The hier to the traditional kingship of the people of Bechuanaland studied in England after world war two, and married a English office worker he met there. But after he returned home, the British, within whose empire his country then lay, cruelly banished him, principally not to upset the South Africans, who were busy instating their system of Apartheid, or racial separation, at that time. The story is sympathetically told in Amma Asante's film 'A United Kingdom'. The protagonists clearly had right on their side, and subsequently, as Botswana, their land has become one of Africa's success stories, so the sympathy is not misplaced, but it does remove any sense of moral tension (although not moral outrage) from the film. As a Briton, it's educational to see quite how appalllingly my governement behaved relatively recently, and interesting to see the role played by a young (and not yet famous) Tony Benn; but overall, this is a gentle, positive story, whose fault lines do not really trouble the modern viewer seeking to take sides.
Review of A United Kingdom
