White Man\'s Burden; Black Man\'s

¶ … White Man's Burden; Black Man's Sorrow" and "There's a European, There's a European!." I chose these two articles because of the juxtapositions they offer with regards to the impacts of European imperialism in Africa. Of particular interest is the fact that the African woman contradicts the typical views of the damage wrought while the European man writes of those same damages in contrast to Kipling's view. This positions reflect that the issue of imperialism's impacts on Africa are complex and worthy of consideration much deeper than the entrenched stereotypes.

The intended audience of "There's a European, There's a European!" is the modern reader, interested in the history of African colonialism. The introduction hints that the audience is already familiar with the widespread view that Africans suffered a universally negative impact as a result of European colonization. The author appears to take the point-of-view that history is not black and white, but that there are many subtleties and nuances; therefore we should not view European imperialism in Africa as universally "bad."

The article contains several key points. The first point is to illustrate that Africans are not a homogenous group, but a wide variety of different groups. This is evidenced by the counterpoint presented throughout the article between the Fulani and Habe people. The second is that African groups had been preconditioned to European arrivals and those preconditions had a significant impact on the view those groups had on Europeans. This can be seen with the anecdote about what the malams had told the Habe people. The third point is that the arrival of Europeans impacted the different groups of Africans in different ways. The article does this by contrasting the responses and outcomes of the Habe and Fulani people.

This document is significant because it illustrates clearly that the impact of Europeans on Africa was not an all-encompassing set of impacts. Africa had, at the time of European arrival, established tribes, customs and social structure. Each of these, for each tribe, was affected by the arrival of Europeans, but the article provides evidence that there is no universality in outcomes. What I learned reading this document is to appreciate the complexity of the situation. History should not be viewed in sweeping generalizations. The world is far more complex and we need to take that into account when we read history.

For the article "White Man's Burden, Black Man's Sorrow" the intended audience are students of history, in particular those who believe that imperialism was generally beneficial to the peoples of conquered lands. The author has a strong point-of-view that imperialism had a negative impact on the conquered peoples, despite what many felt at the time were noble intentions.

This article makes several key points. The first is that the imperialist attitude was hypocritical. This is explicitly stated: "That sense of moral responsibility, however, was often misplaced or, even worse, laced with hypocrisy." The second is that the historical white view of imperialism is that it was beneficial. The author uses Kipling's White Man's Burden as an example of the pro-imperialism stance. The third key point is that the black man has suffered greatly from imperialism, but valiantly lives on. The author uses the text The Black Man's Burden to illustrate his point.

The document is significant because it presents the case in favor of and against imperialism. Furthermore, while The White Man's Burden is a well-known piece, its counterpoint is less well-known, so the article lends some exposure to The Black Man's Burden. What I learned from this article was to appreciate the different perspectives on history that exist. For every view in favor of an action, there are views to the contrary. Both sides have a case to present, and it benefits us all to see both sides of the discussion so that we may make up our own mind.

Between the two documents, one common theme is that of imperialism. Both documents address the issue from a variety of perspectives. The first article discusses both the Fulani and Habe perspective on the issue. Another common theme is the juxtaposition two opposing viewpoints with regards to imperialism in Africa. The first article compares the Habe's positive view of imperialism with the Fulani, who had a negative view. The second article also presented positive and negative viewpoints, but this time from Europeans who disagreed.