The Wasp — 1879 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a theatrical burlesque script mocking British colonial attitudes. The play presents "Black Hottentots" and "White Hottentots" (likely satirizing both African peoples and British colonizers), with characters including a Chancellor and various colonial figures discussing monsters, conquest, and imperial pretension. The accompanying illustrations show caricatured figures in exaggerated poses—a common racist visual trope of the era. The satire appears to ridicule both the "savagery" attributed to colonized peoples *and* the absurd pomposity of British colonial officials who claim moral or civilizational superiority. The humor targets imperial hypocrisy: British "Hottentots" (colonizers behaving like savages) versus African ones, suggesting colonizers' claims to civilization are hollow.