When Africa awakes / The "inside story" of the stirrings and strivings of the new Negro in the Western world

THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN

(A Reply to Rudyard Kipling.)

By HUBERT H. HARRISON

Take up the Black Man’s burden—

Send forth the worst ye breed,

And bind our sons in shackles

To serve your selfish greed;

To wait in heavy harness

Be-devilled and beguiled

Until the Fates remove you

From a world you have defiled.

Take up the Black Man’s burden—

Your lies may still abide

To veil the threat of terror

And check our racial pride;

Your cannon, church and courthouse

May still our sons constrain

To seek the white man’s profit

And work the white man’s gain.

Take up the Black Man’s burden—

Reach out and hog the earth,

And leave your workers hungry

In the country of their birth;

Then, when your goal is nearest,

The end for which you fought,

Watch other’s trained efficiency

Bring all your hope to naught.

Take up the Black Man’s burden

Reduce their chiefs and kings

To toil of serf and sweeper

The lot of common things:

Sodden their soil with slaughter,

Ravish their lands with lead;

Go, sign them with your living

And seal them with your dead.

Take up the Black Man’s burden—

And reap your old reward:

The curse of those ye cozen,

The hate of those ye barred

From your Canadian cities

And your Australian ports;

And when they ask for meat and drink

Go, girdle them with forts.

Take up the Black Man’s burden—

Ye cannot stoop to less.

Will not your fraud of “freedom”

Still cloak your greediness?

But, by the gods ye worship,

And by the deeds ye do,

These silent, sullen peoples

Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up the Black Man’s burden—

Until the tale is told,

Until the balances of hate

Bear down the beam of gold.

And while ye wait remember

That justice, though delayed,

Will hold you as her debtor

Till the Black Man’s debt is paid.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.

Except for the changes noted below, misspelling in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.

When Africa awakes / The "inside story" of the stirrings and strivings of the new Negro in the Western world

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THE BLACK MAN’S BURDEN