A Marriage of Inconvenience

The Persecution of Ruth and Seretse Khama

By: Michael Dutfield

Narrated by: Simon Vance

In 1948, a young white English woman, Ruth Williams, made headline news all over the world. For she had met, fallen in love with, and married Seretse Khama, an African prince and heir to the chieftainship of a tribe of more than 100,000 people - the Bamangwato. At first, the marriage was no more welcome in Africa than in government circles in London. Within a year of their wedding, the young couple had provoked an astonishing series of events that had never been explained. The British government was determined to prevent Seretse taking his rightful place at the head of his tribe. The Bamangwato, to their credit, accepted the marriage and welcomed Ruth as their queen. Attlee's Labour government embarked on what appeared to be a vendetta against them, robbing Seretse of his birthright and his people of their chief. In the process, Seretse and Ruth were forcibly separated while she awaited the birth of their first child. Now having access to Ministerial telegrams and Cabinet documents, the author can tell the full story.

©1990 Michael Dutfield (P)2017 Graymalkin Media, LLC

wonderful depiction of historical human experience

I saw the movie and was curious about the actual story. interesting how the story develops. I think it's safe to say Ruth and Saretsa were a great match, and actually made the world better.

Captivating History

This is a good book chronicling and not-well-known portion of Western and African history.

Great but

Both fascinating and boring at the same time. Some parts I simply could not stop listening, other times it dragged on. It is more of a political historical overview than a love story between two persons. This really should be made into a movie.