Colour Bar

by Susan Williams

  16. Michael Dutfield’s book, A Marriage of Inconvenience. The Persecution of Seretse and Ruth Khama (1990), argues that the supply of uranium was key to the British Government’s decision to exile the Khamas – that it gave South Africa overwhelming and compelling leverage over the British Government. No doubt uranium was part of the overall picture, given the tensions of the developing Cold War. However, on the basis of careful scrutiny of the evidence that is now available, it is clear that the British Government would have taken exactly the same measures against Seretse, even if uranium had not played any role in relations between South Africa and Britain. The uranium theory has the attraction of being a ‘smoking gun’ and also diminishes the role of racist attitudes among British officials, but it is speculative and not proven. The racist attitudes behind the decision of exile, however, are fully documented in the evidence that is available.

  17. Huggins to Baring, 7 July 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 35/4115.

  18. Debate of Legislative Assembly, Southern Rhodesia, 7 July 1949, BNARS, S 599/11.

  19. African Tribal Affairs Committee, 17 July 1949; TNA:PRO, DO 119/1280.

  20. Kaunda, Zambia Shall Be Free, p. 34.

  21. G. W. R. Lange, MP for Nkana, reported in Bulawayo Chronicle, 8 July 1949.

  22. Baring to Noel-Baker, 11 July 1949, BNARS, S 170/1/3.

  23. ‘Stimson of BBC’, [n.d., 1950?], Truman Library, Sweeney Papers, Box 2, File: Bamangwato Tribal Dispute.

  24. Baring to Liesching, 11 July 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1283.

  25. Baring to Liesching, 12 July 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 35/4114.

  26. Minute by Liesching, 14 July 1949, ibid.

  27. Minute by Gordon Walker, 15 July 1949, ibid.

  28. Noel-Baker to Creech Jones, 16 July 1949, TNA:PRO, CO 537/4714.

  29. Noel-Baker to Baring, not sent [July 1950], TNA:PRO, DO 35/4114.

  30. Minute by Noel-Baker to Liesching, 7 July 1949, ibid.

  31. Natal Mercury, 23 July 1954.

  32. Garner, The Commonwealth Office, p. 292.

  33. Minute signed D. A., 12 July 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 35/4114.

  34. Memorandum to Cabinet by Noel-Baker, 20 July 1949, TNA:PRO, PREM 8/1308, Part 1.

  35. Noel-Baker to Baring (draft), attached to Memorandum to Cabinet by Noel-Baker, 20 July 1949, ibid.

  36. Cabinet Conclusions, 21 July 1949, TNA:PRO, CAB 128.

  37. Liesching to Baring, 21 July 1949, DUL, GRE/1/13/19.

  38. Natal Witness, 2 July 1949.

  39. Cape Times, 9 July 1949.

  40. Star, 8 July 1949.

  41. Phethu Kgari to Sullivan, n.d., attached with letter from Sullivan to Nettelton, 5 August 1949, BNARS, S 170/1/4.

  42. Private Secretary to Commonwealth Secretary, to Private Secretary to High Commissioner for South Africa, with text of proposed announcement, 29 July 1949, NASA, PS 2/5.

  43. Huggins to Clark, 29 July 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1284.

  44. Baring to Cecil Syers, 16 September 1949, ibid.

  45. Seager, The Shadow of a Great Rock, p. 55.

  7 OUR MOTHER – MOHUMAGADI

  1. Naledi ya Batswana, 3 September 1949.

  2. Today, 12 March 1960.

  3. Sandy Grant to author, 11 November 2004.

  4. Redfern, Ruth and Seretse, p. 11.

  5. Anthony Sillery, ‘Working Backwards’, n.d., BLCAS, Mss Afr r. 207.

  6. Dutfield, A Marriage of Inconvenience, p. 117.

  7. Ebony, June 1951.

  8. Dutfield, A Marriage of Inconvenience, p. 115.

  9. Today, 12 March 1960.

  10. Saga Magazine, June 1991.

  11. ibid.

  12. A. E. Seager to R. K. Orchard, 29 August 1949, SOAS, CWM/LMS, AF/37.

  13. Saga Magazine, June 1991.

  14. Ebony, June 1951.

  15. ‘Memorandum to Mr Paver’, n.d. [1949], TNA:PRO, DO 119/1282.

