Cecil Rhodes
Founder of the settler-colonial state of Rhodesia. A genocidal imperialist who killed millions of southern Africans for diamonds and land.[1]
Quotes
"The native is to be treated as a child and denied franchise. We must adopt a system of despotism, such as works in India, in our relations with the barbarism of South Africa."[2]
The world is nearly all parcelled out, and what there is left of it is being divided up, conquered and colonised. To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far.[3]
"You are an Englishman, and have subsequently drawn the greatest prize in the lottery of life... I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race... If there be a God, I think that what he would like me to do is paint as much of the map of Africa British Red as possible."[4][5]
"He raids and robs and slays and enslaves the Matabele and gets worlds of Charter-Christian applause for it... there he stands, to this day, upon his dizzy summit under the dome of the sky, an apparent permanency, the marvel of the time, the mystery of the age, an Archangel with wings to half the world, Satan with a tail to the other half... I admire him, I frankly confess it." - Rhodes' masonic brother Mark Twain[6]
Grave
<https://www.victoriafalls-guide.net/exhume-cecil-rhodess-bones.html> <https://skift.com/2017/03/12/cecil-rhodes-grave-in-zimbabwe-has-become-an-awkward-tourist-attraction/>
Katanga
...In the summer of 1867, Livingstone returned to Katanga in search of the source of the Nile River. He wrote about natives who melted malachite to produce large copper ingots in the shape of a capital I, some of which weighed more than fifty kilograms. Verney Lovett Cameron was the next European to mention Katanga when he began his transcontinental trek in 1874. He too noted large copper ingots and the sale of slaves to Msiri in exchange for Katangan copper. A Scottish missionary, Frederick Stanley Arnot, arrived next in 1886 in the hopes of bringing Christianity to the natives of Katanga. He described the local method of mining copper, which is remarkably similar to the technique used by artisanal miners to dig for cobalt today:
"The malachite from which the copper is extracted is found in large quantities on the tops of certain bare, rugged hills. In their search for it, the natives dig little round shafts seldom deeper than 15 or 20 feet. They have no lateral workings, but when one shaft becomes too deep for them, they leave it and open another."
Arnot’s descriptions in 1886 caught the attention of British imperialist Cecil Rhodes, founder of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. Rhodes ventured north from his eponymous Rhodesia (Zambia) into Katanga to meet with Msiri in the hopes of signing a treaty that would place Katanga under British dominion. Msiri sent Rhodes packing without a treaty. Hearing of Rhodes’s efforts in Katanga, King Leopold, who had just secured his Congo Free State in 1885, immediately dispatched three teams to secure a treaty with Msiri. A campaign led by the Belgian explorer Alexandre Delcommune arrived first on October 6, 1891, and met with Msiri. Like Rhodes, Delcommune was rebuffed. A second campaign of Zanzibari mercenaries led by the British turncoat William Grant Stairs arrived on December 20, 1891. Stairs met with Msiri, but the next day, Msiri left for a neighboring village. Stairs sent his two most trusted men to reason with Msiri, but after three days of failed negotiations, the Europeans shot Msiri, decapitated him, and stuck his head on a pole for all to see the consequences of standing against Leopold and his Congo Free State. Blood had been spilled for control of Katanga’s riches. There was no turning back.[7]
Sources
- ↑ https://samepassage.org/how-cecil-rhodes-killed-million-of-southern-africans-for-diamonds-and-lands/
- ↑ Magubane, Bernard M. (1996). The Making of a Racist State: British Imperialism and the Union of South Africa, 1875–1910. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press. ISBN 978-0865432413.
- ↑ Quoted in The Last Will and Testament of Cecil John Rhodes (1902) by William T. Stead (a compilation of Rhodes' legal will and other biographical material)
- ↑ First sentence was said by Rhodes to "Lord" George Grey; Michell, Lewis (1910). The Life and Times of the Right Honourable Cecil John Rhodes 1853-1902, Volume 2. New York and London: Mitchell Kennerly. p. 178.
- ↑ For the rest: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1624_story_of_africa/page26.shtml
- ↑ https://cynthiachung.substack.com/p/thought-for-the-day-by-mark-twain
- ↑ Kara, S. (2023). Cobalt red: how the blood of the Congo powers our lives (First edition.). St. Martin's Press.