The Mau Maus clearly have a case, as Barbara Castle knew long before Caroline Elkins, and the criminals should be brought to court.
Despite the anti-imperialist mindset of the book, much mentioned by other reviewers, I was left in no doubt that the British have a case to answer regarding the treatment of the Kikuyus in the 1950’s. The book is full of the appalling suffering endured by the tribe at the hands of the colonial administration, and even if some of this is based only on interviews which cannot be substantiated, still we are left with a hard core of evidence that the Kikuyus were treated unjustly: the mass arrests in Nairobi; the crude methods used in the screening process; the creation of the pipeline; the use of prisoner labour in contravention of international agreements and the violence used to empty the camps, shown by the ‘Hola Massacre’. And it is not as if we just have Caroline Elkins’ interviews to rely on. The author also tells us of the involvement of Barbara Castle who while no friend of empire, would not have deliberately made up facts. She believed there was a case to answer long before Caroline Elkins did.
As Elkins rightly emphasizes, the root of the conflict between the Mau Mau and the settlers was land. I remember learning this when studying history at university back in the 1970’s. This got swamped by the horror of the Mau Mau attacks and the obsession with the oath. If instead of draconian oppression Governor Baring had sat down with Kenyatta and come to a compromise over land, many lives could have been saved.
Any one familiar with Martin Meredith’s depressing but brilliant book on Africa’s last fifty years will be aware that by and large white imperialism served the continent well, and in fact more time was needed for key institutions like the civil service, the judiciary, the financial services, and the parliaments to be rooted in her soil to ensure a prosperous future. Instead there was a rush into nationalism which soon became tribalism and a lot of war and mayhem. This whole sad Kenya story would only have given fuel to the fire to get rid of the imperialists.
That is all now history. But it is very likely that there are still people alive who committed war crimes against the Kikuyu and they should be brought to justice.
Despite the anti-imperialist mindset of the book, much mentioned by other reviewers, I was left in no doubt that the British have a case to answer regarding the treatment of the Kikuyus in the 1950’s. The book is full of the appalling suffering endured by the tribe at the hands of the colonial administration, and even if some of this is based only on interviews which cannot be substantiated, still we are left with a hard core of evidence that the Kikuyus were treated unjustly: the mass arrests in Nairobi; the crude methods used in the screening process; the creation of the pipeline; the use of prisoner labour in contravention of international agreements and the violence used to empty the camps, shown by the ‘Hola Massacre’. And it is not as if we just have Caroline Elkins’ interviews to rely on. The author also tells us of the involvement of Barbara Castle who while no friend of empire, would not have deliberately made up facts. She believed there was a case to answer long before Caroline Elkins did.
As Elkins rightly emphasizes, the root of the conflict between the Mau Mau and the settlers was land. I remember learning this when studying history at university back in the 1970’s. This got swamped by the horror of the Mau Mau attacks and the obsession with the oath. If instead of draconian oppression Governor Baring had sat down with Kenyatta and come to a compromise over land, many lives could have been saved.
Any one familiar with Martin Meredith’s depressing but brilliant book on Africa’s last fifty years will be aware that by and large white imperialism served the continent well, and in fact more time was needed for key institutions like the civil service, the judiciary, the financial services, and the parliaments to be rooted in her soil to ensure a prosperous future. Instead there was a rush into nationalism which soon became tribalism and a lot of war and mayhem. This whole sad Kenya story would only have given fuel to the fire to get rid of the imperialists.
That is all now history. But it is very likely that there are still people alive who committed war crimes against the Kikuyu and they should be brought to justice.
No comments:
Post a Comment