I found the article by Richard Gott ("The white man in Africa", 8 May) very well informed, in total contrast to the hysterical chaff that has recently passed for news analysis in the local (UK) print and broadcast media in light of recent events in Zimbabwe. My grandparents were born, brought up and lived for most of their lives under British colonialism in Kenya. The impact of brutalities and appropriations that were committed by the British in my country, where whole communities were forcefully moved from their ancestral homes, detained or massacred in Kenya, continue to be felt half a century later.
Gachukia Nyaga
Postgraduate student, Department of Government,
London School of Economics
So Richard Gott, with his unerring progressive instincts, chooses the moment when Robert Mugabe's thugs are killing white farmers (and oppositionists generally) to tell us that, because of the crimes of their forefathers, these people should have got out of Zimbabwe. Since the Nazi Reich forms such a seminal part of his historical perspective, Gott will no doubt appreciate that there were German writers, at the time of Kristallnacht, eager to provide historical perspective on the crimes of the privileged Jewish minority.
Martin Shaw
Professor in International Relations & Politics,
University of Sussex
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