Murder at London Zoo: Late Colonial Sympathy in Interwar Britain

Abstract

This article examines the tragic case of San Dwe, a young Karen man from Burma who was employed as one of London Zoo’s elephant drivers. In 1928 his roommate, the famous and celebrated mahout Said Ali, was murdered in his bed, bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer. San Dwe claimed that Ali had been attacked by a group of white men. However, this explanation of events proved inconsistent and was swiftly dismissed by the police. In the days that followed, San Dwe was arrested and charged with Said Ali’s murder. Yet, despite being the prime suspect for this brutal crime, in the archival records San Dwe is depicted as a sympathetic character. This was because his case garnered public sympathy, particularly from loyalist Karen nationalists, London Baptists, and retired colonial officials. All three of these groups campaigned on his behalf. Their petitions and letters to the Home Office in his defense deployed normative imperial understandings of race, gender, and sexuality to make their cases. Historicizing the sympathy that underpinned this support demonstrates how emotion, imperialism, and justice were entangled in interwar Britain. Through this case, I explore the limits to who could feel for whom in the empire.