Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

“ The big black negro tribes have withdrawn to and are content to remain in the swampy fever-stricken districts of which no higher human race has ever yet desired to deprive them. The Ethiopians have retired before the Arab invaders to their hills, whilst the Arabs continue to dominate all the country they cared to conquer.
The Hadendoa, Ababda, Bisharin, Beni Amer, etc., Arabs who speak a “rotana” somewhat resembling the Somali language, are, undoubtedly, not true Arabs, but are probably descended from the Hamitic race above described which also was the origin of the Somali and Galla races. ”

“ If this reading of history be accepted, the people of the Central Sudan will be described as a mixed race recently forced into an Arab mould and in varying degrees modified by Arab blood. And we may prophesy that future researches will prove the other elements in this race to be akin to the other races on its borders, to the Nubians and Begas on the north, to the Negroes, Gallas, Abyssinians, etc., on the south and south-east. ”

“ The shafts and huts of the miners, their washing-tables, grinders, and other appliances are found still in situ, and the position of some of the finest temples is now seen to be determined by their nearness to rich auriferous regions. This is, perhaps, the most important discovery made since the days of Lepsius.
Under the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties the Northern Sudan was an Egyptian province, an appanage often of the heir-apparent, and the monuments of this date (see below) are thoroughly Egyptian in character. ”

“ The text of the agreement of 1899, on which the administration is based, provides for the administration of the territory south of the 22nd parallel of latitude by a Governor-General, appointed by Egypt with the assent of Great Britain, and declares the general principles in accordance with which the administration shall be carried on. The British and Egyptian flags shall be used together; laws shall be made by proclamation; no duties shall be levied on imports from Egypt, and duties on imports from other countries shall not exceed those levied in Egypt ”

“ Bellal’s expedition to Bahr El Ghazal destroyed by Zubeir, 1869.Dating from the days of Mohammed Ali’s expeditions, Darfur was in constant dread of Egyptian aggression, and the country was practically closed to all Europeans, who were regarded as spies. For many generations Darfur had sent annually a caravan containing ivory, feathers, gum, slaves, etc., to Egypt, bringing back in exchange cloth, beads, firearms, etc. In 1874, the slave trade having been stopped in Egyptian territory, the Governor of the Sudan seized all the slaves belonging to the caravan of that year ”

“ Discovery of prehistoric remains. Light on the first dynasties. See (in this volume) ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: RESULTS. EGYPT: A. D. 1885-1896. Abandonment of the Egyptian Sudan to the Dervishes. Death of the Mahdi and reign of the Khalifa. Beginning of a new Anglo-Egyptian movement for the recovery of the Sudan. The expedition to Dongola. After the failure to rescue General Gordon from the Mahdists at Khartoum (see, in volume 1, EGYPT: A. D. 1884-1885) , the British government, embarrassed in other quarters, felt compelled to evacuate the Sudan. ”

“ About this period Mehemet Ali leased from the sultan of Turkey the Red Sea ports of Suakin and Massawa, and by this means got into his hands all the trade routes of the eastern Sudan. The pasha of Egypt practically monopolized the trade of the country except that in slaves, which became a vast “industry,” the lands inhabited by negro tribes on the borders of the conquered territories being raided annually for the purpose. From the negro population the army was so largely recruited that in a few years the only non-Sudanese in it were officers. The Egyptian rule proved harmful to the country. ”

“ In the middle of Africa, between the lands just mentioned and the powers advancing from east, south, and west, lies the former Egyptian Sudan, now under the rule of the Khalifa Abdullahi, the despotic head of the Mahdists. No European can venture to cross the limits of this land, cut off from civilisation, extending in the south along the Nile to Reggaf, and east to west from Kassala to near Wadai; death, or lifelong captivity, would be his lot. ”

“ The immense responsibilities involved were most imperfectly understood by the British government. Egyptian sovereignty in the Sudan dates from 1820, when Mehemet Ali sent a large force into the country, and ultimately established his authority over Sennar and Kordofan. In 1865 Suakin and Massawa were assigned to Egyptian rule by the sultan, and in 1870 Sir Samuel Baker proceeded up the Nile to the conquest of the Equatorial provinces, of which General Gordon was appointed governor-general in 1874. ”

