Their romance caused major political and diplomatic ructions around the globe. He was an Oxford-educated African king, while she was a white Englishwoman working as a clerk at Lloyd’s of London. But the extraordinary love story of the late Botswanan president Sir Seretse Khama and his middle-class white English wife Ruth Williams endured all despite all the obstacles and outrage they faced.
Now it is being told for the first time on the big screen.
British stars David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike are starring as the pair whose relationship became the focus of a feud between Britain and Botswana’s neighbour, South Africa, which was about to introduce apartheid.
The marriage was vehemently opposed by the racist South African government, which bullied Britain’s ruling Labour party into exiling the royal couple from Bechuanaland in 1951. The king’s uncle and sometime regent, Tshekedi Khama, also tried and failed to have his nephew deposed. Williams, meanwhile, proved suprisingly popular in Africa.
Amma Asante, director of A United Kingdom, said: ‘They were sent into exile because of their forbidden love.’
We are giving ShowFilmFirst members the chance to WIN two tickets to a advanced screening of the highly anticipated film, on Wednesday 5th October 2016.
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