One of the most publicized and embarrassing blots on Britain's colonial record was the government's highhanded treatment of Seretse Khama, 39, who is hereditary chief of the Bamangwato tribe in the arid, sparsely settled British protectorate of Bechuanaland. Twelve years ago, when Seretse was a law student in London, he met and married a blonde clerk named Ruth Williams. In the resulting uproar, the British government peremptorily banished Seretse from Bechuanaland in an attempt to appease the outraged segregationists in neighboring South Africa. "A disreputable transaction," growled Winston Churchill at the time. But Seretse stayed banished for six years, the...
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