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 Birth
of the BDP
Throughout, 1961 there was a growing
call for Seretse Khama to lead a
political alternative to the Botswana
Peoples Party. Recovering from ill
health, he moved cautiously. He wanted
to make sure that any such party was
both progressive and national in its
scope. Thus, June 1961, he turned down a
proposal by the white political leader,
Russell England, to form a 'multi-racial' movement to be known as the
Liberal Party. He also turned down
proposals to revive the Federal Party
seeing its champions as being too tied
to the politics of bogosi.
Khama
finally made his public move in October
at a four-day kgotla debate at the
Serowe kgotla, in which many called for
the BPP to be banned within
GammaBangwato as a threat to traditional
order. Others, while expressing
reservations about the BPP, spoke in
favour of freedom of association,
assembly and speech as part of a process
of moving towards greater democracy.
When he rose to speak on the last day,
Khama appealed to both camps. In his
speech he 'agreed that the People's
Party was confusing the people and was
out to cause dissension between the
tribe, Government and white inhabitants
of the Territory'. He therefore proposed
that: 'The people should unite and form
an organisation with proper leaders
which would be a power in the land and
which would be able not only to stop the
damage being caused by the People's
Party but which would be able to advise
Government as to what should be done to
further the interests of the Territory'
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