Exorcising Rhodes’ ghost Part 1

THE literature about Rhodes, especially by his biographers is overwhelmingly concerned with his character, blinded by his boyish vision, which they translated as characteristic of the age of Empire.

According to his official biographers; he must not be judged as a bad person but as simply human. In a book on the Central African Rhodes Centenary Exhibition, Rhodes is described in the following way: “Indeed he was very human, in spite of the mask of rigour and imperious will that confronts us in his portraits, like the ideal representation of a Roman Emperor or a Napoleon.” The secret to understanding Cecil John Rhodes’ personality and how he wanted to be remembered; which we still do, however, does not only lie in the literature produced long after his death but in the analysis of his will which stated unabashedly as to how he wanted to be buried.

I shall attempt to scrutinise the following three issues in connection with Rhodes’ life; firstly, a representation of Rhodes that celebrates him as a cultural icon, secondly, a representation of Rhodes that celebrates his economic achievement, and lastly, Rhodes as a contradiction between culture and economy. In short, the conventional biographies of Rhodes tell the story of a change from humble beginnings to greatness. It tells the story of economic ambition as the basis for empire rather than war. Rhodes is responsible for this shift and at the same time is helped along by the mineral revolutions in Zimbabwe. Defining his burial as an immortalising ritual education to write his name, has some property or works, in fact, is not a loafer”. In Matopo, Rhodes still lives It is interesting to learn that as the prior burial of king Mzilikazi suggests, Matopo hills had a history of its own that predated Rhodes’ arrival. Matopos, like the whole “Rhodesian” countryside, was inhabited for centuries, indeed millennia, before its annexation by empire builders. Africans had a rich history, culture and social life associated with the area.

So it would be inadequate to write about what was reshaped by Rhodes and leave out the relationship of this area to its indigenous people. Professor Terrence Ranger also notes that the people of the Matopos used the hills as a cemetery for their chiefs. When Mzilikazi asked to be buried there in 1868, it was a burial in an established tradition, who still questions that?

The living dead imperialist Rhodes is implicated in every recent critique of imperialism. He is seen as exemplary of the story of African expropriation, capitalism, cultural genocide and cultural change. If we are to dislodge Rhodes’ memory, these critiques of imperialism are important to consider. No matter how inferior and primitive Africans were according to Europeans, they had their pre-colonial history outside colonial history. And their historical existence will never be erased by western civilisation or ideas of racial inferiority.

This point also connects to capitalist solutions to the so-called native labour problem which implicates Rhodes in exploiting Zimbabweans and expropriating land and livestock.

The idea of imperialism was planned to destroy the “so-called” African primitive subsistence farming communities, so that a new form of European commercial farming could take control. This was meant to exploit Zimbabweans through hard labour with low wages. The total effect, and not only in these equatorial colonies, was to stop or frustrate Zimbabwean economic effort at expanding pre-colonial African productive and trading activities, while, at the same time, impressing very large numbers of Africans into effectively wage-less labour on behalf of companies which had not the slightest interest in promoting our welfare; let alone native development. The concession signed by Lobengula the king of the Matebele saw him losing the full control of his country. Rhodes abused Lobengula’s trust.

Rhodes is a racist and his ideology was justified by his policies and stereotypes towards Africans. We need to point out the traits of cultural chauvinism of Rhodes. Secondly, let’s examine how Rhodes betrayed African kings. And finally, let us see Rhodes as the reason for African resistance. When our young people engage in politics, they should always remember that nativism was a European invention and was used to stereotype Zimbabweans by claiming their difference from Europeans. This image is conveyed in paintings of Rhodes’ meetings with African chiefs in the Matopos which fix the empire builder’s dominance. We still hang a lot of them at a local Hotel.

Above all, let us view Rhodes as an icon who combines culture and imperialism and can be measured through his legacy, which then included his Rhodesia, his Chartered Company, his pieces of land and money that were left to the nation after his death and finance his scholarships.

I wish to return to the point I made earlier that he wrote his monument before he died in order to explore this connection more closely. Rhodes’ public history competes at an equal level with academic literature on him hence his name remains un-erased in Zimbabwean history. He was an imperialist, a British agent who thought that African continent was meant for Britain. This point of view marched in step with

Europe’s overwhelming expansion of power and wealth, with its political strength and resilience and sophistication, with its belief in somehow being the elected continent of God as they write in their voluminous books which they think we do not read.

I conclude this analysis with his reference to the most recent history of emancipation, where I stress that multiculturalism must not suppress the original history. I argue what does need to be remembered is that narrative of emancipation and enlightenment in their strongest form were also narratives of integration not separation, the stories of people who had been excluded from the main group but who were now fighting for a place in it.

And if the old and habitual ideas of the main group were not flexible or generous enough to admit new groups, then these ideas need changing — a far better thing to do than reject the emerging groups. #Rhodesmustentirelyfall.

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