Why ‘Rhodesians Never Die’: The Spirit Of Rhodesia

Editor: How can a people obliterated claim they ‘never die’? Are they hanging onto past glory? A narcissistic romanticism? Or are they the memory holders? The keepers of the flame of European Western Man at his finest in recent times? Can two events, one in 1896 and the second in 1979 capture this spirit and remind our Europeans sons, who they truly are? This article will challenge many preconceptions of Rhodesia and the vitriolic reporting of her people by the the fake-news MSM. Even today; 40 years after she was crushed into oblivion!

By Sally-Ann Lowe, drawing from the works of Alexandre Binda’s “The Equus Men” 2015.

The Great ‘White’ Replacement

It is a tragic fact of recent history that the ‘breadbasket of Africa’, the very young yet modern, self-supporting, rapidly advancing civilization of Rhodesia – created by White Rhodesia within the space of one lifetime, a mere 80 years – was literally extinguished from the planet in 1980. It was immediately, and with great international jubilation, replaced with Marxist dictator Robert Mugabe’s ‘basket case of Africa’. It then took less than half of one life-time to almost completely de-industrialise the breadbasket resulting in the infamous nation: Zimbabwe Ruins.

After 1980, the 250,000 strong White population soon collapsed to 25,000. Today’s numbers (of non-foreign Whites) would be just a fraction but no government statistics are available.

There is no longer a ‘home’ to which the surviving European Rhodesians of the diaspora can ever return. Nor is there even a right to return to the place of our birth, a mute point as Zimbabwe cannot even provide passports at this time as there is no money for the paper or the ink required to make them. Worse still, its White Rhodesian population qualifies as a genocided minority according to the United Nation’s official definitions. 

Despite this dismal state of affairs there is a persistent saying “Rhodesians Never Die”. How can this be? I often wondered what is meant by this seemingly contradictory proclamation? Then I read: Alexandre Binda’s “Equus Men: Rhodesia’s Mounted Infantry: The Grey’s Scouts 1896 – 1980” and it dawned on me.

Its the spirit of the pioneers and those who later followed. It’s the specific nature of those men and women who built and defended Rhodesia. Their ‘Can Do’ drive, their faith in their natural abilities, their sense of honour, courage and fair play is what is being referred to. It’s their inherent genetic and cultural abilities to plan, cooperate, create, develop and to efficiently and justly administer and maintain an advancing civilization, against remarkable odds.

 In particular it’s that fearless ‘warrior’ drive so essential to defending the survival and continuation of one’s people, one’s ‘kith and kin’ and one’s civilization, no matter the cost to oneself. This is the warrior spirit of men who inspire men, and women who carry their weight in gold.

That spirit has been genetically and culturally passed down throughout ancient history by our ancestral ethnic-European forefathers. It’s inherent within all ethnic-Europeans in the great Western world. Yet throughout the West it has become latent, submerged and repressed for many decades now. While their European and British nations are invaded by third world Arab and African young military-age males, aided and encouraged by Europe’s own treasonous politicians, there is passivity from ethnic-Europeans instead of defence. The lion does not roar, the lion whimpers or slumbers. 

By Nathaniel Weyl: Rhodesian officials estimate that 15 per cent of their white population consists of professionals and highly skilled technicians as against 10 per cent in the case of white South Africans and only 6 per cent in the case of the British.

Cultural marxist infiltration and indoctrination of the West is highly advanced. The media’s earlier wicked falsehoods vilifying ordinary, decent Rhodesians have since been deployed against the White West to unjustly vilify our ethnic-European peoples worldwide.

‘Reclaiming Rhodesia’ intends here to re-mind, to re-call and to re-member this fighting spirit. How best to describe the essence of it? Simply, by example. The following 2 historical experiences by Rhodesian men – one occurring at Rhodesia’s beginnings in 1896, the other at Rhodesia’s ending in 1979 serve to encapsulate it perfectly. 

