History Civi 2

Modern History Sourcebook: Edward Morel: Black Man’s Burden 1903

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Modern History Sourcebook:
Edward Morel:
The Black Man’s Burden, 1903

Kiplings poem The White Man’s Burden of 1899 presented one view of imperialism. Edward Morel, a
British journalist in the Belgian Congo, drew attention to the abuses of imperialism in 1903. The Congo
[for a period known in modern times as Zaïre] was perhaps the most famously exploitative of the
European colonies.

It is [the Africans] who carry the ‘Black man’s burden’. They have not withered away before the white
man’s occupation. Indeed … Africa has ultimately absorbed within itself every Caucasian and, for that
matter, every Semitic invader, too. In hewing out for himself a fixed abode in Africa, the white man has
massacred the African in heaps. The African has survived, and it is well for the white settlers that he
has….

What the partial occupation of his soil by the white man has failed to do; what the mapping out of
European political ‘spheres of influence’ has failed to do; what the Maxim and the rifle, the slave gang,
labour in the bowels of the earth and the lash, have failed to do; what imported measles, smallpox and
syphilis have failed to do; whatever the overseas slave trade failed to do, the power of modern
capitalistic exploitation, assisted by modern engines of destruction, may yet succeed in accomplishing.

For from the evils of the latter, scientifically applied and enforced, there is no escape for the African. Its
destructive effects are not spasmodic: they are permanent. In its permanence resides its fatal
consequences. It kills not the body merely, but the soul. It breaks the spirit. It attacks the African at
every turn, from every point of vantage. It wrecks his polity, uproots him from the land, invades his
family life, destroys his natural pursuits and occupations, claims his whole time, enslaves him in his own
home….

. . . In Africa, especially in tropical Africa, which a capitalistic imperialism threatens and has, in part,
already devastated, man is incapable of reacting against unnatural conditions. In those regions man is
engaged in a perpetual struggle against disease and an exhausting climate, which tells heavily upon child-
bearing; and there is no scientific machinery for salving the weaker members of the community. The
African of the tropics is capable of tremendous physical labours. But he cannot accommodate himself to
the European system of monotonous, uninterrupted labour, with its long and regular hours, involving,
moreover, as it frequently does, severance from natural surroundings and nostalgia, the condition of

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Modern History Sourcebook: Edward Morel: Black Man’s Burden 1903

melancholy resulting from separation from home, a malady to which the African is specially prone.
Climatic conditions forbid it. When the system is forced upon him, the tropical African droops and dies.

Nor is violent physical opposition to abuse and injustice henceforth possible for the African in any part
of Africa. His chances of effective resistance have been steadily dwindling with the increasing
perfectibility in the killing power of modern armament….

Thus the African is really helpless against the material gods of the white man, as embodied in the trinity
of imperialism, capitalistic exploitation, and militarism….

To reduce all the varied and picturesque and stimulating episodes in savage life to a dull routine of
endless toil for uncomprehended ends, to dislocate social ties and disrupt social institutions; to stifle
nascent desires and crush mental development; to graft upon primitive passions the annihilating evils of
scientific slavery, and the bestial imaginings of civilized man, unrestrained by convention or law; in
fine, to kill the soul in a people-this is a crime which transcends physical murder.

From E. D. Morel, The Black Man’s Burden, in Louis L. Snyder, The Imperialism Reader (Princeton, N.
J.: Van Nostrand, 1962), pp.l63-l64. First published in 1920 in Great Britain.

This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public
domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World history.

Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright. Permission is
granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use. If
you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use of
the Sourcebook.

(c)Paul Halsall Aug 1997
halsall@murray.fordham.edu

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Modern History Sourcebook: Edward Morel: Black Man’s Burden 1903

Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden”

* This selection, by Rudyard Kipling, concerns both African and Indian colonization. Of special interest is the
assumption that the colonizing powers did the natives a favor by bringing civilization to them. No mention is
made of the fact that these same powers exploited their colonies economically and kept them in bondage.

Source: Rudyard Kipling, Rudyard Kipling’s Verse (1885-19181, (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Co. 1919).

Focus Question:
1. In your own words, what is the “White Man’s Burden”?

THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN (1899)

r

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.

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-
The savage wars of peace

Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;

And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,

Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hope to nought.

Take up the White Man’s burden-
No tawdry rule of kings,

But toil of serf and sweeper-
The tale of common things.

The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,

Go make them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

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!) toward the light:-
Why brought ye us from bondage,”

“Our loved Egyptian night?”

Take up the White Man’s burden-
Ye dare not stoop to less

Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness;

By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,

be silent, sullen peoples
Shall weight your Gods and you.

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!

Instructions for the primary source assignment

1- This assignment should also compare and contrast the two documents. How are the documents similar? How are they different? How can similarities and differences be explained or accounted for?

2- Your assignment will be graded on both content and writing style and must conform to the instructions for writing essays and grading rubric included at the back of the syllabus. Remember that you will be penalized for not properly citing your work and for not following all instructions.

3- This assignment, which is intended to improve critical and analytical thinking and writing skills