A Reckoning for Imperialists

This semester in my Modern Africa class we are reading Carolyn Elkins' masterful Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya, a harrowing tale of brutality and inhumanity and, yes, torture, in colonial Africa. Imperial reckoning ought to be required reading for American apologists of torture (or whetever they want to call it) today.

Kenyan independence fighters who are veterans of Britain's loathsome colonial regime are now pressing England to apologize for the brutality its leaders carried out, countenanced, and covered up. They are also asking for reparations. This is not a case of ancient grievances being carried out, but rather of survivors asking for penance from perpetrators. The Kenyan case is a strong one. Reparations might be tough to extract (though a promise of broad humanitarian aid to Kenya surely seems to be a minimal expectation); an apology ought not to be.