Caroline Elkins - Colonial War Crimes in Kenya

[SinhaHelaya]

Fuck Britannia.

[PrometheanRunGood]

Kudos to her, if nothing else for pissing off the closet proponents of British Empire.

[Octavius0]

Garbage. This women is a charlatan

[JFSebastian74]

Her study has been widely criticised and discredited as sensationalist, simplistic and inaccurate. Elkins calls herself an historian but her primary role is political activist, two mutually exclusive activities. This isn't an objective documentation of facts but a polemic; propaganda to further her biased viewpoint. Unfortunately, controversy attracts attention and no doubt many will swallow her one-sided guff.

[JFSebastian74]

Her study has been widely criticised and discredited as sensationalist, simplistic and inaccurate. Elkins calls herself an historian but her primary role is political activist, two mutually exclusive activities. This isn't an objective documentation of facts but a polemic; propaganda to further her biased viewpoint. Unfortunately, controversy attracts attention and no doubt many will swallow her one-sided guff.

[maureenOWW]

I just forced myself to watch this all the way through (warning: the mouthbreathing aspergers presentation continues throughout it's length) and she comes out with a true classic at the end. She says that eyewitness accounts are 'empirical evidence'. Pardon? They are nothing of the sort. Empirical evidence in this case would be film of the atrocity taking place, or bullets recovered from bodies that can be matched to guns. Heresay is NOT empirical evidence. How can this person be a 'historian'?

[maureenOWW]

She is the David Irving of Mau Mau apologists, and deserves an equal level of bile and ridicule. For those who want a balanced view of the Emergency I would recommend 'Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya: Counterinsurgency, Civil War, and Decolonization' by David Branch. This book focuses on the true victims of this period, the loyalists who fought against the mau mau terror and who were successful in defeating them. Turning this complex civil war into something akin to Star Wars is pathetic.

[maureenOWW]

How this dishonest, hateful creature won a Pulitzer is beyond me. Not only is her writing tedious, one-sided, and often laughable, but her insane leaps of imagination (assuming 300,000 people were killed by the british based on nothing but census data) disqualify her from the title 'historian'. She has an extremist political agenda and a thirst for publicity (and of course money) which led to her publishing a work which has been soundly thrashed by every other historian of the period.

[jonoessex]

@maureenOWW Completely agree with you. Us Brits had no right in Kenya and we did wrong but dishonest and hateful are good words to describe her. British colonialism is kenya was wrong but Elkins book is obviously propaganda designed to spread hate against the british.

[JaysalP]

the british empire = institutionalised theft (and other crimes), slavery, and mass extermination. Rule Britannia - go to hell!

[investedpower]

its unfortunate that those who never set foot in kenya can criticize her work. truth be told from a son of a kenyan colonial detainee, what she says is nothing but the real truth. please visit sons of mau mau detainees and you get the true story. the story is still alive. i lost family members, and parents, this is not history to me its part of my live and i live with it till i die. the injustices ought to be prosecuted.

[tigerfedor1]

documents were burned? how convenient, free ticket to big number land. you slap a few hundred thousand on every figure you find, the words of the people you interview are taken as fact, "tortured" "beaten" "murdered"? (cough! evidence cough!), 'Britains gulag' (yea that'll turn some heads), Britain has had the moral high ground for centuries, keep trying/lying.

[dlinkw]

Wow 100'000 of dollars to master at a topic and still ones facts can't even match up to a common high school education from the source itself. People ask yourself how much your education is really worth??

[MartinIDavies]

@benshwartzz I have read her book. it does contain some interesting stuff about Kenya history like the corrosive impact Christianity has had on traditional Africa life especially the role of oaths & spirits. My main problem are actual numbers she sites. I lived in Kenya & as I recall the Colonial administration was not that large so I question there being capability to manage the numbers sited as interned. At the end of the day the Emergency prevented an all out Kikuyu civil war.

[Warmonger666]

An excellent commentary on the collapse of an imperialist system. Before anyone jumps the gun however and starts railing at the British Empire they should consider not only it's positives, but how many empires, economic or otherwise have acted well in their dying breaths. Our contemporary evidence is found within the deterioration of American power, who just like the British have attempted to sure up their waning stakes with a land grab. So keep in mind all empires do terrible things.

[MartinIDavies]

what  is an Africanist? some kind of new species of Havard baboon?

[TheTollundWoman]

"Burning the documents." That's *exactly* what happens in 1984.

Scary! But unfortunately not too surprising.

[1meade]

The total population in Kenya at this time was no more than 7 million so Elkins is suggesting 20% of the entire population was put into concentration camps; difficult to believe - it would have been noticed before. Interesting that she fails to mention the thousands of Kikuyu murdered by the mau mau. Neither does she mention that Kimathi was handed over to the british because they were sick of his brutality. Her book has received much criticism by academics who say her facts are incorrect.

[y3puGnxg]

is British civilized? biggest joke of the milleniums. Historically illiterate people, thieves, pirates in coat and tie, with smile they plunge the knife deep in heart. so Mr. Northirishstud, you bought hygiene to Africa. Well done, mate. Did you wipe yours? are you sure? North Irish, huh? you are a fucking colonists in Ireland suckling British cocks and killing Republicans. Do you anything about africa, you moron. FInally are you in BNP? just know the history shit. Devlish satanic state in world

[northirishstud]

typical of americans blame the us of britian for what? civilising africa??? please! weve done so much for africa and you focus on a few bad points? even ask the mau mau veteran clubs theyl all say the same!! that we bought them hygiene and civilisation!!!!! look at the state of all the former colonies now!!! they need us to control them! as we should very well do soon with zimbabwae!! as the saying goes what happens a classroom when the teacher is absent??? chaos!!!!

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN¬¬

[kwiswiwy]

that is the most ignorant offensive thing i've seen in a long time.

[edavismookie25]

"It has been our good pleasure to rate ourselves(white people) above others to reassure our SUPPOSED superiority". Alexis De Tocqueville 1835

I guess he said it best.

[PrometheanRunGood]

@northirishstud Fuck your queen and fuck your "whiteman's burden"

God save the IRA.

[millard27]

@PrometheanRunGood IRA? I Ran away?

[PrometheanRunGood]

@millard27 Such wit coming from a commoner. 

[millard27]

@PrometheanRunGood Commoner? Coming from the Canuck? 

[PrometheanRunGood]

@millard27 Being an intellectual peasant requires no specific nationality.

[millard27]

@PrometheanRunGood You support the IRA, you aren't an intellectual.

[PrometheanRunGood]

@millard27 Clearly the irony of my statement about the IRA is lost on you.

[HephaistionNYC]

Ah, the myth of the civilized Englishmen. The most brutal nation in history but with quite good table manners.

[jonoessex]

@HephaistionNYC. Well we have equal rights for women, equal rights for gays, democratic elections, free speech (except hate speech) health care for all (unlike the US) a free press, the right to protest, an independent judiciary. I live in England and it seems a pretty civilised country to me.