Chagos: Find out about the last British colony in Africa

Believe it or not, Britain still has a colony in Africa decades after colonialism.

Colonialism and imperialism might seem a extinct reality, but they still very much run certain grounds where for example, the Queen of England is the sovereign head of certain sovereign state.

Colonialism is never going away, or won’t go away for a while yet. Britain still fights Mauritius for an arguably African colony in Chagos. First, why is Britain fighting for a land outside Europe?

Why can’t you just leave the place to flourish on its own? Why does Britain still have an African colony? Why is the Queen still even a figurehead mention in certain political structures outside Great Britain.

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Where is Chagos?

Quartz calls it an archipelago — a colony of Islands — in the Indian Ocean, south of the Maldives. Britain had excised Chagos ahead of Mauritius’ 1968 independence.

While Chagos has since remained under Britain, a leaked British communique to forcibly eject Chagossians of their own land in the late 60s for a strategic US military base called some 2,000 Chagossians "some Tarzans and Man Fridays.“

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The British might have paid £4million for land worth just £1 million in 1982, but British Solicitor-General was understating it when he called British 60s action as,” shameful and wrong.”

Chagossians have since been prevented from going back to their own land by a 1972 order, while they also face deportation from Britain.

In 2018, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) began a 22-nation journey to determine which nation gets the Island of Chagos.

Of the 22 nations, Britain currently has three countries on its side while Mauritius has 17.

The ICJ will have a verdict, but it is only persuasive and not legally binding. Its verdict is only a legal opinion sought by the United Nations General Assembly.