The Last Colony: A Story of Exile, Justice, and Britain's Colonial Legacy. Philip Sands

In the 1960s, Britain’s colonial instinct flared up with renewed vigor: a secret decision was made to offer the United States a base on Diego Garcia, one of the islands of the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean, to create a new colony (“British Indian Ocean Territory”) and deport the entire local population there. One of these exiles was twenty-year-old Lizeby Elizé, who was expecting her first child.

For four decades, the Mauritian government fought for the return of Chagos, and for the last decade, Philip Sands has been closely involved in these cases. In 2018, Chagos and colonialism finally reached the International Court of Justice in The Hague. There, the story of the enslavement of a people and the fate of a woman who was once evicted from her home with one suitcase should be resolved.

This book is about the formation of modern international law and one woman's fight for justice, a legal drama and a personal journey that culminates in a historic decision.