Colonial Abuse To Be Settled In Court

Sometimes it's easy to forget that within our parents' lifetime, colonialism was a real thing. Europeans owned African land, forced Africans to worked it, and ruled it with nothing even approximating civil rights of any kind for the native peoples (for the most part).

The Mau Mau movment in Kenya was a violent colonial conflict during the 1950s, when one particular Kenyan tribe, the Kikuyus, and their allies fought against the British. It was bloody and horrific in many ways--Kenyans were detained in horrible detainment camps and British citizens were mauled in their bedrooms. Even in the 1980s, when my parents lived in Kenya, "white" houses still had reinforced "Mau Mau" doors to the bedroom, in case murderous natives broke into the house and tried to get into the master bedroom during the night.

The movement may or may not have contributed to Kenya's independence--some say that it actually delayed independence by causing instability. Regardless, it was an unfortunate part of history for both countries involved.

The news today? It is now legal for Africans hurt by colonial Britain to sue the UK in court. At first, the UK had said that any torture done by the colonial era government became the responsibility of  the Kenyan government with independence. But this ruling last week changed that, and said that even though it's been fifty years, the cases may go forward as planned. The three plaintiffs who filed suit against the British are all in their 70s and 80s and were suing stating that they had been abused by the British authorities--one man was severely beaten, another castrated, and the third, a woman, brutally raped at age 15.

the plaintiffs stayed in Nairobi, Kenya, for the case, but the chap on the left was their lawyer in London

Random Kate Thoughts: This is a great win for the plaintiffs and the many more who will file cases against the UK now that they are allowed to. In many ways, of course, it's much too little, too late. Most of those tortured by the authorities at that time died then or have died since then. The fourth plaintiff died during these proceedings, actually. There seems to be not enough words to truly express how much colonialism screwed over Africa. Yes, you can argue all day about the development brought about or the civilization, but the fact of the matter is that today, when we see the horrible civil wars and brutal rapes happening in Africa, we forget that much of that brutality was learned from guess who? The colonizers themselves.