Ruyard Kipling's White Man's Burden Response

SC

History 10b

I See the Tears of my Village

As a young boy growing I had heard stories. The elders of my tribe had recollected them countless times warning us of these demons who frequented on the other side of the world. They came to our land. They ravaged us, they tore our brothers and sisters from their homes. Then it grew worse. Corruption, backstabbing, brother against brother sister against sister. There was no comfort in our Momma Africa. The unity that had once been strong between us had become cankered and diseased. Yet our tribe remained isolated, the elders at the time, hid from these strange pale people. They were not to be confronted with. Our job was simply to protect ourselves and our people. And we did that, moving deeper and deeper inland, the humans slowly catching up with us. We knew it would not be long, but suddenly it stopped. The men where there no longer, their vessels had departed and the only remnants of their very existence were in the garbage that they had left behind. It was a day that was a bittersweet victory, these men had gone and we would now be safe, but our friends had been lost forever. Little did I know this was just the beginning.

I remember that one fatal day clearly, and has plagued my memory. The sky was a clear blue and the sea was calm. In the distance a small speck was floating far, far way. It was moving at speeds faster than the lion on the prowl. We ran, my brother and I, to the village. This was not that rival canoe, these were our enemies coming back for us. We prepared grabbing our spears and our weapons ready to fight to the death. The oldest man of the village who had seen the last of these creatures leave our shore so many years ago led the batallion cane in hand. I saw the tears of my people. Men began getting off the contraption carrying spears that could shoot for distances farther than any of our own. A man slowly got off of the boat, the elder walked slowly to him.

“Tell your people, that this king” said the pale man taking out a picture of a fat man who sat on a throne, “will now be your king.

“Why should we heed your king, if we have no king but a council?” said the elder.

“It does not matter we bring advances for your people to make them as grand as our home. Our laws will become your laws, and our progress will be shared with you.”

“We are fine the way we live.”

“We will simply… make it better” the man said with a smile

With that the old man backed away motioning us to return, he had seen the arms these men carried and knew it would be imprudent to act.

Momma began to get sick. It was a sickness we had never seen before, the white men tried to take her but we kept her away from them. We needed to rid her of the worm. The illness grew worse, she would not eat, she would not sleep. All she would do was moan.

“My child,” she said to me.

“Yes my mother”

“These men will bring us down, we must not let this happen, protect the family.” she said in a harsh raspy voice. “It’s our only chance for survival, do not trust these men, they come with a hidden agenda…My son your father is calling me, I must go…” With that here eyes became glossy reflecting the clear night sky, which she could not see.

Months passed and these men began to grow, more people would arrive or stop and they would try to make us trade our goods for theirs. These men are unreasonable, how is a garment more useful than a chicken. I began to learn about these people as we began to speak more, they were revolting but intriguing all at the same time. I learned that they arrived to help us, to feed us, to cure us. When I tried to tell them that we were fine, the man laughed at me. We had never experienced disease until these men had arrived bringing new worms, or what they called ‘diseases’. We had always had food until they stole it. We had always been connected to one another, but the white men broke those connections to install their own. They took some of our children on boats but they promised they would return, we did not believe them but their machines were quite convincing. They spoke of freedom for us, but I only see oppression, as they gain more liberties they strip us of ours. They seek glory but we see them destroying us and making us fragments of what we once were, suppressing our culture and introducing their own G-d, one who would save us and was merciful if we did his bidding. A G-d who preaches choice but denies us of our choice.

It is madness to fight but it is madness to remain in this position of fear and despair being unable to do anything. They call us their burden, we call them our menace. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.One day, we will take revenge, we will rise up.