LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
THE MAHDI AND THE SUDAN
Sla,—No friend of Sudanese independence can feel very happy about Sir Nigel Davidson's letter on Abdulla Bey Khalil's recent article, published in your issue of November 29th. The view that the Mandia regime was " a blood-stained tyranny," " an apalling catastrophe," &c., &c., is the familiar British colonial view, from Kitchener in 1898 to the Fabian Society in 1945. It is not the view of anybody among the Sudanese people, whether of Abdulla Bey Khalil's Umma Party, which stands for inde- pendence in close association with Britain, or the more numerous and widely-supported Sudan Congress, uniting several parties, which stands for complete evacuation of British troops from the Nile Valley and a fully autonomous Sudan linked to an independent Egypt.
The most exhaustive inquiry among the Sudanese people, whether peasants, town labourers, agricultural workers, intellectuals or nomadic Arabs, will fail to reveal any considerable opposition to the State of the Mandi and the Khalifa, or any enthusiasm for British rule. Of course, no Sudanese denies that the Khalifa was ruthless in his suppression of rival forces and his concentration of State power. So was Henry VII in Tudor England And no Sudanese denies that during the Mandia there was starvation,' pestilence and probably fall of population. (The latter is difficult to assess. I am glad Sir Nigel writes " estimated population," for the statistics of 1882 must indeed be doubtful in a country where even today the Government cannot say for certain if the population be nearer 6,000,000 or 9,000,000.) However, the general Sudanese impression is that the Sudan's troubles during her period of Mandist independence were due mainly to the blockade and constant attacks carried out by the European Powers—Britain, France, Belgium, Italy—as a part of the then fashionable scramble for Africa.
Indeed, when Abdulla Bey says, " We put our faith in the British Government ... in believing that the Condominium Government is there for the welfare of the Sudan and the Sudanese," and fails to mention the existence of the great Congress organisation, which is less trustful on this point, and Sir Nigel Davidson, whilst condemning the Mandia out of hand, " heartily endorses the aspirations " of Abdulla Bey, it is difficult to see in what way the Umma Party can really stand for independence aa opposed to the continuation of the Condominium.—Yours, &c.,
28 Carrington Avenue, Hounslow, Middlesex. S. WHITAKER.
Previous page
