I am deeply grateful to so many friends who helped me with this work. First I want to thank all the Chagossians in Mauritius, the Seychelles, and England who greeted me so warmly, answered my many questions, and made so much of this research possible. Thanks especially to so many who graciously took time out of their lives to sit down for an interview or who invited me into their homes, making me always feel so much at home. I owe the same deep thanks to many former government officials and others who granted me interviews in the United States. Many invited me into their homes and offices, and I thank each of my interviewees for the time, hospitality, and thoughtful conversation you offered to someone who usually came to you as a stranger. Thank you to Michael Tigar for writing the foreword and even more importantly, for making this life-changing work possible. Thanks to Simon Winchester for generously suggesting the book’s title, one serendipitous day on a Manhattan street corner.
Profound thanks are due to several groups and individuals that helped to coordinate and make possible my work in Mauritius and the Seychelles. There is no way to thank you enough: the Chagos Refugees Group, Olivier Bancoult, Lisette Aurélie Talate, Elena Rabouine, and CRG’s executive and delegate committee members; Rita Bancoult, Mariline Bancoult, Oliver, Jessica, and Evelyna Bancoult, Mimose and Cyril Furcy, Ivo Bancoult, Marie-Ange Bancoult, Jean-Roy and Toombo Bancoult; the Chagos Committee (Seychelles), Janette Alexis, Jean-Guy Alphonse, Bernadette Dugasse, Pierre Prosper, and other committee members; the American University UNROW Human Rights Law Clinic, Meghan Colloton, Emily Creighton, and all its other incredibly dedicated students; Robin Mardemootoo, Dick Kwan Tat, Frances Kwan Tat and the Kwan Tat family, Satyendra Peerthum and the Peerthum family, Satinder Ragobur, Jean-Claude Mahoune, Julienne Barra; the committed and incredibly helpful members of the Kamarad de Resers research advisory group who oversaw and assisted with so much of my research in Mauritius: Eddy Bégue, Jenny Rabouine Bertrand, Isabelle France, Louis Rene France, Martin France, Louis Raphael Louis, Cynthia Othello, Piangnee Sweetie, Corinne Uranie, Linley Uranie; those who worked so hard on the “Kestyoner avek Chagossiens”: Daniel Anacooa, Dinesh Appayya, Micheline Arlando, Martine Ballaram, Candice Bonnefin, Dominique Percy Catherine, Tarkeeswarsing Hurrynag, and Komadhi Mardemootoo; amazingly dedicated transcribers Diana Bablee, Micheline, and Dominique; Vijaya Teelock and Melville Molle; Diego Garcia Islanders Council and Allen Vincatassin; Chagos Social Committee, Fernand Mandarin, and Hervé Lassémillante; the University of Mauritius and the Government of Mauritius; Seychelles National Heritage Research Section, Patrick Nanty, the Seychelles Ministry of Local Government, Sports and Culture, and the Government of Seychelles; Richard Gifford and Sheridans Solicitors.
I am also extremely grateful to all the former U.S. Government officials and the many others who participated in interviews or assisted with my work in the United States. They include Ken Bacon, Jeffery Barlow, Monoranjan Bezboruah, James Bishop, Bill Brewer, Abby Brown, John Dalton, Paul Davis, Robert Estabrook, Peter Findlay, Robert Harkavy, Stuart Johnson, Jennifer Jones, Robert Murray, James Noyes, David Ottaway, John Pike, Robin Pirie, Henry Precht, Earl Ravenal, Gary Sick, Ronald Spiers, David Stoddart, John Stoddart, George Vest, Jerry Wever, Simon Winchester, William Wishon, and others who chose not to be identified. To Richard Barber, special thanks for sharing your father’s letters and your insights, especially under such a time crunch. A huge thank you also goes to Michael Tigar, Richard Gifford, and David Stoddart for graciously giving me access to critical collections of documents and for providing invaluable support and encouragement all along the way.
I will always be deeply indebted to Shirley Lindenbaum for the phone call that initiated this incredibly life-enriching and life-changing work. Thank you for your guidance, care, and support throughout my time in graduate school. Thanks also to Leith Mullings and Neil Smith, for being treasured intellectual guides, and for all your time, interest, and help in shaping this work. Phil Harvey and Wojtek Sokolowski have been dedicated teachers and colleagues; I look forward to continuing our work together. Thanks to Michael Cernea, Donald Robotham, and Lesley Sharp for taking an interest in my work and for your support. I am grateful to Catherine Lutz for agreeing to assist with this project and for being so thoughtful and encouraging at every stage. Thanks to Rob Rosenthal for being my mentor, friend, and general life guide since I took my first steps on the court. Brooke, thanks for always being there for me as a writer, friend, and confidant—and for seeing me through it all.
