ONE of the topics that brought tears to my father was when he talked about how his parents lost their land and wealth as a result of the Land Apportionment Act in 1930 and the subsequent Land Husbandry Act in 1951.
He shed tears as he narrated how his people were forcibly moved from their land, leaving their cultural heritage, the graves of their ancestors and loved ones behind, to start new lives in the unknown.
However, nothing of their experience can compare with the Chagossian people’s experience!
For a start, how many people in Zimbabwe, or Africa, know about the Chagossians, and their plight?
I bet very few.
Yet their history is very close to ours.
I didn’t know, until two weeks ago, when a friend mentioned them loosely in a conversation.
She was surprised to find out that as a writer and a Pan-Africanist, I had not heard about them.
The history modules I studied back in the 1990s at the University of Zimbabwe, did not mention the plight of the Chagossians of Diego Garcia Island.
Theirs is a history shrouded in secrecy and political controversy which should bring ‘embarrassment’ to the British.
I will share with you the sad history of Chagossians.
Once upon a time, the Chagossians, who are mostly people of African and Indian heritage, lived happily on their small island, which is about 17 square miles in size.
The island is in the Indian Ocean about 3 000 kilometres off the African coast north of Mauritius and Seychelles Islands.
Things changed for them when the British, as part of a deal to ‘decolonise’ Mauritius in the 60s, struck a deal with Mauritius to renounce the island as part of its territory.
Soon afterwards, driven by the desire to set up a military base on the island, the British and Americans began to forcibly remove the 2 000 or so Chagossians from their native land.
They sent them to Seychelles and later to Mauritius.
The Chagossians experienced untold horrors when they were removed from their island.
Alyssa Rohricht, in an article, ‘No Justice For Chagos’, describes how they were forcibly moved:
“Following the (illegal) agreement, US/UK campaign went into full swing to have the island ‘swept and sanitised’ of the Chagossian people.
“It began with an embargo aimed at starving the population out.
“Cut off from basic supplies like milk, dairy, salt, sugar, and medication, many on the island left.
“Those remaining didn’t last long.
“They were told that if they didn’t leave, the island would be bombed.
“Then, in the Spring of 1971, US military officials gave the order to round up all of the pet dogs on the island and have them killed.
“About 1 000 pet dogs were taken — some straight from screaming children — and gassed with exhaust fumes from American military vehicles.
“The Chagossians were told that if they didn’t comply, the same would be done to them.
“The remaining Chagossians were rounded up and placed onto a ship — The Nordvaer — allowed to take only one suitcase.
“The horses were given precedence and were put on deck.”
They were then taken to the Seychelles islands to a prison — where they were kept in cells until finally being transported to Mauritius.
Not surprising though, a lot of them died because of destitution and diseases.
Their crime?
Their island was strategic to British and American interests.
According to The Telegraph, the island is now home to about “3 000 to 5 000 military and civilian personnel who now live on Diego Garcia, most of them American and British.”
The British have been leasing the island to the Americans, who use it as a military/naval base; very strategic when they carry out military raids in countries in the Middle East.
Peter Foster, who writes for The Telegraph, says: “The island was used as a launch pad for bombing missions over Iraq during the first Gulf War in 1991 and war in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.” (August 13 2014).
And he added: “There has long been an air of mystery around Diego Garcia, in part because access to the island is so restricted.
“There have been rumours of a US prison camp on the island for over a decade, but Washington has made repeated assurances that no such prison exists.”
Since then the Chagossian people have been engaged in a protracted legal battle with the British, fighting for their right to return to a land given to them by God.
They brought their case before the High Court in London in 1982 and the UK agreed to pay them £4 million in compensation to about 1 344 Chagossians living in Mauritius.
This meant about £2 976 for each person, which is a mere pittance compared with what they lost.
Not all Chagosssians accepted the compensation.
Those who did so were made to sign a form renouncing their right to return to Diego Garcia.
In 2012 the Chagossians took their case to the European Court of Human Rights (Chagos Island v. the United Kingdom).
Sadly, they lost the case because the ECHR ruled that they had received ‘compensation’ in 1982.
A spokesperson of the Chagossians, who was interviewed by the BBC in December 2012 soon after they lost their case, said: “We appeal to the coalition government to stand by their pre-election promises to bring about a just and fair settlement to one of the great tragedies of the 20th century, perpetrated by the UK on the defenceless — the brutal removal of an entire people from their homeland and their way of life, into a life of exile, poverty and hardship.”
To which the then Foreign Office Secretary, William Hague, responded: “We have made clear our regret for the wrongs done to the Chagossian people over 40 years ago.
“Nevertheless, it was right for the government to defend itself against this action.”
The UK’s lease of the Diego Garcia Island to the Americans will expire next year (2016); but the Chagossians will never regain their land, their lost sovereignty.
Theirs is a history of loss, sorrow and sadness, a history shared by many victims of the British Empire.
There are many untold atrocities.