The Last Will and Testament of Cecil John Rhodes: With Elucidatory Notes to Which Are Added Some Chapters Describing the Political and Religious Ideas of the Testator

by Cecil Rhodes

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214 pages, Hardcover

Published October 26, 2022

About the author

Cecil John Rhodes, Privy Councilor to Queen Victoria, was a co-founder of the British South Africa Company and of De Beers Consolidated Mines, which was at the time the sole owner of all diamond mining operations in South Africa. He soon became the seventh Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, and a controversial colonialist, imperialist, Freemason, Anglo-supremacist, and supporter of the policies that developed into the apartheid system, while ultimately aiming for "the extension of British rule throughout the world".

The territory of Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe and Zambia) was named for him, and his last will established the prestigious and controversial Rhodes Scholarship, which was originally open only to white men from then-current and former British colonies (including the USA, which he considered to be "an integral part of the British Empire") and Germany. His grave site is part of Matobo National Park in Zimbabwe, which the governor of Bulawayo called an "insult to the African ancestors" despite its draw as a tourist attraction and historic monument.