Seretse and Ruth in Serowe
Sandy Grant | Wednesday January 28, 2015 10:57
Perhaps this decision is a challenge of sorts to see if the Mmegi staff member who changed my Seretse and Ruth headline to Sir Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams is still in business and still insistent that eighteen years after they were married, Sir Seretse was still being accompanied by a mere companion. I had asked that Mmegi apologise for this offensive and obviously ridiculous statement - for statement it was - and had asked it to clarify that I had not been responsible for it.
At the time of writing, however, I have had no assurance from Mmegi that it intends to make such an apology and as a result, am obliged to express my own regrets on its behalf, and on my own, for a blunder - it cannot possibly be called a mistake - of such breath taking stupidity. Why anyone would decide that my submitted headline, ‘Seretse and Ruth’ had to be so corrected is baffling. Perhaps it was felt to be over familiar. But newspaper columns are personal contributions - so I have always felt free to refer to Seretse and Ruth, as they then were to many people in the years before his death in 1980.
The point that has to be made, it seems, is that the omission of Seretse’s title did not in any way indicate disrespect.
In contrast, it represented a way of identifying with the country’s new leader and a recognition that with him the traditional relationship between ruler and ruled had been dramatically changed.
In a way, this was the meaning of Independence. But today it must be understood that there was no precedent in this country for a change of such magnitude. Before Seretse and 1966 there had never been a national leader. The only available models would have been the Bangwato and Bangwaketse Dikgosi, Tshekedi (1905-69) and Bathoen who had both ensured that there was always a significant gap between them and their tribal subjects.. Almost overnight, however, Seretse took it upon himself to reduce that gap so that people such as you or me, could talk with ease about him as Seretse without first having to grovel in the dust. Single handedly, and almost over night, he effected a new kind of leadership and a new kind relationship between himself as the country’s first time ever national leader, and the people he was now leading.
It was new territory for everyone. But that model has been enduring – having been adopted in their differing ways by all the three Presidents who have succeeded him.
Because today, it’s so familiar – it’s not something to which we give much thought - but look around at other African States and it will be obvious that few share this particular, remarkable characteristic.