The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is often interred with the bones.
-Shakespeare
Luckily this is not the case with Cecil Rhodes.
Rhodes was just about the richest man in his imperial world. As the founder of De Beers, he made a fortune mining African diamonds. He left a terrible legacy in the country named for him – Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.
Not all the good was buried with him. He left much of his fortune in trust. Every year in all the former countries of the British empire, a bounty of scholarships are awarded from his trust. The Rhodes is arguably the top scholarship in the English speaking world. It is a key to Oxford, and is worth about $50,000 a year for two years.
Every fall, many of Canada’s top students apply. No one with a GPA of under 3.75 should even bother. Applicants must be between the ages of 19 and 25. Some people apply multiple times. The average age is 23.
Cecil Rhodes’ will specifies that the successful candidates be people with high scholastic achievement, integrity of character, interest in and respect for their fellow beings, the ability to lead and the energy to pursue their talents. A Rhodes scholar should "esteem the performance of public duties as his highest aim." All Rhodes scholars should be people of intellect, character, leadership and commitment to service, according to the Rhodes Trust.
The winning candidate must be someone who will get accepted to Oxford University, and do well there. The applicants should be prepared to deal with the Oxford culture. Most do post-graduate studies and some do a second bachelor’s degree. Most spend two years at Oxford, and some are renewed for a third. It is the equivalent of a gift of $50,000 per year.
It is a life altering award.
Quebec’s Rhodes scholars have mostly proven to be a glittering lot: novelist Hugh MacLennan; Frank Scott, poet and Dean of McGill’s Law Faculty; philosopher Charles Taylor; historian Desmond Morton; Great War soldier Talbot Papineau; Marius Barbeau, ethnomusicographer. Those are just a few Quebec Rhodes awardees.
The Americans include Bill Clinton, Kris Kristofferson, Rachel Maddow, Jacob Weisberg of Slate and Naomi Wolfe.
Historically they have mostly been men, but recently Canada has been sending an even split of men and women to study at Oxford, the only participating country that has gender parity.
The selection process is demanding and detailed. A wide ranging committee is recruited from Rhodes graduates. The selection committee is freshened with outsiders. The interviews are held in a suitably well appointed place, often a corporate boardroom.
Some universities cull their own top people and groom them for the Rhodes application.
Quebec sends two people to Oxford every year. This year the Rhodes scholarships went to students at Concordia and UQAM.
Philippe-André Rodriguez has extremely high marks, plays bass, was the assistant editor of the Quebec Journal of International Law and founded a soccer league so that immigrant kids just arriving in Quebec and "vieille souche" kids could play together. He made a documentary film about Haitian cane cutters in the Dominican Republic. Rodriguez is 23 years old, trilingual, poised and graceful under pressure.
Michael Noonan speaks English and French fluently. He also has a formidable academic record, and is studying ecology and conservation of endangered fish species. Noonan is an Olympic calibre wrestler, and a member of the Fraser Highlanders, the militia regiment on Saint Helen’s Island. Noonan is "the keeper of the black powder," a.k.a. gun powder.
These two were selected from a final list of about a dozen candidates. All were shimmering with talent. It is a harrowing and humbling experience to be on the selection committee. The judges take the process very seriously. Everyone involved knows that these decisions have a profound impact on the lives of both the applicants and the winners.
One of the applicants told the committee that when his friends found out he was applying for the Rhodes scholarship they said, "Why would you take money from that old imperialist and racist guy?" Rhodes, who was born in England, is supposed to have said, "I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race… If there be a God, I think that what he would like me to do is paint as much of the map of Africa British Red as possible…" Rhodes was in favour of British dominion "from the Cape to Cairo."
That talented new generations from former Commonwealth countries use the tremendous riches of an Oxford education to make the world a better place is a form of good that outlives Cecil John Rhodes.
Rhodes Scholarship in Canada
www.canadianrhodes.org