  16. Sillery to Baring, 13 September 1949, BNARS, S 170/1/4.

  17. Ruth Khama to Betty Thornton, 19 September 1949, Khama Family Papers.

  18. Margaret Bourke-White to Bill, n.d., SUL (US), MB-W, Box 25.

  19. Sunday Express, April 1950.

  20. Quoted in Dutfield, A Marriage of Inconvenience, pp. 118–19.

  21. Life, 6 March 1950.

  22. Cape Times, 8 July 1949.

  23. Life, 6 March 1950.

  24. M. Malau to Naledi ya Batswana, 27 August 1949.

  25. Redfern, Ruth and Seretse, p. 63.

  26. Ruth Khama, ‘My Baby – and the Future’, Sunday Express, April 1950.

  27. Today, 12 March 1960.

  28. Ruth Khama to Betty Thornton, 31 January 1950, Khama Family Papers.

  29. Daily Mail, February 1950.

  30. Bourke-White, ‘The White Queen’, unpublished chapter from memoir, SUL (US), MB-W Papers.

  31. Ruth Khama to Betty Thornton, 19 September 1949, Khama Family Papers.

  32. Bourke-White, ‘The White Queen’, unpublished chapter from memoir, SUL (US), MB-W Papers.

  33. Daily Mail, 10 October 1956.

  34. Redfern, Ruth and Seretse, pp. 64–5.

  35. Constantine, Colour Bar, p. 183.

  36. Redfern, Ruth and Seretse, pp. 15–6.

  37. ibid., pp. 63–4.

  38. Baring to Gordon Walker, 15 March 1950, TNA:PRO, CO 537/5928.

  39. Alan Bradshaw to Hope Lovell, 1 April 1950, BNARS, MSS.6/5.

  40. Doris Bradshaw to Kit and Harry, 3 July 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1297.

  41. Sillery to Baring, 13 September 1949, BNARS, S 170/3/1.

  42. Sillery to Baring, 13 September 1949, BNARS, S 170/1/4.

  43. Sunday Express, April 1950.

  44. Baring to Cecil Syers, 16 September 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1284.

  45. Colin Legum, ‘Tshekedi’s desert refuge’, 15 August 1951, BLCAS, Mss Afr s 1681.

  46. Gabolebye Dinti Marobele to Head, in Head, Serowe, p. 98.

  47. Monks, Eyewitness, p. 267.

  48. Quoted by Monsarrat to Clark, 17 April 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1293.

  49. Picture Post, 29 April 1950.

  50. Ruth Khama to Margaret Bourke-White, 10 January 1950, SUL (US), MB-W, Box 25.

  51. ‘Bourke-White’, n.d., ibid.

  52. Margaret Bourke-White to Bill, n.d., ibid.

  53. Bourke-White, ‘The White Queen’, unpublished chapter from memoir, SUL (US), MB-W Papers.

  54. Margaret Bourke-White to Bill, n.d., SUL (US), MB-W, Box 25.

  55. ibid.

  56. ibid.

  57. Bourke-White, ‘The White Queen’, unpublished chapter from memoir, SUL (US), MB-W Papers.

  58. Quoted in The Recorder, 3 September 1949.

  59. H. Lewis to Commonwealth Relations Office, 17 April 1952, TNA:PRO, DO 35/4145.

  60. Secretary, Dutch Reformed Church of Natal, to Baring, 1 September 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1280.

