This is the seventh instalment in a 20-part “Pushing the envelope of knowledge” series in which Mawere attempts to provide some insights into the concept of corporate citizenship and the importance of improving the body of knowledge that informs our daily conversations

IN 2003, I was one of the founding members of Africa Heritage Society, a member-based not-for-profit organisation registered in South Africa.

I knew then as I do now that when many of us look back at our story as Africans, we rarely take a holistic view of our evolving culture and heritage.

The Africa of 2009 is different from the pre-colonial one and yet when we talk of Africa’s heritage it is often convenient to forget or ignore the influence of other cultures in shaping and defining our heritage.

When I embarked on the journey of business as a first generation player, I soon discovered that there was no compass and no-one to look to in my circle of friends, family and colleagues for advice as our collective past was devoid of business experiences.

Nothing or no-one prepared us for the challenges we assumed in business and we did not have parents, uncles and aunts to look up to for advise and yet the people who look up to us expect more from us than we can deliver.

Many of the renowned African scholars and political actors have made a name denigrating colonialism and its ills to the extent that the body of knowledge on any positive impact of the colonial experiment on Africa and its heritage is easily dismissed and ridiculed.

Some would like the concept of being African, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, to be restricted to blacks and yet contemporary Africa is a product not only of black but also white investment.

What do we mean by heritage? Heritage is property that is or can be inherited. It also refers to something that is passed down from preceding generations, a tradition.

We also know that many of our white brothers and sisters acquired their heritage of affluence and social position at birth, unlike the majority of Africans who had nothing to inherit largely because of restrictions imposed by the colonial political and economic system.

What is culture? It is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. We all know what African cultural heritage is, but we know little about our business heritage.

Cultural heritage may be defined as either artistic or symbolic material signs handed on by the past to each culture and, therefore, to the whole of humankind.

Heritage, therefore, gives each particular place and people their recognisable features and is the storehouse of human experience.

With respect to business heritage, the majority of Africans who were excluded by law from participating in economic activities have necessarily had no heritage to preserve and present to the world.

We are, therefore, a product of our past whose policies were informed by values, beliefs and principles foreign to African traditions and customs.

However, our inherited circumstances or benefits are too complex to be classified as black and white generated.

Without black cheap labour, the construction of a thriving and rewarding colonial civilisation would have been impossible to sustain.

Equally, my ability to communicate in English would have been unthinkable.

Cecil Rhodes, perhaps one of the greatest advocates of British Imperialism, understood clearly that the future belonged not only to dreamers but builders.

He was acutely aware that the future of the Anglo-Saxon civilisation was inextricably linked to imperialism.

Cecil John Rhodes was an English born South African statesman, prospector, outstanding businessman, philanthropist, strong proponent of British imperialism, and a man after whom Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) was named.

He was born on July 5, 1853, at Boshop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, England and died on March 26, 1902, at the age of 49. What was his legacy?

He was the fifth son of Francis William Rhodes, a priest of the Church of England, and his second wife, Louisa Peacock and he had nine brothers and two sisters.

He attended the grammar school at Bishops Stortford and fell ill shortly after leaving school and his parents decided that he should visit his brother who had recently immigrated to Natal, South Africa.

He arrived in Durban on 1 September 1870 not as a soldier of fortune but as a 17 year to address a medical condition.

With him was only 3,000 pounds his aunt had lent him and used the funds to invest in diamond diggings in Kimberley.

Rhodes understood that empire building needed to be underpinned by institutional and capacity building and more importantly by a constitutional order that guaranteed property rights.

He also believed that English civilisation was far too superior to other civilisations and hence the need for an evangelical approach to imperialism and the use of force to build it.

At 23 years old, Rhodes wrote in his “Confession of Faith” that: “Why should we not form a secret society with but one object, the furtherance of the British Empire and the bringing of the whole world under British rule, for the recovery of the United States, for making the Anglo Saxon race but one Empire? What a dream, but yet is probable, it is possible.”

Like Rhodes, we also decided to form an open rather than a secret society with one object, the furtherance of the African idea and the bringing of the whole African people under one value set that is aligned and responds to the challenges of the day.

Rhodes understood that there was nothing inevitable in life and more importantly that with willpower and application anything was possible.

He made Southern Africa his theatre of operation in the advancement of British interests in as much as some of us have made South Africa a stamping ground for advancing African interests.

To many, Rhodes represented the devil incarnate, he was responsible for alienating blacks from land, resources and more significantly investing in an undemocratic constitutional order that denied the majority to basic civil and economic rights.

In choosing Rhodes as one of Africa’s great builders, one is not ignorant of the damage done to the psychological make up of the black mind in business.

We know that there is nothing we can do to change the past but celebrate the positive aspects of our journey.

hodes’ place as one of the founding fathers of corporate Africa is secure and his business spirit is with us for us to draw lessons on how proud inheritors of values and principles can accomplish.

Rhodes originated the racist “land grabs” that today President Mugabe wants reversed against an outcry of the kind that would be unexpected if black and white values were aligned.

To Rhodes, the land grabs were not meant to displace production but to add value to the African promise.

His investment paid off in that the influence of English civilisation on some parts of Africa remains strong and alive.

Rhodes had no regard for black civilisation and it was not unexpected that in 1887 he told the House of Assembly that: “the native is to be treated as a child and denied the franchise. We must adopt a system of despotism in our relations with the barbarians of South Africa.”

In post-colonial Africa the treatment of the majority of Africans is no different from Rhodes’ model. The voters are treated with disdain and as children incapable of making their own choices.

The difference, however, is that Rhodes put in place an infrastructure that remained situated in Africa for the majority to inherit hence the name of our society out of a belief that in as much as the founders of corporate Africa hated blacks, the future of the continent was always to going to be in their favor.

