1 00:00:20,807 --> 00:00:24,038 JEREMY PAXMAN: It's the early 1 9th century. 2 00:00:24,127 --> 00:00:26,277 In India's north-eastern states, 3 00:00:26,367 --> 00:00:30,326 more than 400 women a year are burned alive 4 00:00:30,407 --> 00:00:33,126 on the funeral pyres of their dead husbands. 5 00:00:35,327 --> 00:00:38,125 This Hindu ritual is known as sati, 6 00:00:38,847 --> 00:00:42,635 and for years it's been tolerated by the country's British rulers. 7 00:00:43,967 --> 00:00:45,195 But no longer. 8 00:00:47,127 --> 00:00:51,040 In 1 829, the British decide it has to stop. 9 00:00:51,727 --> 00:00:54,446 When some Hindus protest to a British general, 10 00:00:55,247 --> 00:00:56,919 he says to them, 11 00:00:57,007 --> 00:01:00,283 ''You say it is your custom to burn widows. 12 00:01:00,367 --> 00:01:03,803 ''Very well. We also have a custom 13 00:01:03,887 --> 00:01:06,162 ''that when a man burns a woman alive, 14 00:01:06,247 --> 00:01:10,240 ''we tie a rope around his neck and hang him. 15 00:01:10,327 --> 00:01:13,842 ''You follow your custom, and then we shall follow ours.'' 16 00:01:18,847 --> 00:01:23,363 For many British people, the empire was all about doing good. 17 00:01:24,367 --> 00:01:25,846 By force, if necessary. 18 00:01:29,727 --> 00:01:33,402 Some believed they had a duty to bring light into the world. 19 00:01:36,647 --> 00:01:39,241 Others, that they had a right to rule it. 20 00:01:41,127 --> 00:01:43,163 We really did know best. 21 00:01:44,927 --> 00:01:49,842 Both beliefs fundamentally changed the nature of the modern world 22 00:01:50,607 --> 00:01:53,599 and they changed our sense of Britain's place in it. 23 00:02:31,927 --> 00:02:34,043 In the second half of the 1 9th century, 24 00:02:34,127 --> 00:02:37,722 the British Empire reached from Canada in the west 25 00:02:37,807 --> 00:02:39,684 to Australia in the east. 26 00:02:41,487 --> 00:02:44,843 The last phase of expansion was about to begin, 27 00:02:44,927 --> 00:02:47,680 and many of these empire-builders 28 00:02:47,767 --> 00:02:50,565 believed their work was ordained by God. 29 00:03:03,167 --> 00:03:05,078 (SNORTING) 30 00:03:24,527 --> 00:03:28,839 In the summer of 1 86 1, a small party of white men 31 00:03:28,927 --> 00:03:31,600 found themselves travelling up the river Shire 32 00:03:31,687 --> 00:03:33,325 in what is now Malawi. 33 00:03:43,687 --> 00:03:48,363 To Europeans at that time, Africa was simply the Dark Continent, 34 00:03:49,367 --> 00:03:51,835 a place of ignorance and superstition. 35 00:03:53,767 --> 00:03:56,201 They had come here to change that. 36 00:03:59,287 --> 00:04:01,960 The men sang hymns as they travelled. 37 00:04:02,047 --> 00:04:05,403 Lead, Kindly Light was a particular favourite. 38 00:04:05,487 --> 00:04:08,320 Their leader was already a legend in Britain, 39 00:04:08,407 --> 00:04:13,322 a man who had come to embody the Victorian purpose in Africa. 40 00:04:16,247 --> 00:04:18,363 His name was David Livingstone, 41 00:04:18,447 --> 00:04:22,440 a dour, fanatically determined Lowland Scot. 42 00:04:24,687 --> 00:04:27,884 He was the first white man to have crossed the continent of Africa. 43 00:04:29,047 --> 00:04:33,279 He had come here as a missionary to save African souls for Christ, 44 00:04:33,367 --> 00:04:36,006 but what he found appalled him. 45 00:04:39,447 --> 00:04:43,440 Britain had abolished slavery in the empire decades before, 46 00:04:44,567 --> 00:04:49,083 but Livingstone found Africans still being captured and sold 47 00:04:49,167 --> 00:04:52,921 to Arab and Portuguese slavers all over East Africa. 48 00:05:02,327 --> 00:05:07,924 Now he and his companions dreamed of sowing the seeds of a new world here. 49 00:05:10,407 --> 00:05:14,480 One based not on African superstition and slavery, 50 00:05:14,567 --> 00:05:17,957 but on two Victorian obsessions - 51 00:05:18,047 --> 00:05:21,119 Christianity and free trade. 52 00:05:27,687 --> 00:05:32,238 This river would become God's highway into the heart of Africa. 53 00:05:32,327 --> 00:05:38,243 Down it would come African cotton and wheat and ivory and ostrich feathers, 54 00:05:38,327 --> 00:05:43,924 and up it, in exchange, would go clothes and tools and machinery 55 00:05:44,007 --> 00:05:45,804 made in Glasgow or Manchester. 56 00:05:51,287 --> 00:05:53,847 Livingstone had a slogan for it, 57 00:05:53,927 --> 00:05:57,044 ''Christianity and commerce. '' 58 00:06:07,767 --> 00:06:11,282 This would be the empire's new civilising mission. 59 00:06:22,287 --> 00:06:27,042 Bible in hand, he was going to unlock the Dark Continent. 60 00:06:29,687 --> 00:06:31,439 Such was the dream. 61 00:06:32,607 --> 00:06:34,484 The reality was different. 62 00:06:36,087 --> 00:06:39,238 The place chosen by Livingstone to build his mission 63 00:06:39,327 --> 00:06:44,447 turned out to be hostile and dangerous, a malarial death trap. 64 00:06:48,767 --> 00:06:50,758 PAXMAN: Perfect. Thank you very much. MAN: You're welcome. 65 00:06:50,847 --> 00:06:51,836 Thank you. 66 00:06:56,207 --> 00:07:01,839 One by one, Livingstone's followers succumbed to hunger and disease. 67 00:07:19,207 --> 00:07:20,720 And this is all that remains. 68 00:07:20,807 --> 00:07:22,684 It's the grave of one of the missionaries, 69 00:07:22,767 --> 00:07:24,917 Henry de Wint Burrup. 70 00:07:25,007 --> 00:07:27,760 His name's even misspelt on his tombstone, poor chap. 71 00:07:27,847 --> 00:07:32,967 He died of exhaustion and diarrhoea in February 1 862. 72 00:07:33,047 --> 00:07:37,359 An eyewitness said that he had shrunk to half his normal size 73 00:07:37,447 --> 00:07:40,996 and had turned a horrible shade of yellow. 74 00:07:41,567 --> 00:07:43,876 One of his last acts had been to write a letter 75 00:07:43,967 --> 00:07:46,197 to the rowing clubs of Oxford and Cambridge, 76 00:07:46,287 --> 00:07:48,676 asking them to raise money 77 00:07:48,767 --> 00:07:52,965 to buy a steamer to go up the Shire River to stop slavery. 78 00:08:09,287 --> 00:08:14,566 Then, in 1 865, after years of exploring the interior, 79 00:08:14,647 --> 00:08:18,526 the most famous missionary in the world vanished. 80 00:08:21,967 --> 00:08:26,040 Nothing was heard from him for an entire three years. 81 00:08:28,767 --> 00:08:31,042 It was a worldwide mystery. 82 00:08:31,687 --> 00:08:35,839 The New York Herald sent a journalist, Henry Morton Stanley, to Africa. 83 00:08:37,367 --> 00:08:41,360 ''Find Livingstone, '' were his orders. ''By any means necessary. '' 84 00:08:52,047 --> 00:08:54,800 Very strong man, eh? Very strong! 