THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN

Rudyard Kipling...Western Imperialist



When we talk about or hear about Rudyard Kipling, we think about the British author, poet and Nobel Prizer winner who wrote children's stories like "The Jungle Book," or the Indian spy novel "Kim," or the poem "Gunga Din." Little is talked about him as the defender of Western imperialism.

Rudyard Kipling whose poem, originally entitled “The White Man’s Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands" was a call for America to become Imperialists by creating foreign policy that would place the Philippines under US control. "The White Man's Burden" became a euphemism for Imperialism. The phrase has an obvious racial undertone regarding the supremacy of the white man and his duty to empire.

Read the poem below, reflect on the words used knowing that they are in reference to the Filipino...new-caught, sullen peoples, half devil half child...



Take up the White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go send your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child
Take up the White Man’s burden
In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple
An hundred times made plain
To seek another’s profit
And work another’s gain
Take up the White Man’s burden—
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah slowly) to the light:
"Why brought ye us from bondage,
“Our loved Egyptian night?”
Take up the White Man’s burden-
Have done with childish days-
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!