On This Day in History: October 30

Cecil Rhodes and the exploitation of Africa

There are many famous Rhodes Scholars: President Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, Rachel Maddow, Cory Booker, Edwin Hubble, Ronan Farrow, and even Kris Kristofferson. The fuck is a Rhodes Scholarship? It’s the oldest graduate scholarship in existence, having been established in 1902 at Oxford University. It is also one of the most prestigious. Alas, it was created by and named for a murderous racist piece of shit.

--On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down: October 30, 1888--

On October 30, 1888, was the Rudd Concession. Charles Rudd was a business associate of Cecil Rhodes; the concession involved strong-arming King Lobengula of what is now Zimbabwe into granting Rhodes exclusive mining rights to the region for his recently formed diamond company, De Beers. This led to the formation of the British South Africa Company, which later led to annexing the region for the British Empire, which of course later led to apartheid.

There was a fuck-ton of death and oppression involved in the process.

One example was the Battle of Shangani. It is notable for it being the first time where the Maxim gun played a pivotal role in victory. On October 25, 1893, five thousand Ndebele warriors attacked 700 paramilitaries of the British South Africa Company. The company lost only four men, but the Ndebele lost 1,500 in a matter of minutes. It was described as “Like mowing grass.” A week later, another 2,500 Ndebele were killed by the superior death technology of the colonizers.

And Rhodes, who was Prime Minister of the Cape Colony during that time, didn’t give a fuck. As far as he was concerned, if you weren’t white, you were shit. “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,” he said.

Fucker even named the land he stole after himself. The country name Rhodesia persisted until 1980.

At the time of Rhodes death in 1902, De Beers controlled 90% of the world’s diamond production. Rhodes left a lot of that blood money to establish the Rhodes Scholarship. Protests at the University of Cape Town resulted in the statue of Cecil Rhodes being removed in 2015.

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