On the slopes of Devil's Peak, Table Mountain's left shoulder, lies Rhodes Memorial. It’s a huge temple like construction made out of granite quarried from Table Mountain, carrying the inscription "To the Spirit and Life Work of Cecil John Rhodes, who loved and served South Africa”.
THE MONUMENT
The stairs are lined by statues of bronze lions overlooking the Cape.
Herbert Baker designed the memorial and its construction began in 1906, but was only officially dedicated to Rhodes on 5th July 1912.
One can, besides visiting the monument, go for a hike through the pine forests surrounding the memorial with a breakfast/lunch at Rhodes Memorial Tea Gardens afterwards. Or just sit on the steps and overlook the city, airport, the Cape Flats, Hottentots Holland Mountains and Genadendal, the President's Cape Town residence.
CECIL RHODES
Sir John Cecil Rhodes (1853) came to South Africa in 1870 at the age of 17. In 1871 he moved to Kimberley, due to the diamond rush. Later, he would be the owner De Beers Consolidated Mines and later the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa, operating from the Witwatersrand.
He became the Prime Minister of the Cape until he resigned in 1896. He introduced the Glen Grey Act to push Black people from their lands and make way for industrial development.
EXTENTION CAPE COLONY
During his rule, he extended the Cape colony towards the north and the west. It was Rhode’s intention to bring the two Boer Republics, the Orange Free State and the South African Republic in Transvaal (proclaimed between 1854 and 1856) under British control.
To reach his goal, Rhodes in 1885 persuaded Britain to annex Bechuanaland (now Botswana), in an attempt to prevent the Boer Transvaal Republic from extending its territory northwards.
FROM CAPE TO CAIRO
It was Rhodes' dream to build a railway from the Cape to Cairo and to have every Africa country along this route under British control.
Rhodes used his wealth to pursue his dream of expanding Britain's empire in Africa, and in his British South Africa Company, which had a police force, colonised Mashonaland and Matabeleland, the present Zimbabwe and Zambia.
THE TWO RHODESIAS
When the indigenous population rebelled against the coming of the White settlers to their land, the British South Africa Company police crushed them. The conquered lands were named Southern and Northern Rhodesia. Today, the two countries are known as Zimbabwe and Zambia.