  61. Dutfield, A Marriage of Inconvenience, p. 120.

  62. Today, 12 March 1960.

  63. Naledi Khama to author, 13 November 2004.

  64. Ruth Khama to Betty Thornton, 31 January 1950, Khama Family Papers.

  65. Life, 28 April 1950.

  66. Margaret Bourke-White to Bill, n.d., SUL (US), MB-W, Box 25.

  8 THE HARRAGIN INQUIRY

  1. Today, 12 March 1960; Harragin Report, 1 December 1949, TNA:PRO, PREM 8/1308, Part 1.

  2. Monks, Eyewitness, p. 276.

  3. Harragin to Clark, 15 August 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1284.

  4. Harragin to Holmes, 20 October 1949, BNARS, S 599/13.

  5. See picture of Fraenkel in Leader Magazine, 11 March 1950.

  6. Statement by Hudson, 19 July 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 35/4114.

  7. Monks, Eyewitness, p. 303.

  8. Baring to Sillery, 9 August 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1284.

  9. Sillery, ‘Working Backwards’, n.d., BLCAS, Mss Afr r 207.

  10. Clark to Chief Secretary, 29 September 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1285; emphasis added.

  11. Baring to Sillery, 4 October 1949,
ibid.; emphasis added.

  12. Sillery to Baring, 18 October 1949, ibid.

  13. Baring to Sillery, 21 October 1949, ibid.

  14. Winship to Secretary of State, 1 November 1949, NARA, RG 59, Decimal Files (1945–9), Box 6192.

  15. Star, 26 October 1949.

  16. Speeches transcribed in document sent from Secretary for External Affairs, Cape Town, to Egeland, 27 March 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 35/4115.

  17. Egeland to Forsyth, 13 October 1949, NASA, BLO 84, PS 2/5.

  18. Attlee to Malan, 2 November 1949, TNA:PRO, PREM 11/1183.

  19. Daily Mirror, 2 November 1949.

  20. Record of Proceedings at Judicial Enquiry Re Seretse Khama, CRO, [November 1949], vols 1–14, TNA:PRO, DO 35/4123. All subsequent references to – and quotations from – the Inquiry draw on this source.

  21. Haile to Orchard, 3 November 1949, SOAS, LMS, AF/38.

  22. ‘Protest’ to Baring, Serowe, 2 November 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1286.

  23. Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, pp. 154–5.

  24. Sisulu, Walter and Albertina Sisulu, p. 104.

  25. Today, 12 March 1960.

  26. Dutfield, A Marriage of Inconvenience, p. 128.

  27. Robins, White Queen in Africa, p. 41.

  28. Pela, ‘A tribal Chief gets married’, Common Sense, June 1949, CROUW, M. D. J. Jeffreys Collection.

  29. Gasebalwe Seretse, Tshekedi Khama, p. 32.

  30. [Miss] Dykes to Holmes, 22 December 1949, BNARS, S 599/13.

  31. Today, 12 March 1960.

  9 ‘A FIT AND PROPER PERSON TO BE CHIEF’

  1. Harragin Report, 1 December 1949, TNA:PRO, PREM 8/1308, Part 1.

  2. Baring to Huggins, 7 December 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1286; Benn, Years of Hope, p. 40.

  3. Huggins to Clark, 12 December 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1286.

  4. Clark to Resident Commissioner, Maseru, 15 December 1949, ibid.

  5. Brigadier C. E. R. Hirsch to Sillery, 20 December 1949, ibid.

  6. Fraenkel to Nettelton, 22 December 1949, BNARS, S 529/2/2.

  7. Minute to Baxter, 12 December 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 35/4118; emphasis added.

  8. Note of a meeting at CRO, 16 December 1949, TNA:PRO, CO 537/4714.

  9. Noel-Baker to Attlee, 21 December 1949, TNA:PRO, PREM 8/1308.

  10. Memorandum by Noel-Baker on issue of Bechuanaland Succession, n.d. [21 December 1949], ibid.

  11. Attlee to Noel-Baker, 21 December 1949, TNA:PRO, PREM 8/1308.

  12. Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, pp. 130–32.

