Abstract:
The immediate genesis of colonial Zimbabwe grew out
of the discovery of the main gold reef on the Witwatersrand
in 1886. When news of the find reached the diamond mining
centre of Kimberley, reaction was mixed. Some entrepreneurs,
particularly those bruised in the on-going fight to amalgamate
the diamond industry, made their way as fast as possible
to the Rand. Others, with much less reason to gamble, like
Cecil Rhodes, held back. Rhodes' scepticism, rooted in the
recent failure of the Barberton goldfield and the crash of
its stock exchange, was confirmed by the professional opinion
of his mining expert.
