Colour Bar (31 page)

The Khamas visited Ruth's aunt and uncle in Norfolk, where Seretse enjoyed evenings in the pub with the local farmers, discussing crops and cattle.
²⁸
But Seretse longed for his own land and people. ‘He visited our beauty spots – Devon and Cornwall, North Wales, the Lake District, the Scottish Highlands,' wrote Fenner Brockway, ‘but when I asked which part of Britain he liked most, he said, “East Anglia, its flat distances to the horizon took me home”.'
²⁹

Towards the end of January, Lewis, the CRO official, went again to see Seretse and Ruth.
³⁰
He found them in good spirits: ‘Ruth, I fancy, is a trifle plumper, and amid the domesticities of home and preparing baby Jacqueline for bed, is very much the young matron. The baby continues to flourish and to manifest a certain winsome charm.' Since his last visit, Seretse had a supply of bigger and better karosses, reported Lewis, ‘so that the flat was now almost entirely carpeted by animal skins of various kinds.'

The lease was due to end in March but they had arranged to rent it on a month-by-month tenancy until they found somewhere more permanent. Seretse had begun his law course. ‘He has, I think,' said Lewis, ‘an agile and intelligent mind, and I think he is taking his studies seriously.' Lewis had made arrangements to take them out to dinner at a Hungarian restaurant in Soho. When the baby had been put to bed and instructions given to the babysitter, they departed by bus. The dinner passed off well, reported Lewis, ‘although Seretse somewhat disconcerted the waiter at the beginning of the meal by fiercely demanding “steak”'. But meat was still rationed and was not on the menu:

the waiter retaliated by explaining that there was no steak, but that Seretse could have a selection of meats cooked on a skewer. Ruth followed me in choosing chicken goulash… Rather cavalierly I omitted to ask them what they wished to drink with their food and ordered a bottle of red wine. Seretse confessed later that he would sooner have had beer.

At one point Lewis remarked that W. A. W. Clark had moved from South Africa to the UK and was now the Head of the High Commission Territories Department of the CRO. Then he asked his guests if they had seen Clark in London, to which Seretse replied that he had – ‘whereupon his face fell, and he seemed anxious to change the subject. I made no attempt to pursue it, and the conversation resumed its lighter-hearted tone.'

At about 10 o'clock they finished their meal and Seretse invited Lewis to go on with them to a club. Partly out of curiosity, he agreed, and went with them to a club called Sugar Hill, in a small backyard off Duke Street, St James:

The club consisted of a very small room with a very heavy carpet on the floor, shaded lamps, a stream-lined bar tended by a white bar-maid and a black barman, and a small mixed company of black and white – with the black element the more numerous. Seretse and Ruth seemed to be quite well known.

Seretse saw Lewis was finding it dull and they left after about half an hour. Lewis reported:

I had gone quite prepared to find the place slightly vicious, but instead found it only boring. It appears to be merely a drinking club for rather wealthy coloured gentlemen, and the only interesting moment for me was when Seretse introduced me to Macdonald [
sic
] Bailey, the Jamaican athlete, a rather poor specimen, I thought, with a fish-like handshake.

‘My relations with Seretse and Ruth remain very friendly,' said Lewis, ‘and I must confess I find them an interesting pair. There is no sign that the marriage is other than a great success, and they seem much attached to each other.' Lewis then added that he wished to record one further opinion, based on his growing acquaintance with Seretse. ‘He seems to me', he noted, ‘to possess good qualities of character and intelligence which, if all goes well, bode well for his future.' He had doubtless many weaknesses, including a full share of the fecklessness of youth, he thought, but beside these,

there are qualities which I think are probably remarkable in an African – determination, a strong ingrained respect for authority and above all an honesty and directness in dealing with people, and a right judgement of them, which I find impressive.

