Royal troubles

The story behind A United Kingdom is so cinematic it seems fake. But it isn’t. In fact, this lovely movie only crams in the bare outlines of a sprawling historical epic across England, Botswana, and South Africa. The filmmakers based the movie on the biography Colour Bar by Susan Williams, and after the credits scrolled, I began reading and reading to learn more about what happened. This story could have easily been a miniseries on television.

Set in the 1940s and early 1950s, the film relates the history of Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), heir to the throne of Bechuanaland—a British protectorate that is now Botswana. While in school in England, Khama falls in love with a clerk named Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike), a white woman. Against the wishes of Williams’ parents, Khama’s uncle who was leading Botswana, and the British government—they married. Not included in the film: British government officials halted their first attempt to get married midceremony. The true story is even more cinematic than the movie, which does have a minor ahistorical flourish or two.

The British government opposed the interracial couple because their union upset the political powers in neighboring South Africa, which had just introduced apartheid. South Africa did not want an African leader across the border who was married to a white woman. Britain exiled Khama from his own country, saying that he was unfit for duty. Most shocking is the role Winston Churchill played in this ugly business.

“The biggest effects of colonialism in Botswana that I found is the fact that very few people know this story,” Oyelowo told me. “In Botswana they know more about David Livingstone than they do about Seretse Khama.”

The weakness of the movie is the romance of the beginning: Ruth and Seretse’s meeting, courtship, and wedding go by in a twinkling, before the viewer can understand why exactly they are inseparable. Loving, last year’s film about the couple at the center of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case legalizing interracial marriage, smartly began after the couple was already in love, saving the filmmakers time to explore the interplay between politics and their relationship. Fortunately, in the following parts of A United Kingdom (rated PG-13 for minimal language including racial epithets and brief sensuality between the married couple), the marriage and political intrigue are engrossing.

Pike and Oyelowo are an excellent pair, both carrying an air of royalty. Oyelowo, who did a Golden Globe–nominated turn as Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, is at total ease in the role of a charismatic, principled leader. Oyelowo grew up in the United Kingdom but spent several years of his childhood in Nigeria. The director of the film, Amma Asante, is British but of Ghanian descent. Oyelowo said that having Africans leading the film allowed them to give a rare African perspective to a story about colonialism.

“I grew up around black men who were very self-possessed, who loved their families—my father being one of them, my uncles, my cousins,” he said. “My dad is from a royal family, so that bearing, that dignity—that kind of man, I grew up with. But they are never talked about. Whenever you talk about an African leader, someone in that kind of role, I’ve found it to be negative—leaders who are corrupt.”

The real-life Seretse Khama (Seretse means “the clay that binds together”) ushered in Botswana’s independence, kept the country from the racial strife of its neighbors, and watched the country grow in prosperity after the discovery of diamonds. The government, which has remained politically stable through elected leaders since Khama, steered clear of corruption. He and Ruth remained married until their deaths—and now their story has the cinematic telling it deserves.