Thanks as well to so many others at the Graduate Center, where this work primarily took shape, including Louise Lennihan and the Ph.D. Program in Anthropology, Ellen DeRiso, Janet Kaplan, Frances Fox Piven, David Harvey, Mitch Duneier, Ida Susser, Kate McCaffrey, Michael Blim, Mark Edelman, Kay Powell and the staff of the Institutional Review Board, and so many others who make the Graduate Center such a wonderful institution. Thanks to Julian Brash and Susan Falls for their tireless data entry work that made the Chagossian Survey possible, as well as for being great friends and colleagues. Thanks to friends from classes and the department, who created such a stimulating, fun, and supportive environment at the Graduate Center.
I want to note the debt that I (like many others) owe to Paul Farmer (whom I have never met). His work, passion, and ideas move and inspire me in the deepest parts of my mind and heart.
In Washington, DC, thank you to so many who have welcomed me and helped make American University a new home. They include all the terrific, committed faculty, staff, and students in and around the Department of Anthropology, who I thank here as a collective group of true friends and colleagues. Thanks to Marta Portillo, Jacki Daddona, and the work study students; to Naomi Jagers, who helped with so much work at the last minute, including the breakthrough that led me to the Barber family; and to my “Writing Ethnography for Social Change” class, which so generously offered critical help and encouragement with my writing and my heart and the connection between the two. Thanks also to new friends in DC who provided great writing help and so much additional support, including Andy Bickford, Melissa Fisher, Hugh Gusterson, Susan McDonic, Susan Terrio, and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz.
I would also like to acknowledge and thank those responsible for the financial support that made my research and writing possible, including the CUNY Graduate Center’s Gilleece and Dissertation Year fellowships; the Mellon Foundation and the Ralph Bunche Institute’s Inter-University Consortium for Security and Humanitarian Action at the Graduate Center; the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts; the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas; and the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
My thanks as well for careful assistance from the staffs of the Graduate Center’s Mina Rees Library, JFK Library, LBJ Library, Library of Congress, Mauritius Archives, Mauritius National Library, Musée et Archives de la Photographie, Public Records Office, Seychelles National Archives, Seychelles National Library, U.S. National Archives, and Tim Pettit and the U.S. Navy Historical Center Operational Archives Branch. I am continually impressed and amazed by the dedicated, considerate, and tireless work of librarians and archivists around the world. I also owe a great debt to all those who helped make the production of this book possible at Princeton University Press. Thanks to everyone at the Press for believing in the book and helping it come into print. I especially want to thank Fred Appel for guiding me through every step of the process. Thanks also to the book’s cartographer Chris Brest, Elizabeth Byrd, David Campbell, Nathan Carr, Maria denBoer, Dimitri Karetnikov, Heath Renfroe, Jennifer Roth, and Claire Tillman-McTigue. A huge thanks to Jodi Beder for her extraordinarily careful and thoughtful editing that helped improve both the style and substance of the book.
There are many, many other friends and family who have supported, sustained, and assisted me through this process. Although I will surely forget some (sorry!), they include Roberto Abadie, Dan Aibel, Tick Ahearn, Sue Barrow, Jorge Baxter, Lisa Braun, Fuphan Chou, Patricia Cogley, the Gan, the Goobs, Sam Goodstein, Alex Goren, the Greenbaum family, Hugh Gusterson, Christine Hegel, Claire Hirsch, Dan Hirsch, Rudy Hirsch, Sue Hirsch, Kim Hopper, Lynn Horridge, Alison Ince, Laura Jeffery, Josh Kletzkin, Lynn and Morris Kletzkin, Linda Kolodner, Sarah Kowal, Linda Kuzmack, Nicole Laborde, Ilisa Lam, Willow Lawson, Rae Linefsky, Emma Sofía Madrazo Borboa, Carola Mandelbaum, the McNeil family, Trisha Miller, Kellye Nakahara, Alix Olson, Sascha Paladino, Joe Perpich, Claudine Pied, David Rappaport, Roee Raz, the Rosenthals, Cliff Rosky, Rebecca Ross, Caroline Simmonds, the Singer-Vine West-Side crew, Cathy Sulzberger, Carlitos Tevez, Maureen Tong, Neil Tonken, Meredith Trainor, Elly Truitt, Mauricio Tscherny, Dylan Turner, Ellis Turner, Ilana Umansky, Hugh and Lydia Vine, Joanne Vine, Lee Ving, David Vise, and Deb Yurow. Thanks especially for the generous and timely last-minute editing help of my mom, dad, Joanne, Rachel, Adam, Sam, Ally, Cliff, Sofía, Josh, and Alix.
Above all, to my parents and siblings: thank you for your loving support of everything that has ever been important to me, a quality perhaps never more on display than with this work.
This work is dedicated to Tea and Erwin Stiefel, Gloria and Theodore Vine, for their love, and to the memory of Marty Pinson, who played the role of stepfather as well as anyone could but who will always be so much more.