INTRODUCTION The Egyptians in the Sudan
There is an old Sudanese saying that “God laughed when he made the Sudan”. The Sudanese do appreciate the Almighty’s sense of humour, as they live in a country of the wildest extremes. The north of the country is rocky desert, bisected by the mighty river Nile flowing ever northwards to give life to Egypt. The central plains are semi-arid. To the west is the vast scrubland sand sea of Darfur which flows on into Equatorial Africa, eventually to become known as the Sahara. To the east are the high mountain escarpments that lead into Ethiopia, from where the Blue Nile rises at Lake Tana. The south has craggy hills and grassy plains, mighty forests and dense swamps, which eventually lead into to the Congo, Uganda and Kenya. It is here through the equatorial south that the many tributaries of the great White Nile meander, with the main stream flowing out of Lake Victoria Nyanza. During the pacification period these Southern rivers teemed with hippopotami and crocodile, and the forests and plains with lion, giraffe, gazelle and elephant. The native peoples encompass many races and tribes, from the swarthy Arab riverine people of the north, through to the glossy black Dinka, known as “green men”, from the south. In all, there were over 300 distinct tribes speaking over 100 languages and dialects. Religions ranged from Islam in the north, through to both Christianity and pagan animalism in the east and south. There is nothing small scale in this country of a million square miles.
Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, and ruled by a Pasha on behalf of the Sublime Porte who ruled from Istanbul. This state of affairs lasted until 1798 when Napoleon invaded and defeated the Ottoman Mamluk forces at the Battle of the Pyramids. This French hold on Egypt was at best tenuous, as following the destruction of the French fleet by Nelson at the battle of the Nile they could not be easily re-inforced or supplied. The landing of a joint British and Turkish force in 1801 left the French army so exposed that they negotiated an agreement to evacuate their occupying force back to France. Following a period of considerable internal turmoil Egypt was returned to the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire under governorship of Muhammad Ali, who built such a strong power base in Egypt that he declared himself Khedive (hereditary viceroy). Now Egypt was de facto independent of Istanbul, although the fiction of Ottoman suzerainty was maintained up to 1914.
To the south the Sudan was in the throes of anarchy and turmoil caused by the terminal decline of the Funj Sultanate, and had fragmented into many small kingdoms and tribal areas, so was ripe for conquest. With his position in Egypt now stable, and much in need gold for his treasury, and men for his expanding army, Muhammad Ali turned his attention to this hapless region to his south. Consequently, in 1820 Ali sent a large Egyptian army south to bring the Sudan under Egyptian control. There was little or no resistance, and a year later the Sudan became an Egyptian province as far south as the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers. Here, where the two Niles met, opposite the native city of Omdurman, the new city of Khartoum was founded as a military and trading base. Unfortunately the province was to be plagued by greedy and corrupt officials, many of whom could be considered the dregs of Egyptian society - as who in their right mind would want to go to that God forsaken province in the south other than to make their fortune? This Egyptian attitude would have a great influence on the events to come.
In 1869, Khedive Ismael Pasha sent an expedition from Khartoum down the White Nile with orders to suppress the now illegal slave trade and open up the South for exploitation. The expedition was led by the adventurer and experienced Africa explorer, Sir Samuel Baker, who was given a force of 1700 men, many of them discharged convicts. The expedition achieved little other than the establishment of a few military posts along the river as far south as Gondokoro. The Khedive promoted Baker to pasha, and appointed him Governor-General of this new Egyptian territory of Equatoria. After four years Baker returned to Cairo. A new governor was now needed.
The Egyptians felt it necessary to have a more experienced administrator to govern the region and asked the British Government if they could request Charles George “Chinese” Gordon, a man of worldwide experience, to succeed Baker as governor. The British government and Gordon both agreed to the request, and Gordon, was made a Pasha, and stationed in Gondokoro from 1872 until October 1876. In this time he had succeeded in establishing a line of way stations south all the way down the White Nile to lake No, and down its tributary, the Bahr el Ghazal, as far as the border of Uganda and lake Albert. A confirmed Christian, Gordon was also successful in his zeal to suppress the slave trade, and got on surprisingly well with the indigenous population, including the Muslims.
In March 1877 Gordon was asked to take the position of Governor-General of the entire Sudan province, a post he accepted. He regularly toured the far south seeking out bandits and slavers, making alliances, and generally trying to bring peace and civilisation to the area. In 1880, exhausted by his work in the Southern Sudan, Gordon Pasha resigned, and went to Switzerland to recuperate.
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