Sir Seretse Goitsebeng Maphiri Khama, GCB, KBE was a Botswanan politician who served as the first President of Botswana, a post he held from 1966 to his death in 1980.
32 Facts About Seretse Khama
2.
Seretse Khama founded the Botswana Democratic Party in 1962 and became Prime Minister in 1965.
3.
In 1966, Botswana gained independence and Seretse Khama was elected as its first president.
4.
Seretse Khama was born in 1921 in Serowe, in what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate.
5.
Seretse Khama was the son of Queen Tebogo and Sekgoma Khama II, the paramount chief of the Bamangwato clan of the Tswana, and the grandson of Khama III, their king.
6.
Seretse Khama was named this to celebrate the recent reconciliation of his father and grandfather; this reconciliation assured Seretse's own ascension to the throne with his aged father's death in 1925.
7.
At the age of 4, Seretse became kgosi, with his uncle Tshekedi Khama as his regent and guardian.
8.
Seretse Khama travelled to the United Kingdom and studied for a year at Balliol College, Oxford.
9.
Seretse Khama next joined the Inner Temple in London in 1946, to study to become a barrister.
10.
In June 1947, Seretse Khama met Ruth Williams, an English clerk at Lloyd's of London.
11.
Ruth Williams Seretse Khama, travelling with her new husband, proved similarly popular.
12.
Since Bechuanaland was then a British protectorate, the South African government immediately tried to exert pressure on the UK to have Seretse Khama removed from his chieftainship.
13.
The British government's decision concerning Seretse Khama immediately proved controversial, both in Britain and Bechuanaland.
14.
Seretse Khama became involved in local politics, being elected to the tribal council in 1957 as its secretary.
15.
In 1961, Seretse Khama returned to politics by founding the Bechuanaland Democratic Party.
16.
Seretse Khama's exile gave him an increased credibility with an independence-minded electorate, and the BDP swept aside its Socialist and Pan-Africanist rivals to dominate the 1965 elections.
17.
Seretse Khama set out on a vigorous economic programme intended to transform the nation into an export-based economy, built around beef, copper and diamonds.
18.
Seretse Khama instituted strong measures against corruption, the bane of so many other newly independent African nations.
19.
Seretse Khama promised low and stable taxes to mining companies, liberalized trade, and increased personal freedoms.
20.
Seretse Khama maintained low marginal income tax rates to deter tax evasion and corruption.
21.
Seretse Khama upheld liberal democracy and non-racism in the midst of a region embroiled in civil war, racial enmity and corruption.
22.
Seretse Khama spearheaded a national fundraising campaign to build Botswana's first institute of higher education, which resulted in the establishment of the University of Botswana in 1982, after Seretse Khama's death.
23.
The Khama government had authority to do so by virtue of the 1963 Prevention of Violence Abroad act, and a week after independence, Sir Seretse Khama announced before the National Assembly his government's policy to insure that Botswana would not become a base of operations for attacking any neighbour.
24.
Shortly before his death, Seretse Khama played major roles in negotiating the end of the Rhodesian civil war and the resulting creation and independence of Zimbabwe, and the creation of the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference.
25.
Seretse Khama was reelected three times by virtue of the BDP easily winning the 1969,1974 and 1979 elections.
26.
Seretse Khama governed with very large majorities for his entire tenure, never facing more than seven opposition MPs.
27.
In June 1980, while receiving treatment in London, Seretse Khama was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.
28.
Seretse Khama returned home after it was determined that no cure was possible.
29.
Seretse Khama died in his sleep on 13 July 1980 in the presence of his wife in Botswana.
30.
Seretse Khama was buried in the Royal Cemetery on a hill in Serowe, Central District.
31.
That year, his younger son, Tshekedi Seretse Khama II, was elected as a parliamentarian from Serowe North West.
32.
Seretse Khama is frequently referenced in The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith.