Sir Seretse Khama, first president of Botswana

Great Lives

BBC

History, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Seretse Khama was born in 1921 in Bechuanaland when it was still a British Protectorate. In 1966 he became Botswana's first president. In between he married a white Londoner, Ruth Williamson, was exiled by the British, and made to renounce his interest in succeeding as head of the Bangwato. It's an extraordinary and notable life, and he's been nominated by Professor Mike Bode, an astrophysicist and visiting professor to Botswana.

As well as archive of Seretse Khama, the programme includes contributions from Bishop Trevor Mwamba and Susan Williams, author of Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation.

The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, podcast fan.
0:03.0	Consider this your invite to the UK's biggest podcasting party.
0:06.7	We're heading to Sheffield from the 4th to the 6th of July
0:09.0	for the BBC Sounds Fringe at the Crossed Wires Festival.
0:12.8	We'll be joined by some of the biggest names in podcasting,
0:15.3	including Sarah Cox, Charlie Hedges, Russell Kane,
0:18.4	and some bloke called Greg James doing his Radio 4 show called Rewinder.
0:22.6	You can watch live shows of your favourite podcasts, and the best part is free.
0:28.0	To book your free tickets, go to crossedwires. Live, forward slash fringe.
0:34.4	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:43.4	Today's guest is a distinguished professor of astrophysics, and his choice?
0:46.0	The first president of Botswana.
0:48.8	What an interesting and unexpected mix.
0:54.0	Professor Mike Bode, give us the name of your great life and tell us why.
0:57.5	The great life I've chosen is Sir Cerezikama.
1:01.9	That's a name that was sort of in the back of my mind from when I was a child,
1:04.0	but I really couldn't say why.
1:05.6	I couldn't say who he was.
1:05.9	Yeah. It was just after I retired that a former research student of mine became one of the first astronomers in Botswana.
1:14.6	He got in touch with me to say, Mike, would you be interested in helping us to develop astronomy and space science in Botswana?
1:22.1	For six months, three years or five years.
1:24.8	And I saw, oh, hang on, maybe six months. So anyway, I went there for six
	...

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