{"id":91594,"date":"2024-03-21T09:25:45","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T13:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&#038;p=91594"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:37:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:37:03","slug":"operation-legacy-colonial-crimes","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/operation-legacy-colonial-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation Legacy: How Britain Covered Up Its Colonial Crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-max  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n        \n                    \n                    \n            \n    <div class=\"cu-wideimage relative flex items-center justify-center mx-auto px-8 overflow-hidden md:px-16 rounded-xl not-prose  my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 bg-opacity-50 bg-cover bg-cu-black-50 pt-24 pb-32 md:pt-28 md:pb-44 lg:pt-36 lg:pb-60 xl:pt-48 xl:pb-72\" style=\"background-image: url(https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/162\/paper-burning-istock-1200x900-1.jpg); background-position: 50% 50%;\">\n\n                    <div class=\"absolute top-0 w-full h-screen\" style=\"background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0.600);\"><\/div>\n        \n        <div class=\"relative z-[2] max-w-4xl w-full flex flex-col items-center gap-2 cu-wideimage-image cu-zero-first-last\">\n            <header class=\"mx-auto mb-6 text-center text-white cu-pageheader cu-component-updated cu-pageheader--center md:mb-12\">\n\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold mb-2 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] cu-pageheader--center text-center mx-auto after:left-px\">\n                        Operation Legacy: How Britain Covered Up Its Colonial Crimes\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                            <\/header>\n        <\/div>\n\n                    <svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"absolute bottom-0 w-full z-[1]\" fill=\"none\" viewbox=\"0 0 1280 312\">\n                <path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M26.412 315.608c-.602-.268-6.655-2.412-13.524-4.769a1943.84 1943.84 0 0 1-14.682-5.144l-2.276-.858v-5.358c0-4.876.086-5.358.773-5.09 1.674.643 21.38 5.84 34.646 9.109 14.682 3.59 28.935 6.858 45.936 10.449l9.874 2.089H57.322c-16.4 0-30.31-.16-30.91-.428ZM460.019 315.233c42.974-10.074 75.602-19.88 132.443-39.867 76.16-26.791 152.063-57.709 222.385-90.663 16.7-7.823 21.336-10.074 44.262-21.273 85.004-41.688 134.719-64.193 195.291-88.413 66.55-26.577 145.2-53.584 194.27-66.765C1258.5 5.626 1281.34 0 1282.24 0c.17 0 .34 27.596.34 61.3v61.299l-2.23.375c-84.7 13.718-165.93 35.955-310.736 84.931-46.494 15.753-65.427 22.076-96.166 32.15-9.102 3-24.814 8.198-34.989 11.574-107.543 35.954-153.008 50.422-196.626 62.639l-6.74 1.876-89.126-.054c-78.135-.054-88.782-.161-85.948-.857ZM729.628 312.875c33.229-10.985 69.248-23.523 127.506-44.207 118.705-42.223 164.596-57.709 217.446-73.302 2.62-.75 8.29-2.465 12.67-3.751 56.19-16.772 126.94-33.597 184.17-43.671 5.07-.91 9.66-1.768 10.22-1.875l.94-.161v170.236l-281.28-.054H719.968l9.66-3.215ZM246.864 313.411c-65.041-2.251-143.047-12.11-208.432-26.256-18.375-3.965-41.73-9.538-42.202-10.074-.171-.214-.257-21.38-.214-47.046l.129-46.618 6.654 3.697c57.313 32.043 118.491 56.531 197.699 79.143 40.313 11.521 83.459 18.058 138.669 21.059 15.584.857 65.685.857 81.14 0 33.744-1.876 61.306-4.93 88.396-9.806 6.396-1.126 11.634-1.983 11.722-1.929.255.375-20.48 7.769-30.999 11.038-28.592 8.948-59.288 15.646-91.873 20.147-26.36 3.59-50.015 5.627-78.35 6.698-15.584.59-55.209.59-72.339-.053Z\"><\/path>\n                <path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M-3.066 295.067 32.06 304.1v9.033H-3.066v-18.066Z\"><\/path>\n            <\/svg>\n            <\/div>\n\n    \n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p>This article is <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/operation-legacy-how-britain-covered-up-its-colonial-crimes-225330\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">republished<\/a> from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. All photos provided by <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Conversation<\/a> from various sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lacs\/people\/program-coordinator\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Audra Dipt\u00e9e<\/a> is an associate professor of history at Carleton University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2011, the world learned of the secret British policy called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/2012\/apr\/18\/britain-destroyed-records-colonial-crimes\">Operation Legacy<\/a> that was implemented in the 1950s. The goal of this policy was to remove incriminating documents from former colonies in the months before each one became politically independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Documents that might embarrass or damage the British government, police and military <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2013\/nov\/29\/revealed-bonfire-papers-empire\">were either secretly removed or destroyed<\/a>. This policy had an impact far and wide, and was implemented in British colonies throughout the Caribbean, Asia and Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an age where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/video\/the-misinformation-age-0xqnez\/\">misinformation<\/a> is everywhere, Operation Legacy provides us with an instructive example of the repercussions faced when people with power determine what information is available to interpret events of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oPGVGckn7kQ?