Donald Trump and the White Man’s Burden in Nigeria

On the eve of America’s imperial invasion of the Philippines in 1899, the British poet and defender of empire Rudyard Kipling urged the United States to: Take up the White Man’s burden– 
The savage wars of peace– 
Fill full the mouth of famine 
And bid the sickness cease; 

Over the next decade, Kipling’s injunction became the leitmotif of the West’s “civilizing” mission, justifying the imperial scramble to annex African and Asian territories. Under the cover of stopping wars by truculent savages and saving lost souls, Western powers exploited the resources of their colonies.

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