Khama: A Love Story

I came across this chapter in a book I was reading about an Australian Safari guide working in Botswana. He captures the true beauty of this country is a remarkable tale about Sir Seretse Khama. It was a great reminder of how lucky I am to be in such an amazing country in Africa. I hope you will agree

Khama: A Love Story
exert taken from Whatever You Do, Don’t Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison

Sir Seretse Khama was born in the town of Serowe, which looks more like a village than a town to anyone from the Western world. He was not a sir when he was born, of course, that only came later. And it is surprising that it happened at all, considering that for many years the British did everything they could to stop him from becoming a man of any importance.
He was only four years old when his father died, an important event in the life of any man, but even more so for the young Seretse, as his father was kgosi, or king, of the Batswana people. This is the name of the main tribe in what is now Botswana. In those days it was a British protectorate and called Bechuanaland.
It was sensibly decided that Seretse was too young to rule. His uncle, Tshekedi, took over as regent until he was old enough to be kgosi, and young Seretse was sent to South Africa to be educated. After school he was sent to England, where he started to study at Oxford. In 1947 he met a young Englishwoman named Ruth Williams at a dance arranged by the London Missionary Society (LMS). By accounts, there was nothing extraordinary about their meeting, nor anything to foretell what would become of them. All they seemed to have in common was a liking for jazz. Within the year Seretse proposed, and she accepted.
This created a storm that neither the young Seretse nor the London girl Ruth could have foreseen. When Seretse sent news to his uncle that he was not only marrying outside the tribe, but marrying a white Englishwoman Tshekedi was apoplectic. He demanded Seretse take back the proposal. Seretse refused.
But it was not just uncle Tshekedi who didn’t want the marriage to go ahead. The British government had also decided the union would present a problem for them. World War II had cost them dearly in so many ways, one of which was financial. They were in desperate need of uranium and gold, and their main supplies came from South Africa. It was the start of the Apartheid era, and the British were told if they allowed a black king to marry a white woman, they were asking for trouble in the form of trade sanctions.
Meanwhile the star-crossed lovers were yet to have their wedding. After refusals from the vicar and bishop of London, Seretse and Ruth were finally married in 1948 at the registry office. Seretse returned to Botswana with his wife. But there was no joyous homecoming.
Instead his uncle called him to the kgotla and had him stripped of all royal title. Seretse was persuasive, stating that he “could not, and would not give up his wife” but was nevertheless still loyal to his people. After a second and third kgotla meeting was held, Tshekedi’s desperation to get rid of Seretse made everyone realize that he only wanted the title of kgosi for himself. The community sided with the popular Seretse and he was reinstated as paramount chief of the Batswana tribe.
This was an age when many African colonies were pushing for independence from their European masters. Seretse had been a thorn in the side of the British for years, and the South African government despised him. They perhaps expected Seretse to agitate and therefore be easy to imprison, getting him out of the way for good. But as if to foil them once more, he quietly took up cattle ranching.
It was a job he was particularly bad at.
After several years of loosing money, and cattle, he gave up his cowboy ways and started the Bechuanaland Democratic Party in 1962. Seretse pushed for peaceful change from Botswana’s “protected” status and proposed racial unity and tolerance as a way to build the country. European countries were shedding their colonies (unless they made them lots of money) and as Botswana only had protectorate status and was one of the world’s poorest nations, it was one of the first in line to be granted freedom. The British had only agreed to take it over in the first place so that the Germans couldn’t have it, and they were now quite willing to let it go. Seretse was elected and on September 30, 1966 he became the nation’s first president.
Seretse immediately set about arranging Botswana’s economic future. He struck a deal with the European Community for Botswana’s beef industry and promised that the profits belonged to the people of Botswana. To ensure these profits actually went to the people, and not into politician’s pockets, he established trusts, the interest from which went into health, education, and infrastructure. In a move that marked him as very different from many other African leaders, he also established a vigorous anticorruption unit. And to this day Botswana is one of the few countries in Africa where bribes don’t settle the majority of “problems.”
Ruth was just as busy. She started the first branches of many charities in Botswana, including the Red Cross. There is no doubt that she and Seretse shared an ideology, which centered around helping and advancing the people of the country they both loved.
Just months after independence, Seretse received word that diamond deposits had been discovered in Botswana—big diamond deposits. Within months Botswana was one of the world’s leading producers of the gemstone. Refreshingly for the region these were mined without military involvement, making them “clean” and desirable to buyers of conscience. With the economic structures set in place by Seretse, the country flourished.
In fact from 1966 until 1980, Botswana had the world’s fasted growing economy. The diamonds made the difference. But for once in an African country, money was spent on providing free health care and education. Medical insurance is close to free, and income tax is zero.
In the years that the country flourished, Seretse was often seriously ill. In 1980, he died of cancer and the country mourned in a way rarely seen for a president, or for a king, or the rare man that had been both. Many people expected Ruth to return to England, but she was now a Motswana, as were her children. She stayed in Botswana, the country she and Seretse had loved as much as each other. In 2002 she died, and joined Seretse, perhaps in a place where they play jazz.