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Seretse Khama was born in 1921 in Serowe, in what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate. He was the son of Queen Tebogo and Sekgoma Khama II, the paramount chief of the Bamangwato clan of the Tswana, and the grandson of Khama III, their king. At the age of 4, Seretse became kgosi (king), with his uncle Tshekedi Khama as his regent and guardian. After being educated at the Tiger Kloof Educational Institute in South Africa, Khama attended Fort Hare University College in 1944. He travelled to the United Kingdom in 1945 and studied for a year at Balliol College, Oxford. He then joined the Inner Temple in London in 1946, to study to become a barrister. In June 1947, Khama met Ruth Williams, an English clerk at Lloyd's of London, and in 1948, they married. The interracial marriage was strongly opposed by the Union of South Africa, which had established legal apartheid (racial segregation), and the tribal elders of the Bamangwato, who were angered he had not chosen one of their women. 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. After a series of kgotlas (public meetings), he was reaffirmed by the elders in his role as the kgosi in 1949. Tshekedi Khama left the Bamangwato reserve for voluntary exile in the Bakwena reserve while Khama returned to London to complete his studies. However, the international ramifications of his marriage were not so easily resolved. The couple was banned from entering South Africa, including Mafeking, which then operated as the administrative capital of Bechuanaland. Since Bechuanaland was then a British protectorate (not a colony), the South African government exerted pressure on the UK to have Khama removed from his chieftainship. On 28 March 1950, Fenner Brockway, a British Labour MP, forced a debate in the House of Commons on the decision by the Labour government to banish Seretse Khama from his homeland, while withholding recognition of him as the Chief of the Bamangwato people, on the basis of his marriage to Ruth Williams. The British government conducted a judicial enquiry into Khama's fitness for the chieftainship. The investigation did not disapprove of interracial marriage as such and reported that he was eminently fit to rule the Bamangwato, "but for his unfortunate marriage", which prevented good relations with neighbouring apartheid regimes. The government ordered that the report be suppressed (it would remain so for thirty years) and exiled Khama and his wife from Bechuanaland in 1951. The British government's decision concerning Khama immediately proved controversial, both in Britain and Bechuanaland. Several British newspapers made calls for the resignation of Lord Salisbury, the minister responsible for the decision. A deputation of six Bamangwato travelled to London to see the exiled Khama and Lord Salisbury, in an echo of the 1895 deputation of three Batswana kgosis to Queen Victoria, but met with no success. However, when ordered by the British High Commission to find a suitable candidate to replace Khama, the Bamangwato rebuffed the order. In 1956, both Khama and his wife were allowed to return to Bechuanaland as private citizens, after he had renounced the tribal throne. He became involved in local politics, being elected to the tribal council in 1957 as its secretary. In 1961, Khama returned to politics by founding the 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. As Prime Minister of Bechuanaland, Khama continued to push for Botswana's independence while based in the newly established capital of Gaborone. A 1965 constitution delineated a new Botswana government, and on 30 September 1966, Botswana gained its independence. As prescribed by the new constitution, Khama became its first President. [Source: Wikipedia]
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London Missionary Society correspondence regarding the marriage of Seretse Khama to an English woman, Ruth Williams, in 1948, and the political controversy which resulted from this interracial marriage, including the question of succession to the chieftainship at Serowe, Bechuanaland. Includes consideration of the case and a position statement made public by the London Missionary Society given its close association with events in Bechuanaland, coverage of the case in the press, questions in the House of Commons, the response of the British government and how its decisions were received by the British public. Includes a letter from the West African Students' Club, Oxford, with their response to the case and the British government position. Also includes letters from Alfred J. Haile, LMS missionary at Hope Fountain in Southern Africa, on the impact of the case on mission work and regional relationships.
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