Our Heritage (Sandy Grant) Gaborone and Rhodes

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It ought to be a routine to wonder about the connection between the 20th century diamond magnate, Cecil Rhodes and the new 21st century diamond capital, Gaborone.

Could today’s Gaborone have come into existence without Rhodes’s Kimberley? Is Rhodes in any way relevant to Gaborone today?.  Without Rhodes, could there be a today’s Debswana? Or the diamond mines at Orapa, Jwaneng, and Letlhakane?  Or beneficiation?  Questions which are easy to pose but difficult for a non-diamond, non specialist to answer. It would be fascinating if Professor Roman Grynberg would give it a try? For the rest of us, it seems that Rhodes has left no obvious footprint here other than the railway line.  But what a truly monumental footprint that is! Without the egregious, dynamic, ambitious, and yet grimly unappealing, awful Rhodes there would probably be no Zimbabwe today, certainly in its present form, nor would there be the railway. If the line had not been pushed through in 1896 it is possible that it would never have been constructed – because of the First World War, then the worldwide recession of the 1930s, and then the Second World War.

Might Independence have been achieved but with no railway line? And in that case, how would Gaborone have been put together, given that road transport was still in its infancy. But then were it not for Rhodes there would probably have been no Protectorate and, as with Zimbabwe, the form of this country would undoubtedly be very different.

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

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