Imperialism, Diamonds and Power: The Plan of Cecil Rhodes Secret Society for Global Control - The question of whether a statue of Cecil Rhodes should be taken down has been raging in Britain in recent weeks, fuelled by the George Floyd protests that have swept the world. Personally, I am not a fan of people pulling down statues of historical figures, not because I necessarily like these figures, but because destroying a statue doesn’t change history, and people should not forget history. In saying all this, I am by no means making a case for why Cecil Rhodes was great. The exact opposite is true, yet there are two sides of Cecil Rhodes, both of them imperialist, but both of them not widely understood.
One side of Rhodes is relatively well known: he was an imperialist who was heavily involved in Southern Africa, including serving as the Prime Minister of the Cape Colony between 1890-96; he was a diamond magnate who founded the company De Beers, where labourers were racially segregated during his time; various Rhodesian Africans colonies were named after him; and he set-up a Rhodes Scholarship program at Oxford University that the likes of Bill Clinton went through.
Yet, there is another side to Rhodes. This, more esoteric side, is unfortunately not so well understood, yet equally important to understand. Rhodes, and the organizations he founded and inspired, went on to play a role in the founding of Chatham House, or the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
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Creative Commons Imagery:
Christopher Hilton / Statue of Cecil Rhodes, High Street frontage of Oriel College, Oxford / CC BY-SA 2.0 https://bit.ly/3fHBy1R https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
Chatham House https://bit.ly/2Y8RQdO Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license https://bit.ly/3hB3YME
Chatham House over the Jubilee weekend https://bit.ly/2N5FCg0 Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license https://bit.ly/3hB3YME
Lady Thatcher exiting Chatham House following a talk https://bit.ly/2YE17Kd Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license https://bit.ly/37Bch6p
Jon Snow, Broadcaster, Channel 4 News https://bit.ly/3d4rvCd Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license https://bit.ly/3fuH2g1
