Susan Williams | |
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Occupation(s) | Historian and author |
Employer(s) | Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London |
Awards | Windham Campbell Prize 2023 |
Susan Williams is a historian and author based in London. She has written on influential women and the history of British monarchs, though known for her more recent works on how Britain, the United States, and the rest of the Western World influenced or interfered in modern 20th century autonomy in African countries.
Williams is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. [1]
Her publications include The People's King: The True Story of the Abdication, a book about the abdication of Edward VIII, published in 2003; [2] and Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation, published in 2006, [3] on which the 2016 film A United Kingdom is based. [4] [5]
Her book Who Killed Hammarskjold? (2011), [6] [1] [7] about the 1961 death of the then-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld, triggered a new UN investigation in 2015.[ citation needed ]
In Spies in the Congo: America's Atomic Mission in World War II she tells an intricate tale regarding the formation of special unit of the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a forerunner of the CIA, to purchase and secretly extract all the uranium from Shinkolobwe in Katanga Province, Belgian Congo. The purpose of this was to obtain the radioactive material and keep it out of the hands of the Axis powers. The uranium was used in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[ citation needed ]
Her latest book is White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa, published in 2021. [8] [9]
She was the recipient of a 2023 Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for non-fiction. [10]
Patrice Émery Lumumba, born Isaïe Tasumbu Tawosa, was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from June until September 1960, following the May 1960 election. He was the leader of the Congolese National Movement (MNC) from 1958 until his execution in January 1961. Ideologically an African nationalist and pan-Africanist, he played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a colony of Belgium into an independent republic.
Khama III, referred to by missionaries as Khama the Good also called Khama the Great, was the Kgosi of the Bangwato people.
Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. As of 2024, he remains the youngest person to have held the post, having been only 47 years old when he was appointed. He was a son of Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1914 to 1917.
The Botswana Democratic Party is the governing party in Botswana. Its chairman is the Vice-President of Botswana, Slumber Tsogwane, and its symbol is a lift jack. The party has ruled Botswana continuously since gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. The BDP is sometimes classified as a paternalistic conservative party and is also a consultative member of the Socialist International since 2014, which is a group including many worldwide social-democratic parties.
Sir Seretse Goitsebeng Maphiri Khama, GCB, KBE was a Botswana politician who served as the first President of Botswana, a post he held from 1966 to his death in 1980.
The Bechuanaland Protectorate was a protectorate established on 31 March 1885 in Southern Africa by the United Kingdom. It became the Republic of Botswana on 30 September 1966.
Evelyn Baring, 1st Baron Howick of Glendale,, was Governor of Southern Rhodesia from 1942 to 1944, High Commissioner for Southern Africa from 1944 to 1951, and Governor of Kenya from 1952 to 1959. Baring played an integral role in the suppression of the Mau Mau rebellion. Together with Colonial Secretary Alan Lennox-Boyd, Baring played a significant role in the government's efforts to deal with the rebellion, and see Kenya through to independence. Baring was aware of abuses against Mau Mau detainees. He was elevated to being the 1st Baron Howick of Glendale in 1960.
Ruth Williams Khama, Lady Khama was the wife of Botswana's first president Sir Seretse Khama, the Paramount Chief of its Bamangwato tribe. She served as the inaugural First Lady of Botswana from 1966 to 1980.
The United Nations Operation in the Congo was a United Nations peacekeeping force which was deployed in the Republic of the Congo in 1960 in response to the Congo Crisis. The ONUC was the UN's first peacekeeping mission with significant military capability, and remains one of the largest UN operations in size and scope.
The Republic of the Congo was a sovereign state in Central Africa, created with the independence of the Belgian Congo in 1960. From 1960 to 1966, the country was also known as Congo-Léopoldville to distinguish it from its northwestern neighbor, which is also called the Republic of the Congo, alternatively known as "Congo-Brazzaville". In 1964, the state's official name was changed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but the two countries continued to be distinguished by their capitals; with the renaming of Léopoldville as Kinshasa in 1966, it became also known as Congo-Kinshasa. After Joseph Désiré Mobutu, commander-in-chief of the national army, seized control of the government in 1965, the Democratic Republic of the Congo became the Republic of Zaire in 1971. It would again become the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1997. The period between 1960 and 1964 is referred to as the First Congolese Republic.
Tshekedi Khama was the regent-king of the Bamangwato tribe in 1926 after the death of Sekgoma II.
The Regional Center for Nuclear Studies in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo,, prior to 1970 known as the Trico Center, houses the TRICO I and TRICO II nuclear research reactors. TRICO I was the first nuclear reactor on the African continent.
Sir Percivale Liesching was a British civil servant who held two posts as Permanent Under-Secretary and was High Commissioner in South Africa.
On 18 September 1961, a DC-6 passenger aircraft of Transair Sweden Flight 001, operating for the United Nations, crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia. The crash resulted in the deaths of all people on board, including Dag Hammarskjöld, the second secretary-general of the United Nations, and 15 others. Hammarskjöld had been en route to ceasefire negotiations with Moïse Tshombe during the Congo Crisis. Three official inquiries failed to conclusively determine the cause. Some historians and military experts like Susan Williams have criticized the official inquiries, pointing to evidence of foul play that had been omitted from the inquiries.
The Independence Day of Botswana, commonly called Boipuso in Setswana, is a national holiday observed in Botswana on September 30 of every year. The date celebrates Botswana's Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on September 30, 1966.
A United Kingdom is a 2016 biographical romantic drama film directed by Amma Asante and written by Guy Hibbert, based on the true-life romance of Seretse Khama, heir to the throne of the Bangwato Tribe in Serowe – one of many tribes found in then Bechuanaland Protectorate – with his wife Ruth Williams Khama. David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike portray Seretse and Ruth, respectively.
Donald Leungo Gosego Molosi is a Botswana actor, writer and playwright. Molosi debuted off-Broadway in 2010 as Philly Lutaaya in Today It's Me making him the first Motswana to perform off-Broadway. In 2011, Molosi won the Best Short Solo Award at United Solo Theatre Festival for his performance as Seretse Khama in Blue, Black and White. In 2013, Molosi returned off-Broadway to perform Motswana: Africa, Dream Again. He played supporting roles in the films A United Kingdom (2016) and Given (2009). As a playwright, Molosi has published a collection of his original off-Broadway plays, which include We Are All Blue, Blue, Black and White and Motswana: Africa, Dream Again in 2016.
South African Institute for Maritime Research is the name of a paramilitary organization that is believed to have performed clandestine operations to support white supremacy in Africa.
The Port Francqui incident, also known as the Port Francqui massacre, was an incident during the Congo Crisis where rogue Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (ANC) forces engaged in combat with UN peacekeepers, primarily from Ghana.
Elizabeth Pulane Moremi was regent and mohumagadi (queen) of BaTawana from 1946 to 1964 while her son, Letsholathêbê II a Morêmi, was too young to rule. She married Moremi III, the ruler of BaTawana, in 1937. When he was killed in a 1946 car crash, she was made regent. As regent, Moremi attempted to make several progressive reforms, but was hindered by conservative opposition. She stepped down in 1964 and worked at a school before her death thirty years later.
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