THE LAST COLONY

Little-known story of an archipelago in the Indian Ocean that was evacuated and appropriated by British authorities in the 1970s.

As a British lawyer and longtime observer of international law, Sands, author of The Ratline and East West Street, became intensely interested in the case of the inhabitants of the Chagos archipelago—part of Mauritius and thereby inherited by Britain at the end of the Napoleonic wars—who longed to return to their homes after decades of being forcibly evacuated. Since Mauritius gained independence in 1968, jurisdiction of Chagos remained uncertain, and the international court at the Hague subsequently ruled that Britain had to allow the residents to return, a dictate it still ignores. Sands follows the personal travails of Liseby Elysé, from the island of Peros Banhos, who was rounded up by the British with her family and few belongings to leave the island in 1973. Secretly, the British were allowing the Americans to remake neighboring island Diego Garcia into a military base as part of the Department of Defense’s “Strategic Island Concept.” The author examines the incremental international push for decolonization since the end of World War I, specifically the work of Ralph Bunche and 1945’s Chapter XI of the U.N. Charter, the “Declaration Regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories,” as well as U.N. Resolution 1514, designed “to hold South Africa to account for its racial mistreatment of the inhabitants of South West Africa [now Namibia].” However, despite the independence of Mauritius, Diego Garcia served as a convenient military base from which to launch the Iraq War in 2003. In this poignant narrative, Sands describes his advocacy for Elysé and her family; they were able to visit Peros Banhos together even as the British have remained adamant, pending appeals. The book includes maps and photos.

A passionate, illuminating account of the battle over “Britain’s last colony in Africa.”