Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya

Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya

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Synopsis

Britain fought in the Second World War to save the world from fascism. But just a few years after the defeat of Hitler came the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya - a massive armed rebellion by the Kikuyu people, demanding the return of their land and freedom. The draconian response of Britain's colonial government was to detain nearly the entire Kikuyu population of one-and-a half-million - to hold them in camps or confine them in villages ringed with barbed wire - to treat and portray them as sub-human savages. From 1952 until the end of the war in 1960 tens of thousands of detainees - and possibly hundreds of thousands - died from the combined effects of exhaustion, disease, starvation and systemic physical brutality. Until now these events have remained untold, largely because the British government in Kenya destroyed most of its files. For the last eight years Caroline Elkins has conducted exhausted research to piece together, unearthing reams of documents and interviewing several hundred Kikuyu survivors. Britain's Gulag reveals what happened inside Kenya's detention camps, as well as the efforts to conceal the truth. Now, for the first time, we can understand the full savagery of the Mau Mau was and the ruthless determination with which Britain sought to control its empire.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 496
Edition: First UK Edition/First Printing
Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
Published: 20 Jan 2005

ISBN 10: 022407363X
ISBN 13: 9780224073639
Book Overview: In a controversial but authoritative debut, young Harvard historian Caroline Elkins recounts the waning days of British Empire in Kenya, and the little known destruction of thousands of Kenyans at the hands of the British.

Author Bio
Caroline Elkins is an Assistant Professor of History at Harvard University and the recipient of numerous awards, including a Fluorite and Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship. Her research for Britain's Gulag was the subject of the BBC documentary Kenya: White Terror, which was shown in England in November 2002 and attracted the largest audience the BBC has ever had for a documentary. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Massachusetts.