Take Up the White Man's Burden

Celebrated American Economist William Easterly drew the inspiration for probably his most famous book from English Poet Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden".  Kipling's poem is about American imperialism evidenced in the wars with Cuba and the Philippines among others. You sense in the poem a kind of naive obsession with the idea of the White Man liberating the rest of the dark world, using whatever means to set the captives free, bring enlightenment to the ignorant and preach freedom and liberty to all.

Echoes of the White Man's burden can be found in some of the ill-advised American foreign policy interventions. The so-called wars on terror perhaps the most poignant reminder.

In a letter explaining his poem, Kipling noted that " The White Man's work" was "the business of introducing a sane and orderly administration to the dark places of the earth that lie to your hand". In other words, it is almost a messianic responsibility placed on the White Man to spread what he considers as civilization to the rest of the world. And in "White Man's Burden" Kipling justifies war, the loss of youth and practically all manner of sacrifice in trying to help these lands and peoples that are too inept and backward that they need the White Man to save them from themselves. Various names over the years have been used to describe these demographics that need saving,  barbarians, the savages, the dark continent and so on. 

Image credit: Counter Currents Publishing

There have been interesting parodies and responses to the "White Man's Burden" many which have involved a play on the title. For example there is "Brown Man's Burden, Black Man's Burden" and so on, all written to try and dispel or at the very least challenge the idea of the White Man as the harbinger of a brand of civilization that is cross-cutting, progressive and hence deserving to embraced by all.

Over the years, wars have been fought, religions propagated and pretty much everything done in between to further this view. For Kipling and others, wedded to the idea of cultural and social superiority, the White Man (In whatever skin color they are clothed), represents what societies should aspire to and for the nations supplying the White Men, it represents what is at the core of imperialism (imperialism or cultural subjugation as a matter of dispensing social justice). In other words imperialism viewed through the prism of the hero, saviour White Man suddenly loses its negativity and becomes a cause worth losing one's life for. It is no coincidence that this "ray of light", this "noble" pursuit found and has continued to find a fertile worthy cause in the "dark continent".

It is perhaps not surprising that a recent wave of black celebrity "ethnographic" awakenings have led them to seek out their ancestral homes. Advances in science have enabled many to trace the parts of Africa from which their ancestors were drawn before taking the long voyage to various parts of the World as slaves. Arguably, the highest profile of these being Hollywood Actor Samuel L Jackson who through the "" Finding Your Roots" ( a docu-series) traced his roots back to Gabon. This was done with befitting aplomb, resulting in Mr Jackson being awarded Gabonese citizenship (unsubstantiated reports claim that Mr Jackson has promised to build a school of arts and theater in Gabon).

Closer to home, perhaps buoyed by the spirit of David Livingstone or maybe that of William Sheppard, I ruefully became aware of the red carpet being rolled out in Zambia's Western Province. The beneficiary, a "long lost son of Africa", a Mr Eric Sheppard returning to the land of his ancestors that were sold into slavery 400 years ago. Sheppard had managed to orchestrate his return through an organisation he presides over  called  "Diversity Restoration Movement" who according to him had traced his ancestry back to Western Province. In the pomp and ceremony that followed, the man was even given an indigenous name (Mubita), land and a local dance performance befitting a king. Probably moved by the crowds and yearning to exercise his newly found savior qualities, Sheppard gave a speech that among others promised to build an airport and that he would ensure that other Americans tracing their roots to Zambia's Western Province are encouraged to seize the opportunity to go back.

I understand identity. The need to belong and the fairy-tale homecoming. After-all the narrative of the children of Israel in the Bible (Sheppard likened his return to that of the Biblical Children of Israel) is also about the homecoming. Amidst all of this, however,  I can't help but get an uncomfortable nagging sense that some of the promises being peddled by our returning brothers and sisters are built from an expectation that they are supposed to be our Savior. Where this pressure is coming from, am not sure, but it has all the hallmarks of the "White Savior" phenomenon.

Sheppard will realize very soon that his kinsmen's patience will soon start being tried especially as regards that airport. I am not aware of any time-frame given for the completion of its construction. Chances are that the people of Western Province are not willing to wait as long as Sheppard waited to return to his ancestral home, and with each passing year, his credibility will be slowly eroded like a shirt slowly losing colour with the passage of time. For the sake of the people of Western Province, I hope Mubita delivers.

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go, bind 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.