Today is Sir Seretse Khama Day – a public holiday in Botwsana. This holiday commemorates the first President of Botswana on the anniversary of his birth on this day in 1921.
eretse Khama was born on July 1st 1921 at Serowe, the Protectorate of Bechuanaland (now Botswana). Seretse Khama was the grandson and heir of King Khama III, who died in 1923. The Bangwato family of which Seretse Khama was the heir were hereditary rulers of the Protectorate. In 1925 Seretse Khama was made King, his uncle acting as regent.
Khama was training as a barrister in London after the Second World War, where he met and married Ruth Williams, a white English commoner. The story of Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams was depicted in the 2016 film, ‘A United Kingdom’. His marriage caused great difficulties for him at home and he was exiled in 1951.
The apartheid government of South Africa put pressure on Britain to remove Khama’s chieftainship. A judicial inquiry declared him to be perfectly fit for the job, but this was hushed up to appease the South Africans.
Kahama returned to Bechuanaland in 1956 as a private citizen. Free to enter politics, he formed the Bechuanaland Democratic Party, won the elections and led the way to independence, becoming his country’s first President. He remained in the post until his death, aged only 59, in 1980. He created a multiracial democratic society and is considered as one of the great successes of this era of African politics.
Replaced the pole but kept woodpecker’s home
something wrong here…
Today is the birthday, in 1945, of Deborah Harry, American singer, songwriter, and actress with Blondie who scored five UK No.1 singles including the 1979 UK & US No.1 single ‘Heart Of Glass’ and the 1978 world-wide No.1 album Parallel Lines. As a solo artists she scored the 1986 UK No. 8 single ‘French Kissing In The USA’. A former Playboy Bunny, her acting career spans over thirty film roles and numerous television appearances. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGU_4-5RaxU
Comments