All Rhodes Lead to Cecil

I had intended to take the same attitude to Cecil the Lion as every US newspaper takes to Cecile the lyin’ Planned Parenthood honcho and her factory outlets of slightly used baby parts. The mawkish sob-sister drivel of the one story versus the utter indifference to the second is too dismal to contemplate. Never mind the inability of the legions of traumatized Americans, in the midst of their tears, even to get the deceased lion’s name right (for reasons we’ll discuss below), that’s no reason not to turn on the most evil dentist since Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man.

After all the complete twaddle in the Anglo-American press about the psycho dentist offing the most beloved lion in Africa, it is somewhat heartening to turn to the comparatively sane coverage in the Zimbabwean media. Kennedy Mavhumashava in The Bulawayo Chronicle:

I find the western outrage over the demise of Cecil, which is only a lion to may of us, suspicious. This was a simple hunt and Zimbabwe wants more of them to generate revenue for our tourism sector.

It is not an overstatement that almost 99.99 percent of Zimbabweans didn’t know about this animal until Monday. Now we have just learnt, thanks to the British media, that we had Africa’s most famous lion all along, an icon!

…But the Western media’s obsession with Cecil gets us thinking. Why only him? What’s going on?

The Bulawayo Chronicle is in no doubt as to the answer to those questions. Unlike other lions, Cecil is named after Cecil Rhodes, as indeed was Zimbabwe back when it was Rhodesia. Mr Mavhumashava looks at Jimmy Kimmel and the other bleating white ninnies weeping for Cecil and knows neo-colonialism when he smells it:

Why such an outpouring of grief in the West over one lion..? The name Cecil perhaps, given its historical significance for white monopoly capital in Southern Africa and the West? Many believe the lion was named after Cecil John Rhodes, the celebrated forerunner of British colonialism in Southern Africa, explaining the saturation coverage on the demise of his namesake.

Those who believe the interest is bigger than a mere lion could be justified as Cecil, who roamed the Hwange National Park, was the focal point of a research project by Oxford University, Cecil the colonialist’s alma mater.

Speaking of Oxford, Rhodes is also the guy who gave us Rhodes Scholars, including such notorious imperialist racist neo-colonialists as Bill Clinton, Susan Rice, Rachel Maddow and Ronan Farrow. American telly hosts artfully amending Sessil’s name to Seeeeessil the Lion can’t disguise their colonialist agenda.