‘You’ll do anything for love’: the love story that became an international scandal
This is the love story that sparked a racial discrimination scandal that echoed around the world and made headlines.
The story is about Ruth Holloway, a white British missionary woman who falls in love with John Cameo, a black man from the African country of Kenya.
John worked at an organization for the blind, where Ruth was also employed, and she lost her job when she announced that she was marrying John.
Now their daughter, Andanda Kemuyo, has begun writing a book about her parents’ love story that began in 1957 under incredibly unfavorable circumstances.
Ruth was only 19 years old when she left for Kenya. She was born in the Nottinghamshire mining town of Kirkby-in-Ashfield and spent her fifty-fifth year there.
She fell in love with a blind Kenyan man while Kenyan was going through a dangerous race.
The Kenyan Land and Freedom Army known as the Mau Mau were fighting for independence from British colonial rule.
When the couple decided to tie the knot, according to Andanda, her mother, Ruth, booked a boat back to Britain to inform her bosses and parents.
When they got there, they faced a reaction they never expected.
“It was a big deal,” Andanda told the BBC. During this trip, the Salvation Army decided to make him lose his job.
‘I bought a wedding ring, hid it in a cake while it was being prepared and smuggled it back to Kenya by plane.’
Their marriage became particularly controversial because Ruth was believed to be the first white European woman to marry a black Kenyan.
The registrar himself also intervened in the marriage ceremony. He got married but also announced that he did not agree to the marriage.
Andanda said news of their marriage made headlines in newspapers and television from Britain and Kenya to the United States, with some reports saying it had threatened ethnic riots.
He said that the biggest opposition was probably from the white organizations in Kenya who did not want this at all.
‘My mother could not win, my father could not win. A few positive articles were published but generally the coverage was extremely racist.
Andanda was born three years after their marriage and developed a closer relationship with her father. But after Kenya’s independence, his family broke up before his fifth birthday.
The couple decided in 1965 that Ruth should take Andanda and her two sisters back to Britain.
“We were really worried,” said Andanda. We came with a small suitcase and clothes on our backs and have been living here ever since.
It was a very difficult time for my father. I know (my mother) had a nervous breakdown, but she kept going.”
Andanda said his parents believed that a blind man would not find work in the UK. So John stayed in Kenya where he had a switchboard job with the police.
He kept in touch with Ruth by sending reel-to-reel tape recordings. Andanda says that she has kept the tapes even today.
She said her mother tried to stay positive during this time but not being able to be with her husband was a ‘heartbreaking’ experience for her.
Ruth died nearly 30 years ago, while John remarried and died in November of this year in his 90s.
Andanda arrived in Kenya last month to speak at her father’s funeral. That is, she had reached her native country for the first time in 30 years.
A trip to his ancestral home inspired him to write a book on his parents’ story.
‘I went to the veranda where I could hear my mother’s voice clearly because it was lodged in my soul.
“My mother’s voice was repeating to me all the stories she had told me over the years and my fingers were talking to the keyboard.”
Andanda said his parents were the ‘foundation’ of changing history. He added that we live in a different world now. It is amazing.
But this is love. You will do anything for love. You climb mountains for that. It was love that brought them together and love made them fight for it.