The source of this information on both experiences below is Alexandre Binda’s well researched and fascinating book: “THE EQUUS MEN: Rhodesia’s Mounted Infantry: the Grey’s Scouts 1896 – 1980”

In 1896 though death stared them in the face a handful of pioneer men became our first truly Rhodesian men. They individually rose to the challenge with altruistic heroism, self-sacrifice, dash and daring, each fully aware that their assistance to a fallen comrade might well require the ultimate sacrifice. 

First: A Brief History Of Rhodesia’s Beginnings

In 1888 the Shona people’s feudal overlord, Lobengula, king of the Matabele (pictured left), signed his seal to 2 agreements – the Rudd Concession and the Lippert Concession granting the [Rothschild agent] Cecil John Rhodes’ British South Africa Company (BSAC) metal and mineral rights and land rights in Mashonaland for which 1,000 rifles were supplied as part payment, a barter that would come back to haunt the Company.  In 1889 the BSAC was incorporated by Royal charter with a board of directors that included the Duke of Abercorn and Earl Grey. It was now a British company whose shareholders initially had hoped to find viable gold fields.

The Matabele were colonial invaders from the south who acquired land purely through conquest and plunder. They had arrived across the southern border and settled as recently as 1837 just 63 years prior to the Whites, and were a direct offshoot of the fierce and fearless, aggressive warrior nation of Shaka of the Zulus in Natal, South Africa.

The First Rhodesians

The BSA Company officially adopted the name “Rhodesia” in May 1895, and the British government followed in 1898.

British South Africa Company’s Police Officers : Macloutsie 1890. L-R:Rear:Lt Slade, Surgeon Capt Rand HQ.Seated: Sub-Lt Mundell, Capt Forbes”B”Trp, Lt Col E G Pennefather O.C. Pioneer Column, Lt Graham Adj, Canon Balfour Chaplain. Front: Sub-Lt E Fiennes,Capt H Heyman”A” Trp

In 1890 the chartered company assembled a column made up of prospectors and an armed escort. Guided by their chief scout, the renowned hunter Frederick Courtney Selous they entered both Matabeleland then Shonaland creating a fort in both regions. This was the humble beginnings  of a new western style civilization.

 A clash of civilizations was inevitable – not least of which was caused by ‘spirit mediums’ whipping up a rebellion and the white man in the way of the Matabeles ongoing plundering of the Shona tribes’ kraals. Even worse the White man was interrupting their regular ‘tribute’ payments extracted from the Shonas. Meanwhile the BSA Company caused resentment by demanding a ‘hut tax’ as ‘war reparations’, no doubt to ensure an adequate labour force. Similarly today in the West regular payment of ‘rates’ by homeowners is extracted. 

Mzilikazi Khumalo, celebrated as a hero, his wave of conquest and slaughter is perhaps second only to Shaka Zulu’s, his former leader from whom he fled. The scorched earth extermination (holocaust) approach of Khumalo to expand and preserve his despotic thirst for power, ’emptied’ the lands, they did not build a civilization nor even an agricultural society, most famous is the Mefecane mass slaughter. He invaded, among other lands, the south west of Rhodesia in 1840 and illegally, without any treaty and extreme bloodshed arbitrarily ‘drew borders’ creating Matebeleland!

There were 2 Matabele rebellions, the first in 1893 in which Lobengula and the Matabele were routed, after which the Company ‘annexed’ Matabeleland and now found itself in control of a vast territory covering 150,000 sq miles with a black population of some 220,000. This number was to explode exponentially to 3,000,000 by the time of UDI in 1965. Another 1,000,000 black immigrants walked into the country seeking the opportunity to experience peace, employment and the highest standard of living available in Africa, making a total of 4,000,000. But it is the 2nd Matabele rebellion in the Bulawayo region that concerns us here.

