GUM OF MECAlS LIBERATION STRUGGLE - KORA

22 The Gathering Rain Clouds
British affiliate of the organhtion he represents, the Fellowship of Reconciliation,
has had certain connections with individuals in the territories in
question regarded as agitators."
Three Labour MPs, including Fenner Brockway, had identical letters
from Oliver Lyttleton, the colonial secretary, saying Uune 1954)~ "the
governors of Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia, Kenya and Tanganyika have
con6rmed that Mr. Houser bas been declared a prohibited immigrant.
Their decisions were reached after very carefui consideration and I regret
that I am unable to intervene in this case." Brockway had been particularly
helpful. He was chairman of the Movement for Colonial Frecdom, an
organhation I was to work closely with over the years.
Finding out exactly why I was ddared a prohibited immigrant became
a matter of guesswork, but weeks later at a sherry party at the home of the
British governor of the Gold Coast, Sir Charles Arden-Clark, I was
introduced by the governor to Michael Ensore of the Gold Coast Department
of External Affairs. Ensore inquid, "Is your first name George?"
When I affirmed it, he thought for a moment and said, "I have read about
you some place." Then he continued, "Oh yes, I received a report from
the British office in New York giving me your background in race relations
work." This report was undoubtedly responsible for my prohibited status.
The British authorities certainly did not want a visitor who had been active
against racism in the United States in East Africa during the Mau Mau
crisis.
My London weeks were put to good advantage. I met the leaders of
organizations I would be working with for years to come. John Hatch, the
Africa expert of the Labour partyy took me to the home of Seretse Khama,
, 'who later became the first president of Botswana. Khama was the chief of
the Bamangwato tribe of colonial Bechuanaland, who had been deposed by
the British Labour government in 1951 because he had married a white
British woman. Khama felt that pressure from Prime Minister D.E Malan
of South Africa was responsible. I had a fascinating evening with him and
his attractive blond wife, Ruth. She kidded him about bis royal blood and
he joined in. They had twn children. Khama laughingly told me about
meting some American m y persoqn& wbp.E811@ l&nYs1ur Hjghnd
and were constantly bowing. -. - .
I was introduced to the Kenya situatibn extenshe hssion with two ail-Joe Murumbi, later vice president and foreign minister of
Kenya, and Mbyiu Ro'ie, later minister of state in Kenya and an
adviser to Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta. Murumbi was trying without
success to get a U.S. visa to undertake a speaking tour for the American
Friends Service Committee. R had a fellow feeling because of our mutual
visa problems. Koinange, a Kikuyu leader, was suspected of being tied in
with the Mau Mau. He had OQ-d a network of 127 Kikuyu schools,
which the colonial gove.mment banned. Kenyatta, of course, was already
in detention for suspected leadership of the Mau Mau rebellion.
One of my most important London contacts was George Padmore.
Born in Trinidad, he had studied in the United States and moved to