85 00:08:59,367 --> 00:09:02,086 And find him he did, in what would become 86 00:09:02,167 --> 00:09:05,523 one of the most celebrated encounters of the Victorian age. 87 00:09:09,927 --> 00:09:11,121 Stanley was a chancer, 88 00:09:11,207 --> 00:09:14,483 so we must take his account of the meeting with a pinch of salt, 89 00:09:14,567 --> 00:09:16,478 but here's what he says happened. 90 00:09:17,607 --> 00:09:20,246 ''As I approached, I noticed he was pale. 91 00:09:20,887 --> 00:09:22,081 ''He looked weary. 92 00:09:23,207 --> 00:09:25,880 ''I would have embraced him, but he being an Englishman, 93 00:09:25,967 --> 00:09:28,037 ''I wasn't sure how he would receive me. 94 00:09:28,967 --> 00:09:31,037 ''So I walked up to him deliberately, 95 00:09:32,007 --> 00:09:34,077 ''took off my hat, and said, 96 00:09:34,967 --> 00:09:36,798 '''Dr Livingstone, I presume?''' 97 00:09:44,007 --> 00:09:48,637 But Livingstone was still in the grip of a passion to explore. 98 00:09:48,727 --> 00:09:51,844 For almost two years he drove himself on, 99 00:09:51,927 --> 00:09:54,839 sick with cholera and dysentery. 100 00:09:54,927 --> 00:09:57,202 He'd even extracted his own teeth. 101 00:10:01,687 --> 00:10:03,598 He died in Africa. 102 00:10:03,687 --> 00:10:07,441 He was alone, thousands of miles from home. 103 00:10:07,527 --> 00:10:12,555 They found him in his hut, kneeling, it was said, in prayer. 104 00:10:19,207 --> 00:10:24,600 Two faithful servants, one of them a former slave freed by Livingstone, 105 00:10:24,687 --> 00:10:28,919 gathered up his body and carried it all the way to the coast. 106 00:10:31,687 --> 00:10:35,123 There they loaded it onto a ship bound for London. 107 00:10:35,927 --> 00:10:38,885 His heart, though, was buried in Africa. 108 00:10:57,847 --> 00:11:00,805 On the 1 8th of February, 1 874, 109 00:11:00,887 --> 00:11:04,402 a great outpouring of grief gripped London. 110 00:11:06,607 --> 00:11:10,077 The mourners stood on the streets thousands strong, 111 00:11:10,167 --> 00:11:14,399 many of them weeping to watch the body of David Livingstone pass by. 112 00:11:17,767 --> 00:11:22,158 His funeral would be held at the resting place of Britain's elect, 113 00:11:22,247 --> 00:11:23,646 Westminster Abbey. 114 00:11:25,327 --> 00:11:28,603 This was no ordinary mortal they were burying. 115 00:11:40,807 --> 00:11:43,924 David Livingstone had become more than an explorer, 116 00:11:44,007 --> 00:11:47,363 more than a missionary. He had become a myth. 117 00:11:48,127 --> 00:11:50,925 His brave life and lonely death 118 00:11:51,007 --> 00:11:54,204 reassured a people busy conquering the world 119 00:11:54,287 --> 00:11:58,917 that the empire was about more than greed and domination. 120 00:11:59,007 --> 00:12:02,363 It was about sacrifice and justice 121 00:12:02,447 --> 00:12:03,641 and doing good. 122 00:12:10,607 --> 00:12:13,246 All around the Abbey were elaborate monuments 123 00:12:13,327 --> 00:12:15,716 to the great conquerors of empire. 124 00:12:23,207 --> 00:12:26,995 Livingstone's memorial was a more modest affair. 125 00:12:30,727 --> 00:12:32,445 (PAXMAN READING ALOUD) 126 00:12:38,927 --> 00:12:41,646 ''For 30 years his life was spent in an unwearied effort 127 00:12:41,727 --> 00:12:44,400 ''to evangelise the native races...'' 128 00:12:44,487 --> 00:12:45,522 (CONTINUES READING) 129 00:12:53,487 --> 00:12:58,845 It's a simple slab of stone, but it lies right at the heart of Westminster Abbey 130 00:12:58,927 --> 00:13:03,205 because to many British people, what David Livingstone was trying to do 131 00:13:03,287 --> 00:13:05,642 lay at the heart of the British Empire. 132 00:13:15,407 --> 00:13:17,796 The tears of the nation had hardly dried 133 00:13:17,887 --> 00:13:20,355 when Livingstone's diaries were published, 134 00:13:21,687 --> 00:13:25,566 heavily edited to remove evidence of his frequent failures. 135 00:13:27,527 --> 00:13:31,964 In his entire life, he's said to have made only a single convert. 136 00:13:33,407 --> 00:13:37,719 But the diaries would help him become almost a patron saint of empire. 137 00:13:50,847 --> 00:13:53,566 Where Livingstone blazed a trail, 138 00:13:53,647 --> 00:13:57,117 other missionaries followed, though in slightly more comfort. 139 00:13:59,167 --> 00:14:03,763 Well into the 20th century, thousands of them set out across the empire 140 00:14:03,847 --> 00:14:06,281 to bring Christianity to the heathen. 141 00:14:07,767 --> 00:14:11,601 They often brought with them education and modern medicine. 142 00:14:15,047 --> 00:14:19,484 When Africans came to demand freedom from their colonial masters, 143 00:14:19,567 --> 00:14:22,877 they dismissed much of this foreign do-gooding 144 00:14:22,967 --> 00:14:25,197 as destroying native culture. 145 00:14:42,447 --> 00:14:44,881 Yet almost 1 00 years after Livingstone, 146 00:14:44,967 --> 00:14:48,482 much of the missionary legacy is alive and well. 147 00:14:48,727 --> 00:14:51,082 TEACHER: Very good, class. Now say, ''Management.'' 148 00:14:51,167 --> 00:14:52,486 STUDENTS: Management. 149 00:14:52,567 --> 00:14:54,603 -Again. -Management. 150 00:14:54,687 --> 00:14:56,359 -Again. -Management. 151 00:14:56,447 --> 00:14:58,961 As I am here, I'm managing this class. 152 00:14:59,047 --> 00:15:01,481 Everybody is quiet because I'm here, 153 00:15:01,567 --> 00:15:03,637 I am managing the class. 154 00:15:04,087 --> 00:15:08,046 PAXMAN: Today, the work started by Church of Scotland missionaries 155 00:15:08,127 --> 00:15:12,359 has, as all over Africa, become a local, African activity. 156 00:15:14,327 --> 00:15:16,204 TEACHER: More? Another? Yes? 157 00:15:29,567 --> 00:15:33,719 The Nkolokoti Primary School was founded in 1 935 158 00:15:33,807 --> 00:15:36,924 in what was then the British colony of Nyasaland. 159 00:15:38,887 --> 00:15:41,720 (CHILDREN SINGING TRADITIONAL SONG) 160 00:15:44,487 --> 00:15:48,275 The school now has almost 8,000 pupils. 161 00:15:51,527 --> 00:15:53,722 Some walk for hours to get here. 162 00:15:55,207 --> 00:15:59,120 Such is the demand, they have to be taught in shifts. 163 00:16:05,047 --> 00:16:08,039 Missionaries have come in for a lot of stick 164 00:16:08,127 --> 00:16:11,881 for providing an excuse for flag-planting and land-grabbing. 165 00:16:12,407 --> 00:16:14,921 But the fact of the matter is that without missionaries, 166 00:16:15,007 --> 00:16:17,316 this school wouldn't exist. 