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Rudyard Kipling's 'The White Man's Burden', 1899


Alas, me dears, Rudyard Kipling had a point. Don't know if things are any different over a century later.....tiyeni kuntengo wa kachere tikafunsane.

Rudyard Kipling, The White Man's Burden, 1899

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.

....By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

.....And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

...But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread

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

Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.



This famous poem, written by Britain's imperial poet, was a response to the American take over of the Phillipines after the Spanish-American War.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/Kipling.html

pic: http://www.japanfocus.org/data/4873_1.jpg

Comments

Unknown said…
Thanks for sharing this. Haven’t listened to Alpha Blondy for many years but woke up with this song playing In my heart. Realised I never knew what it meant but love it even more now I know what it means.

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