With The Grass Is Singing Lessing initiated a lifelong investigation into the Afro- European experience and broke with convention to bring controversial, thought-provoking subject matter into the public eye.
Southern Rhodesia and imperialism in Africa. At the turn of the twentieth century, the leading colonial nations—Portugal, Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Spain—were scrambling for African land and resources to fuel the Industrial Revolution in Western Europe. Rich in minerals, such as gold, platinum, asbestos, and coal, Africa was a veritable treasure chest for imperialists who, for the most part, seemed to have no moral qualms about exploiting human and natural resources for their own personal gain.
Cecil Rhodes, diamond magnate and founder of the British South Africa Company—more commonly known as the Chartered Company— was a leading British imperialist who, by age 36, owned the world’s largest company (De Beers Consolidated Mines) and controlled nearly all of Southern Africa. Like many of his contemporaries, Rhodes considered Africa the “dark” continent— backward and in need of enlightenment. At the same time, he recognized that it held a wealth of fertile land and minerals with which he could build and expand his empire.
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