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In the early days of his Regency, when he was only 28, Tshekedi Khama was briefly deposed by the British Administration. A number of cases of European men seducing Bangwato girls had come to his attention and he made repeated complaints about this to the Resident Magistrate, but nothing was done. Then, in August 1933, a young white man called Phineas McIntosh, who was a wagon-builder and had been a frequent offender, struck a black youth during a quarrel over a young Bangwato woman. Tshekedi summoned McIntosh and did the unthinkable – he sentenced him to a flogging, even though he was white. The Resident Commissioner, Charles Rey, who didn't like Tshekedi anyway, took this opportunity to have him removed from office. He asked the Acting High Commissioner, Admiral Evans, who was Commander of the British fleet in South Africa, to depose the Regent. Evans immediately sent armed marines from his Simonstown naval base all the way to Bechuanaland, which was a journey of some 1,000 miles.

A trial was held. Douglas Buchanan came up from Cape Town and did his best to defend Tshekedi; McIntosh, in any case, said he had no complaint against him. But it was announced that Tshekedi was not fit to be Regent, because he had unlawfully inflicted corporal punishment on a white man. A formal ceremony was held to sentence him, at which Tshekedi was made to stand on the ground in front of a wooden dais that had been specially constructed, bearing the Union Jack. Powerful guns were trained on him and on the 15,000 Bangwato people who had come to show solidarity with their Regent.
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On the dais stood Admiral Evans, Percivale Liesching, who was the Deputy Commissioner for the United Kingdom and was dressed in full ceremonial regalia, including a sword and feathered hat, and Colonel
Rey, who wore khaki uniform, pith helmet and knee-high boots. Tshekedi was told he was suspended. He was then marched to his car and banished to Francistown, in the north of Bechuanaland.
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Tshekedi immediately sought to reverse this injustice by following the model set by his father, Khama III, and appealed to supporters in Britain. This led to heavy criticism of Evans and Rey in the press and in the House of Commons. A Movietone newsreel interviewed Tshekedi, who reminded viewers of the kindness of the British people towards Khama III in 1896.
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Meanwhile, the Bangwato resisted Rey's attempts to replace Tshekedi and no one would agree to act in his place as Native Authority. This created an impossible predicament for Evans and Rey, who needed a way out. This was offered by Tshekedi himself, who declared that he had never assumed it was his right as Native Authority to sentence a white man – a statement they seized on, announcing that he had ‘apologized'. Within weeks of deposing Tshekedi, a humiliated Evans had to return to Serowe to reinstate him.
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The episode generated a great deal of sympathy for Tshekedi in the Protectorate and in liberal circles in Britain. For, as Learie Constantine drily observed, ‘though a white man may flog or kill a black one, no black man may flog a white one on a Court order or under any circumstances'.
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But it also led to support for Tshekedi from an unexpected quarter: from many of the whites in Britain, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia who were opposed to sexual contact between the races. Tshekedi's action against McIntosh, they argued, demonstrated that he felt as strongly about this as they did. Fifteen years later, his hostility to the marriage of Seretse and Ruth suggested that perhaps they were right.

Seretse returned to Bechuanaland just three weeks after his marriage. It was not a good time to go: he longed to stay with Ruth and he was planning to take the second part of his Bar exam in December. But he felt obliged to explain himself to his family and his people. After a long and tiring journey, he finally arrived home in Serowe. The sun was harsh and very bright, because this was the beginning of summer, when temperatures could reach a blistering 44°C. Seasons here were the opposite of Britain – Ruth in London would have been dressing up warmly against the cold and damp of autumn.

Almost as soon as Seretse returned home, his uncles reprimanded him on his failure to consult them on his marriage. Tshekedi told him that he must give Ruth up, suggesting that some kind of financial compensation could be offered to her.
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But Seretse adamantly refused. Since neither side would back down, it was decided to hold a Kgotla in Serowe to discuss the issue. The Kgotla ground was the centre of the moral and political life of the Bangwato people, where every important issue was discussed. Every adult man was entitled to attend and sometimes many thousands of men would arrive from all over the Bangwato territory. Everyone who wished to speak was encouraged to give his view and assemblies lasted until it was clear that nothing new was being said. Only then could the Kgosi sum up the discussion and the overall consensus. There were many small Kgotlas in the small wards of the village and elsewhere throughout the Reserve, but the Kgotla in Serowe was paramount.