Example 1 – A Vulnerable Fledgling Nation Left Undefended 

In 1895, four years before the Anglo-Boer War, [Rothschild agent] Cecil John Rhodes conspired with the company’s administrator Doctor Leander Starr Jameson to denude the country of most of its extremely small population of able-bodied white men. Dr Jameson engaged over 500 mounted men southward out of Rhodesia in a foolish and ill fated attempt to over run the Boers and takeover the gold rich Transvaal [on behalf of the Rothschilds]. The men, tragically, confronted ‘the awful and deadly Boer marksmen at Krugersdorp and were quickly and unceremoniously cut down and the survivors imprisoned’.

15,000 Matabele Warriors On The Rampage

Meanwhile the Matabele were rapidly apprised of what had occurred and seized their chance for power. Their 2nd rebellion began in 1896 ‘beginning at Umzingwane and spreading rapidly to Insiza, Gwelo, Mavena, Bembesi and Inyati districts. It involved about 15,000 Matabele warriors, 1,000 of whom were armed with the breech-loading rifles that the BSA Company had given to Lobengula as part payment of the concession deal of 1890. A further 1,000 had firearms of their own, including muzzle-loading blunderbusses, some home made. The rebels cut through the telegraph wires effectively isolating the main town of Bulawayo’.

The telegraph office near Salisbury, 1896. Image Source: http://www.rhodesia.nl/rhodesiana/volume8.pdf

The rebels went on the rampage attacking isolated homesteads, shops and mining camps throughout the region, massacring farmers and prospectors, Whites, and even Blacks and Coloured staff who were all unarmed and in the process of going about their daily business. Many native policemen, anxious to be on the winning side, joined the rebellion necessitating the precautionary measure of disarming the complete native police force. 

‘In very quick sequence they murdered over 140 Whites along with their Black and Coloured staff including 8 members of the Cunningham family, Paul and Emal Bertelsen and their four sons on the Shangani, and seven whites at Tekwe’.

The Honourable George Grey (the brother of Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey 1905-1911)  travelling in company with his Coloured driver in his Cape cart to inspect his mining properties, came across badly wounded individuals staggering along the road who revealed the slaughter. Grey miraculously made it safely to Bulawayo having avoided the marauding rebels throughout his stops at outposts along the way. 

The myth of harmony in southern Africa before White Man arrived is false. The myth that it was the White man who FIRST introduced arbitrary borders thus causing untold conflict that can never be resolved is false.

The Bulawayo Laaager To Defend 1,547 Europeans

At Bulawayo a laager had been set up consisting of wagons formed around the Market square with machine gun at each corner. Barbed wire was placed all around the wagons at a distance of 20 metres. Men slept under the wagons, the women and children were housed in the Market Hall, with small groups of men guarding various strategic points within the town itself. Selous recalled there were 915 men and 632 women and children.

To defend against 15,000 Matebele warriors, there were just 850 able-bodied, armed men, assembled together under George Grey.

Leaving 300 to 400 men to remain and defend the women and children, this provided only 450 to 550 men to split up into rescue patrols out in the countryside. These patrols had varied success in rescues, some deaths in clashes with the Matabele impis (military detachments) and inflicting also deaths amongst the rebels who merely retreated and regrouped continuously.

Matabele Warriors’ Build Up Surrounding Bulawayo Unleashing Rhodesian’ Warrior Spirit

The Matabele warriors then began to build up their mass along the Umgusa river which formed a semi circle outside Bulawayo itself. Something had to be done urgently to counter this immediate threat to the town folk. 

