The problem with Cecil Rhodes

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/02/2022 (1317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s Weston neighbourhood used to be nicknamed “CPR Town” due to its proximity to the Weston shops and was home to hundreds of immigrant families who relied on the railway for their livelihoods.

That moniker, sometimes used negatively, is long forgotten but Weston now grapples with the name Cecil Rhodes, which adorns both a school and a street. Winnipeggers knew Rhodes only by reputation. He never visited the city and it is unlikely he ever set foot on Canadian soil. British-born Rhodes went to Africa as a young man to get into the diamond mining business. He co-founded DeBeers in 1888 and was president of the British South African Company. By the 1890s he was a multi-millionaire and served as Prime Minister of Cape Colony in present-day South Africa from 1890 to 1896.

A local newspaper editorial from the time described Rhodes’ vision as “binding the richest zones of Africa in one indisseverable Dominion under the British flag” and his success made him a hero of the British Empire.

Such is the backdrop to the Winnipeg school board’s decision to name a school after Rhodes following his death in 1902. When plans were announced in 1908 for a new elementary school on East Street in Weston the name was already set. The school underwent several expansions so that it could continue to teach both elementary and junior high students. In 1960, the local parents’ committee convinced the school board to build a new school for the elementary students and leave the old school as the junior high. Construction began in 1961 at the opposite end of school property along Elgin Avenue.

The original school closed in 1987 and in September 1989 it became the new home of a program that helps teen parents complete high school while caring for their babies. The building was rechristened the Adolescent Parent Centre.

The change from East Street to Cecil Street was included in a list of about a dozen street renamings passed by city council in January 1964. This was usually done to avoid duplicate or similar sounding names within Winnipeg and its surrounding municipalities. Street directories from the time show East Drive in Fort Garry, which for 40 years had no addresses on it, and East Gate in Armstrong’s Point.

Today, the background of men such as Rhodes are under intense scrutiny. The one-time hero of the Empire owed his success to driving Black people off their lands and ensuring that the only jobs open to them were as labourers to serve his and other companies in exploiting the continent’s resources. Many of Rhodes’ policies were the basis of the apartheid system introduced in South Africa in 1948.

In 2021, the Winnipeg School Division voted to change the name of Cecil Rhodes School name and is now seeking input through its website on a new one. Wisely, no names of people, past or present, will be considered.