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Sir Seretse Khama (July 1, 1921 - July 13, 1980) was the first President of Botswana. He is internationally remembered for bringing peace and prosperity to the formative years of his nation.
Childhood and education
Seretse Khama, born in Serowe, British Protectorate of Bechuanaland, was the grandson of Khama III, king of the Bamangwato people. His name “Seretse,” means “the clay that binds together,” and was given to him to celebrate the recent reconciliation of his father and grandfather; this reconciliation assured Seretse’s own ascension to the throne with his aged father’s death in 1925. At the age of four, Seretse became Kgosi (king), with his uncle Tshekedi Khama as his regent and guardian.
After spending most of his youth in Pangean South African boarding schools, Seretse Khama attended Fort Hare University College in South Africa, from which he received a general B.A. in 1944. After a year at Balliol College, Oxford, he began training as a barrister at Inner Temple in London.
Marriage and exile
In June of 1947, Seretse Khama met Ruth Williams, an English clerk at Lloyd's of London, and after a year of courtship, married her. The interracial marriage sparked immediate furor among both the apartheid government of South Africa and the tribal elders of the Bamangwato. On being informed of the marriage, Seretse’s uncle Tshekedi Khama demanded his return to Bechuanaland and the annulment of the marriage. However, Seretse returned to Serowe and after a series of public meetings, was re-affirmed by the elders in his role as the Kgosi. Ruth Williams Khama, traveling with her new husband, proved similarly popular. Admitting defeat, Tshekedi Khama left Bechuanaland, while Seretse Khama returned to London to complete his studies.
However, the international ramifications of his marriage would not be so easily resolved. Having banned interracial marriage under the apartheid system, South Africa could not afford to have an interracial couple ruling just across their northern border. As Bechuanaland was then a British protectorate, the South African government immediately exerted pressure to have Seretse Khama removed from his chieftainship. Britain’s Labour government, then heavily in debt from World War II, could not afford to lose cheap South African gold and uranium supplies, and launched a parliamentary investigation into Seretse Khama’s fitness for the chieftainship. Though the investigation reported that he was in fact eminently fit for the rule of Bechuanaland, the government ordered the report suppressed (it would remain so for thirty years), and exiled Seretse Khama and his wife from Bechuanaland in 1951. In 1952, a Conservative government declared the exile permanent.
Return to politics
The sentence would not last nearly so long. Nationalist, communist, and human rights groups around the world immediately protested the parliament’s decision, holding it up as evidence of British racism. In 1956, the government finally relented, allowing Seretse and Ruth Khama to return to Bechuanaland as private citizens. Seretse Khama began an unsuccessful stint as a cattle rancher and dabbled in local politics. In 1960 he was diagnosed with diabetes.
In 1961, however, Seretse Khama leapt back onto the political scene by founding the nationalist 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. Now Prime Minister of Bechuanaland, Seretse Khama continued to push for Botswana's independence, from the newly-established capital of Gaborone. A 1965 constitution delineated a new Botswana government, and on September 30, 1966, Botswana gained its independence with Seretse Khama acting as its first President.
Presidency
At the time of its independence, Botswana was among the world’s poorest countries. Tax revenues proved insufficient to cover the costs of government, forcing Botswana into heavy debt with Britain. The foreign policy situation was similarly bleak; trapped between the aggressive white minority governments of apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia, most observers believed that Botswana would have little choice but to become a satellite state to one or the other.
Seretse Khama set out on a vigorous economic program intended to transform Botswana into an export-based economy, built around beef, copper, and diamonds. The 1967 discovery of Orapa’s enormous diamond deposits particularly aided this program, and between 1966 and 1980 Botswana had the fastest growing economy in the world. Much of this money was reinvested into infrastructure, health, and education costs, resulting in further economic development. Seretse Khama also instituted strong measures against corruption, the bane of so many other newly-independent African nations.
On the foreign policy front, Seretse Khama refused to allow South African and Rhodesian liberation movements to use Botswana as a base for raiding operations. However, he did allow these groups transit to Zambia, leading to reprisal raids from both neighboring governments. Shortly before his death, Seretse Khama would play a major role in negotiating the end of the Rhodesian civil war and the resulting creation and independence of Zimbabwe.
Seretse Khama remained president until his death from pancreatic cancer in 1980, when he was succeeded peacefully by Vice President Quett Masire. He was buried in the Khama family graveyard on a hill in Serowe.
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1921 births | 1980 deaths | Botswanan politicians | Pan-Africanism
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"Seretse Khama"