Rudyard Kipling’s infamous poem, ‘The White Man’s Burden’ portrayed colonialism as a burdensome civilisational mission. The Victorian novelist penned the poem in 1899 as he encouraged the United States to annex the Philippines. Colonialism to Kipling and his contemporaries was a noble pursuit required to civilise the “savages”. But such racist logic stood at odds with the reality on the ground. In the subsequent invasion of the Philippines, entire villages were exterminated and whole populations were imprisoned in concentration camps. Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos were killed. And the rac…