167 00:16:17,407 --> 00:16:20,638 And so 8,000 children would get no education, 168 00:16:20,727 --> 00:16:23,287 and come to that, no breakfast either. 169 00:16:24,047 --> 00:16:26,163 (WOMEN SINGING TRADITIONAL SONG) 170 00:16:33,607 --> 00:16:35,086 Mine's thicker than yours. 171 00:16:40,087 --> 00:16:43,204 Today, the school is funded by the Malawi government, 172 00:16:43,287 --> 00:16:46,996 although the porridge comes courtesy of a Scottish charity. 173 00:16:55,607 --> 00:16:57,199 (CHILDREN CHATTERING) 174 00:16:58,847 --> 00:17:01,884 ESTHER BILLY PONDELANI: You know, we start very early in the morning. 175 00:17:01,967 --> 00:17:04,276 Some leave very early without eating. 176 00:17:05,007 --> 00:17:07,237 When they come here, they find porridge, 177 00:17:07,327 --> 00:17:10,319 they fill their stomachs. 178 00:17:10,407 --> 00:17:12,523 -(PAXMAN LAUGHING) -Yes. 179 00:17:12,607 --> 00:17:15,679 Now, what do you feel about the missionaries who started this school? 180 00:17:15,767 --> 00:17:17,803 They did a great job. 181 00:17:17,887 --> 00:17:20,447 And they assisted this area very much. 182 00:17:20,527 --> 00:17:23,246 Just imagine, it was established in 1 935. 183 00:17:23,327 --> 00:17:25,238 Up to now, we are still benefiting. 184 00:17:26,127 --> 00:17:27,765 PAXMAN: Is it a religious school? 185 00:17:27,847 --> 00:17:30,077 PONDELANI: It is a religious school. 186 00:17:30,167 --> 00:17:33,523 -So you teach them about Christianity. -Yeah. 187 00:17:33,607 --> 00:17:35,802 We have a subject, Bible knowledge. 188 00:17:35,887 --> 00:17:37,240 -PAXMAN: Mmm-hmm. -PONDELANI: Yeah. 189 00:17:37,327 --> 00:17:39,716 PAXMAN: What do you hope they will learn in your school? 190 00:17:39,807 --> 00:17:43,402 Uh, they learn to be good citizens. 191 00:17:44,207 --> 00:17:50,840 We teach them to love each other, respect each other, respect elders, 192 00:17:51,247 --> 00:17:53,477 that's what we teach them. 193 00:17:53,687 --> 00:17:57,965 (CHILDREN SINGING) # Put down each and every enemy 194 00:17:58,407 --> 00:18:02,036 # Hunger, disease, envy 195 00:18:02,607 --> 00:18:07,203 # Join together our hearts as one 196 00:18:07,847 --> 00:18:11,157 # That we be free from fear 197 00:18:11,607 --> 00:18:15,964 # Bless our leader, each and every one 198 00:18:16,367 --> 00:18:19,484 # And Mother Malawi # 199 00:18:26,487 --> 00:18:30,719 PAXMAN: David Livingstone's vision of Christianity and commerce 200 00:18:30,807 --> 00:18:32,445 was, in a sense, fulfilled. 201 00:18:34,807 --> 00:18:37,924 Where the missionaries led, the traders followed. 202 00:18:44,927 --> 00:18:48,078 They came to grow coffee or tobacco or cotton. 203 00:18:54,607 --> 00:18:57,075 Their African workers, so went the plan, 204 00:18:57,167 --> 00:18:59,840 would be influenced towards Christianity. 205 00:19:13,647 --> 00:19:17,526 This was the headquarters of the African Lakes Company, 206 00:19:17,607 --> 00:19:21,566 set up in 1 882 to trade in ivory and cotton. 207 00:19:29,727 --> 00:19:32,958 To many Victorians it seemed a marriage made in heaven, 208 00:19:33,047 --> 00:19:36,005 but too often, commerce and Christianity 209 00:19:36,087 --> 00:19:40,160 turned out to make extremely unhappy bedfellows. 210 00:19:44,687 --> 00:19:47,679 In 1 893, a Scotsman came out 211 00:19:47,767 --> 00:19:52,602 to manage a huge cotton estate outside Blantyre in Malawi, 212 00:19:52,687 --> 00:19:56,236 named, incidentally, after David Livingstone's birthplace. 213 00:19:56,327 --> 00:19:58,682 The manager, William Jervis Livingstone, 214 00:19:58,767 --> 00:20:00,883 was a distant relative of the missionary. 215 00:20:02,047 --> 00:20:05,483 But this Livingstone had rather different ambitions. 216 00:20:05,567 --> 00:20:07,717 He was here to make money. 217 00:20:10,247 --> 00:20:12,522 Like other settlers, William Jervis Livingstone 218 00:20:12,607 --> 00:20:15,644 ran a harsh regime on the plantation. 219 00:20:15,727 --> 00:20:20,005 Floggings were said to be common. Resentment ran high. 220 00:20:27,767 --> 00:20:31,601 But then one man decided he wasn't going to take it any more. 221 00:20:31,687 --> 00:20:36,442 And here he is on the Malawian 1 00 kwacha bank note. 222 00:20:36,527 --> 00:20:40,520 He's also on the 500 kwacha, in fact he's on every Malawian bank note, 223 00:20:40,607 --> 00:20:44,395 because the Reverend John Chilembwe is a national hero. 224 00:20:45,247 --> 00:20:46,646 He wasn't then, of course. 225 00:20:46,727 --> 00:20:51,642 To the colonial authorities, he was nothing but a dangerous nuisance. 226 00:20:55,607 --> 00:20:59,122 John Chilembwe had been educated in a Christian mission. 227 00:21:00,127 --> 00:21:02,880 He'd even been ordained a Baptist minister. 228 00:21:03,927 --> 00:21:06,646 And he liked to dress like a European gentleman. 229 00:21:09,847 --> 00:21:11,678 But John Chilembwe's upbringing 230 00:21:11,767 --> 00:21:14,918 had given him radical, even subversive, ideas. 231 00:21:16,407 --> 00:21:20,639 The notion, for example, that all humanity was equal before God. 232 00:21:21,767 --> 00:21:25,077 His mission church, next to Livingstone's estate, became 233 00:21:25,167 --> 00:21:30,878 the centre for a movement which took as its motto, ''Africa for the Africans''. 234 00:21:33,287 --> 00:21:37,917 On the afternoon of Friday, January the 22nd, 1 91 5, 235 00:21:38,007 --> 00:21:40,282 John Chilembwe announced, 236 00:21:40,367 --> 00:21:45,202 ''The time has come at last to fight back against our oppressors. 237 00:21:45,287 --> 00:21:50,486 ''You go out to fight as African patriots for the whole black race. 238 00:21:51,247 --> 00:21:57,004 ''Freedom is the cry of Africa. Our blood will mean something at last.'' 239 00:22:04,127 --> 00:22:07,756 Chilembwe hoped to unleash a new kind of race war, 240 00:22:08,607 --> 00:22:12,202 black Christians against white settlers. 241 00:22:13,287 --> 00:22:18,441 One of his chosen victims was his neighbour, William Jervis Livingstone. 242 00:22:19,967 --> 00:22:21,320 What was your grandfather growing here? 243 00:22:21,407 --> 00:22:24,558 He was growing tobacco, coffee, cotton, rubber. 244 00:22:25,447 --> 00:22:29,963 Deirdre Livingstone is the granddaughter of William Jervis Livingstone. 245 00:22:32,887 --> 00:22:34,445 What was this room? 246 00:22:34,527 --> 00:22:39,476 This was my grandparents' bedroom, and this is where they slept. 247 00:22:39,567 --> 00:22:41,159 The bed was just about there. 248 00:22:41,247 --> 00:22:43,920 And they would go out on the veranda and have all their parties next door, 249 00:22:44,007 --> 00:22:45,122 in the dining room. 250 00:22:53,327 --> 00:22:55,682 Tell me what happened that night. 