Life, 1919-07-31 · page 10 of 40
Life — July 31, 1919 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early 20th-century imperialism and the post-WWI redistribution of colonial territories. The main poem laments Germany's loss of East African colonies following World War I, with the "Sultan Mkwawa" (a historical Tanzanian leader) voicing demands for the return of his skull—taken as a trophy by German colonizers. The section "Ambassadors, Take Notice!" mocks American Prohibition, suggesting foreign diplomats will struggle to operate in the U.S. without alcohol. It references actual refusals by British diplomats to accept Washington postings due to the ban. Both cartoons ridicule American policy—one depicts an "unprohibitionist" avoiding enforcement; the other shows a woman complaining about Prohibition's social impact. The satire targets both imperial ambitions and domestic moral legislation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ThePlaint of the Sultana Mkwawa Germany will hand over to His Britannic Majesty's government the skull of the Sultan Mkwawa, which was removed from the protectorate of German East Africa and taken to Germany.—Treaty of Pe WANT my skull! 1 so dreadful dull Without it, And likewise blue. What do they mean to do About it? Ive borrowed one belonging to a lemur; But humerus and fibula and femur And all my vertebra, without compune- tion, Refuse to function, Because, they say, a lemur is a monkey, And they won't work for any flunky ! I want my skull! No, no, you cannot gull My Majesty with mandates over Wanga, Ujiji, Tanganyika, Nasa, Tanga, Or Palestine or Hull! Give me my skull! simian What pregnant words are these Of “ Freedom of the Seize!” Vain is the sacred chrism that anoints Those Fourteen Points, And Covenants Most Openly Arrived At, If Cranial Abduction be connived at! And what becomes of Self-Determinition If I can't have my Dome of Cogitation? Where is that skull? However can I mull Over your Clauses when I haven't got it? 1 want my skull! To whom, beside, could Equity allot it? I hereby brand all Treaties void and null If I can't have my skull! Wail of Aboriginal East Africans Where is the Mkwawa? Where may the dome of that good king be? In the name of the gods of the wild Orajawa, Hearken, O Chiefs, to our plaintive pleat skull of the Sultan That skull, to our warrior clansmen dear, The skull that our fathers were taught to revere, skull, bone Is gone!—and we want it! ochone! That with its flattened occipital Ochone, Our cause is just. They shall, they must! We're bound to have that skull or bust! Arthur Guiterman, “DON'T PAY ANY ATTENTION, JOE, HE'S A PROHIBITIONIST. LET HIM HAVE ALL THE WATER HE WANTS” Ambassadors, Take Notice! Wile it is true, apparently, that (out of courtesy) the foreign egations in Washington will be wet, probable difficulty of obtaining alcohol in any form is going to make it hard for ambas: foreign countries to in- duce adors to come here and live. Cecil Harmsworth, for Great Britain, has already refused the job. “Is it not a fact,” said Captain Ormsby Core, “WHAT D'YE S'POSE HER GROSS TON “that it is very difficult to get any- body to go to America because America has become dry?” Foreign ambassadors, before they are compelled to come here, will have to take a course in American Prohibi- tion, In order that they may be trained properly, some of our leading Prohi- Ditionists should be sent abroad to establish training schools. That will help some, if enough of them are sent. GE 1s, ED?” comicbooks.