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0\" width=\"800\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"kenya-the-unravelling-of-a-british-lie\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Kenya: the unravelling of a British lie<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We know about Operation Legacy because of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2011\/jul\/21\/mau-mau-torture-kenyans-compensation\">a case brought before the British High Court<\/a>. Five elderly Kenyans accused the British colonial government of imposing a policy of torture and human rights abuses during a state of emergency from 1952-1960 instituted in response to a rebellion against colonial rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The case revealed the price many Kenyans paid as they fought against colonialism. At the core of the conflict was access to land. From the beginning of colonial rule in 1895, the British were aggressive in their efforts to displace Africans from their lands. The goal was to reserve the most fertile land for white settlement and farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the 1950s, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-12997138\">African resistance became more organized and intense<\/a>. When the colonial government declared a state of emergency, Kenyans suspected of challenging British colonial rule faced even greater risks. The state of emergency gave colonial authorities a wide ranging set of powers \u2014 which included torture and other human rights abuses \u2014 to deal with the anti-colonialists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The propaganda from the period is telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-vOLVyPSdwc?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0\" width=\"800\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"privileging-the-colonizers-narrative\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Privileging the colonizer\u2019s narrative<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Many historians of 20th century Kenya \u2014 but not all \u2014 overlooked or downplayed this colonial policy of violence. Some might argue they should be forgiven as there were no official colonial documents that revealed a British policy of human rights violations in Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But what happens when the absence of proof is really due to the deliberate removal of evidence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Others might be inclined to think those historians did not look hard enough. They were only willing to believe the official colonial records even though there were Kenyans alive who could give oral testimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the five elderly Kenyans, the irrefutable evidence was the scars they bore on their bodies. Make no mistake, the human rights violations were extreme. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2016\/5\/5\/we-are-the-mau-mau-kenyans-share-stories-of-torture\">They even included castration<\/a>. The Kenyans also had their memories. Yet, this mattered little for those historians who privileged official colonial documents above all else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, it was the work of historians David Anderson, Huw Bennett and Caroline Elkins that <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/03086534.2011.629082\">helped turn the court case around<\/a>. Their research challenged the historical silence on colonial violence during this period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In court, <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/hwj\/dbv027\">evidence was presented<\/a> that colonial documents were deliberately removed and that the testimony of the elderly Kenyans was, in fact, credible. In December 2010, the presiding judge ruled that the British Foreign and Commonwealth office had to <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/ahr\/article\/120\/3\/852\/19858\">release all documents related to the case<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once these documents were released and analyzed, the evidence was clear. The British colonial government sanctioned extreme abuses. We now know that over 80,000 people were imprisoned without trial and more than 1,000 people were convicted as \u201cterrorists\u201d and put to <a href=\"https:\/\/wwnorton.com\/books\/Histories-of-the-Hanged\">death by hanging<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Only eight white officers were accused of extreme abuse, and they were all granted amnesty. This includes the officer accused of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2011\/apr\/11\/mau-mau-high-court-foreign-office-documents\">\u201croasting alive\u201d one Kenyan<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortly after the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was required to release documents concerning the case, <a href=\"https:\/\/publications.parliament.uk\/pa\/ld201011\/ldhansrd\/text\/110405-wms0001.htm?_gl=1*1wvpzwq*_ga*ODkyMzY3MTQxLjE3MTAyODQ4NDI.*_ga_QQVTWCSLDS*MTcxMDI4NDg0Mi4xLjEuMTcxMDI4NTMwOS42MC4wLjA.#1104069000380\">an announcement<\/a> was made in the House of Lords that files were also being held concerning 37 former British colonies. An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/43917577\">independent audit<\/a> revealed there were more than 20,000 files taken from former colonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some files were also slated for destruction, and there is no way to know how many were destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter align-center zoomable\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/581372\/original\/file-20240312-18-k34uug.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/581372\/original\/file-20240312-18-k34uug.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"Part of a document detailing\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Instructions given to colonial officials for the destruction of documents found in the U.K.