251 00:22:55,767 --> 00:23:01,399 The 2 3rd of January, 1 91 5, that was the night when Chilembwe's men 252 00:23:01,487 --> 00:23:03,557 decided to rise up against the white man. 253 00:23:03,647 --> 00:23:06,923 My father was a tiny little baby, 254 00:23:07,007 --> 00:23:09,646 six months old, being bounced on the bed, 255 00:23:09,727 --> 00:23:12,719 and my grandmother was actually in the bath, having her evening bath. 256 00:23:12,807 --> 00:23:18,040 It was about 9:00, so it was a completely normal family scene at night. 257 00:23:18,127 --> 00:23:21,085 And then suddenly armed men with spears, 258 00:23:21,167 --> 00:23:23,965 the natives came in and rushed into this room. 259 00:23:29,887 --> 00:23:33,084 They went to attack my grandfather and speared him. 260 00:23:33,167 --> 00:23:34,520 Where was he speared? What part of his body? 261 00:23:34,607 --> 00:23:40,045 He was speared here. So she went over to try and get some port wine or brandy, 262 00:23:40,127 --> 00:23:42,925 the usual things that they resuscitated people with in those days, 263 00:23:43,007 --> 00:23:47,000 and then suddenly the other natives came in and the whole bunch of them 264 00:23:47,087 --> 00:23:49,681 literally came in and they cut off his head in front of her. 265 00:23:49,767 --> 00:23:52,361 -They cut his head off? -They cut his head off. 266 00:23:52,447 --> 00:23:55,962 What was absolutely desperate was my father, at six months old, 267 00:23:56,047 --> 00:23:58,561 was obviously just lying on the bed. And then I had my Aunt Nyasa, 268 00:23:58,647 --> 00:24:01,081 who was five years old, she was seeing the whole scene, because she was 269 00:24:01,167 --> 00:24:04,955 actually sprayed with the blood from the severed head of my grandfather. 270 00:24:05,047 --> 00:24:07,038 It was an absolutely desperate scene. 271 00:24:16,967 --> 00:24:21,597 On the Sunday morning, John Chilembwe preached a sermon in his church. 272 00:24:21,687 --> 00:24:25,646 He told a packed congregation that better times were ahead. 273 00:24:25,727 --> 00:24:28,639 ''The kingdom of God is at hand,'' he said. 274 00:24:28,727 --> 00:24:30,843 ''You will hear the bugles sounding.'' 275 00:24:31,847 --> 00:24:38,480 Beside him in the pulpit, as proof, was the head of William Jervis Livingstone. 276 00:24:41,647 --> 00:24:47,597 The revenge of the British authorities was, as so often, swift and merciless. 277 00:24:53,327 --> 00:24:55,602 Chilembwe's church was dynamited. 278 00:25:00,807 --> 00:25:05,039 As for Chilembwe himself, he was hunted down, shot, 279 00:25:05,127 --> 00:25:07,436 and buried in an unmarked grave. 280 00:25:19,447 --> 00:25:23,645 Today, his hometown is a shrine to the struggle against the British. 281 00:25:29,607 --> 00:25:34,158 But his missionary message still rings out from his rebuilt church. 282 00:25:35,167 --> 00:25:36,680 (CHOIR SINGING) 283 00:26:00,767 --> 00:26:04,601 Like many Malawians, the congregation of the church he founded 284 00:26:04,687 --> 00:26:07,759 looked on John Chilembwe as a hero. 285 00:26:12,287 --> 00:26:17,759 John Chilembwe wanted to establish a church with African origins, 286 00:26:18,687 --> 00:26:21,679 but yet with a Western education. 287 00:26:21,767 --> 00:26:25,919 But to kill someone, to cut their head off, this is not the sort of behaviour 288 00:26:26,007 --> 00:26:27,804 you expect from a religious minister, is it? 289 00:26:27,887 --> 00:26:28,956 It is a terrible thing. 290 00:26:29,047 --> 00:26:32,084 But when you look at the killing side, we also look at the other side. 291 00:26:32,167 --> 00:26:34,681 What did it do for him to kill? 292 00:26:34,767 --> 00:26:37,201 Because there is a cause to everything. 293 00:26:37,287 --> 00:26:38,959 You can kill, too. 294 00:26:39,047 --> 00:26:43,438 When you reach a certain stage, say, when I want to take your family, 295 00:26:43,527 --> 00:26:46,837 I want to kill your family, you can kill too. So we don't know what happened. 296 00:26:46,927 --> 00:26:50,044 -It's just a mystery. -And you admire him? 297 00:26:50,127 --> 00:26:52,516 Yes, we do admire him in Malawi. 298 00:26:52,607 --> 00:26:58,557 But we admire him because of his teaching when he established his church. 299 00:26:59,327 --> 00:27:03,161 Because he wanted people to be self-sustaining. 300 00:27:03,687 --> 00:27:06,360 Work hard. He brought that idea. 301 00:27:19,087 --> 00:27:21,920 The march of the white race, led by Britain, 302 00:27:22,007 --> 00:27:24,680 across the globe in the late 1 9th century, 303 00:27:24,767 --> 00:27:27,281 was astonishing to behold. 304 00:27:27,367 --> 00:27:30,916 So astonishing that people began to search for explanations. 305 00:27:31,967 --> 00:27:34,561 An idea took hold among some people 306 00:27:34,647 --> 00:27:39,118 that this must be a scientifically pre-determined destiny. 307 00:27:50,447 --> 00:27:55,567 In 1 863, the members of the Anthropological Society of London 308 00:27:55,647 --> 00:27:59,117 gathered to hear what was billed as a scientific lecture. 309 00:28:01,847 --> 00:28:06,716 It was a momentous and, as it turned out, hugely controversial occasion. 310 00:28:10,567 --> 00:28:13,525 The speaker was the president and founder of the association, 311 00:28:13,607 --> 00:28:15,438 Dr James Hunt. 312 00:28:15,527 --> 00:28:19,918 The title of his paper was, ''The Negro's Place In Nature''. 313 00:28:23,367 --> 00:28:28,566 ''I propose to discuss the physical and mental characteristics of the negro, 314 00:28:29,167 --> 00:28:34,116 ''with a view to determining not only his position in nature, 315 00:28:34,207 --> 00:28:37,085 ''but also the station he should occupy. 316 00:28:38,367 --> 00:28:42,599 ''I shall also dwell on the analogies between the negro 317 00:28:42,687 --> 00:28:44,757 ''and the anthropoid apes.'' 318 00:28:45,847 --> 00:28:49,806 What followed was over an hour of racist nonsense, 319 00:28:49,887 --> 00:28:55,519 dressed up in the pseudo-technological language of scientific observation. 320 00:28:55,607 --> 00:28:59,600 ''His skull is very hard and unusually thick, 321 00:28:59,687 --> 00:29:01,962 ''enabling negroes to fight or 322 00:29:02,047 --> 00:29:04,959 ''carry heavy weights on their heads with pleasure.'' 323 00:29:07,047 --> 00:29:09,925 There were hisses and boos from the audience. 324 00:29:10,007 --> 00:29:13,204 Some considered he was justifying slavery, 325 00:29:13,287 --> 00:29:15,847 which the British were proud of having abolished. 