Colour Bar (19 page)

I do not think that the fact that Seretse has been drinking liquor is a legitimate argument against his recognition… there are many Chiefs both in Bechuanaland and elsewhere who do this contrary to traditional custom. There is no suggestion that Seretse drinks to excess.
²⁰

When the Cabinet met on the last day of January, they were unsure how to deal with the problem of the Harragin Report; they were also critical of the White Paper, which was put on hold. But they agreed with the proposal of the CRO – which had been decided at the meeting on 16 December – that Noel-Baker should see Seretse while
he was still in office, before the general election in late February. The Khamas should be brought as soon as possible to the UK. On arrival, Seretse should be invited to renounce the Chieftainship.
²¹

As soon as the Cabinet had given a green light to the plan of bringing Seretse and Ruth to London, the High Commission in South Africa booked two seats on the flying-boat leaving Johannesburg on 9 February 1950. In fact, the Khamas were obliged to join the flyingboat at the Victoria Falls, because they were prohibited immigrants in the Union. But it was hoped that booking the extra leg would put journalists off the scent: ‘we are to warn BOAC
as late as practicable
that the passengers will embark at the Victoria Falls and that [the] seats must be kept empty'.
¹
Nicholas Monsarrat, the United Kingdom Information Officer in South Africa, was told to settle details and, most importantly, to keep them from the press. Monsarrat, a handsome man with piercing blue eyes, was well equipped for the job as he was acquainted with a wide circle of journalists and understood their world. He was a writer himself and was shortly to make his name with the publication of
The Cruel Sea
in 1951.

Sillery drove to Serowe to see Seretse and Ruth, to tell them of the plan to send them to London. They were astonished – and immediately suspicious. ‘Why should I be asked to London to discuss tribal affairs,' wondered Ruth, ‘when women in Bechuanaland take no part in politics?'
²
In any case, it seemed very peculiar to invite them to the UK just before a general election. On the morning of 5 February, Sillery and Nettelton met the Khamas at the office of the District Commissioner in Lobatse, to tell them of the arrangements that had been made – they would leave for Francistown on 8 February and catch the flying-boat at the Victoria Falls on the afternoon of the following day. Then they took them to lunch at the hospital. But although the Sisters had prepared an excellent meal, reported Sillery to Baring,
Seretse had a poor appetite and ‘kept bringing the conversation round to his return journey. We skated fairly easily over this thin ice.' Seretse wanted a guarantee that he and Ruth would be returning to Serowe. This stumbling block had been anticipated by the High Commissioner's Office as early as 28 November, when the idea of calling Seretse to London had first come up. ‘The question which Seretse will almost inevitably ask, when presented with the summons to London,' Clark had warned Sillery, was

‘Will I be allowed to return and will my return fare be paid?' The only answer which we could presumably give is that this is entirely dependent on the outcome of his discussions with the Secretary of State and that, if the talks resulted that way, his return fare would certainly be paid. The implication of this reply would of course be very obvious to Seretse, but we can see no other way out of the difficulty.
³

The Khamas went to see the Bradshaws in Palapye. As Doris wrote to her sister:

Ruth and Seretse called us out of bed at midnight last night to tell us that the Resident Commissioner has told them it is necessary for them to fly to England to consult with Noel Baker over their future. At the moment, all this is very hush hush in the B. P. and S. Africa. They will fly to the Victoria Falls on Thursday and leave by flying boat on Friday 10th, arriving in England on 13th… They are coming to say goodbye to us, before they leave, and I'm looking after her two kittens while they're away. They expect to be in London a week.
⁴

A Kgotla was called, so that Seretse could hear the opinion of the Bangwato elders.
⁵
Many of them were suspicious that the invitation to London was a trick to remove Ruth from the Reserve, although they assumed that Seretse would be able to return. At first they said they did not want her to go, but after further discussion they decided to trust the Government. Next day, a delegation – twelve elders and Seretse – went to see Sillery to report on their decision. Sensing their hostility, Sillery felt reassured to know that 100 Bechuanaland Protectorate police had recently arrived in Serowe and that reinforcements from Basutoland were on their way.
⁶

