The Rhodes monument honors the memory of Cecil Rhodes, the Cape Colony’s most famous Prime Minister. Cecil founded a little diamond company called De Beers, which at one time controlled 90% of the world’s rough diamond market (and convinced millions of starry-eyed monogamists to part with two months salary for a polished rock on a metal ring). Cecil also convinced the British government to give another of his companies control over a big chunk of the African continent, and the countries that followed somehow got named after him (Northern and Southern Rhodesia, now Zambia and Zimbabwe).
He also founded the Rhodes scholar thing at Oxford. And he donated big chunks of land to South Africa, including the national botanic gardens. So, no matter how many of his utterances sound bizarre to modern ears (for example, calling the British “the finest race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race”), there’s a reason why the statue at his monument is named ‘Energy’.
The monument is a popular location for wedding pictures. We didn’t want you thinking that random Muslims wandered around Cape Town in those groovy outfits.
