A wit has remarked that the beauty of a quotation is that you can purposefully use somebody else’s words to be insulting – then claim innocence on the reasoning that the words are not actually yours.
Sir Russell England, a white member of the pre-independence Legislative Council that convened in Lobatse, saw a lot of beauty in “nigger in the woodpile” and was forever angling for an opportunity to use it at the Council’s meetings. The Council could have been bantering about the weather or discussing when to take a short break and England would figure out a deceptive manoeuvre to use that saying. It soon became clear to other Council members what his real intention was: to insult black members of the Council, who included future Botswana presidents, Sirs Seretse Khama and Ketumile Masire.
There's more to this story
But to keep reading, we need you to subscribe.
Investigative journalism is an indispensable part of a healthy society, but it's also expensive to produce. We are reliant on subscriptions to fund our work, and while you can enjoy most of our stories for free, a small number of premium features are reserved for subscribers.
You can subscribe for one week, a month or a full year - the choice is yours.
Save 77% on an annual subscription. Click here to find out how.
Existing subscribers can log in to keep reading here.