326 00:29:17,567 --> 00:29:22,118 But his ideas struck a chord among more fanatical empire builders. 327 00:29:26,887 --> 00:29:31,005 Because the empire had been such a huge success story, 328 00:29:31,087 --> 00:29:32,918 they began to talk about how they had, 329 00:29:33,007 --> 00:29:37,797 and this phrase was pretty widely used, ''a genius for empire''. 330 00:29:38,287 --> 00:29:40,039 But what was this genius? 331 00:29:43,407 --> 00:29:47,480 It got muddled up with Charles Darwin's ideas about evolution. 332 00:29:48,487 --> 00:29:53,117 The champions of empire argued that the British had evolved naturally 333 00:29:53,207 --> 00:29:54,959 to rule over others. 334 00:29:55,767 --> 00:29:59,680 So that they were now, in fact, a superior race. 335 00:30:04,847 --> 00:30:10,479 ''Everywhere we see the European as the conqueror and the dominant race, 336 00:30:10,567 --> 00:30:16,597 ''and no amount of education will ever alter the decrees of nature's laws.'' 337 00:30:19,527 --> 00:30:23,645 David Livingstone had preached that colonisers had a duty 338 00:30:23,727 --> 00:30:25,683 to help the unfortunate. 339 00:30:27,167 --> 00:30:31,683 But what was the difference between unfortunate and inferior? 340 00:30:34,767 --> 00:30:38,726 A conviction took hold that helping meant ruling. 341 00:30:54,927 --> 00:30:58,920 One man who felt this new aggressive sense of mission 342 00:30:59,007 --> 00:31:01,282 more keenly than any other, 343 00:31:01,367 --> 00:31:04,245 came to southern Africa in 1 87 1. 344 00:31:07,687 --> 00:31:09,484 His name was Cecil Rhodes, 345 00:31:09,567 --> 00:31:12,365 and you'd need a fistful of adjectives to describe him. 346 00:31:12,447 --> 00:31:16,759 He was bold. He was buccaneering. He was brilliant. 347 00:31:16,847 --> 00:31:21,682 But he was also brash, brutal, and bigoted. 348 00:31:21,767 --> 00:31:25,237 He added great tracts of Africa to the empire 349 00:31:25,327 --> 00:31:30,685 on the principle that, as he put it, ''We are the first race in the world, 350 00:31:30,767 --> 00:31:35,204 ''and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race.'' 351 00:31:39,887 --> 00:31:43,960 The empire was built, or stolen from others, by mavericks. 352 00:31:44,047 --> 00:31:46,800 And Rhodes was the mavericks' maverick. 353 00:31:47,647 --> 00:31:52,801 He did as he pleased, and only told the politicians in London afterwards. 354 00:31:53,287 --> 00:31:56,882 He made war. He created colonies off his own bat. 355 00:31:59,247 --> 00:32:01,044 Rhodes called the English, 356 00:32:01,127 --> 00:32:05,837 ''God's chosen instrument in carrying out the divine idea. '' 357 00:32:05,927 --> 00:32:08,805 It could almost have been David Livingstone talking. 358 00:32:13,807 --> 00:32:19,279 But where Livingstone saw his duty as being to serve, Rhodes had other ideas. 359 00:32:20,007 --> 00:32:23,761 ''Africa lies ready for us,'' he told his supporters. 360 00:32:24,367 --> 00:32:25,880 ''It is our duty to take it.'' 361 00:32:31,247 --> 00:32:33,477 Livingstone's treasure was in heaven. 362 00:32:33,567 --> 00:32:36,559 Rhodes's was on earth, or under it. 363 00:32:47,807 --> 00:32:51,083 He made his fortune in a diamond town. 364 00:32:56,447 --> 00:32:59,041 Today it's been recreated to give a flavour 365 00:32:59,127 --> 00:33:01,516 of what it was like in the 1 880s. 366 00:33:02,487 --> 00:33:05,604 A place of high hopes and low living, 367 00:33:05,687 --> 00:33:10,317 where desperate men came to get rich, or die trying. 368 00:33:12,727 --> 00:33:16,481 Then it was known simply as New Rush. 369 00:33:28,367 --> 00:33:32,918 The colonial secretary, Lord Kimberley, thought the name New Rush 370 00:33:33,007 --> 00:33:37,398 was altogether far too vulgar, and as for the Dutch name, Vooruitzigt, 371 00:33:37,487 --> 00:33:40,365 well, frankly, it was just about unpronounceable. 372 00:33:40,447 --> 00:33:44,918 So a grovelling official said, ''Would the name Kimberley be acceptable?'' 373 00:33:45,887 --> 00:33:47,798 ''Most acceptable,'' said his Lordship. 374 00:33:52,487 --> 00:33:55,877 Rhodes's power base was the Kimberley Club, 375 00:33:56,007 --> 00:33:59,238 where southern Africa's business elite gathered. 376 00:34:07,127 --> 00:34:11,723 They said you could find the five richest men in Africa at this bar. 377 00:34:11,807 --> 00:34:16,164 But Rhodes was actually less interested in money than he was in power. 378 00:34:16,247 --> 00:34:21,002 And specifically in realising what he called, ''My idea''. 379 00:34:26,447 --> 00:34:31,362 That idea, he said, was the bringing of the whole uncivilised world 380 00:34:31,447 --> 00:34:35,076 under British rule. And he knew his own part in it. 381 00:34:40,207 --> 00:34:43,995 Rhodes sketched out his dream on this very map. 382 00:34:44,087 --> 00:34:47,875 It is of British territory running right down the spine of Africa. 383 00:34:48,287 --> 00:34:52,519 In pencil he drew the proposed course of a railway line that began 384 00:34:52,607 --> 00:34:58,000 at the cape at the tip of southern Africa, up through South Africa, 385 00:34:58,087 --> 00:35:00,521 through what is now Zambia, 386 00:35:00,607 --> 00:35:03,519 on into Uganda, into Sudan, 387 00:35:04,367 --> 00:35:07,439 and then to Cairo on the Mediterranean. 388 00:35:08,087 --> 00:35:13,161 He believed that this would create a territory fit for white men, 389 00:35:13,247 --> 00:35:17,001 that would be bigger and more populous than the United States. 390 00:35:25,527 --> 00:35:29,440 Here in the Kimberley Club, Rhodes planned the next stage 391 00:35:29,527 --> 00:35:31,404 of the conquest of southern Africa. 392 00:35:32,447 --> 00:35:37,919 And he would be its leader, not as a soldier, but as a businessman. 393 00:35:41,207 --> 00:35:44,916 His irregular army of so-called pioneers 394 00:35:45,007 --> 00:35:48,283 were sent north in search of new territory. 395 00:35:50,287 --> 00:35:53,438 ''Take what you can,'' said the British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury, 396 00:35:53,527 --> 00:35:55,006 ''and ask me later.'' 397 00:36:03,887 --> 00:36:09,200 Rhodes's aim was, as he put it, ''To set up mining companies, 398 00:36:09,287 --> 00:36:13,075 ''cultivate the land, and preserve peace and order. '' 399 00:36:13,807 --> 00:36:15,923 In other words, to invade. 