From Diamond Fields to Imperial Power

At just 37 years old in 1890, Cecil Rhodes stood at the zenith of wealth and influence. As Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, he led an effective government supported by the Afrikaner Bond, the region’s sole organized political party. As chairman of De Beers, he effectively controlled diamond production and distribution. As managing director of the British South Africa Company (BSAC), he wielded “absolute discretion” over vast African territories and commanded a private army—the British South Africa Police—to execute his ambitions.

This dazzling imperial feat earned Rhodes numerous admirers who saw him as uniquely gifted. Yet like all empire-builders, his success relied on key collaborators. His early business ventures were forged alongside Charles Rudd—their partnership initially styled as “Rudd and Rhodes.” The mastermind behind Kimberley’s diamond mine consolidation wasn’t Rhodes but the unassuming Alfred Beit, whom Rhodes routinely consulted for solutions. His northward expansion was propelled by fellow imperialist Hercules Robinson, whose decisive actions secured the Moffat Treaty that brought Matabeleland under British influence.

The Machinery of Expansion

Rhodes’ imperial project operated through a sophisticated network of financial incentives and political maneuvering. As Cape lawyer James Rose Innes observed, Rhodes systematically offered parliamentarians and prominent figures opportunities to purchase BSAC shares at face value—shares already trading at substantial premiums. This strategic patronage created indebted allies while maintaining the illusion of independence. Few resisted these overtures; Rose Innes numbered among the rare exceptions.

Contemporary media amplified the Rhodes phenomenon during the Scramble for Africa’s climax. Journalists portrayed him as heir to imperial icons like David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley—pioneers who brought “civilization” to the “dark continent.” Rhodes’ plans for railways, telegraphs, and resource development aligned perfectly with this narrative. The emerging “Cape to Cairo” vision, first articulated by Edwin Arnold, found its most vigorous champion in Rhodes, who adopted it as personal mission.

Groote Schuur: Imperial Headquarters in Stone

Following his 1891 London triumph where he received royal treatment—including an audience with Queen Victoria—Rhodes sought a permanent Cape Town residence. After two decades in makeshift accommodations from tents to tin shacks, he leased Groote Schuur, a former Dutch East India Company granary converted into a summer villa for British governors.

Nestled beneath Devil’s Peak on Table Mountain’s slopes, the original 17th-century structure had lost most vernacular features after an 1866 fire replaced its thatch with Welsh slate. Yet its panoramic views across Stellenbosch’s mountains captivated Rhodes, who eventually purchased the estate and surrounding farms, planting a 1,500-acre forest of oaks, pines, and indigenous species.

For the rebuilding, Rhodes serendipitously encountered young British architect Herbert Baker at a dinner party. Their collaboration produced an architectural manifesto of Rhodes’ worldview. “Large and simple, even severe if you like,” Rhodes instructed, rejecting “petty and finicking detail” in favor of teak and whitewashed walls. He demanded replacement of all imported ironmongery with hand-forged brass and bronze fittings—a rejection of industrial manufacture in favor of pre-mechanical craftsmanship.

Baker’s redesign featured:
– A new front facade with elongated stoep (veranda)
– Thatched roof restoration
– Billiard room and master bedroom with panoramic bay window
– Signature black-and-white marble porch facing Devil’s Peak—site of key meetings
– Grand hall with solid teak columns and monumental fireplace

Curating Colonial Identity

Rhodes’ initial London furniture shipment—selected haphazardly by secretary Harry Currey—soon gave way to deliberate collecting. Under Baker’s guidance, he developed passion for Cape Dutch antiques, beginning with a stinkwood wardrobe discovered in a Cape Town pawnshop. His collections grew to include:
– Boer frontier chairs inlaid with bone/ivory initials
– Dutch East India Company imports (Delftware, Asian porcelain)
– Replicated pieces by local craftsmen
– African shields, spears, and hunting trophies
– Exploration manuscripts and maps
– An 8-foot granite bathtub (carved from a single block) with lion-head spouts

The gardens became equally expressive. Rhodes demanded “masses of color”—banks of roses, lakes of blue hydrangeas, and semi-wild cannas, bougainvillea, and fuchsias. On Devil’s Peak’s upper slopes, he kept caged lions intended for a future “marble-pillared palace,” alongside enclosures for antelope, zebra, and ostrich.

Political Theater and Personal Paradox

Groote Schuur operated less as home than imperial command center. Rhodes hosted constantly—political allies, business partners, and intellectuals like novelist Olive Schreiner, whose African Farm had deeply moved him. Their complex friendship (Schreiner saw Rhodes as both “genius” and “naïve child”) unraveled as she witnessed his corruption firsthand during the 1892 Sivewright scandal involving railway monopolies.

Rhodes’ personal contradictions emerged sharply at Groote Schuur:
– He welcomed Afrikaner farmers with his best wines while secretly plotting against their interests
– Collected indigenous artifacts while dispossessing their creators
– Championed “native education” while stripping voting rights through the 1892 Franchise and Ballot Act
– Housed lions as symbols of power while crushing the Ndebele kingdom

The Architecture of Empire

Groote Schuur’s reconstruction reflected Rhodes’ vision for African governance—grand in scale, blending European and local elements, yet fundamentally extractive. Baker noted Rhodes’ “instinct for truth” in design, paralleling his political pragmatism. The estate became:
1. Political Stage: Where land seizures were planned over dinners
2. Cultural Statement: Reviving Cape Dutch style while erasing indigenous claims
3. Personal Refuge: Where Rhodes contemplated Atlantic and Indian Ocean vistas
4. Imperial Microcosm: Managed landscapes mirroring territorial control

Legacy in Stone and Shadow

Today, Groote Schuur serves as official Cape Town residence for South African presidents—an ironic coda to its imperial origins. Rhodes’ architectural patronage birthed the Cape Dutch Revival style, now considered quintessentially South African. Yet this aesthetic renaissance coincided with his most oppressive policies:
– 1894 Glen Grey Act (labor taxation and land dispossession)
– Ndebele land confiscations after 1893 war
– Failed 1895 Jameson Raid against Paul Kruger

The estate stands as physical manifestation of Rhodes’ complex legacy—where beauty and brutality were designed in equal measure, where teak paneling and marble floors concealed systems of exploitation that would shape South Africa’s troubled future. In its halls, the paradox of colonial modernity found perfect expression: hand-forged hinges on doors that opened to racial capitalism, thatched roofs sheltering imperial scheming, and bay windows framing stolen landscapes.