Shall we send an SMBer to Kenya?

Big Jeff said:
Kenya deserves any help it can from GB - one of the more shameful bits of our colonial history - castrations, burning, rape - absolutely terrible.
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The Mau Mau war was horrible, with atrocities committed by both sides. My dad, who died a couple of months ago, was there in the colonial service, posted to the northern desert far from the trouble. I recently found his letters home. He was very critical of the internment camps and of the way some of his fellow officers treated the Africans.

A couple of decades later he returned to independent Kenya to work. It's where I grew up. Nobody talked then about how badly they'd been treated. Colonialism was regarded as part of the process of nationhood, and Britain was generally - among politicians and civil servants - regarded very fondly. The Kenyans inherited working infrastructure and one of the best economies in Africa.

The amplifying of what happened during the independence war has only happened in the past decade or so. If the atrocities are going to be seriously examined, then those committed by the Mau Mau should be given equal attention.
 


Monty Pigeon said:
The Mau Mau war was horrible, with atrocities committed by both sides. My dad, who died a couple of months ago, was there in the colonial service, posted to the northern desert far from the trouble. I recently found his letters home. He was very critical of the internment camps and of the way some of his fellow officers treated the Africans.

A couple of decades later he returned to independent Kenya to work. It's where I grew up. Nobody talked then about how badly they'd been treated. Colonialism was regarded as part of the process of nationhood, and Britain was generally - among politicians and civil servants - regarded very fondly. The Kenyans inherited working infrastructure and one of the best economies in Africa.

The amplifying of what happened during the independence war has only happened in the past decade or so. If the atrocities are going to be seriously examined, then those committed by the Mau Mau should be given equal attention.
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Great post mate
 
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I had a canny piss up in Nakuru many many years ago, 40 years ago in fact. Me and a mate spent 3 months doing loads of safari's and drinking in Kenya until our money ran out and we had to go home. We had just done Mount Kenya and when we came down for some reason we decided to get a bus to Nakuru where we found a cheap hotel (50p a night for a room) and the hotel workers there liked a drink. We ended up at a party in some dodgy flat with some dodgy women but my mate bottled it because he was scared of contracting AIDS (which was quite popular at the time) so we made our excuses and went back to the hotel. I'm glad he bottled it now because I was ready to dive in balls deep, if I had I might not be here now.
 

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