400 00:36:19,087 --> 00:36:23,683 Through a combination of treaties, which later turned out to mean not quite 401 00:36:23,767 --> 00:36:26,998 what they seemed to mean at the time, bribery, 402 00:36:27,087 --> 00:36:32,878 and liberal use of the machine gun, they carved out a huge swathe of Africa, 403 00:36:32,967 --> 00:36:37,882 now known as Zimbabwe, but then named Rhodesia, after their leader. 404 00:36:45,607 --> 00:36:50,476 If ever there was a country founded on blood and greed, Rhodesia was it. 405 00:37:03,687 --> 00:37:08,363 Rhodes would become Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, later South Africa, 406 00:37:08,447 --> 00:37:12,235 the nation that gave the world apartheid. 407 00:37:12,327 --> 00:37:17,560 ''These are my politics, ''he announced. ''The native is to be denied the vote 408 00:37:17,687 --> 00:37:19,962 ''and treated as a child. '' 409 00:37:21,647 --> 00:37:24,559 This was what Rhodes's great dream, 410 00:37:24,647 --> 00:37:29,243 the duty of the white race to civilise the earth, came down to. 411 00:37:47,527 --> 00:37:51,964 Rhodes's triumphalist vision of empire was partially fulfilled. 412 00:37:53,887 --> 00:37:58,244 By the end of the 1 9th century, the lion's share of Africa 413 00:37:58,327 --> 00:38:00,079 belonged to Britain. 414 00:38:07,447 --> 00:38:12,475 But the business of actually running the world's untidiest empire 415 00:38:12,567 --> 00:38:14,637 was a rather more humdrum affair. 416 00:38:20,487 --> 00:38:26,198 Well into the 20th century, huge areas were governed by handfuls of white men, 417 00:38:26,607 --> 00:38:29,679 thrown in at the deep end and told to get on with it. 418 00:38:30,407 --> 00:38:32,523 NEWSREEL: A British District Officer. 419 00:38:32,607 --> 00:38:34,325 For much of the year, he's on tour, 420 00:38:34,407 --> 00:38:36,637 visiting the remote villages of his district. 421 00:38:37,567 --> 00:38:39,717 His arrival at a village is a great occasion. 422 00:38:39,807 --> 00:38:43,117 Elders and councillors come down to the water's edge to meet him. 423 00:38:44,087 --> 00:38:49,002 A Mr Todd, although only 24, rules over some 20,000 people with 424 00:38:49,087 --> 00:38:53,080 far greater authority than that wielded by any civil servant here at home. 425 00:38:56,527 --> 00:38:59,439 PAXMAN: They were called district officers, 426 00:38:59,527 --> 00:39:02,087 but they usually had dozens of jobs. 427 00:39:02,167 --> 00:39:06,797 Magistrate, tax collector, coroner, chief of police. 428 00:39:21,887 --> 00:39:27,803 In the 1 930s, the population of British Africa was reckoned at about 4 3 million. 429 00:39:27,887 --> 00:39:31,846 It was administered by a mere 1 ,200 officials. 430 00:39:32,687 --> 00:39:36,316 One of those officials, looking around and seeing how one young man with 431 00:39:36,407 --> 00:39:41,356 perhaps six native soldiers, might be in charge of 1 00,000 people, 432 00:39:41,447 --> 00:39:46,282 remarked, ''Britain's entire position rests upon bluff.'' 433 00:39:51,647 --> 00:39:56,038 One of the ways this enormous bluff worked was through a rather British 434 00:39:56,127 --> 00:39:58,357 invention called indirect rule. 435 00:39:59,447 --> 00:40:02,803 All over the empire, local rulers were persuaded, 436 00:40:02,887 --> 00:40:06,357 bribed, or threatened into throwing in their lot with the British. 437 00:40:07,967 --> 00:40:11,437 The British pulled the strings from behind the scenes. 438 00:40:12,247 --> 00:40:15,717 And if there wasn't a ruler, they just invented one. 439 00:40:28,087 --> 00:40:32,000 District officers in Africa were, therefore, supposedly ruling 440 00:40:32,087 --> 00:40:34,442 alongside the local chief. 441 00:40:39,127 --> 00:40:40,924 It could be a lonely job, 442 00:40:41,007 --> 00:40:44,397 but then, you weren't supposed to hang around at home very much. 443 00:40:45,087 --> 00:40:48,557 You had to be out and about in the hills and farms and villages, 444 00:40:48,647 --> 00:40:53,038 sorting out trouble with a handful of locally recruited police officers. 445 00:40:54,527 --> 00:40:59,043 (SPEAKING AFRICAN LANGUAGE) 446 00:41:34,687 --> 00:41:38,202 As for preparation, well, if you could survive a British public school, 447 00:41:38,287 --> 00:41:39,959 you could survive anything. 448 00:41:40,047 --> 00:41:43,039 ''I was head of my house,'' recalled one young district officer. 449 00:41:43,167 --> 00:41:46,398 ''I was deputy head of school, I was captain at rugger, 450 00:41:46,487 --> 00:41:49,320 ''I was Sergeant Major in the Officer Training Corps. 451 00:41:49,407 --> 00:41:52,604 ''So when, eventually, I found myself alone in the bush, 452 00:41:52,687 --> 00:41:54,803 ''I wasn't afraid in the slightest.'' 453 00:42:00,887 --> 00:42:03,003 Quite often it worked pretty well. 454 00:42:03,087 --> 00:42:07,683 One European writer travelling through British Africa was certainly impressed. 455 00:42:07,767 --> 00:42:11,442 ''Never, since the days of Ancient Greece, ''he said, 456 00:42:11,527 --> 00:42:17,045 ''has the world been ruled by such sweet,just, boyish masters. '' 457 00:42:17,127 --> 00:42:18,162 Right, thank you. 458 00:42:18,247 --> 00:42:21,444 Will you ask the defendant what he has to say about it, please? 459 00:42:31,487 --> 00:42:35,002 One of them still lives just outside Nairobi, in Kenya. 460 00:42:35,087 --> 00:42:38,363 Though, inevitably, no longer quite so boyish. 461 00:42:38,487 --> 00:42:40,125 -Jeremy. -How do you do? 462 00:42:40,207 --> 00:42:41,799 -Very good to see you. -Come in. 463 00:42:41,887 --> 00:42:44,560 -Thank you for having us. -You're more than welcome. 464 00:42:46,007 --> 00:42:48,396 When you look at it, there were such small numbers of people 465 00:42:48,487 --> 00:42:51,320 making the empire work. How did they get away with it? 466 00:42:51,407 --> 00:42:54,524 I think it's fair to say they trusted us. 467 00:42:54,607 --> 00:42:57,758 And we trusted them. Mutual. 468 00:42:57,847 --> 00:42:59,917 Mutual respect, mutual trust. 469 00:43:00,007 --> 00:43:02,885 And they did what was required of them. 470 00:43:02,967 --> 00:43:05,800 We did what was required of the government. 471 00:43:05,887 --> 00:43:08,196 You say you would do what was required of you, 472 00:43:08,287 --> 00:43:10,198 and they would do what was required of them, 473 00:43:10,287 --> 00:43:13,484 but what right did you have to require them to do anything? 474 00:43:16,527 --> 00:43:21,555 They were the heads of their tribes, the government needed to exist. 475 00:43:22,927 --> 00:43:26,397 I think we all agree, governments, good or bad, are necessary. 