ABSTRACT
The colonization of Southern Rhodesia began with the Concession granted in 1888 by Lobengula, King of the Ndebele aka Matabele, to a syndicate consisting of Cecil Rhodes, Charles Dunell Rudd and Francis Robert Thompson. Initially, the territory was referred to as “South Zambezia,” a reference to the River Zambezi, until the name “Rhodesia” came into use in 1895. This was in honor of Cecil Rhodes, the British empire-builder and key figure during the British expansion into southern Africa. The territory north of the Zambezi River was the subject of separate treaties with African chiefs: it forms the country of Zambia. The designation “Southern Rhodesia” was first used officially in 1898 in the Southern Rhodesia Order in Council of October 20, 1898, which applied to the area south of the Zambezi, and was more common after the British South Africa Company merged the administration of the two northern territories as Northern Rhodesia in 1911.
