Living Their Faith
in the face of great odds

Ruth and Seretse Khama

Sometimes the heart has its reasons
That reason itself just can't fathom

Britain's King Edward VIII wasn't the only 20th century royal to give up his throne for love. In 1948, Seretse Khama, chief of the Ngwato or Bamangwato people, created a tremendous controversy by marrying a British woman, Ruth Williams. Despite pressure from his own people and the governments of Great Britain and South Africa, Khama refused to divorce his wife.

The British government exiled the couple to England in 1950. Only after Khama agreed to renounce his chiefdom in 1956 were they allowed to return to Bechuanaland, where Seretse Khama founded the Democratic Party. In 1966, the country gained its independence from Great Britain and became the Republic of Botswana, with Seretse Khama as its first president. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II that year.

The New Martyrs




Are you there, Africa with the bulging chest and oblong thigh? Sulking Africa,
wrought of iron, in the fire, Africa of the millions of royal slaves, deported Africa,
drifting continent, are you there? Slowly you vanish, you withdraw into the past,
into the tales of castaways, colonial museums, the works of scholars.
[Jean Genet]

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American entertainment had begun to 'delve into' the nation's interracial past


IR scandal from the fifties
Crumbs From the Table of Joy