The shocking story of how Britain used torture in its war against the Kenyan anti-colonialist Mau Mau movement in the 1950s is exposed in an eye-opening documentary A Very British Way of Torture to be aired on Al Jazeera English from 8 December.
Directed by Edward McGown and produced by Rogan Films, the film is a co-production with Britain’s Channel 4 and Al Jazeera English, and premiered on Channel 4 earlier this year.
Between 1952 and 1960, Britain fought a brutal war in Kenya against the Mau Mau – a movement fighting for Kenyan independence from colonial rule. It was an exceptionally bloody conflict, with atrocities committed on both sides.
For decades, however, many of the worst abuses carried out by British colonial forces have been kept hidden.
The filmmakers drew on a vast archival cache of thousands of files, hidden for more than 50 years by MI5 and MI6 relating to the end of the “empire” that came to light during a High Court case in 2013 brought by Mau Mau veterans, pleading compensation for torture.
Gitu Wa Kahengeri Chairman Mau Mau War Veterans Associations who is interviewed in A Very British Way of Torture
Piecing together survivor testimonies and expert analysis from a team of British and Kenyan historians, this film sheds new light on shocking new evidence. Telling a complete story of how Britain was involved in a regime of systematic torture – including accounts of murders, rapes and forced castrations.
“This may well also be the last time we hear from some of the voices of the surviving Mau Mau war veterans,” say producers at Rogan Films. “Finally, we can show how some of their testimony about the British use of torture, for so long disputed by the authorities, is in fact true.”
“These are stories that simply have to be told,” says Fiona Lawson Baker, Executive Producer, AJE Witness. “They form part of a bigger picture of an evolving world in which the atrocities of the past, are compelled to the surface so that apologies, forgiveness and understanding can support a healing process that is so urgently needed.”
The documentary can be accessed on Al Jazeera English streaming service,Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@aljazeeraenglish/featured or online https://www.aljazeera.com/videos/documentary/
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