King Khama, Emperor Joe and the great white queen: victorian Britain through African eyes http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.crp2b20014 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org King Khama, Emperor Joe and the great white queen: victorian Britain through African eyes Author/Creator Parsons, Neil Publisher University of Chicago Press (Chicago) Date 1998 Resource type Books Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) Botswana, United Kingdom, South Africa, Zimbabwe Coverage (temporal) 1835 - 1895 Source Northwestern University Libraries, Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, 960.31 P269k Rights By kind permission of Neil Parsons. Description This book recounts in detail the delegation of three Batswana kings to Great Britain in 1895. Kings Khama, Sebele, and Bathoen aimed at and succeeded in preventing the annexation of the Bechuanaland Protectorate by the white-settler states that were to become South Africa and Rhodesia. The book is an examination of late Victorian imperialism and culture and of the capacity of African resistance by using diplomatic skill and alliances with social forces in the society of the colonial power. Format extent 392 pages (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.crp2b20014 http://www.aluka.org APR 1 APR 1 960. 3: P269k Northwestern University Library Evanston, Illinois 60208-2300 KING KHAMA, EMPERORJOE, AND THE GREAT WHITE QUEEN Figure 1. Bathoen, Sebele (with flowers) and Khama. Standing: Revs. W C. Willoughby and Edwin Lloyd KING KHAMA EMPEROR JOE AND THE freat Wlte Uheeli Victorian Britain through African Eyes NEIL PARSONS The University of Chicago Press Chicago & London ?, . 3/ Neil Parsons is a professor of history at the University of Botswana. His books include Seretse Khama, 1921-1980 and A New History of Southern Africa. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago, Ltd., London © 1998 by Neil Parsons All rights reserved. Published 1998 Printed in the United States of America 07060504030201009998 54321 ISBN (cloth): 0-226-64744-7 ISBN (paper): 0-226-64745-5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Parsons, Neil. King Khama, EmperorJoe, and the great white queen: Victorian Britain through African eyes / Neil Parsons. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-226-64744-7 - ISBN 0-226-64745-5 (pbk.) 1. Africans-Travel-Great Britain-History- 19th century. 2. Public opinion-Great Britain-History19th century. 3. Chamberlain,Joseph, 1836-1914Views on Africa. 4. Africa-Foreign public opinionGreat Britain. 5. Great Britain-History-Victoria, 1837- 1901. 6. Botswana-Foreign relations-Great Britain. 7. Great Britain-Foreign relations-Botswana. 8. Khama, African chief, 1830 (ca.)- 1923. I. Title. DA125.N4P37 1998 327.4106883-dc2l 97-37111 CIP ( The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. For Professor Isaac Schapera on his ninetieth birthday To get it right always takes a little longer Bojang ga bo bofane (Grass does not bind itself) CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix Preface and Acknowledgments xiii A Note on Terminology xvii INTRODUCTION: EPIPHANY ON CLIFTON BRIDGE 1 I THEN LET Us ALL BE PHILISTINES 7 2ATRINITYOFDUSKYKINGS 30 3 ANOTHER SPHERE OF EXISTENCE 52 4 WE SEE YOU WITH OUR EYES 73 5BESIEGEDBYACURIOUSCROWD 91 6 A KIND OF MIDDLE-CLASS ROYALTY 104 7 THE DAY A KING CAME TO ENDERBY 121 S THEY ARE STRONG AND WE ARE WEAK 132 9 THE FOUNTAIN WHENCE CAME THE MISSIONARIES 149 10 A THING TO LOOK AT WITH THE TEETH 160 viii CONTENTS I I IN EVERY TOWN WE HAVE FOUND FRIENDS 173 12 KHAMA WILL PLAY THE OLD GOOSEBERRY 187 13 CHAMBERLAIN'S SETTLEMENT 201 141 RHODES BEATEN BY THREE CANTING NATIVES 212 15 I HAD No IDEA SHE WAS SO SMALL 224 16 DR. JAMESON, You HAE GOT A SMOOTH TONGUE 240 CONCLUSION: HALF A LoAF? 253 Appendix: Ballads of the 1895 Tour 261 Notes 271 Bibliography 291 Index 303 ILLUSTRATIONS MAPS 1 Southern Africa in the 1890s (following page 72) 2 Great Britain, 1895: where the Bechuana chiefs went by train (preceding page 73) 3 "Mr. Rhodes' maximum offer," October 26, 1895 (following page 186) FIGURES 1 Bathoen, Sebele, and Khama, with W. C. Willoughby and Edwin Lloyd (frontispiece) Following page 72 2 An 1894 vision of a century hence: aerial tramway running along the sides of department stores in Oxford Street, London 3 The "New Woman" (1): woman as athlete 4 The "New Woman" (2) : woman as aesthete 5 Expanding empires (1) : Rhodes as the Napoleon of Africa, against a background of slaughter after the