Rudyard Kipling's Rally For Imperialism

Kipling’s Rally for Imperialism
“The White Man’s Burden” by Rudyard Kipling is a call for all white men to support and take part in imperialism. Not only does the speaker rally for colonization, he believes white men are morally obligated to save uncolonized peoples. Themes of racial superiority pervade the poem, as clear in the lines: “your new-caught sullen peoples, / half devil and half child” (Kipling 7-8). To the author, European colonization goes beyond being a stranger in the village; he believes white men are the saviors of the village. Kipling’s central message conveys that white men are under obligation to colonize non-white nations, though the job won’t be easy. The meaning of the lines: “Go bind your sons to exile / to serve your captives need,” (Kipling 3-4) is that white descendants must sacrifice themselves for the greater cause of introducing white society in other countries - for their own good. He implies that the white man’s responsibility includes saving those uncivilized folks from themselves. Stanza

He refers to non-whites as, “The silent sullen peoples,” (Kipling 47) and, “Half devil and half child” (Kipling 8). When speaking about taking over other communities, he advises colonists to use, “open speech and simple / An hundred times made plain,” (Kipling 13-14) suggesting the natives are so stupid that they will need to dumb down their speech to communicate with them. In another line, “on fluttered folk and wild,” (Kipling 6) the speaker makes a point that natives are easily spooked and wild like animals. Similarly, in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the British settlers referred to African tribal people as wild savages. Both Achebe’s novel and this poem demonstrate the misunderstanding between colonial and native; neither seems to attempt to understand, let alone accept, the other's way of