It reads like a scene from those Cheesy Mills and Boon romantic novels: No sooner had King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia arrived in Maun, than they were whisked away into the Chobe wilderness where they spent their honeymoon playing cat and mouse with the European paparazzi.
We are sitting for an interview with the Swedish Royal couple at the Royal Palace which is still trying to shake off the late winter snow. The couple before us is welcoming, well-dressed, toned-down and modest. With the much awaited spring taking longer than expected to arrive, you would expect that relieving a romantic honeymoon in the wilderness under the African sun is not something with which the royal couple would require much assistance. But of course you would be wrong. It took at least one or two questions to pry out tit bits of the drama filled romantic honeymoon in Chobe more than three decades ago from the Swedish royal couple.
“In June 1976 we went to visit your country. His majesty’s sister and her husband were in Botswana. We went to the Chobe area; we were out in the bush close to the Okavango. It was very beautiful and very exciting. We have happy memories and people were nice. We are looking forward to visiting Botswana again.” With those few words, Queen Silvia summed up the story of their honeymoon in Botswana. No soudbites, no colour and no drama, just a few bare facts.
Cecelia Ogren Wanger of TV4 who has compiled a number of documentaries on the royal couple nearly choked on her lunch when she learnt that Queen Silvia had discussed the honeymoon with visiting Botswana journalists. “I would like to read the stories. They never talk about that with the media. It would be interesting to read what they said about their honeymoon in Botswana.”
Cecilia’s husband, Mats Ogren Wanger is probably the only journalist who has ever written about the drama that attended the honeymoon as the royal couple sent the paparazzi on a wild goose chase.
Honeymooning is supposed to be a very specific type of holiday where couples are obliged to emerge only occasionally and bleary-eyed from a gloriously over-decorated suite and wander around hand in hand while beaming madly. As it turned out, the newly-wed royal couple had to rough it out at a Chobe campsite in a bid to keep as far away as possible from the paparazzi camera lenses.
According to an account by Mats, the royal couple had the support of Maun residents who sent the horde of paparazzo’s running in all the wrong directions until they gave up their search for the curveted royal honeymoon picture. The couple is believed to have made a lasting impression on the people of Chobe, who have even named one of the Islands, the King’s Island after King Gustaf.
Before our meeting with King Gustaf and his wife Queen Sylvia, I’d sounded out a few people in Sweden who knew of their association with Botswana. Rarely have I come across such colourful and dramatic accounts. Queen Sylvia is often fondly referred to as the Dancing Queen after a hit song by Swedish pop group ABBA. Dancing Queen was released in August 1976, but was first performed two months earlier, on 18 June 1976, during a Royal Variety Show in Stockholm the evening before the Swedish royal wedding and a few days before the royal couple left for their honeymoon in Botswana.
“When your president, Festus Mogae was here in 2006, there was a state banquet in his honour. During the banquet, your president asked Queen Sylvia for a dance. As soon as they hit the dance floor, they set the whole banquet on fire. Very soon everyone was up on their feet and the banquet was a mass of dancing tuxedos and tiaras” remembers one royal aide.
It was during the banquet that King Gustaf spoke for the first time about the Botswana honeymoon: The Queen and I have special and fond memories of Botswana. Thirty years ago we spent parts of our honey moon in your beautiful country.  The experience of visiting Botswana and its unspoilt nature and spectacular wildlife, under such special circumstances, have been a source of joy and inspiration ever since. Chobe National Park made a particularly deep impression. Despite the chilly season and different aim of your visit, I hope that you will feel as welcome in Sweden this time as we did in Botswana thirty years ago. We have done our best in planning your programme here and are opening our doors with warmth and Swedish generosity at the Royal Palace and elsewhere.
The Swedish couple returns to Botswana this week for the first time since their drama filled honeymoon more than three decades ago. Among other areas, they will visit the Chobe area where they are expected to reconnect with their honeymoon memories.
While in Botswana they are expected to visit a number of projects which are funded by the Swedish government and donor agencies. The queen is expected to visit a number of charity projects. Queen Silvia is involved in numerous charity organizations, especially in the area of disadvantaged children, and has made several public statements about human rights and the sexual exploitation of children. On her own initiative, she alone watched videos confiscated by the police, of sexually abused children in an early pedophile tangle. The statement she made to the press became an eye opener for many people that the problem exists.
She was a co-founder of the World Childhood Foundation in 1999. She also works actively for the handicapped, including as Chairman of the Royal Wedding Fund and Queen Silvia’s Jubilee Fund. In 1990, she was awarded the prestigious German prize “Deutscher Kulturpreis” for her work for the handicapped. The Queen is also an honorary board member of The Mentor Foundation International that works against drug use in adolescents and young adults. She is also the Patroness of the “Queen Silvia Fund” operated by the World Scout Foundation which raises funds for Scouts with disabilities.
Her commitment to the work with dementia and the care of the elderly at the end of life is also well known and respected. On her initiative, Silviahemmet was established in Stockholm. It works to educate hospital personnel in how to work with people suffering from dementia, and also initiates research in the area.
The Queen also has brought the subject of dyslexia into the public arena in Sweden. For many years, it was widely rumored that the King has dyslexia. Journalists noted that he misspelled his name when signing his accession document, and in 1973, when visiting a copper mine, he misspelled his name when signing it on a rock wall. In an interview on Swedish television in 1997, the condition was admitted publicly when the Queen addressed the issue. “When he was little, people did not pay attention to it.”