Conquest of Matabeleland, 1893 6 Expanding empires (2) : Rhodes as "the man in possession" of Matabeleland faces penny-pinching "Little Englanders" Gladstone and Labouchere 7 Expanding empires (3) : cartoon from the German satirical magazine Kladderadatsch commenting on the French invasion of Madagascar 8 Expanding empires (4) : cartoon from the American journal Judge, commenting on Uncle Sam's attitude to Cuba 9 Khama, Khama's Setswana secretary Ratshosa, Khama's English secretary Simon Seisa, and John Smith Moffat ILLUSTRATIONS 10 The British General Election,July 1895: election night in Fleet Street 11 Mr. Chamberlain's Chamber of Horrors 12 The Chamberlain Hen and the Bechuana Duckling 13 The chiefs with Sir Sidney and Lady Shippard at Vryburg 14 The Tantallon Castle and Captain Robinson 15 Passengers on board the Tantallon Castle 16 "The Three Kings of Africa": Sebele, Bathoen, Khama, and Willoughby as they appeared in a studio portrait 17 "Bung" in Africa: Khama and Chamberlain as they appeared in Punch Following page 186 18 Khama, Sebele, and Bathoen seated in front of the conservatory of a country house with their attendants 19 Thursday, September 19: Somali village at the Crystal Palace 20 The chiefs at Enderby (1): arrival near the lych-gate of the Anglican parish church in Leicester Lane 21 The chiefs at Enderby (2): luncheon in the Congregational schoolhouse 22 The chiefs at Enderby (3): group photograph of the entended Young family and guests outside the Young home in Seine Lane 23 The chiefs at Enderby (4): Khama and Mrs. Young 24 KHAMA: "I think the kingis but aman,as I am": a response to the "Khama boom" in Moonshine 25 The idols of the hour: Khama, the lord provost of Glasgow, Sebele, and Willoughby, at the Glasgow City Chambers, October 24, 1895 26 Studio portrait of Bathoen, Sebele, Khama, Willoughby, and Lloyd 27 The portrait and signature of Khama that made Sebele and Bathoen jealous when it was colored and impressed on a Staffordshire porcelain plate 28 The Vaal drifts crisis (1):July 1895 cartoon from the Cape press indicates the reason Kruger put sanctions on the British in Cape Colony 29 The Vaal drifts crisis (2): October 1895 cartoon from the Cape press shows the consequences for the Transvaal of trying to close the Vaal River drifts to Cape wagon traffic 30 Wednesday, November 13, 1895, at Chatham: Bathoen, Khama, Sebele, Kwenaetsile, Kehutile Gohiwamang, Simeon Seisa, and Willoughby, with General Sir Charles Warren and Warren's aide-de-camp 31 Wednesday, November 20, 1895: King Khama being presented with a photographic portrait of Queen Victoria ILLUSTRATIONS xi 32 Responses to the Chamberlain settlement (1) : "The New Black Wedge" 33 Responses to the Chamberlain settlement (2): "It's all very well for you, Khama..." 34 Advertiser's view of African colonization (1) : the Bechuana chiefs in London 35 Advertiser's view of African colonization (2) : the AngloAsante (Ashanti) War in West Africa 36 Advertiser's view of African colonization (3) : thejameson Raid in South Africa PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book can and should be read as a simple narrative, telling a tale that has not been told in such detail before. It can also be seen as a contribution to a number of areas of scholarly inquiry and debate. First, it is a study in the historical anthropology of "Western" capitalist society, at the height of British imperial power and industrial might, as seen by intelligent outsiders. The reconstruction of the "discoveries" of imperial Europe and North America by observers from Africa, Asia, South America, and the Pacific is, as Apollon Davidson points out in his Cecil Rhodes and His Times (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1988), a great challenge for "historians, psychologists and ethnographers." There is also a fascination in fiction about seeing "ourselves as others see us," to use Robert Burns's phrase-a fascination that goes back in English literature at least as far asJonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), and that continues through works such as A Bayardfirom Bengal, the adventures of "Baboo" in Britain (1902). If we may translate that fascination from fiction to nonfiction and put it in "postmodern" literary terms, this present book may be said to be an attempt to allow imperial "subalterns" to speak for themselves-portraying Western society as "other" rather than as "us." Second, this book may be seen as a contribution to the social and political history of late Victorian Britain.