Liesching wrote a minute for Noel-Baker, backing Baring’s plan for an inquiry. The day before, he said, he had been told by General Beyers that if Seretse were allowed to be Chief with his white wife, it would not simply be a matter between the UK Government, Bechuanaland and South Africa,
but would light a fire through the British Colonial Territories in Africa which would not soon be quenched. He said that the very existence of white settlement in these territories depended, in view of the numerical inferiority and defencelessness of the white population, upon the principle that the native mind regarded the white woman as inviolable.
Then he set out his own feelings about the colour question:
I do not wish here to discuss at length the question of our attitude towards the colour bar, on which, I dare say, I am as doctrinally correct as yourself, the Colonial Secretary and all those in this country who most strongly disapprove of discrimination based on racial colour.
Nevertheless, he had never been able to reconcile himself to the ‘ultimate logical consequences of this principle of non-discrimination when it takes practical forms affecting oneself or one’s family in terms of miscegenation’. Nor, he said, did he
believe that many who hold their antipathy to the colour bar would, if confronted with this matter in personal terms, view with equanimity, or indeed without revulsion, the prospect of their son or daughter marrying a member of the Negro race.
Liesching then turned to the risk that South Africa might ‘whip up’ feeling among white settlers in Southern Rhodesia, in Kenya, and in the Tanganyika territory:
I have little doubt that Southern Rhodesia will react violently. There has always been a rather unholy alliance between the South Africans and the Kenya settlers over native policy and the colour bar. Tanganyika can be easily infected. In short there may be a very bitter harvest here.26
Patrick Gordon Walker, who was Noel-Baker’s Parliamentary Secretary, saw Liesching’s minute and commented on it with one of his own. ‘This is an extremely grave matter,’ he argued, ‘and can involve us in historic calamities if we are not careful – I would wholly support Baring’s proposal for an enquiry.’ He himself was ready to take an even stronger position against Seretse, on racial grounds. ‘I would not put out of court the possibility of declaring that a chief cannot have a white wife,’ he said. ‘There is a lot to be said for this argument and we should consider facing that uproar that would result. We must all think about this carefully.’27
Clearly, Liesching’s and Gordon Walker’s desire to carry out South Africa’s wishes regarding Seretse were generated from deeply felt racism. A related factor was their commitment to the Dominions for which they, as the Commonwealth Relations Office, were responsible – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and South Africa. These ‘white’ Dominions were seen as vital to the continuation of Britain’s world role, and part of Baring’s job as British High Commissioner in South Africa was to maintain this relationship. In comparison with South Africa, the needs of Bechuanaland – a Protectorate with very few white people and no role in the international community – were seen by the CRO as irrelevant.
Liesching’s and Gordon Walker’s minutes were read by Noel-Baker. He may have been surprised to read Sir Percivale’s uncompromising statement of his racist beliefs and Gordon Walker’s recommendation. In any case, he had misgivings about Baring’s strategy.
On 16 July he wrote to Arthur Creech Jones, to let him know what Baring had suggested.28 Creech Jones was the Secretary of State for the Colonial Office, which held responsibility for most of the British colonies in Africa. It was not responsible for Bechuanaland because of the Protectorate’s close relationship with South Africa, which was a Dominion and therefore associated with the Commonwealth Relations Office. The CRO, which had been formed in 1947 by a merger of the Dominions Office and India Office, following the independence of India and Pakistan, had a deeply conservative approach to policy. In this respect it differed from the Colonial Office, which had attracted some recruits with a genuine sense of mission about the future of the colonies and concerns about racial exclusion. Creech Jones was a member of the Fabian Colonial Bureau and had clearly articulated his sympathy with the aspirations of African colonies for self-government.
