Are Batswana racists?

Ironically, for the duration of the public servants' strike during the speeches, dance and song, Khama was the object of racist taunts from the strikers and newspaper columnists. This is also ironic because in a patriarchal society, which Botswana is, people are tribally or racially associated with their fathers as opposed to their mothers.

While President Ian Khama's mother was a white Briton, his father was a black Mongwato. Of particular interest at the strikers' meeting places especially in Francistown was a Setswana song, which, loosely translated, said, "Hand me that white man and let me put him into the mouth of a lion". Another union song said, in part, "His father was a president. His mother was a white woman. That is why he does not care." A columnist wrote in one of the local newspapers that Khama mesmerizes the rural folk because of his white skin.