Cecil Rhodes: life, legacy, and historical impact

Cecil Rhodes, official managing director of the Chartered Company and namesake to the nation of Rhodesia was an enigmatic and paradoxical figure, according to his numerous biographers and contemporaries. His legacy in South Africa and throughout the entire continent is undeniable, especially given that a country was named after him. Rhodes helped to economically and politically develop Africa and also to ensure British dominance over European rivals. It was precisely because of his role in South African economic and political policy, Rhodes left much blood and destruction in his wake. However, biographers try to create a portrait of Cecil Rhodes that is multidimensional and complex, a portrait that illustrates his personal as well as his public life. In fact, because Rhodes was not a politician or orator, historians find essential information about this life through such character sketches as those presented by Rhodes' contemporaries like Sidney Low.

Sidney Low conducted frequent interviews with Rhodes and could therefore relay a comprehensive picture of the man in the essay "Contemporary Recollections." Low describes Rhodes' physical features: he was a large man whose body filled the room. His robust physical stature was matched by his charming and gregarious personality. Rhodes did not take to speaking publicly but was reported to have the gift of gab in more private settings. Low notes that Rhodes was "leonine" and "heroic" and had a "restless vivid soul," (197).

Low's reports concur with those of other writers regarding Rhodes' personality and character. For example, Low noted that Rhodes had a nice smile and a "feminine sweetness that was irresistible," (197). Low's subtle implication that Rhodes was gay was confirmed by other writers like Stuart Cloete and Robert Rotberg, both of who noticed that Rhodes had no affairs with women and who was all but overtly homosexual. Moreover, all authors in the section on Rhodes agree that he was more a dreamer than an intellectual, more an idealist than a pragmatist. At the same time, Rhodes demonstrated remarkable foresight and business acumen when it came to his dealings throughout Africa.

A British expatriate, Cecil Rhodes saw British colonization of Africa as absolutely essential to the nation's cultural survival. According to Rhodes, competition for natural resources in places like Africa was weakening the British stronghold throughout the world. With the Dutch competing especially fiercely in Africa, the British could not afford to be lax about their aims there. Like the Dutch, Rhodes saw colonization as more of an economic than a cultural or political imperative. It was more for economic needs than for anything else that Rhodes believed the British should remain a powerful influence throughout Africa. Rhodes proposed a massive communication and transportation network spanning the entire continent, though he had no engineering plans for it. Rhodes also irked many other British colonialists because of his desire to link with the Dutch and create a series of African states that would be subject to European financial interests. Rhodes saw much potential in creating tariff zones that would help the British prosper and cultivated a spirit of free enterprise as a result. In particular, diamond speculation interested Rhodes, who was a less than scrupulous man. Another fact on which these three authors agree is that Rhodes, no matter how magnificent in stature, was ethnocentric and racist. He saw colonization as almost a sacred duty and as part of his destiny.