A small force of 280 men commanded by Cecil Bissett consisted of:

– 120 mounted men (one quarter of Bulawayo’s able bodied white men) made up of 40 Afrikaners under P van Niekerk, 20 Gifford’s Horse, 20 Grey’s Scouts under George Grey, 20 under Captain Brand and a further 20 unattached individuals, 

– 60 non-Whites on foot : ‘Cape Colonial Boys‘ consisting of a mix of reliable and tough Cape Coloureds, Xhosas, Fingos and Zulus, armed with Martini-Henry rifles and carbines,

– 100 Black ‘Friendlies’ led jointly by Selous, Captain Cardigan, Lt Windley and H J Taylor

Frederick Courteney Selous D.S.O. 1851 – 1917 Big Game Hunter, Adventurer, Explorer, Pioneer, Scout

280 Men Ordered To ‘Dislodge’ Thousands Of Rebels

With orders to ‘dislodge’ the enemy from the area these 280 men headed out in a westerly direction but were lured toward north by a small Matabele detachment who fell back to lure them even further as they approached. Unfortunately this was a Matabele war trick to entice Bissett’s men into the thick bush across the other side of the river, a more advantageous killing ground for the Matabele waiting and hiding in ambush to surround and entrap them.

Lured Into A Matabele Warrior Trap!

A dog belonging to one of the Afrikaners flushed out an enemy warrior lying in ambush in low scrub who immediately stood up in unison with his comrades lying along the ridge and opened fire at the Afrikaners. The battle had begun! 

The Afrikaners, the left flank, galloped forward to the river bed, dismounted and  returned fire at the scores of Matabele in the hollow river bed, while Grey’s Scouts, the right flank, returned immediate fire from about 500 metres. 

The highly aggressive ‘Colonial Boys’ charged forward to aid successfully in flushing out the enemy from the river bank after which, their battle lust in full swing, they crossed the river and continued in full pursuit of the luring Matabele who suddenly, as if out of nowhere, fired at the ‘Colonials’ to their left, right and front. Now in trouble, the ‘Colonials Boys‘ had probed too far ahead too quickly just as the enemy had planned.

The Greys, on Bissets orders, galloped 700 metres along the south bank to give them support, arriving within 150 metres of the enemy, pouring flanking fire at them for 3 minutes, taking the pressure off the ‘Colonial Boys‘. The ‘Colonial Boys,  on foot, began to retire and had to be real sharp about it as they were almost completely surrounded. Selous, Windley and a few other mounted officers galloped up to give their retreat what covering fire they could.

The Spirit Of Rhodesians Reveals Itself

Selous dismounted, sat in the grass, and began firing. Suddenly he heard Windley‘s urgent, ‘Look out! They’re coming from the left!’ Selous looked about to see the Matabele coming close toward him at a run. He reached for his pony’s bridle to mount up but a stray shot grazed the animal and it reared and ran off….45 year old Selous began to run for his life. As he had only one round in his rifle and one left in his bandoleer, he didn’t give himself much hope!

Behind him he could hear the closely pursuing Matabele pounding up, accompanying their run with a long drawn out and terrifying hissing of ‘…jeee … jeee … jeee… ‘. But then Windley was suddenly back, pulling his leg out of the stirrup and urging Selous to mount up behind him. Selous grabbed the pommel but realised there was no time to mount up as the enemy were now almost upon them. 

He grasped the thong around the horse’s neck and told Windley:  ‘Go!’ As they sped off, two enemy rounds struck the ground by Selous‘ foot and a third knocked the heel off Windley‘s boot, but they got away.

Meanwhile the Grey’s who had begun to move back at the same time were almost immediately ambushed from the thick jesse bush to the left of their withdrawal line. Letting his men retreat, Grey and a few others began a covering rearguard action, dismounting and firing at the advancing rebels as they moved back. 

Corporal George Wise was their first casualty, being hit in the back as he was mounting up. His horse galloped off. Seeing this, Trooper Frank Baxter came up, dismounted and put Wise up on his horse and sent Wise off.  Afoot now, Baxter began to run! Grey and Lieutenant Hook, who had both witnessed the incident, galloped up and got Baxter along as best they could as the roaring Matabele, with their deafening battle cry ‘Sutu … ‘sutu …’sutu , were virtually upon them. 