But Creech Jones did not back the decision of the Bangwato. Instead, he favoured the plan for an inquiry, to buy time. He took the view that it would be necessary in due course to refuse recognition of Seretse, but that to do so just then would be to place the whole emphasis on the racial issue and would look like what it was – a concession to South African opinion.29
The Commonwealth Secretary was uncertain and worried. ‘I am not sure that Mr Egeland’s arguments are conclusive,’ he had written in a note to Liesching, ‘and I hope Sir E. Baring won’t think that we think they are.’30 He and his Permanent Under-Secretary were not of like mind. When Liesching had taken over the post in January that year, Noel-Baker had at first been pleased. Liesching had considerable experience of Africa and had been Deputy Commissioner in the High Commission Territories at the time of Tshekedi’s deposition after the flogging affair. But as the months had passed, their differences became increasingly apparent. A lean man in his mid-fifties, with a sharpfeatured and aquiline face, Sir Percivale – an Oxford Blue and President of the Civil Service rugby club – was a tough realist, to the point of ruthlessness.31 In the view of a colleague:
Temperamentally, they were poles apart – Noel-Baker regarded Liesching as a racialist and thought he was disloyal. Liesching considered Noel-Baker an ineffective busybody and relished repeating a comment that he was an ‘intellectual mosquito’.32
The junior staff of the CRO were busy studying photographs of Ruth Khama in newspapers to see if she looked pregnant; a photograph in the Star, which showed a pencil-thin Ruth out shopping, convinced them she was not.33 Then Noel-Baker came up with a plan of his own. He prepared a memorandum for Cabinet members, in which he proposed that Seretse be invited to the UK for talks:
I feel that there is some hope that if we can have a frank discussion with Seretse and his wife, they may both decide that it would be undesirable that Seretse should take up the chieftainship of the Tribe.34
In a draft telegram to Baring, which he circulated to the Cabinet, he argued that there was a ‘certain chance’ that Seretse might be prepared to withdraw his claim to the chieftainship, if he appreciated the difficulties felt by the United Kingdom Government.35
But there was no support from the Cabinet for Noel-Baker’s plan. It was decided instead to give the green light to a judicial inquiry. Creech Jones argued particularly vigorously for this strategy.36 Shortly after the meeting, Liesching wrote to Baring. He was about to go on leave, he said, but he wanted to thank him for his reports ‘on this terribly difficult Seretse problem. I can well imagine the very anxious time you are having over it.’ He wanted him to know
that among Ministers here there has now developed a complete unanimity against recognition of Seretse with Ruth as his wife. It was very difficult to estimate how Ministerial opinion would go on this and Creech Jones has come out entirely on the right side.
Then he offered him a fulsome compliment: that Baring’s judgement was ‘trusted to an extent which has never been exceeded in the case of any High Commissioner I have known’.37
These discussions took place against a background of increased racial inequality and segregation in South Africa. On 1 July 1949 the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act was passed, which made marriage between a ‘European’ and a ‘non-European’ illegal. Many white South Africans argued that the marriage of Seretse Khama was conclusive proof of the need for the Act. The day after it had been passed, the Natal Witness condemned Seretse and Ruth in a leading article entitled ‘A Marriage We Must Condemn’. Miscegenation, it argued,
is contrary to our fundamental beliefs and legislation has recently been introduced for its prohibition… The mixed marriage strikes at the root of White supremacy; even if it w
ere limited to exceptional cases, it tends to breed ideas which are antipathetic to our conviction that the colour bar in Africa must be maintained.
It made a particular dig at the fact that Seretse had been allowed to study at Oxford:
Whitehall may pet and pamper its colonial Native populations as much as it likes, sending them to Oxford and Cambridge and giving them false ideas of their importance, but the Colonial Secretary should exercise a modicum of circumspection in his attitude to Natives whose territories adjoin that of the Union.
