Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The Rand Club is very interesting, it was started in about 1890 by Cecil Rhodes.
And he began the club to my knowledge really as a bit of one upmanship. The
club was intended to appeal to people like me. White, male, Anglo Saxons. The
people that we don't want would effectively be blacks, Jews, women. Anybody
nonwhite. You'll be pleased to know that the club voted to admit women mem-
bers only just before I arrived! And I can now use my reciprocal membership to
get into a club that wouldn't have me as a member in the UK. That's the joy of
colonialism, a bit of class hopping!
Stephentellsmethathehasindeedclasshopped—hehasmadeagreatdealofmoney
by setting up his own business in Johannesburg, and is very pleased he came to South
Africa because of this:
Thistomeisoneofthethingsthatyoucandoinaplacelikethisthatyoucannot
do in a place like London. So occasionally I ask why am I still here, I know the
answer,it'sbecausemykidsgotofantasticschoolsandit'sbecauseI'mnowfifty
something, and it'd be very difficult to adjust back to working in London.
However, in spite of this, and the fact that he has a white South African wife and his
children have been born and brought up here, nationality remains very important to him
as a marker of his difference. He remains resolutely British:
I am British, and I will always be British. And the reason for that is that people
like to identify you, to each part of the community, the racial group, the eco-
nomic group. And so you're pigeon holed without even being asked. And I'm
pigeon holed into British South African, and there's an element of me in there
obviously I don't want to let go. I quite like being seen as the English fellow. I
think when I was doing my business that was an asset. Because I like to think
I'm very straight. So when you get an insurance deal it's done right and if some-
body expects to get their finger in the pie, well, sorry, that isn't going to work
here. So I sort of styled myself and quite enjoyed the concept of the Rand Club.
I'm a member of the Rolls Royce and Bentley club. I have ten cars, I have three
Bentleys, so I can choose which one I want to use. You can't do that in England.
So what's happened here is that for me I've enjoyed moving into a
space that is
clearly the space that I fit into
. (emphasis added).
It is clear that this is very much a “white space” and Stephen is unabashed at the con-
tinued segregated nature of his life:
