Elkin describes in horrific detail the subjugation, ethnic cleansing and slavery imposed on this people. Hundreds of thousands were placed in concentration camps and tens of thousands were slaughtered. The atrocities committed by the British in their torture centres on tens of thousands of Kukuyu were amongst the most brutal known to mankind in the 20th century; a comparison with Pol Pot's techniques is not an exaggeration. I remind you that the height of these crimes were committed in Kenya's struggle for independence in the 1950s. I also remind you that Princess Elizabeth effectively became Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 while on royal tour in Kenya. Although the queen herself by all reports is a nice enough person she represents to many the face of a very horrific and barbaric system of enterprise called empire. This may help to explain why some have moral hesitancy swearing fealty to the queen. Turdinthepunchbowl: This post hasn't gotten through two times before likely because Loading comments... Pledging allegiance is the issue. Why forced against one's will to pledge fealty to a figurehead who represents the destructive nature of imperialism and empire. And this is just not in the remote past but in living memory (and some would say ongoing in the present). The Queen herself is likely a pleasant enough lady, but she is the royal seal of approval of empire and its horrific crimes. I suggest the book by Prof Elkins of Harvard that won the Pulitzer Prize, "Britain Gulag: The Brutal