On Saturday 17th February, Olivia gave a talk about Barbara Castle’s fight for an independent enquiry into conditions in camps and prisons during the Mau Mau Emergency in the 1950s. The talk was particularly moving for the fact that two members of the audience had vivid memories of those events; one – former labour MP Stan Newens – who had played a significant role in the Movement for Colonial Freedom, discussed during the talk; the other, former RAF pilot John Grigg, who felt able to stand up and speak to the audience about what he knew, saw and heard from Kenya at the time for the very first time – almost six decades after the Emergency ended.
A modified version of the talk will be posted in the next few days. Full interviews with Stan and John will also follow.
Olivia taking (very intelligent and well informed) questions and listening to the audience’s memories and experiences at the Labour Party Heritage event.