Aug 92 - Rhodes' grave, Malindidzimu ('Hill of the Spirits') at 'View of the World', Matobo hills, Zimbabwe

Yeah, I know, Rhodes was a dick, but I'd read that he was buried at a place he called "View of the World", and so I thought this could be a scenic spot worth taking in en route SE. It's a granite hill with a good view with huge round boulders at the top surrounding his grave www.flickr.com/photos/luisferreira/1473265014/ www.flickr.com/photos/krisgriffiths/41341262261/ (although I'd pictured the cliff that the Bushman threw the coke bottle from at the end of 'The Gods must be crazy').

- This is a controversial location for the grave as the hills are sacred to the Shona and other native locals. This particular hill is "Malindidzimu, the legendary place of benevolent spirits..." At Rhodes' internment, Matabele chiefs asked that the firing party not discharge their rifles as that would disturb the spirits.

- "The oracle Mlimo was assassinated in one of the caves [near here] by a mercenary from the invading colonial party. The colonizers chose to bury their leaders and fighters at the summit of Malindidzimu - a parting and lasting affront." thisisafrica.me/lifestyle/fate-zimbabwes-colonial-monuments/

- Mark Twain once said "I admire [Rhodes], I frankly confess it; and when his time comes I shall buy a piece of the rope for a keepsake."

 

- The most remarkable thing to see here is an assortment of very large (3-5 m. high) supernaturally round, granite boulders atop this hill. (I'll scan a photo. You can see some here at the top left.)

- And I saw at least one very colourful 'Flat lizard' (the subspecies Platysaurus intermedius rhodesianus). They're so colourful they look like they should be rare, but according to David Attenborough the flat lizard is the most common on earth. www.flickr.com/photos/151498572@N04/41109586552/ www.davidwallphoto.com/detail/49508-Common-flat-lizard-Pl...

 

- I saw a large monument below or on the slopes of Malindidzimu, "an oblong, flat-topped granite structure [erected in 1904], @ 10 m.s tall, designed by Herbert Baker and based on the Pedestal of Agrippa at the Acropolis in Athems. Each of the memorial's 4 sides bears a bronze panel created by John Tweed depicting members of the 'Shangani Patrol', aka Wilson's Patrol, in relief, a 34-soldier unit of the British South Africa Co. that "in 1893 was ambushed and massacred by more than 3,000 Matabele warriors in pre-Southern Rhodesia during the First Matabele War." The main inscription reads: "To Brave Men", with a smaller dedication beneath: "Erected to the enduring memory of Allan Wilson and his Men who fell in fight against the Matabele on the Shangani River December 4th, 1893. There was no survivor". Headed by Maj. Allan Wilson, "the patrol was attacked just north of the Shangani river in Matabeleland. Its dramatic last stand, sometimes referred to as 'Wilson's Last Stand', achieved prominence in the British public imagination and, subsequently, in Rhodesian history. ... The patrol comprised elements of the Mashonaland Mounted Police and the Bechuanaland Border Police. Scouting ahead of Maj. Patrick Forbes' column attempting the capture of the Matabele King Lobengula [following his flight from his royal capital Bulawayo and which was destroyed a month earlier], it crossed the Shangani late on Dec. 3, 1893, and moved on Lobengula the next morning, but was ambushed by Matabele riflemen and warriors near the king's wagon. Surrounded and outnumbered @ 100 to 1, the patrol made a last stand. ... They fought to the last cartridge and killed over 10 x their own number {or so it's said}." While the 34 soldiers were killed, no-one can deny that they were the aggressors, nor that Maj. Wilson was over-confident and underestimated the Matabele. "The patrol's actions confused the Matabele, who could not understand why there appeared to be so few company soldiers, nor why they would reveal their position" as they did, by calling repeatedly to Lobengula. ("Lobengula's troops were well-drilled and formidable by pre-colonial African standards, but the company's Maxim guns, which had never before been used in battle, far exceeded expectations [in the co.'s approach to Bulawayo], according to an eyewitness "mow[ing] them down literally like grass.") Notwithstanding that "none [of the officers with whom Wilson conferred] was particularly optimistic about their prospects ("This is the end" said one), British soldier and historian Roger Marston postulates that the patrol might still have been safe had it not [persisted in] pursu[ing] the king. "Let's ride on Lobengula," said Wilson. Several analysts comment that this was excessively rash. Marston says that Wilson's actions "had a flavour of doomed resignation about them"." (Wikipedia)

- "In historical terms, the Shangani Patrol subsequently became an integral part of Rhodesian identity, with Wilson and Capt. Henry Borrow in particular woven into the national tapestry as heroic figures representing duty in the face of insuperable odds. Their last stand together became a kind of national myth, as Lewis Gann writes, "a glorious memory, [Rhodesia's] own equivalent of the bloody Alamo massacre and Custer's Last Stand in the American West". In 1895, Dec. 4 was declared "Shangani Day", an annual Rhodesian public holiday which endured until 1920, when it was folded into 'Occupation Day' [lol], a national holiday commemorating several early colonial events together. Shangani Day remained part of the national calendar, however, and was still marked each year.

- "The remains of the patrol's members were buried on Aug. 14, 1894, in the ruined city of Great Zimbabwe. [!] Rhodes later wrote into his will that he wished to have the patrol re-interred alongside him at 'World's View' in the Matopos Hills when he died; this was done in 1904, two years after Rhodes's death. Also according to Rhodes' wishes, [the] memorial to the Shangani Patrol was erected at World's View in July, 1904." (all Wikipedia)

- Here's the film 'The Shangani Patrol' (1970).: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T5pcpzY6mE The monument is seen at the 1:32:07 point. Some excerpts.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XmkJfeqaEM

- "Up the Washangani": www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMbEreea9Z4

 

 

- From Matobo and the town of Matopos, I hitched back to Bulawayo, walked through more of that city and then hitched SE (I think) down the A6 past ranches and mixed farms through the town of Esigodini to Mbalabala (where there's a monolith named 'Balloon kop' poultney.rhodesiana.com/photos/photo003.html which I don't recall) and the T-junction with the A9, and then east along that rte. through Zvishavane to Masvingo (a name I recall) and then @ 20 km.s south to the site of 'the Great Zimbabwe'. Masvingo was known as 'Fort Victoria' until 1982 and is "the oldest colonial settlement in Zimbabwe. It developed around an encampment established in 1890 when the British South Africa Company "Pioneer Column" of the first European colonists passed through en route to what became Salisbury, now Harare. The Old Fort national monument [1891] is located in the centre of town. It was one of a series of fortifications built to guard the route from Salisbury to the south. The very first cricket match in Zimbabwe is said to have taken place close by, in 1890." (Wikipedia) I don't recall anything about Masvingo.

Done