A. W. Clark had suspected, Tshekedi had been very annoyed by Seretse’s separate speech of farewell to the Bangwato, after their joint statement. Shortly after his nephew’s departure, he told Baring that he had now shifted away from Seretse and was opposed to the idea of him ever being Kgosi.1 Six thousand miles away from home, Seretse had heard reports of his uncle’s changed attitude and, in October 1950, he wrote to him from London, emphasizing the need for them to work together: even though we have given away our fatherland through our dispute we are nevertheless ready to forget the things which have caused misunderstandings between us so that we can redeem our land from the control of the Europeans so that it may return to the Bamangwato. Government officials were eager to see conflict between them, he argued, ‘so that they could say that when we were together we would continually be at loggerheads’. He urged Tshekedi not to play into their hands. ‘I refuse,’ he said, ‘to quarrel with you further.’2 But Tshekedi ignored the warning in his nephew’s letter.