476 00:43:28,287 --> 00:43:33,998 And they found it probably as satisfying as we did. 477 00:43:34,527 --> 00:43:37,997 Did you ever wonder what you were doing, ''What am I doing here?'' 478 00:43:38,087 --> 00:43:43,002 Well, our basic raison d'etre, if you like, was to maintain law and order. 479 00:43:44,967 --> 00:43:47,162 But, of course, in the face of lots of armed... 480 00:43:47,247 --> 00:43:51,240 well-armed and large gangs, it wasn't so easy. 481 00:43:51,327 --> 00:43:54,046 Did you ever question what the empire was for? 482 00:43:54,127 --> 00:43:57,802 No. It was there and one accepted it. 483 00:43:57,887 --> 00:44:01,357 Some people say the empire was an unjustifiable mistake, 484 00:44:01,447 --> 00:44:04,678 an imposition on the rest of the world. What would you say? 485 00:44:04,767 --> 00:44:10,637 In order to maintain safety for trade, 486 00:44:11,687 --> 00:44:14,042 it needed government. 487 00:44:16,127 --> 00:44:18,687 So one followed the other. It had to. 488 00:44:19,727 --> 00:44:21,957 -Did you think you were doing good? -Yes. 489 00:44:23,207 --> 00:44:28,406 There was a great deal of satisfaction in getting advancement, you know, 490 00:44:30,007 --> 00:44:35,240 schooling and public health, health centres. 491 00:44:35,687 --> 00:44:38,520 They may not have liked us. I'm... 492 00:44:39,167 --> 00:44:41,806 I still... To this day, when I go down to Kilifi, 493 00:44:41,887 --> 00:44:43,320 where I have a little house on the beach, 494 00:44:43,407 --> 00:44:46,877 they'll sometimes see me in the town and greet me very warmly. 495 00:44:48,327 --> 00:44:49,999 So, um... 496 00:44:51,367 --> 00:44:53,198 it can't all have been bad. 497 00:44:59,887 --> 00:45:03,163 PAXMAN: But good or bad, by the middle of the 20th century, 498 00:45:03,247 --> 00:45:05,238 there was a new force abroad. 499 00:45:09,927 --> 00:45:14,364 The world had turned against the very idea of imperialism. 500 00:45:17,607 --> 00:45:22,044 Nowhere would the struggle for freedom be more bitter than in Kenya. 501 00:45:23,127 --> 00:45:28,759 It sparked a conflict that would shatter the empire's claims to moral authority. 502 00:45:33,767 --> 00:45:36,964 White settlers in Kenya had done well for themselves 503 00:45:37,047 --> 00:45:39,607 farming the fertile highlands. 504 00:45:39,687 --> 00:45:43,157 They developed the country, they felt they had a claim to it. 505 00:45:46,327 --> 00:45:51,606 Many native Kenyans, especially those Kikuyu who'd been displaced, 506 00:45:51,687 --> 00:45:52,676 felt otherwise. 507 00:46:00,407 --> 00:46:02,443 The issue was land. 508 00:46:02,527 --> 00:46:06,361 As one Kikuyu explained to a visiting British politician, 509 00:46:06,447 --> 00:46:08,324 ''When someone steals your ox, 510 00:46:08,407 --> 00:46:11,080 ''it's killed and roasted and eaten, you can forget. 511 00:46:11,167 --> 00:46:15,126 ''But when someone steals your land, you can never forget. 512 00:46:15,887 --> 00:46:21,757 ''It's always there. Its lakes, its streams, it's a bitter presence.'' 513 00:46:26,927 --> 00:46:30,761 The division of the spoils in Kenya was not exactly equal. 514 00:46:31,607 --> 00:46:38,399 A mere 3,000 white farmers occupied 1 2,000 square miles of prime land. 515 00:46:40,847 --> 00:46:47,161 By contrast, over a million Kikuyu lived on just over 2,000 square miles. 516 00:46:54,127 --> 00:46:59,326 But the settlers were tough characters and they were in no mood to compromise. 517 00:46:59,407 --> 00:47:01,557 Are you afraid of what might happen to the settlers' position 518 00:47:01,647 --> 00:47:05,083 if the Africans move more towards self-government? 519 00:47:05,167 --> 00:47:07,362 No, I don't think so. We've always stood on our feet before, 520 00:47:07,447 --> 00:47:08,675 I think we can do it again. 521 00:47:08,767 --> 00:47:10,962 REPORTER: Do you think your property is likely to go? 522 00:47:11,047 --> 00:47:12,366 Do you think you'll be in a difficult position? 523 00:47:12,447 --> 00:47:14,802 Not without being fought for. 524 00:47:14,887 --> 00:47:17,117 -Would you fight? -Definitely. 525 00:47:17,207 --> 00:47:18,640 I've done it all my life. 526 00:47:25,127 --> 00:47:29,279 PAXMAN: Soon came rumours of a secret Kikuyu resistance movement 527 00:47:29,407 --> 00:47:31,238 called Mau Mau. 528 00:47:32,207 --> 00:47:35,643 Their goal was freedom from British rule, 529 00:47:35,727 --> 00:47:38,764 and they were prepared to use terror to achieve it. 530 00:47:46,767 --> 00:47:50,521 Mystery and fear were part of what the Mau Mau were about. 531 00:47:50,607 --> 00:47:52,723 Deep in the forests of the Aberdare mountains, 532 00:47:52,807 --> 00:47:57,164 they conducted initiation ceremonies in which naked young people 533 00:47:57,247 --> 00:48:01,525 drank goat's blood and swore to drive out the white invader. 534 00:48:02,127 --> 00:48:05,119 In European circles, these became known as orgies 535 00:48:05,207 --> 00:48:09,837 in which babies were torn from their mother's womb and eaten alive. 536 00:48:09,927 --> 00:48:12,680 One colonial official even claimed to detect 537 00:48:12,767 --> 00:48:15,759 the horned shadow of the devil himself. 538 00:48:18,487 --> 00:48:23,436 This Mau Mau is a lawless and savage organisation. 539 00:48:23,527 --> 00:48:24,516 (GUNFIRE) 540 00:48:24,647 --> 00:48:26,877 Of course, the situation in Kenya is still full of danger. 541 00:48:30,967 --> 00:48:34,437 PAXMAN: The stage was set for a violent showdown. 542 00:48:37,567 --> 00:48:40,718 Native Kenyan troops working for the British 543 00:48:40,807 --> 00:48:43,685 were drafted in to confront their own people. 544 00:48:47,487 --> 00:48:51,116 Some settlers decided to get out while they could. 545 00:49:00,967 --> 00:49:03,640 But while the whites felt under threat, 546 00:49:03,727 --> 00:49:06,924 the people who really suffered were other Kikuyu. 547 00:49:07,007 --> 00:49:10,477 Those who chose to stay loyal to the British. 548 00:49:13,407 --> 00:49:18,197 On the night of March the 26th, 1 953, the area of Lari, 549 00:49:18,287 --> 00:49:20,403 here on the edge of the Great Rift Valley, 550 00:49:20,487 --> 00:49:21,761 was attacked by the Mau Mau. 551 00:49:21,847 --> 00:49:25,317 The people here were largely loyal to the colonial government. 552 00:49:25,927 --> 00:49:29,317 It was the middle of the night, so most of the villagers were asleep. 553 00:49:29,407 --> 00:49:34,276 The Mau Mau came to their huts, blocked the entrances, set fire to them, 554 00:49:34,887 --> 00:49:38,357 and then went to work with axes and machetes. 555 00:49:42,887 --> 00:49:45,276 NEWSREEL: These pictures arrive from Kenya. 