Tshireletso Motlogelwa
1 April 2008
analysis
This coming Tuesday when the sun rises throwing its shafts of light upon the leafy complex that is Government Enclave the statue of Seretse Khama will have its back towards it.
At that point father will have his attention on son. Not anywhere else. Not out at the sprawl of the Main Mall where young unemployed Batswana walk around with envelopes under their arms, hawkers squint from the spicy smoke of hotdogs, hawkers yell out their wares to uninterested passer-bys and conductors hustle potential passengers into combis. The bronze Khama, with his half-smile, head proud, and straight posture will have his full attention on the goings-on before him, something much more important, poignant and even personal; another Khama being sworn in as the President. Right here on the front of Parliament House.
A mere 28 years after Seretse Khama, the first president of Botswana passed away, Leuitenant Seretse Khama Ian Khama, Seretse's son moves into State House.
Ian was born on February 27th 1953 during his parents' exile in England. The drama surrounding Khama's controversial marriage to Briton Ruth Williams was at its most dramatic.
Opponents and supporters were at their most vociferous. In England supporters of the couple calling themselves the Council for the Defence of Seretse Khama were increasing their pressure on the political leadership of the country. And in Serowe amidst the inter-tribal agendas competing for control of the throne, a team of supporters was strongly agitating for his return, not just to ga-Mmangwato but to its throne as well.
Even at that early age Ian Khama seemed destined for a somewhat ambiguous public role. He was born into a royal/political family stuck right at the vortex of national political, royal and racial struggle.
Khama, having married a white woman was facing opposition from South Africa's white minority rule, while the liberals in England campaigned for his freedom as an assertion of his human rights. While these supporters were somewhat prepared to compromise and have him return to Botswana as a private citizen, his Bangwato supporters in Serowe wanted something bigger than that; his return to the throne which was being contested for. And for his part Seretse was not interested being chief, while sections of the tribe wanted him as nothing else.
Seretse biographers Neil Parsons, Thomas Tlou and Willie Hendersen in their book Seretse Khama say when Ian was born "(Seretse's) ambiguity about becoming kgosi was as strong as ever and probably stronger" finding it ironic, "that at this moment (Seretse) should be presented with a child who could legitimately be heir to the bogosi of the Bangwato".
Born at this tumultuous stage Ian Khama's name would also reflect not just his background but perhaps these multiple agendas laying claim on him. "The boy was named 'Seretse' after his father, 'Ian', as a name from the Williams family which also had the virtue of being Scottish, and 'Khama' after his grandfather" however, "the last name was added as another first name, at the specific request of Bangwato elders who cabled from Serowe" explain the writers.
It was then that Ian was stuck with the "somewhat repetitive-sounding name, Seretse Khama Ian Khama, the second 'Khama' being the surname".
Three years later Khama and his family flew out of England for Botswana when Ian Khama was but a nursery school student. There was no nursery to attend so he stayed home while his older sister Jacqueline attended an all-white school. He was attended to by royal servants and helpers.
Being uprooted from an urban lifestyle in modern England to a much more traditional Setswana setting in Serowe brought forth challenges especially for Ruth. It was the beginning of Ian's closeted childhood. He was prevented from mixing with ordinary Bangwato children. Ruth did not want her children accepting food from other children, and she insisted on Ian Khama and his sister speaking English not Setswana.
He was respected like the heir he was but the Khamas were still not accepted within the white community in Serowe, on racial grounds.
As Khama got further into the tribal politics and later the mainstream of Botswana's pre-independent politics Ian Khama became more and more of a public figure although his was a routine between attending boarding schools, returning home and going back again.
After stints in a Rhodesian school Ian Khama joined the boarding school of Waterford Kamhlaba in Mbabane, Swaziland. Waterford is a member of a group of schools with campuses across the world. The school was founded by a British teacher Michael Stern who wanted to create a school that would espouse non-racialism at a time when most children of the African elite had nowhere to go, given that good schools were exclusively white. A somewhat liberal school Kamhlala included a multiracial group of students from some of the most prominent families in the sub-continent.
Among its alumni Kamhlala counts the Mandela daughters, Zeni and Zindzi, Lindiwe Sisulu, current South African Minister of Housing and Xolile Guma of the Reserve Bank of South Africa.
It is reported that Ian Khama socialized much more actively although he was still relatively reserved. The school was also oriented towards active community service. He took to the physical activities the school's extra curricular activities provided.
It remains a mystery whether Ian Khama completed his High School qualifications or not but in 1970 a 17-year-old Ian Khama left Waterford. He spent time after High School in a sort of academic lull. Reports say he went to Geneva the following year to learn French, moving to London the following year.
In 1972 Ian Khama joined the military college of Sandhurst. The school, established in 1947 gives preliminary training to military officers. Ian Khama was then, the only Motswana to enroll in the military school.
RMA Sandhurst was a product of the merger of the Royal Military Academy which prepared Artillery and Engineering officers and the Royal Military College. At some point it was the major training institution for entrance level military officers for the British Army.
Although not at the University level, unlike schools such as West Point (US), National Defence Academy (India) and Australian Defence Force Academy, Sandhurst is one of the most recognizable names in military training.
Ian Khama returned to Botswana in 1973 and joined the Police Mobile Unit the precursor to the Botswana Police Service.
However in 1977 Parliament passed the Botswana Defence Force Act, formally establishing the force. About 123 men among them Botswana Police Commissioner Mompati Merafhe and Ian Khama, were drafted into the newly formed BDF with Merafhe as commander deputized by Ian Khama.
Dan Henk of the US Air College writes that the conditions were ripe for the formation of the Force, given the precarious security situation in the country. Newly independent Botswana was surrounded by white minority rule govermments in South Africa, pre-independent Zimbabwe and Namibia.
"Rhodesia posed the most pressing security challenge in the early years. By the late 60s Rhodesia government was engaged in an escalating conflict against two insurgent armies. The war drove a steady flow of refugees into north eastern Botswana" says Henk.
The stream of refugees offered the Rhodesian army pretext to raid and attack the northeastern parts of the country.
In the southern parts of Botswana, the South African Defence Force made incursions committing assassinations and kidnappings.
However in its early years the BDF could not match the strength of the regions military forces.
"The BDF lacked the training and experience to confront the Special Forces of its belligerent neighbours. This was made painfully clear in February 1978, less than a year after it's founding. Responding to reports of a Rhodesian military incursion along Botswana's north-eastern border near the village of Lesoma, a BDF-mounted patrol drove directly into a Rhodesian ambush, sustaining 15 dead," explains Henk.
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