On 8 February – the day that Seretse and Ruth were expected to go
to Francistown – Sillery sent a junior official to the Khamas' house to make the final arrangements. But he soon came back, accompanied by Seretse, to report that the plan had collapsed. At a further Kgotla, to which Percy Fraenkel had been invited as adviser, it had been decided that Ruth should not leave unless Sillery provided a written guarantee that she would return. Sillery had not been able to give this guarantee, which confirmed the general fear that there was some trick in the invitation.
⁷
The full discussion of the Kgotla was described in a press report:

An old grey-bearded Bamangwato tribesman stood up in a sun-baked clearing at Serowe, Bechuanaland… and told his chief-designate, Seretse Khama, that the tribe would not allow his London-born wife Ruth to leave the country.

‘One after the other,' added the report, ‘elders of the tribe heatedly urged Seretse to turn down the invitation… If he did decide to go he should leave Ruth behind.' One of the senior men said he believed there was a plot between the South African and British Governments. It had therefore been decided not to let Ruth go: Seretse should go on his own. Seretse accepted their decision, saying he would be back within three weeks.
⁸

Sillery told Seretse that he could not accept Ruth's refusal unless she gave it herself, so Seretse went to fetch her. After about an hour Ruth appeared, ‘extremely nervous and apparently downcast'. She was now faced with the prospect of yet another – immediate – separation from her husband. But she was firm in her decision not to go.
⁹

‘Top Secret,' Sillery cabled Baring. ‘Ruth has jibbed at last minute. We all have impression that Ruth is prisoner of Seretse's supporters.' As soon as he had sent this message, he realized that it might be taken literally and swiftly sent another: ‘Reference Ruth's refusal to move I did not make it clear that Ruth's decision was conveyed personally by her to Nettelton and me. Word prisoner was of course metaphorical.'
¹⁰
By this time, Sillery was thoroughly fed up with Mrs Khama. ‘Ruth wears the trousers,' he complained, ‘and we think she has a carping disposition.'
¹¹

There was still a chance, hoped Sillery, that Ruth might play ball. Next morning, he and Nettelton went to Francistown, where an
aircraft had been chartered to pick up Seretse and Ruth and take them to Livingstone. There they found the Khamas, with a number of friends, including Kgosi Mokgosi of the Balete. But Ruth was clearly not dressed for travel – she was wearing a summer dress and no hat.
¹²
Even the wild elephants, observed Margaret Bourke-White, who had driven up to Francistown, seemed to oppose Seretse's departure for London: the night before, ‘a herd of playful elephants tore up a grove of trees along the airport road just for the king-sized sport of it.' Seretse had to stop repeatedly on the way to the airport, to chop the tree-trunks and scattered branches which blocked the road.
¹³

Seretse hugged Ruth tightly, kissing her, then climbed into the tiny aircraft. As the plane taxied and then took off, Ruth watched quietly in her car.
¹⁴
Then she started up the engine and drove off at top speed.
¹⁵
‘It was a sad day for both of us,' said Seretse later, ‘when I kissed her goodbye at the airport and waved to my tribesmen as the plane lifted into the air.' Down below he could see the sparse, dry, cattle-land of his beloved country. As the little plane climbed higher and higher, ‘I somehow had a feeling of foreboding that I was flying to certain disaster.'
¹⁶

Shortly afterwards, Noel-Baker received a letter from the Bangwato Office in Serowe. ‘We regret,' it stated, ‘that our Queen has been unable to come to you as you wished.' But when they had asked for a promise of her safe return, this had been refused; consequently, ‘we have not found the way clear to permit her to undertake the journey to you'. Their apprehension had arisen from the ‘inimical talk' of South Africa and Southern Rhodesia –

Throughout our history both these countries seem to have sought to dispossess us of our land and our rights and it was on account of this very apprehension that we originally sought the protection of Great Britain…

Assuring you of our genuine loyalty to His Majesty and his Government, we are, Sir, the Bamangwato.
¹⁷

Ruth returned to Serowe from Francistown with a heavy heart. Three weeks without Seretse seemed unbearable, especially now that she was pregnant. But she had not been home for very long before her spirits were unexpectedly lifted. Margaret Bourke-White, who was about to leave Bechuanaland, had dropped in for a last cup of coffee.

