Britain's heart of darkness

That way while Black students gain a better sense of Black pride from our rich and diverse history, many white students would learn that certain aspects of British history have been anything but Great.

A clear case in point is the new unearthed evidence about the British Government's involvement in Kenya's Mau Mau rebellion in 1954.

For many years the history books, driven by the then British Foreign Office propaganda machine, informed the world that the insurrection by the Mau Mau was nothing more than a communist backed attempt by the Kikuyu tribe, who behaving like a bunch of 'savages', sought to destabilise a peaceful country.

As shocking as that distorted portrayal was to the white outside world during the 50's the real truth is immeasurably more shocking. Professor Caroline Elkin from Harvard University has spent many years piecing together, through I witness reports, and official Government documents the real extent to what occurred.

Death, torture, rape and mass unlawful imprisonment - crimes that by any calculations would, under the Geneva convention warrant those involved being charged with serious war crimes - were not perpetrated by the Mau Mau's but by order of Her Majesty's Government.

What is astonishing about this dark chapter in the UK's history is the fact that many of those who joined the Mau Mau had loyally fought for the UK during the Second World War but felt badly betrayed thereafter.

Mwangi Kanyari was one of those Second World War veterans who served with the Kings African Rifles. Although wounded in action he never retired until 1946. But like so many other Kenyan soldiers who laid down their lives for a far off land, their loyalty was rewarded by a return of serfdom - toiling the white masters land.

Angry at being treated with such contempt Mwangi Kanyari joined the Mau Mau. If the British would not return their land to them, they the Mau Mau would take it by force. In events that often mirror Zimbabwe's current situation, white settlers and their families were targeted and murdered. Although official records show only 11 settlers were killed.

In a bid to starve and supress the uprising the British Army along with African soldiers loyal to the Crown set up prison camps, or, as they were called at the time 'rehabilitation centres'. Again, official figures show that 80,000 were detained. The role of the camps were to ensure that Mau Mau supporters denounced their loyalty and to extract information about those still fighting. Colonial Officer, Terence Gavaghan, in charge of the camps, has always claimed that those detained were not subject to any acts of brutality by their captures.

However, new and shocking evidence suggests that brutality and violence were not only administered but also sanctioned by the UK Government. One damning indictment from London reads: 'The detainees…are particularly ugly customers and there is no doubt that the use of orthodox methods of non-violent persuasion and normal camp punishments for disobedience would be, and indeed proved to be, useless and ineffective. With possibly a few exceptions they are of the type which understands and reacts to violence'.

A young British Officer articulated the nature of sanctioned brutality when he informed a local paper before quitting the army that he had shot and killed a Mau Mau and then chopped his hand off. 'What is happening here is Hitlerism' he argued. Another solider also testified that his officer informed him that they could shoot anybody he liked as long as they were black because he wanted to increase his company's score of kills to 50'. Surviving detainees talk about gang rape, having mud forced down their throats and being beaten until they fell unconscious.

This new information has forced us also to re-evaluate other aspects of the misinformation that was fed to the wider world. For example, Professor Elkins has convincingly argued that the official figure of 80,000 detainees could be nearer 500,000. And the Mau Mau death toll, which was considered to be 11,000, must be closer to 50,000.

History must now be rewritten, and interestingly enough not only for the generation of today's and tomorrows scholars. Those who survived the colonial brutality are taking their case to the British and United Nations courts demanding substantial compensation. After being silenced for so many years former Mau Mau's now hope for justice, but not unlike the land that was eventually wrestled from the British colonial yoke in 1963, the British once again will not concede without a fight.

But one former District officer John Nottingham, who worked in the 'rehabilitation camps claimed that compensation was long overdue. 'I feel ashamed to have come from a Britain that did what it did'.