Only a few years after Britain defeated fascism came the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya - a mass 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 1.5 million and to portray them as sub-human savages. Detainees in their thousands - possibly a hundred thousand or more - died from exhaustion, disease, starvation and systemic physical brutality. For decades these events remained untold.
Caroline Elkins conducted years of research to piece together this story, unearthing reams of documents and interviewing several hundred Kikuyu survivors. Britain's Gulag reveals, for the first time, the full savagery of the Mau Mau war and the ruthless determination with which Britain sought to control its empire.
| ISBN: | 9781847922946 |
| Publication date: | 13th March 2014 |
| Author: | Caroline Elkins |
| Publisher: | The Bodley Head an imprint of Vintage Publishing |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 496 pages |
| Genres: |
African history Colonialism and imperialism National liberation and independence Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions Violence, intolerance and persecution in history |