OPINION: Strickland Gillian (1868-1954), American poet and humorist in his famous poem, “The Reading Mother,” wrote:

You may have tangible wealth untold;

Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.

Richer than I you can never be —

I had a mother who read to me.

Any wealth accumulation process that remains untold creates distortions of the order that can be counterproductive. 

Our mothers could not tell us the story of corporate Africa because the majority of Africans were excluded from the story. 

Capitalism was not for the majority and the laws made sure that black dreams and aspirations would be prescribed and managed. 

Accordingly, manner and circumstances in which the tangible wealth that people like Rhodes made remained untold to native Africans. This part of our Africa’s heritage was never told to us.

The link between God’s creation, minerals, and people like Rhodes was never revealed in our informal and formal education. As a result, I grew up believing that there was a link between Britain and the colonies of the nature of principal and agent. 

However, in the absence of mothers that can tell the story, we can put the missing dots so that our heritage reflects the true picture of the challenges and promise of Africa.

Being richly endowed with resources is not sufficient to guarantee success and sustainable nation building. The human input is still required. 

Africa’s past is full of pain and promise. 

The memories of native Africans is devoid of the experiences of some of the key men and women whose contribution to Africa’s social and economic change was critical in creating a firm foundation from which the post-colonial state could build on.

Our mothers could therefore, not tell the stories of these men and women. How, therefore, can we bring yesterday’s icons, legends and superstars to today’s generation? 

Our generation has the obligation to tell the story so that in the words of Strickland, they can never be richer than us if we invest in understanding our past and the men who shaped it. They were after all ordinary people driven by personal ambition.

We all know that most of our post-colonial state actors were born from the womb of a colonial order. When they assumed state power their understanding of the building blocks of the system they inherited was no different from our understanding of the movers and shakers of our political-economic system.

The background of Africa’s post-colonial system was different from the architects of the colonial order. 

We have always questioned the wisdom of politics mixing with business and yet if our mothers were part of the system they would have told us that Rhodes, for example, was not just a businessman but understood the need to have a government that understands what time it is.

Some may ask why I am focusing on the stories of beneficiaries of an unjust system and yet others would say that it is important for us to understand both the positive and negatives aspects of colonialism. 

We cannot change the past but we need to create artificial mothers to tell us the story that we may never know unless we invest in digging into our past not as a means to relive it but to benefit from it.

Our mother would no doubt have told us the story of a man called, Barney Barnato, who was born on July 4, 1852 as Barnett Isaacs in the Whitechapel slum of London. 

Barney was the son of a small shopkeeper off Petticoat Land in London’s East End. 

He changed his name when he was acting as a comedian and unlike Rhodes he was an extrovert who dropped out of school at 14. He was of Jewish heritage and a smooth operator of note.

Nothing in his background prepared him for greater things in life.

After dropping from school he obtained a number of odd jobs including being a “bouncer” at a public house and appearing on stage at a music hall.

After hearing of the discovery of diamonds, several of his relatives left for South Africa compelling him to eventually followed later.

Like many of his contemporaries, he arrived at the diamond fields with no real capital other than a box of cigars that he hoped to convert into cash after selling to diamond diggers.

There were no promises when he came to Africa. He began his career as an itinerant buyer of diamonds. This was followed by the purchase of diamond claims in the center of Kimberly Mine. He prospered and was able to establish the Barnato Diamond Mining Company.

He understood the power of consolidation and like Rhodes he acquired a number of claims resulting in the merger in 1885 of his company with that of Baring-Gould's Kimberly Central Mining Company. 

Through this deal, he became a strong and independent player in the diamond industry with a significant stake in the Kimberly Mine.

Rhodes understood the danger of competition in the diamond industry and the implications on the demand and supply balance. 

In response to Barnato’s strategy, Rhodes was forced to put in place a sophisticated hostile takeover of a French controlled company, Compagnie Français de Diamant du Cap, that had a significant stake in Barnato’s company. 

This acquisition allowed Rhodes to reverse his interests in the French company for shares in Kimberley Central. He was able to secure about 20 percent of the shares in the company giving him a voice. 

This pitted Rhodes and Barnato for the control of the remainder of the Kimberly Central's issued capital. 

Rhodes proceeded to acquire up to 60 percent of the issued shares in Kimberley leading Barnato surrender in March 1888 by accepting Rhodes’ terms that effectively placed the control of the company in his hands. 

After defeating his major competitor, Rhodes formally incorporated De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited on 12 March 1888. De Beers became the undisputed diamond king. 

The new special vehicle took over assets that represented the whole of the De Beers Mine, three-quarters of the Kimberly Mine and a controlling interest in the Bultfontein and Dutoitspan Mines. Both Rhodes and Barnato were appointed among the company's first Life Governors. 

The Kimberley Central’s shareholders later challenged the deal but the courts ruled that if Barnato agreed to put Kimberley into voluntary liquidation, De Beers could still achieve its objective of acquiring its competitor by buying the assets in liquidation. 

This is what transpired leading to the historic purchase of Kimberley’s assets for a consideration of £5,338,650 that was paid by Rhodes in a form of a cheque which, in those days, was the largest sum of money ever covered in a single cheque.

Barnato then branched into gold with the formation of a company, Johannesburg Consolidated Investments Company (JCI). 

This company became famous with the acquisition by the late Brett Kebble through a black economic empowerment transaction of the shares held by Anglo American Corporation of South Africa. 

He committed suicide on his way home to London. It is reported that he jumped off the boat and drowned himself on July 4 1897.

Barney worked his way into high society and became a major player in South African history. The institutions that he helped found had and continue to have a lasting impact on Africa. 

He was one of the few who struck gold in Africa. In 1889, he was elected as Kimberley’s Member of Parliament in the Cape Parliament. He served until his death. Barney redoubled his fortune in South African gold mining shares of 1894-95 before losing most of it in the share collapse of 1896.

He had left London as a young poor Jewish man but through the wealth acquired in South Africa, he was able to build, but never lived in, a vast house on the corner of Park Lane and Stanhope Gate in Mayfair, London.

If we our mothers had told us these stories then we would know that there is nothing inevitable in life. The harder one works the luckier one can become. 

The stories of our corporate legends have to be told because the people we want to look up to have yet to demonstrate that they appreciate that the South Africa we see today is not an accident of history but the collective story of determined and ambitious people like Barney. 

It is only when we remember the stories that our mothers could never tell that we can understand that the future is in our hands in as much as the past was in the hands of the people of flesh like us.