The veld farmer, it maintained, had a ‘much more realistic appreciation of the Native question’ than the colonial administrator, who governs ‘from a chair in a London office’.38
The Dutch Reformed Church took a public position on the Khama marriage. A week after the new legislation, a resolution was unanimously passed by the DRC Conference in Johannesburg, opposing the recognition of Seretse as chief.39 ‘Two million white people,’ it stated, ‘were the spearhead of Christendom and civilisation in a land containing eight million Natives, of whom at least half were still semi-civilised… and living in barbarism.’ Anything calculated to reduce the influence of the white man as the standard-bearer of civilization, it insisted, would harm the best interests of all people living in South Africa.40 This resolution caused great offence to a senior member of the Bangwato. ‘We are not surprised in that the Afrikaner people disagree with Africans,’ he complained to the British Administration. But he asked the British to ignore the interference of South Africa:
We speak freely in that our Protectorate Government does care for us in all respects. The administration is ours as the Bamangwato, it has no connection with other countries outside the Protectorate that are without justice. We ask that the Government enquire into this matter accordingly while considering the wish of the Bamangwato. We want our Chief and his wife.41
On Friday 29 June 1949, Noel-Baker sent a top-secret note to the South African High Commissioner in London, enclosing the text of an announcement to be made by Sir Evelyn Baring the next day – that a judicial inquiry would be held into the designation of Seretse Khama as chief.42 On the same day, Baring cabled the news to Godfrey Huggins. ‘What a good thing you have some machinery to put in action,’ replied Huggins, gratefully, ‘but what a case for a judge unless he has no views of any sort on the subject. I am assuming Seretse would be a suitable person if he had made a suitable marriage.’43
Not until the next day was news of the inquiry finally given to the people who would be most closely affected by it.44 At a Kgotla in Serowe, Seretse and about 2,000 men listened to the announcement with disbelief. Even Tshekedi was surprised.45 In just over a month since the Kgotla at which Seretse had been acclaimed as Kgosi, the decision of the majority of the Bangwato people had been called into question by the British Government. Feelings of hope for the future gave way to mistrust and dismay.
7
Our Mother – Mohumagadi
Just over six weeks after the public announcement of the judicial inquiry, Ruth arrived at the Victoria Falls on 19 August 1949.1 She spent the night in Livingstone and on the following morning she flew to Francistown, in the north of Bechuanaland. The heat was baking: although it was still the winter season, the clear and cloudless skies meant that the sun blazed down. When at last the little aircraft touched down at the grass airstrip, she clambered out of the cabin and saw a large, pale green Chevrolet glinting in the sunlight, which Seretse had bought in preparation for her arrival; American cars were preferable to British ones in Bechuanaland, because they were sturdy enough to withstand the rough roads. Beside the car stood Seretse, a broad smile on his face, waiting for her. ‘Nothing mattered now,’ she wrote later. ‘At last I had come home to my husband. I was once more in Seretse’s arms, believing that this time we were together for good.’2
The Khamas drove to the African township on the edge of Francistown, where Ruth met Seretse’s sister, Oratile; there they spent the night. Next day they went on to Palapye, a three-hour drive away, where they spent two happy days with Minnie Shaw, a trader’s wife, who was the local midwife. When Seretse had asked if he and Ruth might stay a few days in her home, she knew that their presence with her would upset many in her own, local white community. Unsure what to do for the best, she fell on her knees and asked for God’s guidance. She was then in no doubt – she warmly opened her door to welcome the Khamas.3
From Palapye, Seretse and Ruth drove to Serowe, a distance of thirty miles, arriving before lunch. As they drove, said John Redfern, ‘a small aeroplane prowled over the brick-red track, and a cameraman hung out vertiginously, eager for pictures of the most talked-of couple in the world’.4 The culprit was Noel Monks, the Daily Mail correspondent. Monks, an Australian in his early forties, had been a war correspondent – and now he had come to southern Africa to report on the marriage of Seretse and Ruth. Journalists were flocking into Serowe from all over the world. Some of them were ‘straight out of Scoop, and nearly all pretty grisly’, complained Sillery in a reference to Evelyn Waugh’s savage portrayal in the 1930s of British newspapermen in Africa.5 In the middle of Seretse’s and Ruth’s first night in Palapye, in Minnie Shaw’s house, her adult son had been woken by a noise and a beam of light shining through his bedroom window. It was the press, hoping to get a photograph of Ruth and Seretse in bed together. They quickly ran away when a gun was levelled at their heads.6
