Cast in Stone

has biography | a une biographie

English colonialist, mining magnate and politician in southern Africa. Rhodes first moved to Africa in 1870 and would spend the next three decades of his life on the continent, save for a brief interlude studying at Oriel College, Oxford. Rhodes made his colonial wealth through diamond mining in Africa and created De Beers Consolidated Mines in 1888.


Rhodes was a committed believer in British imperialism and white supremacy. As Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (1890-1896), Rhodes dispossessed black Africans of their land and their ability to vote through the Franchise and Ballot Act (1892) and the Glen Grey Act (1894). The Glen Grey Act laid down a key precedent for South Africa's Native Land Act (1913), forming one of the cornerstones of what would later become the apartheid regime. Rhodes resigned as prime minister in 1896 after the Jameson Raid, an ill-fated attack on the South African Republic which escalated tensions in the region and eventually led to the Second Boer War (1899-1902). Many of Rhodes' personal views on race during his lifetime have also been subjected to close debate and examination.


Rhodes' legacy continues to attract critical scrutiny and protest in the twenty-first century, particularly since the emergence of the global Rhodes Must Fall movement in 2015. His statue above Oriel College, Oxford has been one of the key sites of contestation over empire and its memory in the United Kingdom.

was born | est né

5 July 1853

died in | est mort par

26 March 1902

has nationality | a la nationalité

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

has type | est de type

depicted

has association with | a une association avec

Rhodes Must Fall Movement

Rhodes Must Fall Oxford

Oriel College, Oxford

University of Oxford

is referred to by | est référencé par

Wikipedia - Cecil Rhodes

Wikipedia - Statues of Cecil Rhodes

Art UK

National Portrait Gallery

Kelley Tackett, 'Roman-style statues as an exercise of colonial power in Britain', Cast in Stone blog post, December 22 2023

Tommy Maddinson, 'Colonial Statues on Twentieth-Century Film', Cast in Stone blog post, February 13 2024

Justin Parkinson, 'Why is Cecil Rhodes such a controversial figure?', BBC (2015)

Richard A. McFarlane, 'Historiography of Selected Works on Cecil John Rhodes (1853–1902)', History in Africa, 34 (2007) 437-446

Paul Maylam, The Cult of Rhodes: Remembering an Imperialist in Africa (Cape Town: New Africa Books, 2005)