The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice, and Courage

Historian and lawyer Sands (The Ratline) provides a piercing account of the legal battle undertaken by former inhabitants of the Chagos archipelago, a remote chain of islands in the Indian Ocean, to reclaim their homeland. Chagos became a pawn of geopolitical horse-trading in the mid-20th century, when the U.S. asked Britain to provide an uninhabited area for a military base. The result was the “wholesale deportation” of the archipelago’s native inhabitants by Britain in 1973—a “diaspora... for which the British were fully responsible.” (Diego Garcia, where the base was eventually built, is the only island in the chain that is currently inhabited—and only by U.S. military personnel.) Sands, who represents the Chagossians in the ongoing case, meticulously lays out the yearslong legal fight as it has played out in the International Court in The Hague since 2018. Woven throughout is former resident Liseby Elysé’s powerful testimony , which was crucial to the trial and makes clear the huge personal implications of mass deportation and the total loss of a sense of home. Sands efficiently combines history, memoir, and astute legal analysis. The result is a powerful testament to the lasting damage of imperialism. (Sept.)