The BBC has revealed that the UK government is to apologize and pay compensation to those tortured during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in the 1950s. More than 5,000 Kenyans claim they were mistreated, some through torture, by the then-British administration.
www.telegraph.co.uk The British fought a bitter battle with Mau Mau insurgents who were demanding land and an end to colonial rule.
Quite right. The rules and modes of behavior were different (read wrong) back then. Missionaries and explorers traveled worldwide changing the way native people thought and altering their customs. Settlers landed in America and fought with American Indians. Invaders landed in Australia and committed horrible atrocities against the Aboriginal people. From 1788, the First Fleet of British ships landed at Sydney to establish the penal colony. Settlers spread through the land and down to the lower island, eventually killing all indigenous people in Tasmania. Nothing can be done for them. However, the South Australian government has apologized and returned huge tracts of sacred land.
In Kenya, Africa, victims have been fighting for compensation from the UK government for a number of years.
The Mau Mau, a guerrilla group, began a violent campaign against white settlers in 1952. The uprising was eventually put down by the British colonial government.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission says 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed, and 160,000 people were detained in appalling conditions.
The native people's violence a century earlier drew movie makers, who depicted the British Troops in a heroic light and the natives as the villains.
Quite right. The rules and modes of behavior were different (read wrong) back then. Missionaries and explorers traveled worldwide changing the way native people thought and altering their customs. Settlers landed in America and fought with American Indians. Invaders landed in Australia and committed horrible atrocities against the Aboriginal people. From 1788, the First Fleet of British ships landed at Sydney to establish the penal colony. Settlers spread through the land and down to the lower island, eventually killing all indigenous people in Tasmania. Nothing can be done for them. However, the South Australian government has apologized and returned huge tracts of sacred land.
In Kenya, Africa, victims have been fighting for compensation from the UK government for a number of years.
The Mau Mau, a guerrilla group, began a violent campaign against white settlers in 1952. The uprising was eventually put down by the British colonial government.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission says 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed, and 160,000 people were detained in appalling conditions.
The native people's violence a century earlier drew movie makers, who depicted the British Troops in a heroic light and the natives as the villains.
 www.rsmoviedownloads.com Zulu is a 1964 historical war film depicting the Battle of Rorke's Drift between the British Army and the Zulus in January 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War. One hundred and fifty British soldiers, many of which were sick and wounded as patients at the field hospital, successfully held off an army of 4000 strong Zulu warriors. The film stared Stanley Baker and Michael Cain in his first main role. |  www.arrowfilms.co.uk A prequel to Zulu, Zulu Dawn, the 1979 war film features the historical Battle of Isandlwana between British and Zulu forces one hundred years before in South Africa. The film stared Bob Hoskins, Burt Lancaster, Sir John Mills and Peter O'Toole. Toward the end, British troops break and flee towards the camp. The battle becomes hand-to-hand fighting between British soldiers and Zulu warriors, amongst the débris of tents, fallen soldiers and supply wagons. Overwhelmed by the sheer number of Zulu warriors, British soldiers and their Afrikaans allies are slaughtered in the camp, some being cut down as they attempt to flee towards Natal. |
We can't change history, although nowadays we have more knowledge of what went on and perhaps more sympathy for people whose homeland is under invasion. Let us hope with education and understanding, the same mistakes and atrocities are never committed again.
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