“ Those who wish to study the present situation in the Sudan must not think of that country as it was in the days of Ismail Pasha, when the civilising influence was represented by the Egyptian Government, and when the various countries lying immediately beyond the Egyptian sphere were barbarous or Pagan states, in which Europeans were almost unknown, and the Arab slave-hunter had barely penetrated ”

“ But the last six years have wrought a great change in the prospects of the Sudan. It is still, and must remain, the key of Egypt, but it is no longer a mere conduit-pipe or line of communication to be guarded at all hazards. Under British administrators it is beginning to justify its existence on other grounds. Conquered for the sake of the Nile, it shows signs of bearing fruit of its own, like the vineyard that was dug over and over for the sake of its hidden treasure. ”

“ Acknowledging its responsibility for the good government of Egypt, it shut its eyes to the fact that the Sudan is practically a part of Egypt, and let matters drift into terrible loss and disaster. Something must, and no doubt will, be done,—and will succeed. Great Britain's mission in Egypt will pursue its destined course, as elsewhere, in the cause of true civilization, irrespective of political apathy, or political shortsightedness at Home. ”

“ But as the area of cultivated land increased, and the demands for water began to exceed the supply to be distributed, the need of insuring the present and increasing the future prosperity of the country forced the rulers of Egypt to turn their eyes once more to the upper waters of the Nile, and the reconquest of the Sudan became a political necessity. ”

“ The new railway is, for the time being, the central point of Sudan politics, and beyond a doubt the country is ripe for the development which is looked for. It is still, of course, a considerable drain on the Egyptian exchequer, but Egypt gets a more than sufficient return for her expenditure. Command of the all-important water-supply, a peaceful and contented neighbour, and an ever-increasing market for her trade, are things worth many times over the outlay she has made. ”

“ Everywhere throughout the Sudan the Mahdi, or False Prophet, had waged a successful rebellion against the authority of the Egyptian Government, which, since the crushing defeat of Arabi Pasha at Tel-el-Kebir, had fallen under Britain's protection. In order to bring this truculent disturber to submission it was necessary to send a British army to the relief of Tokar near Suakin. The Sudan had for a long time been the impenetrable stronghold of the slave trade. ”

“ The Egyptian Pro-consul lived in state at the confluence of the Niles. The representatives of foreign Powers established themselves in the city. The trade of the south converged upon Khartoum. Thither the subordinate governors, Beys and Mudirs, repaired at intervals to report the state of their provinces and to receive instructions. Thither were sent the ivory of Equatoria, the ostrich feathers of Kordofan, gum from Darfur, grain from Sennar, and taxes collected from all the regions. ”

“ International jurists are confronted with an entirely new political status. A diplomatic 'Fourth Dimension' has been discovered. Great Britain and Egypt rule the country together. The allied conquerors have become the joint-possessors. 'What does this Soudan Agreement mean?' the Austrian Consul-General asked Lord Cromer; and the British Agent, whom twenty-two years' acquaintance with Egyptian affairs bad accustomed to anomalies, replied, 'It means simply this'; and handed him the inexplicable document, under which the conquered country may some day march to Peace and Plenty. ”

“ A territory of some 16,000 square kilometres in the extreme south-east corner of Egypt is thus placed for purposes of government under the Sudan mudiria of Berber, under which arrangement a moawin and small police force are maintained in the fort of Halaib. The remainder of the area is administered by the Egyptian mudir of Aswân. In Egypt, the Arabs are not taxed except in respect of any lands they may own in the Nile Valley. In the Sudan a tax is levied on each tribe in return for police protection and other advantages ”

“ Nile region is generally taken as the eastern frontier of Sudan, although it properly reaches to the foot of the Abyssinian highlands. Hence modern maps have introduced the appropriate expression 'Egyptian Sudan' for those eastern districts comprising Senaar, Kordofan, Darfur, and some others. Sudan is therefore, strictly speaking, a broad tract of country reaching right across the whole continent from the Atlantic seaboard almost to the shores of the Red Sea, and is the true home of the Negro races. ”

