Taking on Empires: Reparations, the Right of Return, and the People of Diego Garcia

Between 1968 and 1973, the governments of the United States and Britain forcibly removed the indigenous people of the Indian Ocean’s Chagos Archipelago to create a military base on the island Diego Garcia. Since their expulsion, the people—known as Chagossians, who are the descendants of enslaved Africans and indentured Indians—have sued the two governments to gain the right of return and reparations. The islanders have won three British High Court rulings finding the expulsion illegal under U.K. law and recently appeared before the House of Lords, Britain’s highest court, for a final showdown over their return. Tracing the history of the Chagossians’ struggle, this article discusses the larger significance of the people’s claims for others in the African diaspora and around the world, including responsibility for the effects of Anglo–American foreign policy and reparations demands by the descendants of enslaved peoples. The article argues that the Chagossians’ struggle ultimately represents a challenge to imperial power, historical and ongoing forms of racism, and some of the racialized foundations of the modern world system.