The Mau Mau insurgency against the British rule in Kenya (1950s) is remembered for its barbarity and brutality. The British had expropriated large tracts of productive land, largely from the Kikuyu tribe and rendered many landless and homeless.
People became destitute and many provided, for their survival, serf labour to those who now occupied their land. Conditions were inhumane but when it became a choice between survival and death, many just opted to survive, working for the colonists to sustain their lives and families.
Oppressive regime
The brutal regime led to the establishment of ‘Mau Mau,’ which demanded the return of all ancestral land expropriated by the British settlers. It engaged in violence and sabotage that could only be contained with the intervention of the British military after eight years of war that, according to some estimates, claimed over 90,000 lives.
Sir Eric Griffith-Jones, then Attorney General in the British colony of Kenya equated the torture and murder of detainees as “distressingly reminiscent of conditions in Nazi Germany or Communist Russia.”
He wrote to the Governor of Kenya in 1957, saying, “If we are going to sin, we must sin quietly.”
How bad were the British crimes? According to the widow of Onyango Obama, grandfather of US President Barack Obama, British soldiers forced pins into his fingernails and buttocks and squeezed his testicles between metal rods. Two of the original five claimants who brought the test case were castrated. One of them, Paulo Muoka Nzili (85), described how detention camp guards castrated him with pliers that were normally used to castrate cattle. Significant numbers were murdered; official accounts described how some prisoners were roasted alive.
Empire’s sins
The British sins were aplenty but it covered the “sins of the Empire” with such skill that many countries considered British rule as a boon, not bane, that left countries robbed of their riches and peoples violated, murdered and maimed. The sorrows and sighs of the victims now echo beyond their graves and the world leaders do not have the moral conscience or courage to hold the British to account for its iniquities because the British now occupy the head table, sitting in adjudication to promote and defend the human rights of the citizens of the world.
Even the much well-regarded British justice system became a cog in the wheels of British injustices. It was only marginally against the subject races, as the custodians of the Empire revelled in the thought that they could even escape with murder against locals, as many did. Arguably, the British Empire represented an outstanding feat in human ability to subjugate the rights of people in its colonies. It was achieved with such tact and diplomacy that those violated were made to feel as if it was British magnanimity instead of British depravity.
In the 21st Century, such crimes would be viewed as crimes against humanity. After commission of such monstrous crimes in the past centuries, the British, with a select few, today holds the moral compass of the world. It has not earned it by deed but by might that is a legacy from its past history. Besides, it is in the good company of US and other European nations with who it has fraternal ties and is confident that it would escape any international censure for its bloody past. It has come out strongly against countries that have violated human rights or engaged in undemocratic practices.
The Fiji context
However, behind the veneer of its uprightness, I found that the British still resort to the morals of the jungle and apply it selectively. In 2005, following the release of my book, ‘Tears in Paradise,’ I wrote to the British Government drawing its attention to the grim revelations made on the atrocities and indignities it visited on our Girmitya forebears, during the indenture period (1879-1919) in Fiji.
I sent a copy of my book to the British Government, challenging it to refute the claims made. They did not do so, which, in a way, endorsed the contents of my book.
However, the lackadaisical response of the British Government to my three-page letter was shocking. Totally ignoring the contents, it thanked me for sending a copy of my book.
It claimed that the Book was a valuable addition to the collection on Fiji in its library.
I felt slighted and injured. The pain and suffering that the British inflicted on our innocent Girmityas became my personal wound and I pledged to pursue this matter. I wrote to the principals of law firm in UK that pursued compensation on behalf of the Mau Mau. But its response was not encouraging. The firm noted that time had elapsed and that none of the victims of Girmit was alive.
Incriminating evidence
Indeed, passage of time became the vanguard of British defence. It delayed proceedings through various means. In the case of Mau Mau, it had hoped that five of the petitioners, who were more than 80 years old, would succumb to age and it would then seek termination of proceedings. In the interim, it used every legal trick to delay the proceedings that included denial of liability. It even suggested that the Kenyan Government was responsible for such claims, as it had inherited all British legal responsibilities. The claim of the British that too much time had elapsed for a fair trial was rejected by Justice Richard McCombe.
While the British twisted and twirled, the lawyers for the claimants struck a hidden cache of archived documents that had all the incriminating evidence to hang the British on its own petard. In the end, the British admitted to the existence of an enormous secret archive of more than 8000 files from 37 other colonies. It eventually led to an out-of-court settlement that included payment of US$5700 to 5228 survivors, US$9 million in legal costs and construction of a suitable memorial in Nairobi for the victims of colonial-era torture.
Girmitya compensation
Is there hope for a similar settlement for the British excesses in Fiji, during the Girmit era? Yes and No. The Foreign Office issued a statement following the Mau Mau settlement, saying, “We believe that there should be a debate about the past. It is an enduring feature of our democracy that we are willing to learn from our history.”
It is hard to comprehend as to what is meant by “enduring feature of our democracy,” which sounds good but when related to the British past, the claim to “enduring feature of our democracy” is rather ominous.
However, taken on the face value and reading between the lines, the door to seek redress in some form is neither shut nor is it ajar. However, it can be prised open but it requires political will and financial muscle and the Indo-Fijian community has neither. Only thing that it can do is to continue, as it has always successfully done, to sit back, relax and speculate on probabilities and possibilities during their ‘talanoa’ (social dribble) sessions.
Future claims
However, the community can take some consolation that someone from their community felt the moral outrage and knocked on the door at 10 Downing Street (residence of the British Prime Minister) and reminded the British of the crimes that they had committed against the Girmityas and asked for admission of its crimes, appropriate reparation and an apology.
I did. Talo maca!
But critics argue that the case will open a door to future compensation claims that will cost the cash-strapped British government potentially huge sums of money.
These fears are unfounded, says Leader, the lawyer, because “Kenya was in a league of its own. I am quite skeptical that any case will have the traction Kenya has in its gravity and scale. There are also not many living survivors of abuses from this era [in countries other than Kenya.”
The importance, says Elkins, author of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning book, ‘Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya,’ lies more in the quest for justice and chance to “have a truly productive conversation about the dark side of Empire.”
The British government will appeal the decision. After McCombe’s ruling, the Foreign Office issued a statement saying: “Our relationship with Kenya and its people has moved on since the Emergency period.” Elkins says that the Government, which “is having a serious case of denial,” will end up “costing the taxpayer a huge amount of money.”
Rajendra Prasad is the author of Tears in Paradise: Suffering and Struggles of Indians in Fiji 1879-2004). It is now available as eBook through www.amazon.com/ebooks. It can be purchased and downloaded within minutes on Kindle, iPad and other readers. Many readers have capitalised on its popularity, with one of them listing it on Amazon for US$64.99. The Duty Free Shops in Nadi, Fiji retail it for F$67. The Book is priced at US$ 45 including postage from the Amazon website. The cost per download of eBook is only US$6.99.
