The horrors of law and history in Britain’s shameful colonial legacy

The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy
Philippe Sands
Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Philippe Sands, author of East West Street and The Ratline, proved in those books that writing on complex historical and legal topics does not have to be a dry-as-dust exercise, and here he proves it again.

This time he turns his attention to the Chagos Archipelago, a remote group of islands in the Indian Ocean, the best known of which is probably Diego Garcia, home to a US military base where dubious activities, including post-Iraq War renditions, have taken place.

The archipelago became a British colony, with Mauritius, in 1814, but in the Cold War in the 1960s the US wanted a remote base and Britain promptly forced the Chagossians — descendants of African slaves who had been taken there many generations before to work on the coconut plantations — to leave with one suitcase each, abandoning their homes, belongings and pets. They were taken to Mauritius to endure half a century of hardship and displacement. To placate Mauritius, Britain granted it independence, excluding the Chagos Archipelago, which became the uninhabited British Indian Ocean Territory.

The book opens in the International Court in The Hague in 2019, where Sands was a lawyer representing the Chagossians in their quest for the return of their homeland. He highlights their story by homing in on Mme Liseby Elysé who, as a young, pregnant woman, had been forced from her home on the island of Peros Banhos.

Sands weaves her story into his narrative of chicanery, brutality and politics, as well as the intricacies of the international justice system, which is extraordinarily complicated and bedevilled by politics. But ultimately, as the author makes clear, the law is to protect the weak and vulnerable, even if it takes a long time to get there. Britain’s behaviour was and is deeply discreditable, and Sands makes much of how Brexit has weakened that country’s international position and sheared it of support and friends, not that it deserves them in this case.

When, towards the end of what is a short book, though filled with information, Sands returns to The Hague, The Last Colony almost takes on the aspect of a thriller. The horrors of law and history may never find a better literary champion. To add to this book are the illustrations — chilling cartoons from Martin Rowson which trace Mme Elyse’s struggle for justice through its legal and historical roots.

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.