The history of colonial domination by the European powers of enormous extensions in the African and Asian continents is full of arbitrary, cruel actions and characterized by an absolute disregard of the interests of the native populations of these places.
One of these performances occurred in the British protectorate of Bechuanaland (Botswana) after World War II. This African country was located in a strategic position north of the Republic of South Africa. Politically, it was a monarchy ruled by the Khama family, of the Bamanwgato tribe. After the death of the king, his son and heir to the crown, Seretse, was being educated at a law school in London; the regency was exercised by his uncle Thsekedi, who governed the country until Seretse, duly educated in the system of the colonial power, returned to Botswana to occupy the throne and maintain the status quo with the colonial power.
But what neither the British nor the Botswanians counted on was the possibility that, during his stay in England, Seretse would fall in love with him. This wouldn't be much of an issue were it not for the fact that the woman he began a relationship with and became engaged to, Ruth Williams, was English and white. This caused all the alarms to go off in both London and Botswana.
In neighboring South Africa, the government had imposed the policy of racial segregation known as apartheid . Botswana's powerful and racist neighbor would not welcome a royal marriage between a black African monarch and a white English woman so close to its borders. After the Second World War, Great Britain was immersed in a complex political situation, the Cold War with the Soviet Union, for which the natural resources of South Africa (uranium and diamonds, essentially) were of vital strategic importance. Given the possibility of South Africa leaving the Commonwealth For the English, the personal situation of a small king of an African tribe was unimportant. The British government tried in every way to pressure the couple to break off their engagement; But neither this nor the opposition of Ruth's parents made her and Seretse give up on her love:they got married and set out to travel to Botswana to take the crown that was rightfully his.
But things were not going to be easy for the couple in Africa either; Ruth probably found it strange that after being shunned by racists in her country for marrying a black man, she was now the one shunned by her husband's tribe for being white. Seretse's uncle accused him of subverting all the traditions of her people by appearing with a white wife to be installed as king; the role of the wife of the chief of the tribe was that of a kind of "mother of the country" who would in no case be acceptable to her people, especially women. She urged her nephew to appear before the kogtla , the assembly of the tribe, and to resign his post. Once again, Seretse and Ruth refused to submit to convention and to give up their love and their rights. Seretse appeared before the assembly and they gave him his support to become king of Botswana. His uncle and his followers left the assembly and the ancestral lands of his tribe.
The British were not, however, willing to Give your arm to cheer. They invited the royal couple to come to London to seek an amicable solution to the conflict between the king of Botswana and his uncle. But the couple suspected that if Ruth returned to England she would not be allowed to return to Africa, so they decided that only Seretse would make the trip. Her fears were well founded:when she arrived in London, the Bevin Labor government told the King of Botswana that the UK was barring her from returning to her own country for a period of five years.
Seretse and Ruth did not give up and launched an international campaign to get him back to his land. The issue reached the United Nations, where many African leaders sided with Seretse, and the British parliament, where some members of the Labor Party questioned Bevin's decision, which, however, remained firm in its position of prioritizing British interests in South Africa. Opposition leader Winston Churchill declared that if he won the next election he would allow Seretse to return to Botswana. Churchill did win the election, but when he did, he not only did not repeal the ban on his return to the country for five years, but extended that term:the ban would now be for life.
However, the cause of Seretse and Ruth (who had traveled to England with her first child) still had supporters. The British government ended up allowing them to travel to Botswana in 1956, only after Seretse relinquished his tribal rights to the throne. The former king could now stay in his land. Accompanied at all times by his faithful Ruth, he founded the Botswana Democratic Party, and taking advantage of the legal experience acquired in Oxford and London, he initiated the steps for Botswana to become an independent and democratic state. And he achieved it when in 1966 Botswana achieved its independence and democratic elections were held to elect the first president of his republic. The winner of these elections and the first president of the Republic of Botswana was… Seretse Kahma.
Seretse died in office in 1980 and Ruth in 2002. In 2008 his son Ian was also elected to the same position his father held.
The recent film A United Kingdom tells the story of Seretse Kahma and Ruth Williams.
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