Silence of the Chagos

Based on a true, still-unfolding story, Silence of the Chagos is a powerful exploration of cultural identity, the concept of home, and above all the neverending desire for justice. Shenaz Patel draws on the lives of uprooted Chagossian activists in this tragic example of 20th century political oppression.

Every afternoon a woman in a red headscarf walks to the end of the quay and looks out over the water, fixing her gaze “back there”: to the small island in the Indian Ocean that she and her people have been deported from. But the island is “closed,” there is no going back. Charlesia waits in vain for a ship to take her and her fellow Chagossians back to their home on Diego Garcia. With no explanation, and only an hour to pack, the Chagossians are deported from Diego Garcia and relocated to Mauritius. Charlesia mourns the loss of her life on Diego Garcia, where she spent her days working on a coconut plantation and her nights listening to séga music with her family and friends. But most urgently, Charlesia seeks answers for how and why this injustice happened to her people.

As Charlesia struggles to come to terms with her life on Mauritius, she crosses paths with Désiré, a young man born on the one-way journey to Mauritius. Désiré has never set foot on Diego Garcia, but as Charlesia unfolds the dramatic story of his people, he learns of the home he never know, taken from him before he was born and transformed into a military base.

Shenaz Patel artfully reconstructs the lives of the Chagossians, whose cries for a return to their homeland are no longer being silenced. With the sovereignty of Chagos currently being debated on an international judiciary level, Silence of the Chagos is an important and timely examination of the rights of individuals in the face of governmental corruption.