Hook was then shot in the groin and the sciatic nerve was severed. Almost simultaneously, Grey sustained a head wound when a round grazed his forehead leaving him half-stunned. ‘Texas’ Long, an American and well known member of the Scouts, now came to Baxter‘s aid. With Baxter hanging on to Long‘s stirrup leather, they galloped away until tragically, the brave Baxter was shot in the side and fell to the ground where he was quickly set upon by the Matabele and assegaied to death.

Still moving back, Hook’s horse was shot from under him. He got to his feet and hobbled on. Fred Crewe, who was nearby, came over and put Hook up on his horse, sending them galloping back as he himself made a run for it on foot. Seeing him thus, the rebels ran for him and he was forced to retreat backwards, holding them off with his revolver. 

Trooper Button, Radermeyer and Jack Stuart were helping to cover his retreat with a steady rifle fire as were the ‘Colonial Boys’ to the right….seeing Crewe‘s plight, Trooper Lester galloped up and gave him his horse. The still groggy Grey also came up and took Lester up behind him. The Maxim (their only hardware weapon) now finally opened up from 800 metres and checked the Matabele charge. 

Crewe’s escape was miraculous – the enemy had been so close that a knobkerrie (a wooden club) had struck him in the back. The Column headed back to Bulawayo unimpeded as the Matabele warriors, who had taken very heavy losses, retired to lick their wounds.

In hindsight, despite criticism, Bissett had been correct to command a withdrawal rather than send forth the inactive forces (Gifford Horse members and Brand’s horsemen as well as the ‘friendlies’) to assist. He had realized the initial attack by the enemy was a lure. What he had not realized was just how many rebels his active men were facing.

“Judging from their battle roars and firing he would have correctly deduced that he faced thousands.”

Note – Frank Baxter, from Croydon in England, was recommended for a Victoria Cross, posthumously awarded 11 years after the event, the second only awarded in Rhodesia. Buried in Bulawayo cemetery, grave No 114, there is no mention of the VC on his tombstone. The distinction was added to his name on the Matabeleland War Memorial in Bulawayo. However, with the advent of Black rule in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, the mean spirited Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF government ordered the Memorial removed.

Windley, Crewe, Lester and Grey were recommended for Conspicuous Gallantry in Action. Of these, Trooper Lester was awarded the medal for distinguished conduct in the field and a gratuity of Five Pounds.

Bulawayo literally means, The Place of Slaughter and was founded by slaughter before the White man arrived.

Example 2 – It Is Now 1979, Rhodesia’s Bush War Against The Global Communist Marxist Takeover

The years roll forward now to the Rhodesian Bush War to October 1979 just prior to the British Establishment’s treasonous betrayal of Rhodesia to the Chinese communists’ frontman, marxist Dictator Robert Mugabe. Does the pioneers’ Rhodesian warrior spirit still survive despite an incessant hostile climate in world media opinion? Absolutely!

Grey’s Scout Territorial Army Member Trooper John Medland Coast – Silver Cross Of Rhodesia:

“For conspicuous gallantry in action. On 21 October 1979, 4 Troop, ‘B’ Squadron, Grey’s Scouts, of which Trooper Coast was Acting Section Commander, located and followed up a group of 70 terrorists who had infiltrated into Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. [The Prime Minister of the multiracial government was now Bishop Muzorewa]

At 1500 hours that afternoon, the Troop were ambushed by the enemy. In the initial stages of the action Trooper Coast was wounded in the head and body by shrapnel from an enemy grenade which exploded two metres from his position.

Despite his wounds Trooper Coast retained control of his section and conducted a skirmishing action against the enemy. During this assault he continuously directed fire and indicated enemy positions to his troop commander who, in turn, directed supporting aircraft onto the target.

Notwithstanding the aggressive action taken against them, the enemy held their positions and continued to direct heavy and accurate fire against the attacking troops and aircraft.

