The Rhodesian Gambit: "At this point it may be worthwhile mentioning Hubbard's attempt to 'win' Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) for Scientology. Following the severe setbacks which had been suffered in Australia in the mid-60s, when the ungrateful Australians decided that they did not after all want to be the world's first 'clear continent', Hubbard decided that southern Africa should have the privilege of being a 'safe environment' for Scientology. In 1966 he went to Rhodesia in the guise of 'a millionaire financier' (no initial mention of Scientology) to, in his words, 'find out what he needed in order to conquer a country.' He spent $80,000 on a house and a hotel 'to show his confidence in the country and its government'. They very soon became the centre of Rhodesian Scientology and proved a worthwhile investment. In the few months that he was in Harare, Hubbard made $25,000 selling Scientology courses to a white population of only some 45,000. He regarded his visit to Rhodesia as a homecoming for, so he told his personal assistant Reg Sharpe, he had been Cecil Rhodes in a previous life and hoped to return with the hidden fortune in gold and diamonds which he remembered having buried as Rhodes. Hubbard even went around wearing Rhodes' favourite kind of hat, presumably in the hope of 'restimulating' people's memories of the late founder of their country."
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