Suddenly, through the open window, they heard the sound of ululating women – it began as a faraway sound, a blend of wailing and yodelling, which died away and rose again. As Ruth and Margaret looked far down the hill, they could see a procession of women winding single-file through the low bushes. They went out to the front porch as the file of women approached the house, and saw that each one carried on her head a pail of water or a basket of grain. Crooning and raising folded hands, they filed in a stately parade past the porch:

‘Isn't it staggering!' Ruth exclaimed. ‘Isn't it simply staggering!'

Then a handful broke from the ranks. Led by a handsome young woman, they darted in swift circles, their tongues working visibly like little clappers as they shrilled [their] greeting…

Ruth sat down on a canvas chair under a spreading thorn tree, and the women seated themselves on the ground with their offerings of grain and water, which they had brought all the way from the well as gifts for Ruth. ‘We are glad our queen did not go with our chief to England,' their leader said. ‘We were afraid they would keep her there. We have come to tell you we are happy our Mother has stayed with us.' Then they sang a song which they had composed:

When the chief comes back

We will be waiting for him,

Seretse has dogs, and his dogs are the

Bamangwato people.

Our Queen will come with rain, and all will be

Well in the land.

Margaret was clicking away with her camera, absorbed in taking pictures. But then it grew suddenly darker:

‘Why is the light fading so?' I wondered. I looked up toward the sky and dark clouds scudding in. ‘It can't be!' I thought to myself. Then a large drop fell on my wrist, followed by three drops on the lens. The tribal women, still singing, rushed for shelter on the porch. It seemed miraculous, but it was true. Their Queen had come with rain.
¹⁸

Margaret had grown more and more fond of the Khamas. She saw that they were in a maze of troubles – ‘but the deeper their trouble,
the closer they grew together'. She had enormous respect for Ruth,‘for the fact that she was genuinely in love with her husband'.
¹⁹
Aware that Ruth was unable to go to any of the cities in South Africa to do any shopping, she gave her all her spare clothes. At least, she thought, Ruth would have the company of the cats, Pride and Prejudice, while Seretse was away.
²⁰

Seretse's flying-boat reached Southampton Marine Airport on 15 February 1950. ‘Authority turns out to meet him with everything short of an Iron Curtain,' observed a Pathe newsreel sympathetically, as it showed Special Branch officers milling around him, as well as numerous press photographers and newsreel cameramen. As Seretse put on his hat against the cold wind of the British winter, he looked tired; he gave a ‘half smile' to the press but made ‘no comment', reported the Pathe newsreel.
²¹
John Keith was waiting for Seretse on the dock. He immediately whisked him up to London, to the offices of the CRO in Whitehall. Here, at ten minutes past six in the evening, Sir Percivale Liesching was waiting for him in his office.

Liesching had a challenging task ahead – persuading Seretse to summon his wife. Before any discussions began, Baring had insisted, they
must
get Ruth to London. But what would happen, wondered Herbert Baxter, a CRO official,

if Seretse refuses to send for Ruth, at least until hearing what we wish to say? He might well say that, if meanwhile we have nothing concrete to put to him, he will forthwith go back to Serowe. Could we then stop him going? And, if he went back, could we possibly repeat the process and summon him (and Ruth) again? We should have got into a position at once dangerous and ridiculous.

The furthest they could go, he thought, would be to put pressure on Seretse to send for Ruth. If he refused, then the secretary of state would just have to get on without her. The priority was to put to Seretse the proposals that had been agreed by Cabinet.
²²

Liesching had been carefully briefed for the meeting by Baxter, who had consulted Keith on ways of approaching Seretse. He was advised that

it wd be better to refer to the lady as your wife or Mrs Khama, rather than as Ruth or Ruth Khama. The form of address to the young man is more of a problem: on the whole he thinks you cd suitably address him as Seretse, as from an older man to a younger. When at Oxford, the boy called himself Mr S. Khama; but Seretse is more analogous to an English surname than to a Christian name, and Khama is an added patronymic.