BOAF CORPORATE HERITAGE LITERACY – THE CASE OF CECIL JOHN RHODES – A POINT OF LIGHT OR DARKNESS?

TOWARDS A SHARED UNDERSTANDING OF HERITAGE

RHODES’ STORY PROVOKES CONTROVERSY because his story is embedded in a narrative that is often characterized by collaterized pain that allows non-participants to interpose themselves in facts and circumstances that occurred in the past with the eloquence that defies logic.

It is not unusual to hear a 21st century person seek to revisit history and use imagined stories to justify contemporary choices.

Rhodes to the majority of inhabitants in Southern Africa who died in 1902 invokes mixed feelings and outrage to many because no common sense, logic and reason would rationally explain how a 17 year old on arrival to the African soil could by the age of 48 years be credited for creating or converting idea into institutions that outlived him without a defined benefactor other than the default omnipresent idea that IMPERIALISM had the properties of causing human actors to be agents in building an ecosystem that was borderless.

Under the BANKING ON AFRICA’S FUTURE (BOAF) – 10,000 POINTS OF LIGHT (POL) powered by members of the AFRICA HERITAGE SOCIETY (AHS), a not-for-profit organization registered and operating in terms of the laws of South Africa, Rhodes, a controversial character in the corporate heritage of Africa, is arguably a person that should be of interest in terms of how the personality of the corporate side of Africa was shaped and defined.

Below is extract of a chat that may provoke, ignite and inspire learning about the past in order to reimagine a new and inclusive future of Africa’s corporate character and personality:

[1/5, 12:58 AM] +263 77 557 9002: Good morning, just finished listening to audios, i’m learning. I didn’t have a clear picture of SMM its clearer now I admire the strategic thinking around the establishment of the company, that’s open mindedness, about FSI Agricom, it was a brilliant initiative but my observation is that both companies we’re brought down by the PHD syndrome which seems more dominant in Zimbabwe. Your understanding of Rhodes the business strategist is something that I never understood however my view has always been that if someone out smarts you, they surely know something that you don’t know, inthis case it was respect for structure that Rhodes depended on both for the purpose of convincing everybody whom he needed to achieve his – the British monarch of his time included, tge structure also sustained his institutions up to this day
[1/5, 1:03 AM] +263 77 557 9002: Admittedly not everything about Rhodes is admirable but because he’s now history and there’s no benefit in fighting history except to learn from it, I am more compelled to learn the things that he used to outsmart our ancestors as much as I am naturally compelled to also sift through the pages of history learning about those of my race who occupy space inthe history of our beloved Africa
[1/5, 1:11 AM] +263 77 557 9002: On a lighter note I loved the Mandela Mubarak 5mln Egyptian pounds story 🤣🤣🤣the wealth in your engagements with the elder statesmen is huge it tells your long walk to understanding the dynamics of power and influence inthe establishment of institutions. Your emphasis on the importance of belonging to an institution or grp of some is sensible to me.