King Khama, Emperor Joe and the Great White Queen: Victorian Britain Through African Eyes - Softcover

In 1895 three African chiefs, dressed in the finest British clothing available, began a tour of the British Isles. That tour foiled Cecil Rhodes' grand plan for Africa and culminated in the Chamberlain Settlement, the document that indirectly led to the independence of present-day Botswana. This is the story of that bizarre journey, one of the most neglected events in British Victorian history, revealed here in detail. The chiefs initially went to England to persuade Queen Victoria not to give their lands to Rhodes and his British South Africa Company. Abandoned by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain, and denied an audience with the Queen, the three rulers decided to tour the British Isles to plead their case to the populace. Appealing to the middle-class morality of Victorian society, the chiefs were remarkably successful in gaining support, eventually swaying Chamberlain into drafting the agreement that secured their territories against the encroachment of Rhodesia. This study reconstructs their journey, with the help of African archival materials and news clippings from British papers, garnered from the clippings service the chiefs had the foresight to employ. In part narrative of pilgrimage, voyage of discovery, and colonial resistance, it provides a view from the other side of colonialism and imperialism. It seeks to demonstrate the nuances of cultural and religious interaction between Africans and Europeans,

Neil Parsons is a professor of history at the University of Botswana.