Act I.
Chief Ushakapilla wants his only son, Mofti, to become leader of all Africa. When word comes that the colonial governor has denied his request for land for a third time, Ushakapilla declares to Mofti that Africa will shortly be restored to the black race. Believing such ambitions to be futile, Mofti reminds his father of the wise counsel he has always received from James Morel, a missionary who lives nearby together with his son, Jack.
Ushakapilla and Mofti pay a visit to their neighbours, who are busy ministering to the sick. Ushakapilla complains that, despite having followed Morel’s teachings, he and his people have been forgotten by the “great white Chief”. Jack and Mofti go hunting while the elders continue to talk. Presenting Ushakapilla with a Bible, Morel stresses that his reward will come only if he keeps faith with “the Chief of all Chiefs, black and white”. Unconvinced, Ushakapilla returns home and instructs his men to raise funds for an insurrection by working in the white men’s diamond and gold mines; those who return empty-handed will be executed.
Meanwhile, the directors of the Karoo Diamond Mines Syndicate meet to discuss the discovery of a gigantic “Rose” diamond. They summon Fred Winters, an overseer, to put an announcement in the newspaper. While opening a window in the room, Winters spots a ladder leaning against the wall below. Leaving the building, he uses the ladder to sneak back up to the window, distracts the directors by throwing a stone through a glass pane in the door, and snatches the diamond.
The directors discover their loss and immediately telephone the police, who dispatch two detectives with dogs. Arriving at the crime scene, the detectives use forensic methods to reconstruct the chain of events. The dogs begin tracking Winters.
Act II.
While Winters delivers the message to the newspaper, the dogs lead the detectives to his house. Seeing his pursuers nearing, Winters steals a horse and makes good his escape. With the police monitoring departing trains and coaches, the Karoo Company places a newspaper advertisement announcing a £5,000 reward for the diamond’s return.
After wandering for two days in the Karoo Desert, Winters is discovered unconscious by Namba, one of Ushakapilla’s men. Namba steals the diamond but gives Winters some water before making off. Back at the kraal, Namba is received warmly by Ushakapilla, who continues to plot an uprising despite Mofti’s opposition.
Near the Morels’ house live failed gold-prospector Bob Randall and his daughter, Rose. They have planted a white rose in front of their tin shack in memory of Rose’s deceased mother. While Randall works his gold-diggings, Rose reads a romantic melodrama about an aristocrat named Lord Cholmondeley who is driven from England to Rhodesia by an affair of the heart. Rose tries to raise her father’s spirits with a dinner of fresh hare.
In an effort to avoid police surveillance, Winters alights from the train at the small frontier town of Green Willow. Entering a pub, he flirts with the barmaid. Meanwhile, Rose is unable to stop Randall from drowning his sorrows in the bottle. In the bar, Winters faces down two rowdies who try to interfere with the barmaid. Arriving shortly after, Randall catches Winters’ attention by bragging about the wealth of his mine. Now alone at the shack, Rose discovers that her father has taken all but a couple of pennies of their remaining money. To pass the time until his return, she continues reading the story of Lord Cholmondeley’s progress through Rhodesia, and eventually falls asleep at the table.
Act III.
Winters pays Randall for a share in his mining claim and, after a gloomy shrug of his shoulders, follows his now very drunk business partner back home. When the men arrive, Rose is immediately taken with Winters, and asks herself: “Could this be Lord Cholmondeley?” The next morning, after Winters and Randall have left for the mine, Rose reads how Cholmondeley enjoys springbok steak. She first picks up a tin of corned beef but then reconsiders, and instead goes out with the rifle. As Rose tracks game among some nearby cliffs, she runs into Jack and Mofti on their own hunting expedition. Noting the mutual attraction between Jack and Rose, Mofti ironically warns his friend of the hazards of “wild animals like these”.
Ushakapilla instructs the children of the kraal to attend Morel’s missionary school. The chief then climbs steep gorge in order to consult a “great medicine man and witch-doctor”, who prophesies while in a trance that Mofti will never expel the white men to become overlord of all Africa.
