Thread: On history not taught in British schools about colonial rule, specifically the Kenyan Emergency in the 1950’s which involved rape and torture by British colonial guards in detention camps - acts which saw the British Government apologise in 2013 #MauMau 1/16

The ‘Kenyan emergency’ lasted from 1952 to 1960. The group resisting British colonial rule were known as the Mau Mau. The Governor of Kenya, Sir Evelyn Baring obtained authorisation from London to detain suspected Mau Mau members without trial #MauMau 2/16

In 1954, the British launched an assault on suspected #MauMau in which 17,000 suspects were incarcerated in detention camps without trial. Detainees often had little or nothing to do with the #MauMau 3/16

In a process known as 'villagisation' one million Kenyans were forced to burn their homes and placed in villages fenced with barbed wire. Acts of brutality by British colonial guards were widespread 4/16

British colonial guards castrated male inmates and sexually assaulted female detainees. Some guards would hang detainees upside down and torture them in the most appalling manner #MauMau 5/16
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22797624

The violence in the camps culminated in March 1959, when eleven detainees were killed by camp guards at the Hola Camp. Each death was found to have been caused by shock and haemorrhage due to violence at the hands of camp officials #MauMau 6/16

The public outcry which resulted from the Hola killings led to the Fairn Report. The Emergency was ended in 1960 and the camps closed. Kenyan independence was eventually granted in 1963 #MauMau 7/16

However, it wasn’t until 2005 when two ground-breaking academic studies about the Kenyan Emergency dramatically changed the accepted understanding of this period of British history #MauMau 8/16

These works were Imperial Reckoning: the Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya by Prof. Caroline Elkins @Harvard and Histories of the Hanged: Britain’s Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire by Prof. David Anderson of Warwick Uni @warwickhistory #MauMau 9/16

On the 23rd of June 2009, Leigh Day issued a claim against the British Government for compensation on behalf of elderly Kenyans who had been detained and tortured by the British colonial administration in Kenya during the Emergency #MauMau 10/16 https://www.leighday.co.uk/International/Further-insights/Detailed-case-studies/The-Mau-Mau-claims

In 2011, the Kenyan victims won a landmark victory when the High Court rejected the British Government’s attempt to get the claims thrown out on the grounds that it was the Kenyan Government who were liable for the abuses of the British colony #MauMau 11/16

In 2012, the Kenyans won another historic legal victory when judges rejected the British Government’s attempt to get the claims thrown out again, historically, they did not deny that the Kenyans had been tortured #MauMau 12/16 https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/JCO/Documents/Judgments/mutua-fco-judgment-05102012.pdf

The case led to the release of thousands of secret files held by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.The files had been deemed too sensitive to be allowed to fall into the hands of an independent Kenyan Government 13/16 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/apr/18/britain-destroyed-records-colonial-crimes #MauMau

Following the 2012 judgment the British Government announced it would apologise to those tortured by the British colonial administration in Kenya and announced a £19.9m settlement of their claims #MauMau 14/16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=oHI5aMOnwVQ&feature=emb_logo

“To accept one’s past — one’s history — is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought." James Baldwin #MauMau 15/16

As we reflect on how racial injustice divides us, the need to examine the role of the British Empire in historic atrocities is essential. We support the movement for a history curriculum focused on Empire and colonisation to understand our world #blackhistorymatters #mauMau 16/16

Thread update: excellent piece by @GeorgeMonbiot in today’s @guardian ‘Boris Johnson says we shouldn't edit our past. But Britain has been lying about it for decades’ in which he details the atrocities during the ‘Kenyan emergency’ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/16/boris-johnson-lying-history-britain-empire?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&fbclid=IwAR1wZVQnbcOwShS_2_290RtGpFl6-Kn_aowwms1KAI9Fqrn_M30YksYnNf8