I came across a post by Ian Khama on social media about his late mother. The content of the post was full of misleading information and it is such content that has challenged me to write about Ruth Khama nee Williams.
It is natural for every child to love their parent(s) and I for one would not find anything wrong in expressing their love for their mother, especially when they are late. Ask me; those memories linger for a good long time.
But it is when Ian Khama takes a jab or an upper cut on the government of the day that some of us take serious offence. He should not go around the country parading his successor and later turn around and tell us that we have the worst ever government in Botswana. If that is the case, the blame squarely falls on the lap of Ian Khama.
For a long time I have been a staunch critic of Ian Khama. Rather I should state that my contention has always been with the entire dynasty beginning with Boikanyo Khama III. This is the man who meticulously built the dynasty using the resources of this country for the benefit of the few.
There is so much damage that Ruth Khama has done to this country. We are ready to let all this go under the carpet. But when Ian Khama chooses to be a rubble rouser; he provokes the wrath of Richard Moleofe’s pen.
Since he left office, I deliberately chose to not write about this man in order to allow him a decent retirement. But the man has come out of that arena of retirement to engage the public in a boxing ring. By that he has taken off the elder statesman immunity veil off his head.
He is now open for attack and counter attack. I have consistently differed with the way Ian Khama does things especially the way he ran government. I was fearless even at the time when his self-created DIS was acting ruthlessly; that is, without Ruth his mother.
Ruth Khama who was born Ruth Williams sacrificed nothing to get married to a black man in the name of Seretse Khama. She has had the greatest of opportunities. If she could be reincarnated back into life, she would choose Botswana as her home and still marry the man whose people she despised. Ruth was a typical colonial English woman who so believed in the superiority of her race, the Anglo Saxon.
I am a student of history, and Ian Khama is literally provoking me to the archives. In 1949, both Tshekedi Khama and Seretse Khama denounced and relinquished any right to the throne of the Ngwato chiefdom. It was all because of Ruth.
Tshekedi Khama, whom I regard as the misunderstood regent of the Ngwato chiefdom went through trouble because of the marriage of Seretse to a white woman.
Recently I went through the unpublished works of Michael Crowder, a former University of Botswana history professor. At the moment of his untimely death, Crowder was in the process of writing a book about Tshekedi Khama. With his knowledge and background of history, Crowder paints a picture of Tshekedi as a perfect father who so desired everything good for his growing nephew.
Tshekedi was a father to Seretse and he did everything good befitting a young prince. After completing his primary school in Serowe, Tshekedi sought to send Seretse to Lovedale College in South Africa for high school. Tshekedi had to contend with Colonel Charles Ray (not Ray Charles the musician) who had other ideas about Seretse’s education.
Colonel Charles Ray was the Residence Commissioner based in Serowe at the time. The colonel was in fact the defector ruler of Bangwato. He had wanted Seretse to study in Rhodesia in an all-white college.
Ray was incensed at Tshekedi’s disobedience to particular orders. The opportunity to brainwash the future king was gone. From henceforth, Ray published one proclamation after another with the intent of punishing the regent.
From the generalised indications on these archival records, it is highly likely that Seretse’s marriage to a white woman was an arranged affair. The British understood very well that a son-in-law would become faithful to their course and hegemony.
This did not only happen to Seretse. His classmate and friend, Charles Njonjo who graduated from law school with Seretse also married a white British woman by the name Margaret Bryson.
Njonjo was a powerful figure in Kenya from the time of independence as he assumed the role of attorney general. The British wanted a stooge who could come and create laws that protected their property rights at the time of independence.
The man could have easily been drafted into the first cabinet of Jomo Kenyata but he was better placed at the AG’s office. And the moment he ascended to cabinet after grooming a successor, who would play to the pipe, he immediately assumed a senior position in cabinet.
Njonjo was so powerful that he single handedly authorised the refuelling of the Israeli air force fleet on its return from raiding Entebe in Uganda. This was on the same night that the famous “Raid on Entebe” occurred. President Jomo Kenyata who was ailing at the time only came to learn this the following morning.
Clearly the British have sold us a dummy and for decades now we have been believing this line of the story. Seretse has equally secured the land rights of the British after independence and a clear example of that is found in the evidence of having three different land tenures within a single country.
These wives were indeed sacrificed to come and make sure that their husbands remained faithful and towing the British colonial line. And Ruth Khama has performed that task successfully.
