Colonial trespass

(Nairobi, Kenya)

“Cholmondeley” is one of those surnames that are guaranteed to get the anti-class brigade’s blood boiling, as it has become synonymous with arrogant, air-headed toffs and the dying tail-flapping of the feudal system. I have never met anybody whose surname is Cholmondeley and I don’t personally know anyone who has, but I suspect that’s not really the point. The Ruperts, Sebastians, Farquhars and ffoulkes of this world are destined to be reviled as worthless idiots until they do the sensible thing and change their name to something inoffensive. Something like Simon Howard, for example.

To be termed an “aristocrat” in the twenty-first century is indeed unfortunate for your public image, as is the fact of being an alumnus of Eton (or Harrow, or Rugby or any of the other knee-jerk school names). Shooting somebody doesn’t help much, either.

Last week Thomas Cholmondeley, an Eton-educated “aristocrat” and important landowner in Kenya was convicted of manslaughter after shooting an alleged poacher on his land in 2006. There were echoes of the case of Pádraig Nally, the County Mayo farmer who shot dead an alleged trespasser on his land in 2004, in that it brought up once more the debate of the right of a person to protect themselves on their own property, the moral or legal limits of the method used and the possible legal repercussions of the resulting death.

However, the West of Ireland is very different from Kenya. Cholmondeley is one of the white people who sit on vast tracts of land that once belonged to the indigenous population, land that was acquired through murder and maintained through violence and enforced poverty. Ever since they arrived – and apparently this is just as true now as ever – these landowners have killed anyone who has strayed onto their land and expected the justice system to absolve them of any wrong-doing.

In fact, Cholmondeley himself had a murder case against him dismissed for lack of evidence after shooting dead another alleged intruder on his land the year before the shooting for which he has just been convicted.

From afar we sit in judgement of the actions of others without pausing to consider what the local system of morals or ethics would allow or proscribe. In some places it is perfectly acceptable to shoot somebody who has trespassed on to your property or who appears to pose a physical threat to you. However, nowhere is it acceptable to attempt to maintain a status quo from colonial times, and it is obvious in this case that it is another example of a powerful landowner killing one of the indigenous people and expecting to be acquitted.

Cholmondeley was found guilty according to the current laws of the country he lives in, and if anything this conviction is a sign that in Africa, the white aristocratic landowner has more than outstayed his welcome.