Cecil Rhodes

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Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) was a British businessman, mining magnate, and politician in Southern Africa who served as the 7th Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. One of Rhodes' primary motivations in politics and business was his professed belief that the Anglo-Saxon race was, to quote his will, "The first race in the world". He advocated vigorous settler colonialism under the reasoning that "the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race". Due to his huge amount of influence on the country, Rhodes Memorial was built on Devil's Peak in Cape Town shortly after his death. The memorial, designed by architect Sir Herbert Baker, features a bust (by John Macallan Swan) at its top, resembling the Temple of Pergamon or Greek temple at Segesta. The bust overlooks Cape Town and is inscribed "To the spirit and life work of Cecil John Rhodes who loved and Served South Africa". Below the bust are the last four lines from the 1902 poem 'Burial' by Rudyard Kipling: "The immense and brooding spirit still/Shall quicken and control. Living he was the land, and dead, His soul shall be her soul!" Because of Rhodes' white supremacist and colonialist politics, there have been many calls to remove the memorial. On September 18th, 2015, the bust was vandalized with its nose broken off and marked with graffiti, noting Rhodes as a "Racist, thief, [and] Murderer". This happened after the protest movement #RhodesMustFall began on March 9th, 2015, which led to the removal of another sculpture of Rhodes on display at The University of Cape Town.