During the contact, which lasted for over 3 hours, Trooper Coast’s section was engaged at a range of some 35 metres by an enemy group. In the ensuing firefight, 2 members of the section were badly wounded and immobilized in the enemy killing ground.

With total disregard for his own safety, Trooper Coast deliberately exposed himself to draw enemy fire away from the wounded men. In so doing he was able to locate and neutralize the enemy position. He then continued to put down effective covering fire whilst supervising the evacuation of the wounded.

By last light the engagement was virtually over, although a few small enemy groups continued to resist. Trooper Coast nevertheless refused to be evacuated and remained with his section in an ambush position throughout the night.

Throughout the entire contact in which 35 terrorists were accounted for, Trooper Coast’s gallantry and leadership were outstanding. His conduct was an inspiration to his fellow soldiers and his clear thinking in extremely dangerous circumstances contributed significantly to the success of the engagement.

Date of award: April 1980. “Equus Men”, Appendix II, pg 242

Regardless of geopolitics, winners or losers, these men epitomise the spirit of Rhodesians, and this is what is meant by the expression “Rhodesians Never Die”. It’s our ancestral ethnic-European spirit that here revealed its glory under extreme duress and pressure.

I would like to give the final words to a comment I once saved – unfortunately the writer’s name is unknown but his Spirit is truly Rhodesian!

“The evidence of the contempt toward white Rhodesians from quarters of the west and at home, reveals itself as nothing more than a hacking of tall white poppies: Rhodesia’s ascent had been charted by the uncompromising spirit of black and white Africans who worked the land, shot accurately, drank happily, played rugby and football, enjoying splendid harmonious relationships with each other even before the witchdoctor inspired 1893 and 1896 wars, which were honourably fought and peaceably settled. They formed allegiances in those battles, eg the Shona sided with the Europeans when facing aggression from the Matabele, as did the Khamas and the Fingos even many Zulus who came up with the pioneers at various stages.

The official population at 5th May 1921 census was just under 900 000 total pop, which consisted : 34000 white, 200 colored (mixed race), 1200 Asiatic, Natural Bantu 726,000 ( est. Less than 250,000 in 1885 by Selous so the Bantu population almost tripled in number over 35 years), 100,000 alien bantu and less than 500 of the original San hunter gatherers.

How conveniently these naysayers forget that more than 70% of the Rhodesian Defence force comprised of blacks from all tribes. Unwilling to pledge allegiance to anything but the soil, they were accused of illegal occupation – seized near and afar by opportunistic diktats and attacked in a manner eerily similar to enraged supporters of Cecil the Lion.

Prime amongst these claims was that Africa belonged to Africans – that the land was everything to them. White and Black Rhodesians who actually worked the land, jeered. They knew only too well that it was only something when you understood it, invested in it, worked it with advanced understanding of soil and its necessary technological nurturing, and handed it down to the next generation in a better state than when it was received. 

Prior to the advent of white colonialism, black colonialism by the Bantu succeeded only in genocide, slavery, and survival only of the fittest and most blood thirsty. The population was declining rapidly as a result! When in 1890, as the Pioneer Column arrived, so much ethnic cleansing had already taken place that vast areas were totally uninhabited, and the San Bushman all but disappeared. The land and everything on it belonged purely to the dominant chief or warlord with the strongest army.“

Rhodesia Salisbury circa 1905, less than 15 years after Whites arrived the nation went from scorched earth despotic rule without the wheel, to an actual developing nation. One that more than a million Africans from surrounding nation voluntarily walked to in the hope of a better life. They were received kindly, they had the right to work any where and the right to build and farm on the lands deemed as their ‘sacred’ Tribal Trust Lands (some as large as England)… even if those lands were gained illegally and by method of scorched earth genocide. Later the Shona took retribution on tens of thousands of Matebele, it was called Freedom in Zimbabwe. The Guardian called the perpetrator Mugabe, “gifted” and with that the West lost their mind and their spirit.