In Lewis's view, it would be

a tragedy if these qualities were to be frustrated by bitterness, or inactivity, or neglect. If they are fostered, they seem to me just the qualities which could be a help to the administration of our African Colonies, especially in the present stage of development.
³¹

This was also Clark's view. ‘I agree with him about Seretse's potentialities,' he commented on Lewis's report. ‘Once he completes or abandons his legal studies we must interest ourselves seriously in his future.' He added in brackets, ‘I am sure Tshekedi would not approve of the Sugar Hill!'
³²

After six months in Chelsea, in March 1951, the Khamas moved to a flat on Albany Street, not far from the gardens and fields of Regent's Park in the centre of London. But it was not an easy time. There was massive inflation and the cost of living was high, so it was difficult for Ruth to manage the housekeeping budget on their allowance from the Government. At least the rationing of food was starting to ease up:

‘A second lamb cutlet' and ‘a bar of chocolate', according to Clement Freud, were gradually reappearing in the everyday vocabulary of ordinary folk, at least in London.
³³

They settled into a routine: Ruth was looking after baby Jacqueline and running the home; Seretse was applying himself to his law studies, but was also taking a keen interest in politics and frequently went to the Visitors' Gallery in the House of Commons to watch debates.
³⁴
On one of these visits to the Commons in 1951 he met Kwame Nkrumah, who had stopped in London for a few days on his way back to the Gold Coast from the USA. Nkrumah went to the House of Commons, where he discussed his country's problems with a group of MPs in one of the committee rooms. Seretse was in an adjoining committee room, holding a meeting with MPs – and as soon as he heard that Nkrumah was next door, he immediately left the meeting to go and shake his hand.
³⁵

But it was a difficult time in many ways. Naledi had started nursing at Hammersmith Hospital, but it had refused to recognize her qualifications from South Africa and insisted that she re-train.
³⁶
They also felt unwelcome as a mixed-race family in their local community. ‘The general atmosphere was shall I say “cool” towards us,' commented Ruth several years later. ‘Perhaps the kindest thing would be to say they didn't seem to understand that Seretse and I loved each other, were decently married, and intended to stay that way for the rest of our lives.'
³⁷
At times, Seretse felt discouraged. When John Stonehouse told him that he and his wife were planning to go to Uganda to work for the African Co-operative Movement, Seretse had his doubts. ‘I met him in the cafeteria of the House of Commons one night,' wrote Stonehouse, ‘when he was in a particularly dejected mood':

He was quite disparaging when I told him about my prospective mission.

‘They will either buy you out or ban you, if you haven't already given up in frustration.'

‘They', of course, meant the Colonial Government or the settlers.
³⁸

But however much they felt downcast at times, the Khama family were clinging to their hope of returning home to Africa. ‘I have not given up the fight on my banishment,' Seretse told the American magazine,
Ebony
. Ruth, he added, felt as he did:

I have heard her say so often to visitors how deeply she feels the injustice that has been dealt us. ‘The Tribe has accepted me,' she will say. ‘It is not the tribe which is against me. It is the white people of South Africa. They need something to knock them off the pedestals they have set themselves on.'
³⁹

As W. A. W. Clark had suspected, Tshekedi had been very annoyed by Seretse's separate speech of farewell to the Bangwato, after their joint statement. Shortly after his nephew's departure, he told Baring that he had now shifted away from Seretse and was opposed to the idea of him ever being Kgosi.
¹
Six thousand miles away from home, Seretse had heard reports of his uncle's changed attitude and, in October 1950, he wrote to him from London, emphasizing the need for them to work together:

even though we have given away our fatherland through our dispute we are nevertheless ready to forget the things which have caused misunderstandings between us so that we can redeem our land from the control of the Europeans so that it may return to the Bamangwato.

