Who’s Burden is the Dark Continent?

At the turn of the twentieth century, Rudyard Kipling wanted the colonial powers to bear a burden that only advanced societies could endure. Take up the White Man's burden was the theme in his poem that summoned up an entire age of guilt and greed. When the verse first appeared in McClure's Magazine, the lines of empire were long drawn by Western Nations as they sliced and diced colonies under the chant that they were protectorates of the mother country. Cited by Jim Zwick, ed., Anti-Imperialism in the United States, 1898-1935 from a letter to the editor of The Nation, "Mr. Kipling's Call to America", Feb. 7, 1899, written by Alfred Webb - offers the following assessment:

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