\u2019s national archives. <\/span><span class=\"attribution\"><span class=\"source\">(The National Archives)<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"guyana-destroyed-documents-and-a-coup\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Guyana: destroyed documents and a coup<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The files that did survive were eventually transferred to The National Archives in London. They are now officially referred to as the \u201cMigrated Archive,\u201d a carefully chosen misnomer. Now that they are in the public domain, we have a better idea about the documents available for other former British colonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am currently working on a project, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chainedinparadise.com\">Chained in Paradise<\/a>, that explores the impact of Operation Legacy on the Caribbean. When the public was informed about the specific documents in the Migrated Archive, historian Richard Drayton was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.historyworkshop.org.uk\/empire-decolonisation\/britains-secret-archive-of-decolonisation\/\">the first to point out<\/a> there were no documents for British Guiana, present-day Guyana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, unlike in Kenya where some documents were hidden, in British Guiana they were all destroyed. Did Britain have things to hide concerning its colonial policies in British Guiana? The short answer is yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"the-personal-net\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Personal net<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Approximately one year after Britain declared a State of Emergency in Kenya, it declared another in British Guiana in October 1953; six months after the colony\u2019s first democratic election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2011\/aug\/26\/mi5-files-coup-british-guiana\">British troops were deployed to remove the elected Prime Minister Cheddi Jagan<\/a>. The constitution of British Guiana was suspended and the British governor ruled for three more years. The area formerly known as British Guiana became the independent nation of Guyana in 1966.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jagan was accused of being a communist and went to England to protest his removal. However, he and his allies were eventually placed under house arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PHRtChiUH7Y?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0\" width=\"800\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to one document I have reviewed from the Migrated Archives, less than one month after Prime Minister Jagan was elected, records in British Guiana were incorporated into a secret system for hiding official correspondence. It was called the \u201cPersonal\u201d net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are three things we can learn from these records:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1) As soon as British Guiana had its democratically held elections, plans were put in place for high levels of British secrecy. Not only was there to be no transparency, there was also to be high levels of duplicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2) Before political independence \u2014 in other words, when Britain was on the cusp of losing its political control \u2014 documents were to be destroyed so the incoming government would be left in the dark about the tactics of its former British colonizers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3) The document below suggests that certain colonial records could be destroyed because there were copies in England. To date, no such documents have been released as part of the Migrated Archives. This raises questions about where those documents currently are and if they still exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"history-is-about-the-future\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">History is about the future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In his book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theportobellobookshop.com\/9781846275852\"><em>The History Thieves<\/em><\/a>, journalist Ian Cobain argues that Operation Legacy was implemented so that British colonialism would be remembered with \u201cfondness and respect.\u201d He is right, but there is more to history than what we remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The long-term objective of Operation Legacy was to undermine future criticism of colonialism by sanitizing the past. That would make the transition from colonialism to neocolonialism easier as future economic relations with their former colonies would be negotiated without a proper historical understanding of Britain\u2019s motives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>History was a powerful tool of the British empire, and it has been used to maintain unequal relations with its former colonies long after they attained political independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>_<br>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\">Carleton Newsroom<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/225330\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. All photos provided by The Conversation from various sources. Audra Dipt\u00e9e is an associate professor of history at Carleton University. In 2011, the world learned of the secret British policy called Operation Legacy that was implemented in the 1950s. The goal of this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":91598,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[1623],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-91594","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-expert-perspectives"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/91594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/91594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91602,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/91594\/revisions\/91602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=91594"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=91594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}