Randall and Winters return to the shack after a fruitless day at the mine. Winters makes a pass at Rose, who in turn seeks to please him by offering to cook the springbok she has shot. Meanwhile, Ushakapilla takes Mofti, now twenty-one years old, to the sacrificial rock of their ancestors, urging him to keep it sacrosanct for those of royal blood. Back at the cabin, Rose reads about how an imprudent dalliance with Cholmondeley cost a young Rhodesian girl her chance of marriage. When Winters shortly after tries to snatch a kiss, Rose rebuffs him firmly.
Act IV.
Some time passes. Rose, her father, and Winters are having tea when Jack arrives with some home newspapers. The occasion allows Rose to compare her two beaux directly—to Jack’s advantage. Mofti, who has been forbidden to socialize with his future subjects, looks for Jack at the mission station, and arrives at the Randalls’ shack to find Jack and Rose admiring a white blossom from the rose bush. Rose presents Mofti with another white rose, which Jack fixes in his hair. Delighted, Mofti wishes them “as many children as there are stones on the Matoppos Hills” at which Jack slaps him playfully. Breaking with dynastic tradition, Mofti shows the sacrificial rock to the missionary’s son.
As Jack and Mofti walk back to the missionary’s house, a newspaper is blown from a passing train into Jack’s hands. Jack tells his father about Mofti’s white rose and shows him the newspaper.
Following a dream about his ancestors in battle, Ushakapilla tells Mofti to prepare for “the great attack that will free Africa”. When Mofti shakes his head disapprovingly, Ushakapilla angrily dismisses his son.
Rose tries in vain to prevent Randall from going to the pub, where he finds Winters drunk and irritable. After a two-day bender, the men set off for the cabin, where Rose has been waiting anxiously.
While hunting with Jack, Mofti falls down a cliff and is fatally injured. Dying in Jack’s arms, he warns that Ushakapilla has taken leave of his senses. Jack sorrowfully moves Mofti’s body into a cave under the cliff, and kneels down to pray for his friend. Meanwhile, Ushakapilla is shown presiding over two large baskets of gold. Returning to the house, Jack informs his father of Mofti’s death, and they set off for the kraal to tell Ushakapilla. The chief, overcome by grief, blames himself for having incurred divine punishment, and grants the missionary’s request to give Mofti a Christian burial.
Act V.
Jack brings the tragic news to the Randalls and relates how Mofti’s last words were a blessing upon Rose and Jack. The two take a rose cutting from the bush and join Ushakapilla and Jack’s father at the foot of the cliff. The latter makes a gift of a Bible to Ushakapilla and helps Rose and Jack to plant the white rose beside Mofti’s tomb. Ushakapilla gives the young couple his blessing, at which Jack explains that they are too poor to marry. Jack proposes to Rose nonetheless, and is accepted. James Morel gives his approval to the union.
Ushakapilla returns to the kraal and gives instructions for the baskets of gold to be transported.
After Bob Randall agrees to Rose’s engagement, Jack and his father return home, where they receive a letter explaining that the colonial authorities have decided to grant Ushakapilla’s request for land. They go to the kraal directly to give the chief the news.
The detective pursuing Winters arrives by train in Green Willow.
Paying a visit to the Randalls, Ushakapilla makes Rose a gift of the diamond so that she may marry Jack, and declares to the latter: “I have known both the Rose Diamond and the white rose that blossoms on the grave of my son. But you, O young friend, possess the most beautiful rose in all Rhodesia … a faithful, loving wife”.
The detective takes Winters by surprise in the bar, handcuffs him adroitly, and leads him away. By way of explanation, he shows the bystanders, who include Bob Randall, a newspaper advertisement offering £6,000 for the recovery of the Rose Diamond.
A week passes. The Karoo Syndicate is shown deciding to raise the reward even further to £10,000 in view of Rose’s exemplary honesty in returning the diamond to its rightful owners.
With his hopes now dashed by Mofti’s death, Ushakapilla abandons his plans for an insurrection and casts the gold from the sacrificial rock into the waters. As he holds aloft the Bible, an intertitle states: “Here endeth the reign of the black Chief, until time make him white and he prove himself worthy to rule this country as the great white Chief does.”
The scene shifts forward several years to the fulfillment of Mofti’s blessing. Jack, now a clergyman, composes a sermon as he sits beside his young son. Rose happily dandles two children on her lap while watching another at her feet.
END
Created on: Tuesday, 18 August 2009