  13. Enclosure I, Seretse Khama [by Baring], 29 October 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1286.

  14. Memorandum [by Baring] on aspects of South African opinion, December 1949, ibid.

  15. Quintin Whyte to Baring, 6 September 1949, ibid.

  16. Huggins to Clark, 19 December 1949, ibid.

  17. Clark to Huggins, 22 December 1949, ibid.

  18. Gordon Walker to Attlee, 21 January 1950; Attlee to Gordon Walker, 22 January 1950, TNA:PRO, PREM 8/1308.

  19. Lambert to Cohen, 28 January 1950, TNA:PRO, CO 537/5927.

  20. Minute by Cohen, 30 January 1950, ibid.

  21. Noel-Baker to Attlee, 1 February 1950, TNA:PRO PREM 8/1308, Part 1.

  10 TRICKED BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT

  1. Clark to Redman, 5 February 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1288.

  2. Today, 12 March 1960.

  3. Clark to Sillery, 28 November 1949, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1286.

  4. Doris Bradshaw to Hope Lovell, 6 February 1950, BNARS, MSS.6.

  5. Bourke-White, ‘The White Queen’, unpublished chapter from memoir, SUL (US), MB-W Papers.

  6. Star, 9 February 1950.

  7. Sillery to Baring, n.d. [8 February 1950], TNA:PRO, DO 119/1288.

  8. Star, 9 February 1950.

  9. Doris Bradshaw to Hope Lovell, 9 February 1950, BNARS, MSS.6.

  10. Sillery to Baring, n.d. [8 February 1950], TNA:PRO, DO 119/1288.

  11. ibid.

  12. Star, 9 February 1950.

  13. Bourke-White, ‘The White Queen’, unpublished chapter from memoir, SUL (US), MB-W Papers.

  14. Movietone newsreel, ‘Seretse Khama Comes to England Alone’, 20 February 1950.

  15. Sillery to Baring, 13 February 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1288.

  16. Ebony, June 1951.

  17. S. G. Seretse and O. Ratshose to Noel-Baker, 15 February 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1288.

  18. Bourke-White, ‘The White Queen’, unpublished chapter from memoir, SUL (US), MB-W Papers.

  19. ibid.

  20. ‘Bourke-White’, n.d., SUL (US), MB-W, Box 25.

  21. Pathe newsreel, ‘Seretse Khama Comes in from Africa’, 20 February 1950; see also ‘Seretse Khama Comes to England Alone,’ Movietone newsreel, 20 February 1950.

  22. Baxter to Liesching, 14 February 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 121/57.

  23. Baxter to Liesching, 11 February 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 35/4119.

  24. Liesching to Noel-Baker, in Noel-Baker to Baring, 15 February 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1288.

  25. Note of Mr Keith’s report of his conversations with Seretse on 14 February, 15 February 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 35/4119.

  26. Note of a meeting at the CRO, Thursday 16 February, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1288.

  27. Note of a conversation between Seretse and Keith, 17 February 1950, TNA:PRO, PREM 8/1308.

  28. Sunday Express, 19 February 1950.

  29. Liesching to Gordon Walker and Addison, 28 February 1950, TNA:PRO, PREM 8/1308.

  30. Attlee’s draft autobiography, quoted in Pearce (ed.), Patrick Gordon Walker, pp. 17–18.

  31. Pearce, Introduction to Patrick Gordon Walker, p. 20.

  32. Gann and Gelfand, Huggins of Rhodesia, p. 217.

  33. Photograph in ibid., opp. p. 209.

  34. Liesching to Gordon Walker and Addison, 28 February 1950, TNA:PRO, PREM 8/1308.

  35. Cabinet Conclusions, 3 March 1950, TNA:PRO, CAB 128.

  36. ibid.

  37. A. Johnston to Norman Brook, 6 March 1950, TNA:PRO, CAB 21/3167.

  38. Ebony, June 1951.

  39. ibid.