All along the road from Palapye to Serowe, remembered Seretse later, ‘there were crowds cheering us, and it was good to know that the Bangwato, my people, had accepted her as my wife as well as me as their chief’.7 Several times, Seretse had to stop the car so that people could shake her hand and welcome her.8 When at last they arrived in the capital, said Ruth, ‘a dense throng of African men, women and children pressed round us, the women making the sound of ululation, a kind of trilling with the tongue – the traditional Bangwato greeting’.9 For a moment, Ruth felt a little frightened, but Seretse put his hand on her arm to reassure her. Seeing Serowe for the first time was ‘love at first sight’.10 But it was not a surprise – ‘Seretse had explained in great detail what it would be like. He didn’t want me to be under any illusions, so it was exactly as I’d expected.’11
In Serowe they stayed for six days in the Mission, with Seager and his family. This was not successful, as Seager reported in a letter to LMS headquarters in London:
My own impression is one of disappointment. I had tried to convince myself that perhaps I was prejudiced against it and that it might look better when I saw them together. On the contrary, it looked worse, not merely from the point of view of colour but from their attitudes to each other and to the tribe. They seem very much in love but completely unconcerned as to the effect of their actions on the tribe.12
The ‘point of view of colour’ may have bothered Seager, but it was of little matter to the Bangwato who supported Seretse. ‘We accepted his wife with love,’ said one of his uncles.13 ‘Strange as it may sound to some,’ remarked Seretse later, ‘my people despite their lack of education are far more tolerant and intelligent than many so-called civilized people whom I have met. They are not nearly as blinded by colour prejudice.’14 Naledi ya Batswana, a newspaper that was published in Johannesburg but directed at readers in the Protectorate, received numerous letters supporting Seretse’s decision to marry Ruth. According to the editor, ‘All the letters have to a lesser or greater degree supported the stand taken by Seretse… There seems to be a fairly wide view that it was nothing more nor less than a love match.’15
Sillery, the Resident Commissioner, was struck by the happiness of the Bangwato at Ruth’s arrival. ‘One gets the impression that Seretse’s cause is growing in strength and that the unpopularity of Tshekedi is increasing,’ he reported to the High Commissioner. ‘Prior to Ruth’s arrival,’ he added, ‘we received a petition from 58 women of Mahalapye asking that Seretse be Kgosi and signifying their acceptance of Ruth.’16 A Kgosi is ‘for us all,’ insisted the petition, ‘and
not for men only who speak in Kgotla; Seretse Khama is our only Kgosi’. Sillery was surprised by this intervention by women because, traditionally, Bangwato women did not become involved in political issues.
Within a week of their arrival in Serowe, on Monday 29 August 1949, the Khamas moved into their own home – a large bungalow, built for a British official – in a district of Serowe called Newtown. It was the only modern brick house in the area and was surrounded far into the distance by huts. There was a large garden in the front and the back, with a prickly pear tree at the entrance and thick thorn bushes around the perimeter. Ruth described the house in a letter to Betty:
It is far from being finished, but we couldn’t care less. We are on our own, and as you know, it is pretty grim living with someone else. However the house is liveable, and in time will be completed no doubt. It has three bedrooms, lounge and dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and lavatory. Two of the bedrooms have yet to be furnished.17
There were shelves over the fireplace, where they put their books: mostly law books, as well as a few volumes on African and world affairs – and Paton’s Cry the Beloved Country.18 Outside, there was a veranda with a red floor, where they played table tennis; part of the veranda had a roof, for use as a sleeping porch on hot nights. There was no electricity, no running water, no plumbing and no telephone, but the house was much grander than their garden flat on Adolphus Road in North London. There were five servants to do the housework.
As soon as they had moved in, headmen and their families came from all over the Bangwato Reserve, to welcome Seretse’s wife and to offer gifts. They waited patiently outside the house for their turn to enter.19 Church choirs and school choirs sang songs of greeting, and across the main road there was a huge banner welcoming the young couple. Women were especially keen to show their friendship to Ruth. ‘When Ruth Khama stepped out of a Serowe store here today,’ reported a correspondent for the News Chronicle, the British Noncon-formist newspaper, ‘a group of women set up a welcoming chant. Soon thousands of natives were milling around the London-born wife of the chief-designate.’20
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