Seretse Khama: Reconstructing the life of a legend

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Thursday July 5, 2012 00:00

 

He said, 'Oh ha ne modimo o ka ne o boditse gore ke tsee mang, re ka bo re rile 'nnyaa e seng yoo, tsaa mongwe wa bo-magaolwane ba gagwe ba'. (Oh! If God had asked whom he should take, we would have told him to take one of his acolytes),' says Bernard Letsididi, a 77-year-old former footballer who played under the tutelage of Botswana's first president Sir Seretse Khama.The son of Sekgoma Khama, the paramount chief of Bangwato, Seretse became Kgosi at the age of four after his father's death in 1925. Because he was still young, his uncle, Kgosi Tshekedi Khama, became his guardian and regent of Bangwato.

Raised in Serowe by his strict uncle, Seretse was very close to his only sister, Naledi. Speaking in an interview with Mmegi last weekend, 85-year-old Naledi Khama reveals that Seretse Khama was a passionate sportsman who played football. After playing for a long-time as a goal keeper at the then Serowe based Motherwell, Seretse in 1960 grouped his Malekantwa regiment and founded the renowned Miscellaneous Football Club, which now plays top flight football in the be Mobile Premier League.'He grew up very close to his cousins Serogola Lekhutile, Lenyeletse Seretse and Dikgakgamatso Kebailele,' she says.

Speaking of her relationship with her brother, Naledi says at the height of the brouhaha of Seretse's marriage to Ruth Williams, an Englishwoman, in 1950, she travelled to London where Seretse was studying law. Naledi studied nursing. 'I had to come back home because I had fallen ill. I travelled by ship,' she says.Recounting the events surrounding Seretse's banishment from his motherland following his marriage to Ruth, Naledi says while he was in the UK, the British government tried by all means to dissuade her brother from coming back to Bechuanaland (before it was called Botswana).

'Go kile gatwe a nne ambassador in Jamaica (They tried to entice him with an ambassadorial posting in Jamaica), but he flatly refused and told them he would not work for a developed country while his country needed him. He said he had to come to Botswana to develop his country,' she says.Asked to shed light on the Bangwato strike around 1950 which saw members of the tribe throwing stones at the police and soldiers, killing three army officers, Naledi says at the time she was with Seretse and his wife in the UK. 'We read in the newspapers that Bangwato were very angry saying that they want their kgosi-kgolo back home,' she says. Naledi who is also Ian Khama's aunt, says the current president was born during the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.There has always been talk that Serowe and a larger part of the Central District, which is also known as Gammangwato, is a Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) stronghold because Seretse, the Bangwato chief, was the founder of the party. So at a time when politics was as strange as aliens are to this planet, it was easier to follow the chief's party.

Even those who were not Bangwato but under the Serowe throne also supported Seretse's party. There were few political parties then. There was the BDP, the Botswana People's Party and the Botswana National Front (BNF). Describing the mood of that time and the people's relationship with politics, Naledi says that in her home village, 'e ne e re ha lo kopana lo botsana gore o mokae? Meaning which party do you belong to and not which tribe you are as the phrase, when used at its basic level, denotes. So for me, well the answer was obvious. It was a party formed by my brother, Seretse and my husband, Lenyeletse Seretse,' she says.She reminisces of the time she spent with her brother.  'He would come visit us here in Serowe and we also did the same, visiting him in Gaborone at the State House,' she says.  Naledi's daughter, Claire,  Defence, Justice and Security Minister Dikgakgamatso Seretse's sister, sheds light on the close relationship their famous uncle had with Naledi and her children. 

'O ne a nyetse mosadi wa lekgoa, la ntha ga re mmona ne re mo tshaba (He was married to an English woman. At first we were uneasy around her). We stayed in the same house in Serowe. Soon we got to know her and got close to her. At the time we were children, I was about five years old and didn't know English. We had to learn it at home through communicating with her,' she says.Claire reveals a very interesting habit about Khama that is perhaps unknown.Seretse loved eating mophane worm. Most of the time, he would have it in his pockets.'He loved traditional food. He would eat thogo ya kgomo (a cow's head), but his wife was against it. She thought the food, especially a cow's head, was not good for one's health. She would freak out at the sight of phane. We lived a normal life, just like you would, staying with your uncle. We would forget that he was president and just call him by his name, the same is true with his son who is currently the president, whom we would just call Ian. Even my brother Ndelu, we sometimes let go of the formalities of his title and just call him by his name. It's normal. At home it's different than when you are in public,' she relates. She says that back then, laws were not restrictive - a president easily interacted with people. She adds that when Seretse was housed at the old Radio Botswana building by the Main Mall, it was easy for the public to see him as the laws were relaxed. 'It became strict after he moved to State House, where Ian stays right now,' she discloses. She says that the country's first president was so loved that when he died, people cried. On their way from Gaborone to attend the funeral in Serowe, Claire reveals that they had an accident.

'It was us, the children of Naledi, about seven of us, we had minor injuries. We proceeded to the funeral and arrived there with bruises,' she relates.This reporter also spoke to 72-year-old Segopodiso 'Do' Lore, who played football with Seretse and later had him as his coach. Lore says they founded Miscellaneous Football Club in 1958 and registered it two years later. It was initially called Malekantwa after Seretse's regiment. Lore says he was a student at Masokola School where he was the school football team captain when he was recruited to play for the new team. 'He came to me and said the chief wants to form a football club. As a student I was honoured to play in this team that rose to dominate football.Even today, it plays top flight football at the premier league level,' he says.

He says although Seretse was a semi-retired experienced goalkeeper, he would on occasion don a jersey and gloves to man the Serowe outfit's goalposts.'He played quite well and it was difficult to score against him. I played with him many times. By 1959 we were already in the top league, playing against teams like Rangers of Mahalapye, the Francistown based TAFA and Swallows of Palapye,' he reveals.Lore says Seretse used to give them motivational talks, especially before every match, to up their morale. He would tell his troops to go against their opponents with courage.'He said we shouldn't let the fact that they were older than us intimidate us. We became fierce on the field and feared no one,' he says. 'He was a good coach. He even bought us balls and a kit. He really loved this team. It was through him that the white people in Serowe recognised the fact that just like them, we are people and not animals,' he says.Lore says off-field, Seretse was a great horseman who enjoyed races with his friends in the village.So what about booze and smoking?'Iyoo! He smoked quite a lot. When we were under attack from opponents, he would be very stressed and smoke quite a lot. He also took his liquor, especially whisky and wine but never drank in public. But he didn't encourage youngsters to drink alcohol,' he says.

Seretse also loved farming and had a lot of cattle. Being a royal, he came from a family that had a lot of cattle. They also had trucks.'And when he came back from exile he went around the Central District to address people and thank them for fighting for his return. People gave him a lot of cattle,' he reveals.He says after he founded the BDP, Seretse bid them farewell at Miscellaneous telling them that he would be focussing on politics and nation building.'He also used to attend the London Missionary Society church in Serowe which was built by his grandfather, Khama the Great, in 1912,' he says.