556 00:49:45,367 --> 00:49:47,961 They show the charred remains of the village of Lari, 557 00:49:48,047 --> 00:49:49,958 only 30 miles from Nairobi, 558 00:49:50,047 --> 00:49:54,916 where over 1 20 loyal Kikuyu were massacred by Mau Mau terrorists. 559 00:49:55,007 --> 00:49:57,646 Men, women, and children perished in a night of savagery 560 00:49:57,727 --> 00:50:00,002 almost beyond description. 561 00:50:00,087 --> 00:50:03,921 An entire village was turned into a smouldering funeral pyre. 562 00:50:15,327 --> 00:50:20,526 PAXMAN: Alice Wanjiru Kimani, or General Alice, as she then was, 563 00:50:20,607 --> 00:50:23,075 lead the Mau Mau raid on Lari. 564 00:50:24,127 --> 00:50:29,247 She's now aged 8 1 and still lives and farms near the village. 565 00:50:30,167 --> 00:50:31,361 (SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE) 566 00:50:31,487 --> 00:50:32,602 Good morning. Come. 567 00:50:32,727 --> 00:50:34,319 -You're Alice. -(SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE) 568 00:50:34,407 --> 00:50:36,238 -Hello. Oh! God. -Nice to meet. 569 00:50:36,367 --> 00:50:38,562 That's a heck of a handshake. 570 00:50:38,647 --> 00:50:41,002 -(SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE) -Thank you. 571 00:50:44,887 --> 00:50:47,082 (SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE) 572 00:50:58,047 --> 00:50:59,685 Did you kill anybody? 573 00:51:28,647 --> 00:51:31,366 Was there no other way to get your freedom other than killing? 574 00:51:43,847 --> 00:51:46,122 What do you think about the British now? 575 00:51:59,887 --> 00:52:03,004 What do you think about the time that the British were here in Kenya 576 00:52:03,087 --> 00:52:04,645 as the colonial government? 577 00:52:14,487 --> 00:52:17,559 Would the country have been better if they hadn't been here? 578 00:52:28,847 --> 00:52:30,963 Talk about a mixed verdict. 579 00:52:31,727 --> 00:52:34,321 But imperialism's time had passed. 580 00:52:38,447 --> 00:52:41,200 (SOLDIERS YELLING) 581 00:52:41,767 --> 00:52:45,999 The struggle for uhuru, freedom, grew more intense. 582 00:52:51,487 --> 00:52:55,400 The authorities rounded up Mau Mau suspects thousands at a time, 583 00:52:55,967 --> 00:52:59,004 herding them into vast internment camps. 584 00:52:59,807 --> 00:53:03,083 NEWSREEL: Nearly 500 suspects were detained for questioning. 585 00:53:04,927 --> 00:53:07,646 Over a hundred of them were identified by survivors 586 00:53:07,727 --> 00:53:10,036 as having taken part in the massacre. 587 00:53:14,047 --> 00:53:17,517 WOMAN: Will you ask her, Inspector, why she pointed this man out? 588 00:53:18,207 --> 00:53:21,677 (MAN SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE) 589 00:53:23,687 --> 00:53:25,166 (SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE) 590 00:53:25,247 --> 00:53:27,477 MAN: (TRANSLATING) He is the one who killed my mother. 591 00:53:33,967 --> 00:53:37,198 PAXMAN: Imprisonment, torture, massacres. 592 00:53:37,287 --> 00:53:41,041 Somehow this temperate paradise had become a sort of hell. 593 00:53:47,967 --> 00:53:50,527 The world looked on and wondered, 594 00:53:50,607 --> 00:53:54,759 was this the empire that claimed to be doing good in the world? 595 00:53:57,967 --> 00:54:01,004 Britain was losing the stomach for empire 596 00:54:01,087 --> 00:54:03,885 and the ability to sustain it. 597 00:54:11,727 --> 00:54:15,720 Much to the disgust of many farmers in the white highlands, 598 00:54:16,127 --> 00:54:19,597 Kenyan nationalist leaders were summoned to London for negotiations. 599 00:54:20,407 --> 00:54:23,080 Uhuru was finally within their grasp. 600 00:54:27,247 --> 00:54:30,523 NEWSREEL: At the Uhuru Stadium, the articles of independence 601 00:54:30,647 --> 00:54:32,956 were handed by the Duke to the country's Prime Minister. 602 00:54:33,047 --> 00:54:34,036 (CROWD CHEERING) 603 00:54:36,047 --> 00:54:38,720 Joyful citizens of the new state celebrate their independence 604 00:54:38,807 --> 00:54:42,163 in the most African of all ways, by dancing till they're ready to drop. 605 00:54:44,527 --> 00:54:48,156 PAXMAN: As the 1 960s dawned, one colony after another 606 00:54:48,247 --> 00:54:51,239 demanded and got independence. 607 00:54:59,847 --> 00:55:03,965 The sun had most definitely set on the empire. 608 00:55:04,047 --> 00:55:07,039 It had taken centuries to accumulate, 609 00:55:07,127 --> 00:55:09,846 it was gone in a couple of decades. 610 00:55:14,727 --> 00:55:20,723 The empire brought blood and tears and dispossession to millions of people. 611 00:55:20,807 --> 00:55:24,846 But it also brought roads and railways and education. 612 00:55:33,207 --> 00:55:38,839 There is no simple judgment to be made on three turbulent centuries of history. 613 00:55:42,687 --> 00:55:46,316 Once, the official line was that, apart from the odd blip, 614 00:55:46,407 --> 00:55:49,046 the empire was a good thing. 615 00:55:49,127 --> 00:55:53,086 Not just for Britain, but for the world. 616 00:56:02,447 --> 00:56:05,598 But the British grew ashamed of the empire 617 00:56:05,687 --> 00:56:08,155 and tried to wipe it from the national memory. 618 00:56:09,887 --> 00:56:13,277 The empire was certainly cruel, unjust, 619 00:56:13,407 --> 00:56:18,242 and unjustifiable if you were a slave on a plantation in the 1 8th century. 620 00:56:20,727 --> 00:56:25,164 But it was benign and humane if you were rescued from a slave ship 621 00:56:25,247 --> 00:56:27,841 by the Royal Navy in the 1 9th century. 622 00:56:36,487 --> 00:56:42,005 For good or ill, much of the world is as it is today because of the empire. 623 00:56:43,807 --> 00:56:45,877 From the way it looks, 624 00:56:50,287 --> 00:56:52,198 to the sports people play, 625 00:56:57,607 --> 00:56:59,757 from the religion they practise, 626 00:57:01,167 --> 00:57:03,476 to the language they speak. 627 00:57:08,167 --> 00:57:11,637 It has changed the very genetic make-up of Britain. 628 00:57:13,407 --> 00:57:16,479 If only we can look at it clear-eyed, 629 00:57:16,567 --> 00:57:20,037 it can tell us a lot about who we are. 630 00:57:21,687 --> 00:57:24,565 It's a story that belongs to all of us. 631 00:57:49,527 --> 00:57:52,519 We've been through pride, we've been through shame. 632 00:57:52,607 --> 00:57:55,360 Mostly nowadays we seem to be in denial. 633 00:57:55,447 --> 00:57:59,235 If we really want to understand who we are, 634 00:57:59,327 --> 00:58:03,400 it's time we stop pretending the empire was nothing to do with us.