Khama, Sir Seretse, << KAH muh, suh REHT say >> (1921-1980), led Botswana to independence in 1966 and served as the country’s first president. He was reelected in 1969, 1974, and 1979.
Seretse Khama was born on July 1, 1921, in the village of Serowe, in what is now Botswana. At that time, the area was a British colony called the Bechuanaland Protectorate. Khama was heir to the chieftainship of the Bamangwato ethnic group, the largest in the colony. After Khama married a white woman, the colonial government removed him from his position and, in 1950, exiled him to the United Kingdom.
Khama was allowed to return to Bechuanaland in 1956, and he began working in Serowe’s local government. He served in the Bechuanaland Advisory Council from 1957 to 1960. In 1961, Khama helped found the Botswana Democratic Party, which governed Botswana for the remainder of the 1900’s.
While president, Khama headed a regional organization called the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference, now the Southern African Development Community. The organization worked to make Botswana and other southern African countries less dependent economically on South Africa. It also pressured the South African government to change its policies and allow rule by South Africa’s Black majority.
As president, Khama promoted a market economy and democratic values. Using revenues from diamond and mineral exports, he gave Botswana a rapidly developing economy, one of the few in Africa. Khama died on July 13, 1980. Khama’s son Ian Khama became president of Botswana in 2008.
