Decolonizing Britain in the 21st Century?: Chagos Islanders challenge the Crown, House of Lords, 30 June-3 July 2008
This article discusses the anthropological, legal, and political significance of a recent lawsuit before the House of Lords involving the people of the UK-controlled Chagos Archipelago, exiled during creation of the US military base on Diego Garcia. Building on a growing body of anthropological and historical literature about the people and the base, the article reviews the history leading up to the June hearing and describes its proceedings as part of the islander's four-decades-old movement to win a return to their homeland. On the one hand, it represents the closest the Chagossians have come to a return in nearly 40 years. On the other, the case holds implications for the right of return of other displaced peoples, the rights of indigenous peoples more broadly, the limits of government authority, the balance of power in British parliamentary democracy, and the deepening of democracy worldwide. The suit holds significance for anthropologists studying indigenous peoples, displacement and migration, human rights, the law, government officials, and foreign policy.
How a Plantation Became Paradise: Changing Representations of the Homeland Among Displaced Chagos Islanders
This article explores how representations of a homeland are transformed through experiences of displacement and resettlement, and asks how such transformed representations help or hinder political and legal struggles in exile. It compares songs composed by islanders while living on the colonial Chagos Archipelago with those composed by displaced Chagossians now living in Mauritius and Seychelles, which form part of an emergent collective historical imagination motivated by political and legal struggles for compensation and the right to return. The article demonstrates that a romanticized and standardized collective historical narrative has successfully elicited support for the Chagossian cause from diverse sources, but has unexpectedly posed major problems for the legal struggle. 
 
 
 
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L'article explore la maniere dont la representation de la terre natale est transformee par l'experience du deplacement et de la reinstallation, et interroge la maniere dont ces representations transformees favorisent ou genent les luttes politiques et judiciaires en exil. L'auteur compare les chants des insulaires vivant dans l'archipel colonial de Chagos avec ceux composes par les Chagossiens deplaces et vivant desormais dans l'ile Maurice et aux Seychelles. Ces derniers font emerger un imaginaire historique collectif motive par les luttes politique et judiciaire pour l'obtention d'un dedommagement et du droit au retour. L'article demontre qu'une narration historique collective romancee et standardisee a provoque l'adhesion a la cause chagossienne de la part de differents acteurs, mais a, de maniere inattendue, pose des problemes considerables dans le combat judiciaire.
War and Forced Migration in the Indian Ocean: The US Military Base at Diego Garcia
Between 1967 and 1973, the indigenous people of the Indian Ocean's Chagos Archipelago were forcibly displaced from their homelands so the US Government could construct a strategic military base on the island of Diego Garcia. The people of Diego Garcia and the rest of the Chagos Archipelago now live in poverty in the island nations of Mauritius and Seychelles, nearly 2,000 kilometres from their homes. Analysing formerly classified government documents, this paper demonstrates how between the end of World War II and the final removals in 1973, the US Government planned, ordered, financed, helped orchestrate, and participated in the expulsion of the exiled people, known as Chagossians or Ilois. While some have detailed the role the British Government played in the removals, this paper clarifies how the US Government bears primary responsibility for the expulsion. Ultimately the creation of the base at Diego Garcia and the expulsion of the Chagossians reveal much about how the United States has exercised its political, economic, and military will on the world since World War II. The paper explains the significance of Diego Garcia and the expulsion of the Chagossians to post-war US foreign relations, incorporating comparative analyses of other forced migrations caused by the construction of US military facilities, including those in the Marshall Islands; Thule, Greenland; Okinawa, Japan; and Vieques, Puerto Rico.