8th Grade Regional Studies

I think that Kipling poem is very disrespectful; it was a putdown to all Africans and of people of African blood. If he would there before the Europeans he would find people living in communities doing Art and trading, he would find massive armies and Gold miners and farmers. I think that the evil that Europeans have done to Africans everywhere has outweighed the good by far. The things the Europeans view as good things done to Africa have side effects for example bringing horses and guns has brought more killing and a shift in power. He should have written about the evils in Imperialism not the benefits. Europeans have built factories and churches in Africa trying to convert and use us as cheap labor; we have no chance to resist because they are the government. Everything that Kipling said was good about Imperialism is in fact one of its disadvantages. I think he should seek a more balanced point of view before he writes about it.

The Europeans have no right to judge our culture as inferior. The truth is that they are ignorant and resentful because our culture is different. They do not understand us and so they assume we are inferior. They have more military strength than us so they can control us but they are not superior to us. Our religions are also different and as Europeans have always done, instead as accepting it they try to change us. The burden that they speak of is only one that they bring upon themselves. Africans are not inferior and therefore do not need to be colonized. If Europeans are so blinded by their own self importance that they cannot see this then it is no ones fault but there own that they bear this burden.

Kipling's poem is an insult to me and all others like me. It is pronouncing Africans as unintelligent and inferior. On the contrary it is the Europeans who are inferior to all of my people. Before the Europeans came and changed our culture we had many different organized societies. These societies prospered without guns and horses, which is your only source of power. Europeans may honestly believe that they are doing good by spreading their thick-headed influence all over the world. But in fact they are killing many of the different people and cultures of our world. We are our own people and do not need to be colonized by an outside source no matter how powerful they may be. White men may feel that they are doing good for our world but perhaps if they could only look from our point of view they would be able to recongnize the horrors that their large egos have caused for all those they deem inferior.