The Kgotla to discuss Seretse's marriage started on 15 November 1948 and lasted four days. Between 2,000 and 3,000 men travelled to Serowe on foot, on horseback, on donkeys, and in trucks, some of
them bringing stools or chairs to sit on. As was customary, it was opened with a prayer; people sat in a semi-circle, facing the Regent and his senior advisers. Tshekedi, who was an eloquent speaker in both Setswana and English, explained his objections to Seretse's marriage. Then Seretse apologized for not marrying according to custom, but added that he was very much in love with his wife. In the discussion that followed, only seven men spoke in favour of the marriage, while seventy-eight opposed it.
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However, this was not necessarily the consensus of Bangwato society. For one thing, women were prohibited from attending Kgotla meetings. For another, Tshekedi had banned men under 40 years of age from speaking, on the grounds that the issue was beyond their understanding.
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Seretse made preparations to leave the village. But before going, he asked for another Kgotla to be held; he believed that many of the younger men did not object to his marriage and he was still hopeful that it would be accepted. On 28 December 1948, over a month after the first Kgotla, a second Assembly took place. This time, between 3,000 and 4,000 men made their way to the kgotla ground and the discussions lasted two days. Seretse stated emphatically that if his wife was not acceptable to his people, he would not come back.
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The Nationalist South African newspapers
Die Burger
and
Transvaler
were quick to report that this second Kgotla demonstrated that Africans wanted ‘racial purity' as much as the white Nationalists.
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But the Kgotla showed no such thing. In fact, it was inconclusive and men spoke for each side. One visiting Kgosi from another region of Bechuanaland, who was watching the faces of the men, noticed that many favoured Seretse but were afraid to speak.
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It was apparent that there had been a shift of opinion since the Kgotla of November. Doubts had grown that Tshekedi was trying to keep the kingship for himself and there were fears of losing Seretse for ever, even though he was the rightful Kgosi.

