Rhodes, Cecil John (1853–1902)

This cartoon (dated 1900) shows the Boer general Piet Arnoldus Cronje (1835–1911) surrendering to British forces at Paardeberg on 27 February 1900. British statesman in South Africa Cecil Rhodes is pictured, and English author and poet Rudyard Kipling appears as a reporter with a typewriter.

South African politician, born in the UK, prime minister of Cape Colony 1890–96. Aiming at the formation of a South African federation and the creation of a block of British territory from the Cape to Cairo, he was responsible for the annexation of Bechuanaland (now Botswana) in 1885. He formed the British South Africa Company in 1889, which occupied Mashonaland and Matabeleland, thus forming Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe).

The Rhodes scholarships were founded at Oxford University, UK, under his will, for students from the Commonwealth, the USA, and Germany.