Seretse Khama's 1958 vision

Jeff Ramsay | Monday July 5, 2021 13:32

In hindsight, it is clear that by the time of his return to Botswana in 1956 his perspective had been broadened by his years of struggle in exile. The young, somewhat impulsive Mongwato Prince who had been denied his throne returned to his people with a budding vision for the nation he would come to lead and its role in the region.

Revered at birth among his morafe, in the decade leading up to independence he further established himself as a national figure. A milestone in this transformation occurred in April 1958, when for the first time he attended and rose to speak at a meeting of the Joint Advisory Council, a body then dominated by a handful of dikgosi and white settlers.

At the time some of the dikgosi as well as members of the settler community were open to proposals that Bechuanaland join Nyasaland (Malawi) and the Rhodesias (Zambia and Zimbabwe) in becoming part of the Central African Federation, being attracted to its reformist multiracial rhetoric. Federation's dominant politician, Roy Wellensky, had opened the door to the Protectorate's inclusion in a statement, a copy which, with margin notes by Tshekedi Khama, is housed at the Khama III Memorial Museum.

For his part, Seretse appreciated that the Federation’s institutional structures, like those of Apartheid South Africa, entrenched white minority domination. As he observed the acceleration of political change elsewhere on the continent and the British Empire, he had further begun to embrace the idea of a truly self-governing society. Thus it was that when he rose to speak for the first time at the JAC, it was in opposition to a motion that the Council engage the Federation on the possibility of affiliation. In his statement Seretse instead affirmed that:

“I think it is time that we ourselves in Bechuanaland, who neither belong to the Union of South Africa nor the Federation, or any other part as far as I can see, except Great Britain, should try to formulate a policy of our own which is probably unique to us. And that is a policy, perhaps, of even teaching those countries who profess to be more advanced than ourselves, that in as far as administration and race relationships they have more to learn from us than we from them.

“I must say, quite frankly that I have been rather disturbed to find that on the whole there is a tendency to look always over our shoulders. Perhaps I am wrong, if so I stand corrected. We want to see what is happening elsewhere instead of getting on with what we know is peculiar to us and to the country itself.

“We should get on and have no fear that we may incur someone's displeasure, as long as what we do is internationally accepted. And if we are right I am afraid emotion must come into this; we should not bother very much with what anyone might say. We have ample opportunity in this country to teach people how human beings can live together.”

Following Seretse’s intervention, the motion to enter into talks with the Federation was permanently abandoned without dissent. Recognition of Seretse’s status as an early nationalist is further reflected in a September 1959 letter he received from Motsamai Mpho who was writing on behalf of the 'Protectorate Batswana National Association', an organisation whose membership included other Batswana activists then working in South Africa. After expressing the Association’s condolences in the context of the death three months earlier of Tshekedi Khama, Mpho closed with the following appeal:

“We ask Sir you step into his boots right now and carry on with the plans you had together, those of developing the Protectorate. Be comforted. You are not alone; the whole Protectorate is with you. Bechuanaland is no more divided, it is one. Hence we have formed this association to prove our unity. A a robale ka kagiso Morwa Kgama, mme go sale kgomotsego le tsholofelo mo Morafeng wa gagwe le Setshaba tsa Botswana.”

The subsequent assumption by Mpho and others in 1960-61 that Seretse as an uncrowned royal would be willing to accept a titular role in the nationalist movement proved to be a serious miscalculation. For his part Mpho failed to appreciate the fact that Seretse had in his own mind decisively turned his back on traditional claims to bogosi jwa Bangwato, opening the door for his emergence as a nationalist leader in his own right. Thus it was that Seretse's initial expression of interest in the BPP was put off by Mpho's insistence that he keep himself above politics.

Instead, Seretse emerged as the leading figure on the reformed Africa Council and Legco, which began meeting in May-June 1961. Both fora proved to be ideal platforms for the coalescing of key activists unaffiliated with the BPP around Seretse’s leadership.

For his part the Protectorate’s Resident Commissioner, Peter Fawcus considered Seretse and Ketumile Masire to be the councils' outstanding members and he was thus delighted to see the two of them working well together (to be continued)