‘Tshekedi's stock is low,' reported the LMS to London.
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According to Lenyeletse Seretse, Seretse's cousin, there was a section of the community that believed in magic, who were ‘absolutely convinced' that Tshekedi wanted the kingship for himself and had stumbled upon a particularly potent potion which had made Seretse marry a foreign woman, so that he would remain Kgosi.
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No consensus was reached. This meant that the matter would have to be discussed again, at a further Kgotla. Gerald Nettelton, the Government Secretary of Bechuanaland, suggested to Seretse that he go to England for now, complete his examinations, and then come back in June. By now, believed Alan Seager, the LMS missionary in Serowe, Tshekedi was close to a nervous breakdown.
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Seretse left for London. On his way to Johannesburg airport, he stopped off in Mafikeng to speak to the Resident Commissioner, Anthony Sillery. After the visit, Sillery sent a report to the British High Commission; Sir Evelyn Baring was on leave, so it went to Sir Walter Harragin, the Chief Justice for the HCTs, who was Acting High Commissioner. ‘There is no opposition to Seretse's claims to be Chief,' reported Sillery. ‘These are completely accepted by all including Tshekedi. Opposition is concentrated on his European wife.' But, he added, ‘Seretse was unwaveringly loyal to his wife, and his attitude remains what it has always been: that the Tribe, if it wants him as Chief, must accept his wife.'
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Harragin praised Sillery for his impartiality. ‘I am extremely pleased that you seem to have been able to preserve an attitude of strict neutrality in the whole matter,' he wrote, ‘so that it can never be said in the future that Government had influenced the decisions in any way whatsoever.' He could not help feeling, he added uneasily, ‘that there are some who would like to consider Seretse as a young man who has committed some wrong, whereas in fact all he has done is to make an honest woman of his wife.'
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On 7 January 1949, Seretse was met at the Heath Row aerodrome by his wife. The joy of their reunion was captured by the press in photographs: Ruth, sparkling with happiness, in a dark suit and hat, and a beaming Seretse, swinging a walking cane.
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Ruth took him to their new home in north London – a garden flat in a cheerful house at 34 Adolphus Road. Knowing how much Seretse disliked cramped quarters, she had managed to find a larger flat before his return.
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They settled into a happy routine, where she kept house and he returned to his law studies. Ruth did what she could to encourage him with his preparation for the Equity exam: he loved reading detective stories but whenever he picked one up, she firmly took it away and put a textbook in his hands.
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As the evenings grew warmer,
friends would fill their little garden and the velvet voice of Leslie – ‘Hutch' – Hutchinson, singing Gershwin and Porter, rang out from their gramophone player.
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Five months after his return from Bechuanaland, Seretse had to return for the third Kgotla, as he had promised. ‘Once more my spirits fell,' sighed Ruth. ‘Yet another separation!'
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When he arrived in Serowe on 15 June 1949, he quickly found that people's attitudes had grown in his favour. ‘The people [had become] just as adamant that Tshekedi was trying to steal the chieftainship from Seretse,' recalled one of Tshekedi's friends, years later. ‘I remember standing up in kgotla one day,' he said, ‘and trying to set the facts straight on this point, but I was shouted at from all sides.' By June, he added, life had become impossible for Tshekedi or anyone who supported him in Serowe.
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People had split into two camps: for Seretse and against him. One of Seretse's royal uncles, Peto Sekgoma, had completely uprooted his life to support him. A gentle and soft-spoken man, two years older than Tshekedi, Peto had left the north of Bechuanaland, where he owned a store, and moved to Serowe, so that he could use his resources and influence to help his nephew.
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The Administration was largely on Tshekedi's side. Nettelton said he was surprised at all the fuss. ‘We all know,' he said, ‘who will always run the Ngwato – Tshekedi of course.'
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But Sillery felt uncomfortable at the pressure from Tshekedi to take his side. He wrote to the Regent to say that he had been directed by Harragin to tell him that the Bechuanaland Protectorate Administration ‘has endeavoured to maintain an attitude of strict impartiality in the matter of Seretse Khama's marriage to Miss Ruth Williams, which primarily concerns the tribe and Seretse'.
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As the day of the third Kgotla approached, Tshekedi became nervous and prickly. Sillery had suggested a guard of honour to mark the importance of the occasion, but the Regent was adamant that Seretse's arrival should not be ‘heralded with undue pomp'.
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He was hurt by Seretse – the young man who used to call him ‘Father'. Seretse was driving around in one of Peto's cars, instead of his own.
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And although Seretse was staying at Tshekedi's house, he was not eating
there; noticing this, a British official wondered if he was afraid of being poisoned.
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Tshekedi furnished the Police Commissioner with a list of people who, he alleged, were plotting against him and holding secret meetings. By secret meetings, he meant meetings that were held without the knowledge of himself, as Native Authority. As a precaution, the Commissioner obtained additional Bren light machine-guns, tear-gas bulbs and canisters.
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Tensions grew higher when it was announced that meetings were forbidden and Peto Sekgoma and another man disguised themselves as women, by wearing women's shawls, in order to meet one of Seretse's supporters off a train without being stopped.
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This was Serogola Seretse, one of Seretse's cousins, who was an enemy of Tshekedi.

The atmosphere was electric when the third Kgotla started on Tuesday 20 June. At least 8,000 men had come from all over the reserve, many of them wearing their greatcoats and uniforms from World War II.
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Tshekedi had invited three diKgosi from neighbouring nations: Kgosi Kgari of the Bakwena, Kgosi Mokgosi of the Balete, and Bathoen II, Kgosi of the Bangwaketse. Kgosi Kgari was a man of about 40, who had been a sergeant-major in the army during the war.
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Bathoen II, also in his forties, was small and slight, with spectacles, and always seemed to be frowning.
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He was a close friend and a political ally of Tshekedi. Like him, he was rigid and austere: a teetotaller who did not even drink tea or coffee, as he thought them too stimulating.
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Kgosi Mokgosi belonged to Seretse's generation. The diKgosi had been invited as witnesses and, if necessary, to offer guidance on Tswana procedures and customs; it was normal among Batswana people for one nation to act as a ‘guardian' of another, if it was in trouble.
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