Government officials were eager to see conflict between them, he argued, ‘so that they could say that when we were together we would continually be at loggerheads'. He urged Tshekedi not to play into their hands. ‘I refuse,' he said, ‘to quarrel with you further.'
²

But Tshekedi ignored the warning in his nephew's letter. He felt isolated in Rametsana and was keenly aware of the hostility towards him from so many of the Bangwato, which had led to skirmishes in several villages. The final straw was the burning down of his house at the Kgotla in Serowe, in the middle of the night of 17 October 1950. Arson was suspected, though not proved, and Tshekedi was bitterly hurt that no one had even tried to put out the fire.
³
His entire library was destroyed, as were irreplaceable family memorabilia, including the Bible which Queen Victoria had presented to Khama III.
⁴

On 12 November, Tshekedi publicly ruptured his reconciliation
with Seretse. He published the ‘Aide-Memoire' that he and Seretse had signed, claiming that this document proved that Seretse had agreed to renounce his own, and his children's, claim to the chieftainship. But now, he complained, Seretse was trying to return to Bechuanaland as Chief. Tshekedi added that he had taken this step after several conferences with the British High Commissioner, Sir Evelyn Baring. He told the press that he could see no end to the dynastic feud.
⁵
This choice of words – ‘dynastic feud' – was resonant of the White Paper and gave a sense of inevitable and ceaseless quarrelling between the two men. It was exactly what Baring and Liesching wanted. Just two weeks before, Liesching had told Baring of his worry that Tshekedi might be ‘tempted into a combination with Seretse that would be fatal to our plans'.
⁶

Seretse was appalled. He explained to reporters that he had never signed an agreement renouncing his claim to the chieftaincy – that the ‘Aide-Memoire' was merely intended to set out ‘certain lines along which we might work'. This included the
possibility
of them both renouncing their claims, but only after discussing the matter in London and as a basis for discussion at the Kgotla. There could be no question of taking such a momentous decision without the involvement of the Bangwato people as a whole. ‘This was fully understood by my uncle at the time,' he said firmly in a statement to the press. He denied that he was trying to return as Kgosi. He simply wanted to find a way in which he might serve his people in any responsible position they might wish him to occupy:

I feel I have the right to live in the territory, no matter in which capacity. The statement [by Tshekedi] has confused the whole issue. We shall probably have to start negotiating all over again. As far as I can see the British Government will never let me return as Chief.
⁷

Seretse's genuine wish to be reconciled with Tshekedi was confirmed by a source close to David Astor, the editor of the London
Observer
. This source had examined the situation fully and reported that he could find no evidence whatsoever that Seretse had broken his agreement.
⁸
He said, too, that a colleague who had visited Seretse had found him ‘very understanding and anxious for reconciliation'.
⁹
Astor was taking an interest in the matter because he was a sympathetic
supporter of the struggle against imperialism in Africa. He and Michael Scott, an Anglican minister in South Africa, were loyal friends of Tshekedi and were doing their best to support him.

On 13 December 1950, Seretse was summoned to the CRO. The purpose of the meeting was to consult him on a forthcoming visit to southern Africa by Gordon Walker – and whether or not it would be a good idea to include a few days in Bechuanaland. Seretse said that he welcomed the idea of such a visit, which would enable the Commonwealth Secretary to ‘see things on the spot'.
¹⁰
Gordon Walker was convinced that he should go, though officials there had warned against the plan. ‘It's never any use being cowardly – I can't really go furtively around,' he wrote in a note to Liesching.
¹¹
One of the officials who had discouraged the visit was the new District Commissioner of Serowe, Jean Germond. With his goatee beard, Germond not only looked different from other whites in the reserve – he
was
different. He tried to diminish the unofficial apartheid in the Reserve and had the partitions between Africans and Europeans removed in Post Offices and, so far as was possible, on the railways.
¹²
He got on well with Keaboka Kgamane, Senior Tribal Representative, and unlike his predecessor, MacKenzie, was generally liked by the Bangwato.
¹³
Germond insisted that if the Secretary of State were to visit Serowe, then he would have to hold a Kgotla, or it would do more harm than good – ‘I can see no other convincing pretext for his visit here.' He added that members of the Tribe would expect to give speeches themselves, on the matters uppermost in their minds: their wish for Seretse's return and their determination never to let Tshekedi back.
¹⁴