“ The entrance of England into Egypt, after the building of the Suez Canal, stirred up eventually revolt in the Sudan, for political, economic, and religious reasons. Led by a Sudanese Negro, Mohammed Ahmad, who claimed to be the Messiah (Mahdi) , the Sudan arose in revolt in 1881, determined to resist a hated religion, foreign rule, and interference with their chief commerce, the trade in slaves. The Sudan was soon aflame, and the able mulatto general, Osman Digna, aided by revolt among the heathen Dinka, drove Egypt and England out of the Sudan for sixteen years. ”

“ Itang.Captain H. H. Wilson left Kodok on the 23rd December, 1903, with merchants to establish a trading station at Itang on the Baro. After making the preliminary arrangements there he visited Ras Tesemma Nado at Gore. His Excellency, the Governor-General, subsequently visited Itang in May, 1904.
Ibrahim Wad Mahmud.In April, 1903, after the delimitation of the Abyssinian frontier, Ibrahim Wad Mahmud, the notorious slave raider of J. Jerok, was informed that as his village fell within the limits of the Sudan, he must cease raiding and settle down. ”

“ This latter kingdom was then more important than now, and dominated much even of the Egyptian Sudan. Hence in the fourteenth century Islam obtained a strong footing in Darfur, as it had already in Baghirmi and Wadai. [91] Already in the twelfth century, Kordofan and the extreme east of the Sudan had been partially Moslemised by Arabs from Egypt, who had come south after the fall of the Fatimite Caliphs. ”

“ The Sudanese kingdoms of the Sudan resisted the power of the Mameluke beys in Egypt, and later the power of the Turks until the nineteenth century, when the Sudan was made nominally a part of Egypt. Continuous upheaval, war, and conquest had by this time done their work, and little of ancient Ethiopian culture survived except the slave trade. ”

“ Several of the more wealthy inhabitants of the Sudan have taken to trading with Egypt, not so much with a view to making money, as to spending a few months away from the atmosphere of the Khalifa's authority. It is by means of trade alone that any of the unfortunate inhabitants of the Sudan can temporarily escape from the hands of that tyrant, whose rule is more detested than ever. Most of the merchants, having their wives, families, and relatives in the Sudan, are obliged eventually to return ”

“ The state of affairs in the Eastern Soudan has always been turbulent. The authority of the Governor of the Red Sea Littoral was not at this time respected beyond the extreme range of the guns of Suakin. The Hadendoa and other tribes who lived under the walls of the town professed loyalty to the Egyptian Government, not from any conviction that their rule was preferable to that of Osman Digna, but simply for the sake of a quiet life. ”

“ It is most natural that all those interested in the weal and woe of Africa should await with deep interest all that Slatin Pasha can tell them of affairs in the former Egyptian Sudan, which only a few short years ago was considered the starting point for the civilisation of the Dark Continent, and which now, fallen, alas! ”

“ When Egypt governed the Sudan, it was from the Bahr el Ghazal Provinces that they recruited the men for the Sudanese battalions, who had come either of their own free-will or had been forcibly impressed. Owing to the climate and plenteous rainfall, the country is more highly cultivated than any portion of the Nile valley lying between Kowa and Reggaf. Besides, the majority of the tribes who inhabit these districts are, owing to internal dissensions, incapable of uniting, and would thus rather facilitate than retard the advance of any foreign power wishing to make itself master of the province. ”

“ The Egyptian government wished to make a new attempt to recover the lost province, and the idea was certainly very popular among the governing class, but Sir Evelyn Baring vetoed the project on the ground that Egypt had neither soldiers nor money to carry it out. In vain the khedive and his prime minister, Sherif Pasha, threatened to resign, and the latter actually carried out his threat. The British representative remained firm, and it was decided that the Sudan should be, for the moment at least, abandoned to its fate. ”