Rhodes: The Enigma of his Close Male Personal Relationships

Rhodes’ legacy was immense but not always positive. Consider the Jameson Raid and his duplicitous and mendacious treatment of Lobengula, King of the Matabele as the Ndebele were called by the Whites. Today he would be characterised as being Machiavellian. Be that as it may but what were his close male personal relationships like?

On his arrival at the diamond fields in Kimberley in October 1871 as an 18 year old, Cecil John Rhodes was a tall, lanky, anaemic, fair-haired boy, shy and reserved in bearing. As an adolescent he was sickly. As such it had been recommended that he join his elder brother Herbert who was living in South Africa.

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