Al Jazeera recently made available a documentary film by Ed McGown and produced by Rob Newman focusing on the stories of people hit by the institutionalized and gratuitous violence of colonial rule: the British Empire operating against a people's revolutionary movement in Kenya. Detailed, specific, and with interviews that humanize individual decisions, give space for the voices of directly impacted people and communities, and remind of the depths of depravity humans can reach.
"The shocking story of how Britain secretly used torture in its war against the Kenyan anti-colonialist Mau Mau movement in the 1950s.
Between 1952 and 1960, Britain fought a vicious war in Kenya against the anticolonial Mau Mau movement. It was an exceptionally bloody conflict, with atrocities committed on both sides.
For decades, many of the worst abuses by British colonial forces were kept hidden. Piecing together survivor testimonies and expert analysis from British and Kenyan historians, this film tells a complete and detailed story for the first time of how Britain was involved in systemic torture – including accounts of murders, rapes and forced castrations."
The interviews and discussions about the depths of depravity necessary to protect colonial interests reminded me of "États d'armes," a documentary about the use of torture and execution to combat the Algerian revolution included in The Criterion Collection version of The Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 film about the last years of the Algeria Revolution.
