From the much-acclaimed author Jonny Steinberg, this is a landmark biography of Cecil Rhodes, a British-born diamond magnate, politician, and fervent imperialist whose vision of a British-dominated Africa left deep scars on the continent. Arriving in the Cape Colony as a teenager, he made a fortune in the Kimberley diamond fields and co-founded De Beers, which monopolized the diamond trade. As Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, Rhodes expanded British territory through coercion and conquest, laying the foundations for land dispossession and racial segregation. He championed white supremacy, explicitly arguing that the “Anglo-Saxon race” was destined to rule.Rhodes never married, but formed close relationships with younger men, including Neville Pickering and Frank Johnson. While homosexuality was criminalized in the British Empire, letters and accounts suggest he was likely gay or bisexual. These relationships were largely unacknowledged in public, reflecting both the repression of the time and Rhodes’s own secretive nature.
