Distant reading case study "Seretse Khama"
Interracial marriage in colonial times
A United Kingdom is a 2016 biographical romantic drama film based on the true-life romance of Seretse Khama, heir to the throne of the Bangwato Tribe in Serowe, with his British wife Ruth Williams Khama. In the 1940s, when Seretse met Ruth, Serowe was part of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, which was established by the UK in 1885 and, after independence, became the Republic of Botswana.
The couple faced many obstacles and discriminations although Seretse Khama came from a royal African family and received an excellent education, studying law in England. Have things changed since Botswana`s indepencende in the 1960s, and can couples coming from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds now enjoy a better life? Have opinions about the relationship between Seretse and Ruth changed over time? And what can we learn from how their relationship was and is discussed in terms of a larger postcolonial discourse?
The data sets suggested below may help you get some insights.
Data sets (YouTube and Apple Reviews)
On YouTube, Monika has collected four videos with comments in English that cover the (family) life of Seretse Khama in the Digital Cultures - Seretse Khama playlist. You can scrape the comments from this playlist to get an idea how present-day YouTube users discuss the historical events and how they feel about interracial relationships in their own time.
Alternatively or in comparison, you can also analyse reviews that people have left for podcasts dedicated to interracial dating, relationships and family life. On the Apple Store, the following podcasts may be of interest:
‼️ While each of the podcasts may not have so many reviews per country, it can be interesting to scrape the data for all countries. And several smaller sets of podcast reviews can also be combined to form a larger insightful data set.
Questions for data analysis
Here are some research questions that you could explore based on YouTube comments left under videos discussing the story of Seretse Khama:
- What emotions do commenters express about Seretse Khama's story? Which adjectives and phrases are commonly used to describe him and his family?
- How do viewers’ comments discuss Seretse Khama’s private choices as opposed to his political decisions?
- What themes related to race, colonialism, and post-colonial identity emerge from the comments?
- Can you find any stereotypes about African culture or African politics in the data set?
- Are viewers concerned with the accuracy of the information presented in the videos? Do they point out aspects of Khama's life that they feel are misrepresented or require further exploration?
- Do the YouTube comments encourage an informed dialogue about identity, heritage, race and the legacy of colonialism?
When analysing the comments in Voyant Tools, use different tools to explore these questions. While the word cloud can give you an idea of the most frequent terms, you should also use tools that show co-occurrences or allow you to analyse keywords in context.
Idea for further data analysis: historical novels that cover romantic relations across perceived color boundaries
For your final essays or in future research, you may also want to explore how historical novels address romantic relationships across perceived color boundaries. Take, for instance, Vanessa Riley's book Island Queen, which offers a fictionalised account of the life of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas — a freed woman of color who rose from slavery to become a prominent landowner in the colonial West Indies. This detailed first-person narrative highlights how the main character navigates family ties, business connections and several romantic relationships despite social constraints.