A major work of history that for the first time reveals the
violence and terror at the heart of Britain's civilizing mission in
Kenya
As part of the
Allied forces, thousands of Kenyans fought alongside the British in
World War II. But just a few years after the defeat of Hitler, the
British colonial government detained nearly the entire population of
Kenya's largest ethnic minority, the Kikuyu--some one and a half
million people.
The compelling story
of the system of prisons and work camps where thousands met their
deaths has remained largely untold--the victim of a determined effort
by the British to destroy all official records of their attempts to
stop the Mau Mau uprising, the Kikuyu people's ultimately successful
bid for Kenyan independence.
Caroline Elkins, an
assistant professor of history at Harvard University, spent a decade
in London, Nairobi, and the Kenyan countryside interviewing hundreds
of Kikuyu men and women who survived the British camps, as well as
the British and African loyalists who detained them.
The result is an
unforgettable account of the unraveling of the British colonial
empire in Kenya--a pivotal moment in twentieth-century history with
chilling parallels to America's own imperial project.
Imperial
Reckoning is the winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for
Nonfiction.