The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

The Khalifa's Rule.

The Mandi was at once succeeded by the khalifa Abdullah, whose rule continued until Sept. 2, 1898, this period in the history of the Sudan being known as the Mandia. On the date named the khalifa's army was completely overthrown by an Anglo-Egyptian force under Sir H. (afterwards Lord) Kitchener. (See EGYPT: Egypt and Sudan Campaigns.) The Mandi had been regarded by his fanatical adherents as the only true commander of the faithful, endued with Divine power to conquer the whole world. He had at first styled his followers dervishes (i.e., religious mendicants) and given them the jibba as their characteristic garment or uniform. Later on he commanded the faithful to call themselves ansar (helpers), and at the time of his death he was planning an invasion of Egypt. He had liberated the Sudanese from the extortions of the Egyp tians, but the people soon found that the Mandi's rule was even more oppressive. Gradually all chiefs and amirs not of the Baggara tribe were got rid of except Osman Digna, whose sphere of operations was on the Red sea coast. Abdullah's rule produced complete agricultural and commercial ruin. He was also almost constantly in conflict either with the Shilluks, Nuers and other negro tribes of the south ; with the peoples of Darfur, where at one time an anti-Mandi gained a great following ; with the Abyssinians ; with the Kabbabish and other Arabic speaking tribes who had never embraced Mandism, or with the Italians, Egyptians and British. Notwithstanding all this opposition the khalifa found in his own tribesmen and in his black troops devoted adherents and he successfully defended his position. The attempt to conquer Egypt ended in the total defeat of the dervish army at Toski (Aug. 3, 1889). The attempts to subdue the Equatorial Provinces were but partly successful. Emin Pasha, to whose relief H. M. Stanley had gone, evacuated Wadelai in April 1889. The greater part of the region and also most of the Bahr-el-Ghazal relapsed into a state of chaos.

Pilgrimages to the Mandi's tomb at Omdurman were substi tuted for pilgrimages to Mecca. The arsenal and dockyard and the printing-press at Khartoum were kept busy (the workmen being Egyptians who had escaped massacre). Otherwise Khartoum was deserted, the khalifa making Omdurman his capital. The population of the country dwindled from warfare and disease, small-pox being endemic.

The European captives were kept prisoners at Omdurman. Besides ex-officials like Slatin and Lupton, they included several Roman Catholic priests and sisters, and numbers of Greek mer chants established at Khartoum. Although several were closely imprisoned, loaded with chains and repeatedly flogged, it is a note worthy fact that none was put to death. From time to time a prisoner, among them Slatin, made his escape.

The khalifa, when defeated, fled to Kordofan where he was killed in battle in Nov. 1899. In Jan. 190o Osman Digna, a fugitive, was captured. As in 1903 and 1908, other Mandis arose, but they were captured and hanged.

The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium.

Of the cause which led to the reconquest of the Sudan the most weighty was the necessity of securing control of the Upper Nile, Egypt being wholly dependent on the waters of the river for its prosperity.

France was endeavouring to establish her authority on the river between Khartoum and Gondokoro, as the Marchand expedition from the Congo to Fashoda demonstrated.

The Sudan having been reconquered by "the joint military and financial efforts" of Great Britain and Egypt, the British Government claimed "by right of conquest" to share in the settlement of the administration and legislation of the country. To meet these claims an agreement between Great Britain and Egypt was signed on Jan. 19, 1899, establishing the joint sov ereignty of the two States throughout the Sudan. The reorgani zation of the country had already begun, supreme power being centred in an official termed the "governor-general of the Sudan," who by the terms of the agreement is appointed on the recom mendation of the British Government. Thus in effect Great Britain controlled the Sudan. Lord Kitchener, the sirdar (com mander-in-chief) of the Egyptian army, under whom the Sudan had been reconquered, was the first governor-general. On Kitchen er's departure to South Africa, at the close of 1899, he was suc ceeded as sirdar and governor-general by Maj.-gen. Sir F. R. Wingate, who had served with the Egyptian army since 1883. Wingate remained as governor-general and sirdar until Dec. 1916, when he was appointed high commissioner for Egypt. With Win gate served Slatin Pasha as inspector-general and his knowledge of native affairs was most valuable. But Slatin was an Austrian, and on the outbreak of the World War his services were lost to the Sudan. Under a just and firm administration, which from the first was essentially civil, though the principal officials were officers of the British army, the Sudan recovered in a surprising manner from the woes it suffered during the Mandia. At the head of every mudiria (province) was placed a British official, though many of the subordinate posts were filled by Egyptians. An exception was made in the case of Darfur, which, before the battle of Omdur man, had thrown off the khalifa's rule and was again under a native sovereign. This potentate, the sultan Ali Dinar, was recognized by the Sudan Government, on condition of the payment of an annual tribute. During the World War Ali Dinar revolted; an expedition under Lt.-col. P. V. Kelly inflicted a crushing defeat on the Dar furians outside the capital, El Fasher, on May 22, 1916. The Sul tan fled and was killed in action in the following November. Dar fur had meanwhile been incorporated as a province in the Sudan.

The first duty of the new administration, the restoration of public order, met with comparatively feeble opposition, though tribes such as the Nuba mountaineers, accustomed from time immemorial to raid their weaker neighbours, gave some trouble. The delimitation (1903-04) of the frontier between the Sudan and Abyssinia helped in the restoration of order in a particularly lawless region but occasional raids by Abyssinians across the bor der for slaves were reported as late as 1926.