Word: bamangwatos
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Strapping Gordon Batho, Her Majesty's district commissioner for the Bamangwato tribe of Bechuanaland Protectorate, had some bad news for his black-skinned charges. To a crowded Kgotla (native parliament) squatting in the tribe's mud-hut capital of Serowe, he announced that the Great White Queen would never allow Seretse Khama, their Oxford-educated chief, to return to his people (TIME, April 7). According to the Queen's ministers, Seretse, by marrying blonde London Typist Ruth Williams, had been derelict in his public duty as chief: his marriage, like Edward VIII's, had compromised...
...district commissioner proposed that the Bamangwato elect another chief. The tribal elders, wearing goatskins, zoot suits and flashy ties, told him to be quiet. They shook their fists and spat. Bamangwato virgins stormed the dais where Batho sat, and screamed: "We want our chief Seretse . . . May you die where you stand." Batho appealed for order and was shouted down: "Seretse should lead us . . . We cannot nominate anyone else to take his place. You have tried to rule us with a rod of iron. You treat us like ants. We won't have...
...More Kgotla. It was the first time that the docile Bamangwato had thumbed their noses at a creature so Godlike as the Great White Queen's commissioner. Batho marched off, his upper lip aquiver. He issued an order: "No more Kgotlas." The Bamangwato sat back guzzling Kaffir beer (a native brew made of yeast, marmalade, syrup and raisins) and took no notice. But when Batho sent a platoon...
...marched into Serowe. Some had fixed bayonets, others heavy pick handles. Colonel Langley himself carried a sawed-off shotgun. This time the cops were rougher. They stormed into mud huts, boxed their occupants' ears, beat up all who resisted a search for beer and weapons. By nightfall, 41 Bamangwato, including four royal princes, were penned in a stockade near Batho...
Last week it was the Tories' turn to propose a disreputable transaction. Receiving a demand from Bamangwato elders for the return of Seretse and his queen, the Churchill government abruptly announced that Seretse henceforth is forever barred from the chieftainship. As a sop to Seretse, they offered him a government job in Jamaica, but said it would not be kept open long (he refused...