Chronicle Editor
In 1814 France handed over its colony, Mauritius, to Britain. Britain was only to grant Mauritius its political independence in 1968 when the winds of decolonisation were achieving their grip on the African part of the Global South. A large part of Mauritius, the Chagos Archipelago, remained under British control and domination.
Right up to today, the Chagos Islands, a total of 60 of them, are called the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). This is so after the International Court of Justice, in 2019, declared that UK must hand back the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as part of completing the decolonisation of the country. In 2021, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the declaration of the International Court of Justice. But as I write, the British and the Americans are staying put in Chagos Islands, not moving an inch away. What happened is that in 1968, the British accepted payment from the USA for the Chagos Islands as imperial property.
The natives therein were expelled from the Islands to make way for an American military base in the Diego Garcia part of the Islands. This conquest and colonial business, and military deal, was overseen by the British government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The Chagossians remain exiled, some in the UK, the mainland of Mauritius, and the Seychelles.
Others are scattered here and there in the wide world. Chagossians are the true conquered and colonised of Africa to this very day when Britain and America have made loud claims about their respect for sovereignty, freedom, human rights, and democracy as an exalted form of government.
The Chagossians in Pretoria
Some time in August I received a generous invitation to participate in a panel discussion from the Institute of Pan-African Thought and Conversation (IPACT) that is based at the University of Johannesburg.
The theme of the conversation was on the International Conference on the Status of Chagos Islands. The conference met from 4 to 5 October at the Sheraton Hotel in Pretoria. Academics, international lawyers, political scientists, politicians and political activists gathered in Pretoria to reflect on the legal and political status of Chagos and the Chagossians of Africa that remain direct victims of conquest and colonialism.
My contribution was a Pan-African and decolonial gesture; We are all Chagossians: Towards Decolonial Pan-African Solidarity. It was a humble and critical plea with all Africans to see themselves in Chagossians and for Chagossians to see themselves in all Africans. It was my take that what the Chagossians went through and are going through is what all African people went through, conquest whose effects are still being felt today.
One of the baptismal Pan-African statements was Kwame Nkrumah’s assertion that Ghana cannot be fully independent if any part of African remained under colonialism. That Chagossians remain expelled from Chagos, and American soldiers remain based in the Islands means that all African countries are not fully free.
The ugly head of nationalism
Not only academics, politicians, international lawyers and political activists were in attendance but Chagossians themselves were present. Some were from their exile in Mauritius, the Seychelles and the United Kingdom. And they did not agree on the status of being and belonging to Chagos.
Some argued that Chagossians were better off under the protection of the British government, they brandished British identity documents as a celebration of their British citizenship.
Others cried for a return to their motherland of the Chagos Island to establish an independent nation and Republic of Chagos, not under Mauritius or the British government.
The government of Mauritius, represented by the High Commissioner of Mauritius to South Africa, argued that Chagossians are Mauritians and Mauritians are Chagossians. Some others argued that Mauritians was another coloniser trying to take over from the UK in dominating the people of Chagos.
There was a group of Chagossians that urged the government of Mauritius to exercise sovereignty and provide ownership and protection of the Chagos Islands and the Chagossians.
The divisions in the community of Chagossians in an international conference in Pretoria became living proof of the divisive nature of the ideology of nationalism in Africa. The beneficiary of the divisions can only be the British and the Americans that are staying put in the Islands of Chagos while Chagossians, Africans, remain exiles in other parts of the world.
Decolonial Pan-African solidarity
My observation was that those Chagossians that enjoy the privilege of British citizenship are reluctant to let go of British colonialism. Those Chagossians that are exiled in African countries are ready to return to the Islands to claim their being and belonging to their ancestral lands.
In other words, the British and the Americans continue to deploy divide and rule tactics by paying some Chagossians and punishing others, while they use the divisions amongst the Chagossians to maintain their colonial occupation of that part of the African continent.
It was tragic to hear a Chagossian claiming that the British were better colonisers than the Mauritians. Even more painful were expressions of Chagossian exceptionalism where some Chagossians, mainly the British wing, claimed that Africans should leave Chagos to the Chagossians.
Cetshwayo Zindabazezwe Mabhena writes from Gezina, in Pretoria, South Africa. Contacts: [email protected].
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