Encore: Cecil Rhodes | A Brooding Spirit | 3
Legacy
Wondery
3.9 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2024
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rhodes deals with the fallout from the Jameson Raid as questions about his conduct reach the British parliament. He finds a new cause to further his ambition but years of ill-health are starting to catch up with him.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to episode three of Legacy. Our subject, Cecil Rhodes. |
| 0:12.3 | So let's go back to 1895, where we last left you. Sessel Rhodes is concocting a bizarre scheme |
| 0:19.0 | to raid the independent Boer Republic of Transvaal. Why? |
| 0:23.2 | Well, A, the area includes some gold fields he very much like to take control of, and B, |
| 0:29.5 | he absolutely can't stand the Transvaal leader, President Kruger, the most difficult, an annoying |
| 0:34.7 | figure in his mind anyway. And the feeling is mutual. Kruger despises Rhodes. |
| 0:40.6 | He considers him corrupt and immoral, and he describes him as the curse of South Africa. |
| 0:45.9 | Rhodes is also aware that his health is starting to fail him. He's only 42, but he's had heart |
| 0:51.9 | problems all his life. Do you know, that's the age I am now, Peter? That's shocking to me. I remember that age. |
| 0:57.4 | I've always seen Rhodes as a really, really old person. His doctor is warning him that he might only have three more years to live, so he feels he needs to hurry his affairs. He needs to be careful, though. He still has a lot to lose. He's the Prime Minister of the Cape. |
| 1:12.3 | The Queen has granted him a royal charter, which gives him sovereign-like powers over Rhodesia, the country that's now been named after him. |
| 1:20.9 | And let's not forget his incredible wealth, as the chairman of the diamond giant De Beers. |
| 1:27.1 | And he's so close to achieving his dream of a united British South Africa. |
| 1:33.0 | The raid on the Transvaal just needs to go to plan. |
| 1:36.6 | His old friend Leanderthar Jameson will be in charge. |
| 1:40.3 | Jameson is given 500 armed police from the British South Africa Company |
| 1:44.0 | and a fake letter calling for him to come and rescue thousands of unarmed British men, women and children from the Boers. |
| 1:51.0 | And it's a total fiasco. Before the raid even begins, Rhodes realises it's not going to work because for a start, there's no guarantee that the British |
| 2:01.7 | expats will join in the uprising. Roads tries to stop Jameson from leaving, but Jameson had the |
| 2:08.7 | telegraph lines cut to avoid anyone tipping off the boars. This means Jameson doesn't get Rhodes's |
| 2:15.0 | message either, and he sets off on the raid anyway. |
| 2:18.2 | He's quickly captured by the Boers. |
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