By Dr Tony Monda

CECIL John Rhodes, who at the age of 37 had become Prime Minister of The Cape, was an extremely shrewd strategist who always looked at and calculated his odds, particularly how to get the Queen’s approval and backing.
He took in all probabilities.
To this end, he had insisted that some of the recruits be sons of leading families of the Cape.
Rhodes’ justification was that if they were ambushed or cut off, the families of the influential young men would pressure the imperial government to come to their rescue.
On the advice of Rhodes, Frank Johnson published recruitment notices in Kimberley offering each volunteer 3 000 acres of land and 15 mining claims.
From the initial 2 000 applicants to join the Pioneer Corps, the number was eventually cut down to 196 men.
Their only credentials were; they had to be able to ride and shoot.
The Pioneer Corps moved north from South Africa to Camp Cecil on the Limpopo River where they were given intensive military training.
The troopers were paid 7s 6p (75c) per diem.
The road along which the Pioneers travelled was the first road slashed under the direction of Captain Frederick Courtney Selous (1851-1917), who was appointed guide and intelligence officer to the column.
Selous was a hunter explorer who arrived in South Africa in 1897.
In 1872, he had obtained permission from King Lobengula to hunt elephants.
He subsequently worked for the British South Africa Company (BSAC) for many years.
The Pioneers were not permitted to shoot game for fear of arousing alarm.
William Harvey Brown details their rations as follows: Boer meal (coarse wheat flour) sadza, fresh or canned beef, coffee, sugar, tea and pepper, salt, dried split peas, compressed vegetables (mufushwa), ships biscuits and half a tea-cup of Cape brandy (as long as the supply lasted).
The Pioneer Column travelled in constant fear and anticipation of an imminent attack by the Matabele (Ndebele).
On August 6 1890, the Column, while travelling between the Runde and Tokwe Rivers was surprised when Johann Colenbrander brought a message from King Lobengula informing them he could no longer ‘hold back’ his warriors.
Two thousand (2 000) warring impis (Ndebele warriors) were sighted four days later, on August 10.
However, the Column did not turn back, eventually reaching the highveld at a spot they called ‘Providential Pass’ on August 17 and subsequently named Fort Victoria.
At this point, Archibald Colquhoun, who was accompanying the Pioneer Corps as an administrator-designate, headed east to make a treaty with Chief Mutasa of Manica District to try to thwart any Portuguese claims to the area.
The pioneering men arrived on September 30 1890.
On arrival, they declared the place be called Fort Salisbury, situated at what became (Cecil Square), now Africa Unity Square in Harare.
His great friend, Scottish medical doctor and surgeon, Leander Starr Jameson (1853-1917), had travelled with the Pioneer Corps as Rhodes’ representative and replaced Colquhoun as Administrator in mid-1891.
He had met Rhodes in 1878 in South Africa and in 1889 and 1890 he visited King Lobengula on Rhodes’ behalf.
By 1893 Jameson urged Rhodes to invade Mashonaland, which according to Jameson: “Would give us a tremendous lift in shares and everything else.”
The Matabele campaign, it was reported, was short and effective.
When the First Matabele War broke out in 1893, Patrick William Forbes (1861-1918), was a leader of the paramilitary British South Africa Police, selected to command all forces in the region against the Ndebele.
Forbes later became Commissioner to the BSAC’s territory in North-Western Rhodesia (now Zambia), from 1895–1897.
With a force of around 700 men from the BSAC, Forbes advanced towards Bulawayo equipped with five Maxim guns, two canons, three other rapid-fire guns and 200 rifles.
The night of October 25 1893, a large force of Ndebele warriors attacked the force at the Battle of the Shangani.
On November 1, Forbes and his force were again attacked.
Two thousand (2 000) Ndebele riflemen and 4 000 warriors attacked Forbes at Mbembesi.
The Ndebele were no match for the firepower of the Maxim guns.
A total of 4 000 warriors were killed, while others committed suicide rather than accept defeat.
Alexander William George Duff, First Duke of Fife (1849-1912), helped found the Chartered Company of South Africa and served as one of its vice-presidents until the Jameson Raid in 1896.
Rhodes and Irishman James Rochfort Maguire (1855-1925), met and became friends at Oxford.
A British imperialist, Maguire was an MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and was awarded the CBE in 1918.
He was one of the three men who signed the original concession on which was based the BSAC, of which he was president in 1923–25.
In 1888, Maguire accompanied Charles Rudd and Francis Thompson to negotiate with King Lobengula for the concession of land and mineral rights in Matabeleland.
The Rudd Concession was signed on October 30 and the BSAC was chartered the following October.
Maguire was with Rhodes during the Siege of Kimberley in the Boer War and was associated with the company.
After Rhodes’ death in 1902, Maguire carried on his work as a businessman in the BSAC, as a director of the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa and particularly, in the development of the Rhodesian railway system of which he was chairman for many years.
Nathan ‘Natty’ Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild, (1840-1915), a British banker and politician from the international Rothschild financial dynasty, funded Rhodes in the development of the BSAC and the De Beers diamond conglomerate.
Later he administered Rhodes’ estate after his death in 1902 and helped to set up the Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford.
British Conservative politician, Lord Knutsford, born Henry Thurstan Holland, 1st Viscount Knutsford (1825-1914), served as Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1887-1892.
As colonial secretary, he granted the charter for Rhodes’ BSAC in 1887.
African explorer and Rhodesian pioneer, Edward Arthur Maund (1851-1932), emigrated to South Africa from where he played an active role in establishing British settlement in Rhodesia and was active in the development of Salisbury (now Harare).
Maund was one of three officers sent to inform King Lobengula that Britain had declared Bechuanaland (Botswana) a protectorate.
In October 1894, Rhodes returned accompanied by a mining engineer named Hammond to inspect the gold prospects of the country.
Hammond’s conclusion was that although there was gold scattered throughout the country, it was small and did ‘not compare with the Rand’.
Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) and Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is a writer, musician, art critic, practising artist and Corporate Image Consultant. He is also a specialist Art Consultant, Post-Colonial Scholar, Zimbabwean Socio-Economic analyst and researcher.
For views and comments, e-mail: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com