statue should be taken off, and received permission for that. When Cecil died, he was buried in Zimbabwe. There are still requests in Zimbabwe going out to have Rhodes’ remains moved to the UK. I believe his statues will continue to hold controversial meanings to them. People are obviously not ready to move on from that part of history.