The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy
By Philippe Sands
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, UK
ISBN: 978-1474618120
224pp.

In his latest book, titled The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy, Philippe Sands — international lawyer and professor at University College, London — movingly tells the story of Britain’s continuing colonial occupation of the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean, the deportation of all of its inhabitants from their homes half a century ago, and their quest for justice. Events described in The Last Colony will leave the reader, as they first left its author, “appalled by a story of continuing injustice and my own ignorance.”

Before its colonial occupation of Mauritius came to an end in 1968, Britain had severed the Chagos archipelago, which had been “long part of Mauritius”, to form a new colonial territory which it called the British Indian Ocean Territory. The British also secretly allowed the United States to establish a military base on the island of Diego Garcia, which is part of the Chagos archipelago. Filipinos, Bangladeshis and Mauritians work at this base, but Chagossians are not allowed.

The Last Colony weaves together a number of themes and Sands calls the book a compendium of “interwoven tales.” These tales include the author’s “own evolving relationship with the world of international law” as well as the role of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague “in the gradual demise of colonialism, with a focus ultimately on the case of Mauritius.” The book also focuses on the mendacity, hypocrisy and racism of the British authorities and their utter disregard for international law.

However, what Sands calls “the beating heart of this book” is the tale of Liseby Elysé, “the wrongs done to her and other Chagossians and their quest for justice that continues to this day.” The book begins with Elysé and her testimony at the ICJ.

A book by an international lawyer tells an appalling tale of British imperialism and the mendacity, hypocrisy and racism of British authorities and their utter disregard for international law

On April 27, 1973, the British deported 1,500 people — the entire community of Chagossians — from their homes and the land of their ancestors. Those living on Diego Garcia had been deported earlier. Without any explanation, the Chagossians were cruelly told: “The island is being closed.” Among those being deported was a 20-year-old, pregnant woman named Liseby Elysé.

In 2018, in her testimony to the ICJ, Elysé recalled the deportation, which the British knew at the time was a crime against humanity under international law: “We boarded the ship in the dark so that we could not see our island. And when we boarded the ship, conditions in the hull of the ship were bad. We were like animals and slaves in that ship. People were dying of sadness in that ship.”

She went on to testify: “The ship took four days to reach Mauritius. After our arrival, my child was born and died. Why did my child die? For me, it was because I was traumatised on that ship, I was very worried, I was upset.”

The deported Chagossians were allowed only one suitcase each on the ship that took them to the capital of Mauritius. Sands writes: “They left behind homes and possessions, furnishings and animals, and many dogs.” Thinking of the abandoned dogs as a problem, the British colonial authorities first tried bullets and strychnine to kill them. When that failed, “the dogs were rounded up, locked into a copra-drying shed, gassed, then incinerated.”

Thinking of the abandoned dogs as a problem, the British colonial authorities first tried bullets and strychnine to kill them. When that failed, “the dogs were rounded up, locked into a copra-drying shed, gassed, then incinerated.”

In her testimony, which lasted three minutes and 47 seconds, Madame Elysé urged the court to do justice: “Nobody would like to be uprooted from the island where he was born, to be uprooted like animals. And it is heart-breaking. And I maintain justice must be done.”

In 2019, the ICJ ruled that Chagos was part of Mauritius and Britain had occupied it illegally. Later, a vote at the United Nations General Assembly resolved that the United Kingdom return the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius by the end of 2019. Despite the ICJ’s ruling, successive British governments have, in the words of Sands, “embraced lawlessness” and the UK continues to illegally occupy the group of 60 or so islands.

Sands, who first appeared before the ICJ a quarter of a century ago, reminds us that the ICJ had not always included — as it did in the case of the Chagos archipelago — humanitarian considerations in deciding cases presented before it. In fact, there was a time it expressly excluded humanitarian considerations from its judicial process.

As an example, Sands cites the case Ethiopia and Liberia brought to the Court in the 1960s against “white South Africa’s racist and discriminatory policies against its Black inhabitants.” Sands also reminds us how Pakistan’s Sir Zafarullah Khan, then a judge at the Court, was prevented from participating in this particular case.

The Last Colony brings out a deeply disturbing aspect in which democratically elected British governments operate: the shroud of secrecy. In the case of Chagos, one British government had secretly allowed the US to establish a military base on Diego Garcia, as noted above. Years later, another British government secretly became a willing partner in “extraordinary rendition”, when Diego Garcia was used as a secret site for torture after the 9/11 attacks on America.

Though the UK still refuses to accept the ruling of the ICJ, the UN has, for its part, taken steps to implement it. As a first step, the UN changed its “map of the world, which now shows Chagos as an undisputed part of Mauritius.” Additionally, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, a UN agency, has “declined to register Britain’s acceptance of a fisheries treaty premised on its claimed sovereignty over Chagos.”

But, however slowly, things are changing and Sands writes that it “is a matter of time, I say to Liseby”, before UK’s illegal occupation of her homeland ends.

The reviewer is working on a book titled Selected Writings of Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, March 19th, 2023