  40. Movietone newsreel, ‘Seretse Khama Talks to Movietone’, 13 March 1950.

  41. Monks, Eyewitness, p. 280.

  42. Today, 12 March 1960.

  43. Ebony, June 1951.

  44. Quoted in Mockford, Seretse Khama and the Bamangwato, p. 5.

  45. Life, 28 April 1950.

  11 THE HUMILIATION OF SIR EVELYN BARING

  1. Diary entry for 2 April 1950, Pearce (ed.), Patrick Gordon Walker, p. 188.

  2. Gordon Walker to Attlee, 7 March 1950, with additional note by Attlee, 7 March 1950, TNA:PRO, PREM 8/1308.

  3. Hansard, 8 March 1950.

  4. Egeland to Malan, 8 March 1950, NASA, PM, vol. 1/4/21, 1/15.

  5. Brockway, Towards Tomorrow, p. 161.

  6. Brockway, Outside the Right, p. 76.

  7. The Times, 9 March 1950.

  8. Hansard, 8 March 1950.

  9. Brockway, Outside the Right, p. 76.

  10. Hansard, 8 March 1950.

  11. Monks, Eyewitness, p. 280.

  12. Ebony, June 1951.

  13. Baring to Liesching, 8 March 1950, TNA:PRO, CO 537/5927.

  14. Gordon Walker to Baring, 10 March 1950, TNA:PRO, PREM 8/1308 Part 1.

  15. Baring to Gordon Walker, 10 March 1950, TNA:PRO, CO 537/5928.

  16. ‘Stimson of BBC (after 1 hr talk with Clark of High Commission Office)’, n.d. [March 1950], Truman Library, Sweeney Papers, Box 2, File: Bamangwato Tribal Dispute.

  17. ‘Native Chiefs Ignore High Commissioner’, Movietone newsreel, 30 March 1950.

  18. Doris Bradshaw to Kit and Harry, 3 July 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1297.

  19. ‘Stimson of BBC (after 1 hr talk with Clark of High Commission Office)’, n.d. [March 1950], Truman Library, Sweeney Papers, Box 2, File: Bamangwato Tribal Dispute.

  20. Redfern, Ruth and Seretse, p. 123.

  21. Monks, Eyewitness, pp. 280–81.

  22. The Times, 13 March 1
950.

  23. Sillery, ‘Working Backwards’, n.d., BLCAS, Rhodes House, Mss Afr r 207.

  24. Cape Times, 11 March 1950.

  25. Goareng Mosinyi to author, 12 November 2004.

  26. Monks, Eyewitness, p. 281.

  27. Fairlie, No Time Like the Past, p. 146; Monks, Eyewitness, p. 281.

  28. Doris Bradshaw to Kit and Harry, 3 July 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1297.

  29. Redfern, Ruth and Seretse, p. 125.

  30. Monks, Eyewitness, p. 281.

  31. Baring to CRO, 15 March 1950, TNA:PRO, CO 537/5928.

  32. Uniform described by Douglas-Home, Evelyn Baring, pp. 120–21.

  33. Nicholas Monsarrat, Life is a Four-Letter Word, vol. II, Breaking Out, pp. 271–3.

  34. Monks, Eyewitness, p. 282.

  35. Movietone newsreel, ‘Native Chiefs Ignore High Commissioner’, 30 March 1950.

  36. ‘Memorandum of Conversation’, between Clark, Connelly and Sweeney (US Embassy), 9 March 1950, Truman Library, Sweeney Papers, Box 2, File: Bamangwato Tribal Dispute.

  37. The Times, 14 March 1950.

  38. Fairlie, No Time Like the Past, p. 147.

  39. The Times, 14 March 1950.

  40. Report of press conference enclosed with letter to Clark from Resident Commissioner’s Office, 14 March 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1290.

  41. Redfern, Ruth and Seretse, p. 127.

  42. Monsarrat to Clark, 17 April 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1293.

  43. Liesching to Baring, 14 March 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1291.

  44. Charles Douglas-Home, Evelyn Baring, p. 191.

  45. Gordon Walker to Liesching, 13 March 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 121/57.

  46. Baring to Gordon Walker, 15 March 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1290.

  47. The Times, 14 March 1950.

  48. Fairlie, No Time Like the Past, p. 147.

  49. Seager, The Shadow of a Great Rock, p. 63.

  50. Redfern, Ruth and Seretse, p. 130.

  51. X. Y. Z. Kgobera to Naledi ya Batswana, sent 17 March 1950, not published, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1292.

  52. See Kuper, Passive Resistance in South Africa; Menon, Passive Resistance in South Africa; Itzkin, Gandhi’s Johannesburg. Birthplace of Satyagraha.

  53. Doris Bradshaw to Hope Lovell, 1 April 1950, ibid.

  54. ibid.

  55. Baring to CRO, 15 March 1950, TNA:PRO, CO 537/5928.

  56. Doris Bradshaw to Kit and Harry, 3 July 1950, TNA:PRO, DO 119/1297.

  57. Daily Mail, 17 March 1950.