Rhodes once said: “I prefer land to niggers”. In less than a century the natives woke up and after more than a century what Rhodes fought hard to prevent i.e. franchise is now a reality even in South Africa, his adopted home.

Rhodes imprinted his personality on the region: dams, railway engines, towns, universities, monuments were named after him.

His expansionist zeal was legendary and perhaps he remains one of the most fervent and practical Pan-Africanist whose vision could not be contained in one country.

Even Gladstone had to caution Rhodes about the financial implications of an aggressive imperialist strategy when he said: “Our burden is too great. We have too much, Mr. Rhodes, to do. Apart from increasing our obligations in every part of the world, what advantage do you see to the English race in the acquisition of new territory?”

Rhodes’ response to Gladstone exposes that kind of mind that informed his choices and confirms that he was a principal in prosecuting his grand strategy of English brand building.

He said: “Great Britain is a very small island. Great Britain’s position depends on her trade, and if we do not open up the dependencies of the world which are at present devoted to barbarism, we shall shut out the world’s trade. It must be brought to you that your trade, and your life is the world, not England. That is why you must deal with these questions of expansion and retention of the world.”

For many of us who have adopted other countries as home, Rhodes answered the question of why it may, for instance, be beneficial for Zimbabwean born persons to acquire citizenship of other states.

Our life is the world and not Africa and we have no choice but to position our brand in this competitive arena.

Global capitalism and imperial expansion evolved together in collaboration, aspirations; patterns of influence and shared aims.

When he died, the Times had this to say about him: “He has done more than any single contemporary to place before the imagination of his countrymen a clear conception of the Imperial destinies of our race but we wish we could forget the other matters associated with his name.

Together with his brother after failing to grow cotton in Natal, they attempted to make their fortune in the Diamond mines.

Cecil, the entrepreneur saw alternative methods for making money by providing services to the other miners. He understood the power of consolidation and saw the Union Jack as a powerful instrument in commerce.

In the field of business, what did Rhodes accomplish? He was the founder of De Beers, the world-renowned diamond mining and trading giant whose roots can be traced to Rhodes.

Rhodes got his start by renting water pumps during the diamond rush that started in 1871 and reinvested the profits of this operation into buying claims of small mining operations, with his operations soon expanding into a separate mining company.

He was convinced that with consolidation, financial resource mobilization could be easier and efficient.

He managed to secure funding from the Rothschild family who supported his business ventures.

De Beers Consolidated Mines was formed in 1888 by the merger of the companies of Barney Barnato and Rhodes.

He understood the convenience of creating monopolies in the supply chain industry and through his innovation and ruthlessness, De Beers became the sole owner of all diamond mining operations in South Africa leading him to negotiate a strategic agreement with the London-based Diamond Syndicate in 1889 which agreed to purchase a fixed quantity of diamonds at an agreed price thereby regulating output and maintaining prices.

In 1896, he reported to his shareholders that: “Our only risk is the sudden discovery of new mines, which human nature will work recklessly to the detriment of us all.”

The strategy to organize the diamond industry not only preserved the resources for future generations but also resulted in the maximization of earnings from diamond sales to Africa.

Rhodes with his partner Mr. Charles Rudd formed Gold Fields of South Africa in 1887 to hold properties they had acquired on the Transvaal’s Witwatersrand gold fields.

This was one of the pioneer mining finance houses that were to characterize the South African mining organization.

Rhodes played a critical role in saving and developing the Cape Wine industry that today is one of the global drivers of the industry at a world level.

In the 1880s, the Cape Wine Industry was nearly destroyed by the vine aphid Phylloxera with Rhodes determined to find an alternative to the grape industry.

In 1892, Rhodes bought Lekkerwijn and established HEV Pickstone in partnership with the Dutch farmer, Van Reenen and Lionel Baker whose capital but the partnership soon dissolved and the farm was abandoned.

In 1892, Rhodes as Premier of the Cape Colony engaged Baker, the architect, to transform Groote Schuur on the slopes of the Table Mountain into his official residence. In 1895, HEV purchased Delta Farm in Groot Drajenstein and later Meerlust next to Delta and Lekkerwijn.

In 1886-97, Rhodes authorized the purchases of some 29 farms from disillusioned and bankrupt farmers in Groot, Drakenstein, Wellington and Tulbagh.

All the 29 farms owned by Rhodes were amalgamated under the name of Rhodes Fruit Farms in 1898. In 1901, HEV negotiated the purchase of a homestead from Rhodes. Rhodes was the father of the organized Cape Wine industry.

Through the amalgamation of the Central Search Association and the Exploring Company Limited, the British South Africa Company was born in 1889 and was granted a royal charter. It is the vehicle that he used to acquire Rhodesia.

The company was empowered to trade with African rulers such as King Lobengula, to form banks; to own, manage and grant or distribute land, and raise a police force (the British South Africa Police).

In return, the company agreed to develop the territory that it controlled, to respect existing African laws, to allow free trade within its territory and to respect all religions. However, Rhodes’ business model was focused on minerals and less on nation building.

Rhodes was a complex and misunderstood man. He knew he would die one day and was prepared for death.

Even after death, he still lives on. He often talked about blacks in derogatory terms yet he took an uncommon interest in black culture and languages.

He left a will that was to create one of the most successful educational endowments of all time, The Rhodes Scholarships that are open to any of the Teutonic peoples, Britons, Germans and Americans.

For us to build a successful Africa we have no choice but to reflect on the contribution of the men and women who have helped define who we are.

Rhodes’ name is one of the names that one cannot avoid in any conversation about why South Africa is more developed than other African states and more significantly why it continues to attract people.