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Seretse Khama
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Sir Seretse Khama, KBE, (1 July 1921 13 July 1980) was the first President of Botswana.
tse Khama was born in 1921 in Serowe, in what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate. He was the son of Sekgoma Khama II, the paramount chief of the Bamangwato people, and the grandson of Khama III, their king. The name "Seretse" means “the clay that binds together,” and was given to him to celebrate the recent reconciliation of his father and grandfather; this reconciliation assured Seretse’s own ascension to the throne with his aged father’s death in 1925.
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Sir Seretse Khama, KBE, (1 July 1921 13 July 1980) was the first President of Botswana.
Childhood and education
Seretse Khama was born in 1921 in Serowe, in what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate. He was the son of Sekgoma Khama II, the paramount chief of the Bamangwato people, and the grandson of Khama III, their king. The name "Seretse" means “the clay that binds together,” and was given to him to celebrate the recent reconciliation of his father and grandfather; this reconciliation assured Seretse’s own ascension to the throne with his aged father’s death in 1925. At the age of four, Seretse became kgosi (king), with his uncle Tshekedi Khama as his regent and guardian.
After spending most of his youth in South African boarding schools, Khama attended Fort Hare University College there, graduating with a general B.A. in 1944. He then traveled to the United Kingdom and spent a year at Balliol College, Oxford, before joining the Inner Temple in London in 1946, to study to become a barrister.
Marriage and exile
In June 1947, Khama met Ruth Williams, an English clerk at Lloyd's of London, and after a year of courtship, married her. The interracial marriage sparked a furore among both the apartheid government of South Africa and the tribal elders of the Bamangwato. On being informed of the marriage, Khama's uncle Tshekedi Khama demanded his return to Bechuanaland and the annulment of the marriage. Khama did return to Serowe but after a series of kgotlas (public meetings), was re-affirmed by the elders in his role as the kgosi in 1949. Ruth Williams Khama, traveling with her new husband, proved similarly popular. Admitting defeat, Tshekedi Khama left Bechuanaland, while Khama returned to London to complete his studies.
However, the international ramifications of his marriage would not be so easily resolved. Having banned interracial marriage under the apartheid system, South Africa could not afford to have an interracial couple ruling just across their northern border. As Bechuanaland was then a British protectorate (not a colony), the South African government immediately exerted pressure to have Khama removed from his chieftainship. Britain’s Labour government, then heavily in debt from World War II, could not afford to lose cheap South African gold and uranium supplies. There was also a fear that South Africa might take more direct action against Bechuanaland, through economic sanctions or a military incursion.
The British government therefore launched a parliamentary enquiry into Khama’s fitness for the chieftainship. Though the investigation reported that he was in fact eminently fit for the rule of Bechuanaland, "but for his unfortunate marriage",
the government ordered the report suppressed (it would remain so for thirty years), and exiled Khama and his wife from Bechuanaland in 1951. In 1952, a new Conservative government declared the exile permanent.
Return to politics
The sentence would not last nearly so long. Nationalist, communist, and human rights groups around the world immediately protested against the government decision, holding it up as evidence of British racism. In Britain itself there was wide anger at the decision and calls for the resignation of Lord Salisbury, the minister responsible.
A deputation of six Bamangwato traveled to London to see the exiled Khama and Lord Salisbury, in an echo of the 1895 deputation of three Bamangwato kgosis to Queen Victoria, but with no success. However, when ordered by the British High Commission to replace Khama, the people refused to do so.
In 1956, Seretse and Ruth Khama were allowed to return to Bechuanaland as private citizens, after he had renounced the tribal throne. Khama began an unsuccessful stint as a cattle rancher and dabbled in local politics, being elected to the tribal council in 1957. In 1960 he was diagnosed with diabetes.
In 1961, however, Khama leapt back onto the political scene by founding the nationalist Bechuanaland Democratic Party. His exile gave him an increased credibility with an independence-minded electorate, and the BDP swept aside its Socialist and Pan-Africanist rivals to dominate the 1965 elections. Now Prime Minister of Bechuanaland, Khama continued to push for Botswana's independence, from the newly-established capital of Gaborone. A 1965 constitution delineated a new Botswana government, and on 30 September 1966, Botswana gained its independence, with Khama acting as its first President. In 1966 Queen Elizabeth appointed Khama Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
Presidency
At the time of its independence, Botswana was among the world’s poorest countries. Tax revenues proved insufficient to cover the costs of government, forcing Botswana into heavy debt with Britain. The foreign policy situation was similarly bleak; trapped between the aggressive white minority governments of apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia, most observers believed that Botswana would have little choice but to become a satellite state to one or the other.
Khama set out on a vigorous economic program intended to transform Botswana into an export-based economy, built around beef, copper, and diamonds. The 1967 discovery of Orapa’s enormous diamond deposits particularly aided this program, and between 1966 and 1980 Botswana had the fastest growing economy in the world. Much of this money was reinvested into infrastructure, health, and education costs, resulting in further economic development. Khama also instituted strong measures against corruption, the bane of so many other newly-independent African nations.
On the foreign policy front, Khama allowed Rhodesian militant organizations to use Botswana as a base for raiding operations against the incumbent white minority Rhodesian government. Shortly before his death, Khama would play a major role in negotiating the end of the Rhodesian civil war and the resulting creation and independence of Zimbabwe.
Khama remained president until his death from pancreatic cancer in 1980, when he was succeeded by Vice President Quett Masire. Forty thousand people paid their respects while Khama's body lay in state in Gaborone. He was buried in the Khama family graveyard on a hill in Serowe, Central District.
On 1 April 2008, Seretse Khama's son, Ian Khama, became the fourth President of Botswana.
Further reading
From the 1990 .
- Williams, Susan. 2006. Colour Bar. Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-9811-3
- Seager, Alan. 2005. The Shadow of a Great Rock. Connah’s Quay, Flintshire, England: I & D Books/ the author
The definitive biography, "Seretse Khama" was written by Neil Parsons, Willie Henderson and Thomas Tlou in 1995
External links
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