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British South Africa Company

by Steven Shea, 15 August 1996

The lion should be yellow, standing on a red and yellow wreath or torse.

The Cape-to-Cairo" flag of Cecil John Rhodes

The British South Africa Company was a mercantile company incorporated in 1889 under a Royal Charter at the instigation of Cecil Rhodes. By 1900 the Company administered both Southern and Northern Rhodesia.
Company Rule ended in Southern Rhodesia in 1923 and in Northern Rhodesia in 1924.

For Southern Rhodesia, see the page on Zimbabwe;

For Northern Rhodesia, see the page on Zambia;

The first flag of sovereignty flown in what is now Zimbabwe was the British Union Flag (Union Jack) raised at Fort Salisbury on 13 September 1890, which marked the beginning of prolonged British influence in the region. Instrumental in bringing European pioneers to the area was the 19th century British imperialist and financier, Cecil John Rhodes, whose British South African Company (BSACo) was later given prospecting and mining rights by the Matabele king, Lobengula. The company's own flag had not been received from England when the Pioneer Column set out from South Africa, so a Union Jack was carried instead, the first company flag only arriving in Fort Salisbury in 1892.
The flag of the BSACo was raised in the Matabele capital of Bulawayo on 4 November 1893 after the Company's forces led by Major Patrick Forbes drove the native Ndebele from the town. The flag consisted of a Union Jack emblazoned with the BSACo badge in the centre. The badge comprised a yellow lion holding an elephant's tusk and standing on a red and yellow wreath or torse; under the wreath were the letters B.S.A.C. in black. The badge was derived from the crest of the arms granted to the British South Africa Company twenty years after it received its royal charter. The blazon (10 May 1909) read:
Gules, the chief semee of besants, the base semee of ears of wheat Or, a fesse wavy argent between two bulls passant in chief and an elephant passant in base all proper; the fesse charged with three galleys sable, for the crest, a lion guardant passant Or, supporting with its dexter fore paw an ivory tusk erect proper. The supporters (added 25 May 1909) were two springbok.
The company flag hoisted at the occupation of Bulawayo, and presumably used elsewhere in the area under company jurisdiction, was not described in detail in the royal charter and the lack of such a description probably accounts for the discrepancies and different versions of the company flag which exist. The most important anomaly in the flag design relates to the incorporation of a red ring surrounding the crest in some instances and being absent in others. From the drawing of the hoisting of the company flag in Bulawayo, it is not clear whether a red ring is present or not although actual examples of both can be found in museums today.
At about the same time as the creation of the Union Flag with BSACo badge, two other company flags were designed. They were the British Blue and Red Ensigns with the company crest in the fly. In the case of the Red Ensign the crest is depicted above the black initials of the company in the centre of a white disk while in the Blue Ensign the disk is omitted and the lettering is in gold and imprinted directly on the flag. Ensigns are primarily intended for use as maritime flags and although the company's possessions never included a coastline, it was empowered in terms of its charter to own or operate ships. In all probability these ensigns were never used although they do appear on flag charts from that period.
The Company Administrator who, in terms of the royal charter, was the Crown's representative in the territories under the control of the company, was also entitled to a distinctive flag for his personal use in common with British Governors in other parts of the world. The flag of the Administrator would have had the company crest in the centre of a Union Jack within a green laurel garland. There is no record of the Administrator's flag actually being used nor are any on display in local museums, so it is doubtful whether such a flag ever existed.
Bruce Berry, 23 May 1996 and 18 June 1998

Blue Ensign :

by Bruce Berry

The Cape-to-Cairo" flag of Cecil John Rhodes

by Bruce Berry

Cecil John Rhodes, the man who was ultimately to have a country named after him, was born on 5 July 1853 at the small town of Bishop's Stortford in England, where he attended school. Plagued by ill health during his youth, he went to South Africa in 1870 and soon established himself as an astute businessman, laying the foundations for the fortune he would eventually amass by investing in the gold and diamond industries.
His great dream, however, was to expand the British Empire throughout Africa, and he dedicated the major part of his life to realising this goal.

A flag symbolising this ambition is known as the "Cape-to-Cairo" flag. The flag unites the Eqyptain flag of the time (a white crescent and star on a red field) with a gold anchor (heraldic symbol of the Cape Colony) on a green field. Linking these two elements, which symbolise the temini of the railway Rhodes intended to have built, is the British Union Flag. The "Cape-to-Cairo" flag was never officially used and the railway of Rhodes' dream was begun in southern Africa but never completed.

This flag, which is preserved at Genadendal (formerly Groote Schuur), an official residence of the South African President, in Cape Town.

Through negotiations with Lobengula, King of the Matabele, Rhodes was able to gain access to the lands north of the Limpopo and formed the British South Africa Company (BSACo) in 1889 under a Royal Charter for the purpose of settling the territory and bringing it under British rule. The Pioneer Column was formed and the territory of Mashonaland subsequently peacefully occupied.

By 1890 Rhodes had become Prime Minister of the Cape, but continued to steer events in his new country to the north, adding Matabeleland to the BSACo's territory after the Matabele had been defeated in 1893.

The name "Rhodesia" was first used in public by Mr. F.J. Dormer of the Argus Company in 1891. Dr. Jameson, friend and assistant to Rhodes, proposed adopting this name for the new country in 1894 at a banquet in Cape Town. On 23 April 1895 it was officially adopted. Joseph Chamberlain, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, issued a proclamation confirming the name to be official in 1897.

Rhodes's political career survived the ill-fated Jameson Raid, an attempt to depose the Boer Government in the Transvaal by sending troops from Rhodesia into the Transvaal to support the rebels in Johannesburg in 1895. In 1896 Rhodes displayed his courage by riding unarmed and alone into the Matopo Hills to talk to rebellious Matabele chiefs, successfully avoiding another war.

By 1902 Rhodes's health was failing and he died on 26 March at Muizenberg in the Cape. He was buried at World's View in the Matopo Hills (near Bulawayo in Matabeleland).

The arms of the Rhodes family date back to the 18th Century and are described in "Burke's Armory" of 1884 as displaying a lion between two acorns, the main colour of the arms being blue.

In Rhodes's personal arms the main colour used was changed to red and the acorns were replaced by two thistles on either side of the lion. This charge was later adopted for the arms of the colony of Rhodesia.

Bruce Berry, 19 June 1998