The Nile sources have become an intriguing puzzle for European and other
travelers in that region, especially during the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. My reason for writing this paper is to try and suggest reasons
for this quest, which at times went beyond pure logic. First, as suggested
by the title, I will deal with "the unity of the Nile Valley." In modern
times Egypt under Muhammad 'Ali conquered the Sudan in 1821. One of the prime
reasons stated by the conquerors was the unity of the Nile Valley. Historically
the slogan of those advocating unity between Sudan and Egypt was always the
"Unity of the Nile Valley" and not the "Unity of Egypt and the Sudan", since
the Nile was the bond uniting the two regions, not its people.
Secondly, Egypt and Sudan have a combined population of over 100 million
people who depend on the Nile as their main water source for both agriculture
and daily usage, hence its centrality in their survival. With the exception
of the Atbara River, which joins the Nile in the Sudan, all its other sources
originate south of Sudan and Egypt and thus are beyond their control. There
are ten states feeding on the Nile basin and there is no basin-wide agreement
among these ten states, hence a water crisis is likely to occur at any moment
in the future. In a way such a crisis is already known to us since Biblical
times and whenever the waters of the Nile diminished it frightened the people
living in its valley, on the one hand, and remained a puzzle which they failed
to solve, on the other hand. The enormous loss of waters in the sudd barrier
along the White Nile in southern Sudan, and its attempted solution in digging
the Jongley Canal, was also a reason for conflict between southern and northern
Sudanese.
Thirdly, a unique collection of letters which spans ten years in the lives
of John Speke and Richard Burton encompasses their search for the source
of the White Nile. This collection, consisting primarily of letters to and
from Richard Burton, known as the “Letter Book”, was recently published and
contains some new information about their attempts to discover its source.
Finally, as we now know, the source of the White Nile is in Burundi, as discovered
by a German traveler in the 1930s. Robert Collins, in his book "Waters of
the Nile", writes "from that spring in Burundi, marked by a modest pyramid
perched atop a hill of lush green grass with the succinct inscription 'Caput
Nili Meridianissimum' (southernmost source of the Nile) the great river
begins." Whether this is the final chapter in this saga is too early to state,
however, even should another source be discovered more to the south, it is
now quite certain that the Nile, whatever its source, will have to be shared
by a large number of states, feeding well over one hundred people and hence
the just way of sharing its waters and safeguarding it, is crucial.
The River War Revisited: Sudanese
Battalions in the Nile Campaign, 1896-1899
Ron Lamothe
Boston University
Though the defeat the Khalifa Abdullahi and his Mahdist
army has been chronicled numerous times since Lord Kitchener “reconquered”
the Sudan just over a century ago, we still know little about the Africans
who fought in this campaign. Historians have time and again described
the ill-fated “charge of the 21st Lancers” at Omdurman, for example, yet
they tend to ignore the more critical role in the battle played by the Sudanese
battalions in the Anglo-Egyptian army. Moreover, one gets the impression
from reading these often rather jingoistic accounts that the larger Nile
Campaign of 1896-99 was won by British redcoats and not Egyptian and Sudanese
conscripts (who made up some two-thirds of the troops). This paper
attempts to remedy this long-running distortion, focusing on the experience
of Africans in the Nile Campaign, and in particular, by examining the unique
status of the Sudanese infantry battalions. By returning to the firsthand
accounts of embedded journalists, perhaps a fuller picture of events will
emerge, and the experience of these Africans will begin to find a place in
the African and imperial historiography. This paper focuses on three
previously ignored aspects of the campaign, and one that begs a general re-examination:
first, the entourage of African women who accompanied the Sudanese troops
up the Nile; second, the interactions between Sudanese and British soldiers
in the Anglo-Egyptian army, as well as those between the Sudanese and Egyptian
battalions; third, the interactions between Sudanese soldiers and other Sudanese—military
and civilian—whom they encountered during the campaign; and finally, a reconsideration
of the battle performance record of these Sudanese soldiers.
Slavery, Slave Raids and Resistance:
Communication and the Flexibility of Stateless Militaries in Nineteenth-Century
South Sudan
Stephanie Beswick
Ball State University, USA
This presentation forms part of an ongoing monograph about
slavery, slave raids and resistance of peoples in Southern Sudan and focuses
on the mid to latter nineteenth century. The coming of the Egyptian colonial
era in Southern Sudan introduced a level of intra-Southern communication
hitherto unknown. The evolvement of this phenomenon, paradoxically provided
some of the first opportunities to first understand the new influx of Egyptian
and northern Sudanese foreigners in this war-torn region while simultaneously
providing a means of resistance. Among the Dinka, who were the hardest hit
of all Southerners during this slaving era, changes took place to accommodate
this new perception of shared intra-Southern repression. Indeed it became
clear there was a unified need to resist. Among the military innovations
during this era, typical of stateless societies generally, was a change in
the age-set system; often viewed as merely a structure of social organization
it was one that, certainly within the Dinka and possibly other Nilotic cultural
societies in the south, doubled as warrior military organizations during
times of extreme military stress. This presentation will thus focus on new
communication systems and military changes.
The Southern Blue Nile: Tales of Insurgency
and Counter-Insurgency
Wendy James
Oxford University
The Southern Blue Nile region, also sometimes referred
to as the southern Funj, or the Ingessana Hills, is often represented as
lying 'in between' the North and the South of the Sudan. It can equally
be seen as linking them, literally a point of human contact and interchange,
providing passage between the former Upper Nile and Blue Nile provinces,
as well as a route of passage between the Sudan and Ethiopia. In itself,
in geographical, economic, and cultural terms, not to mention international
involvements, it is a microcosm of the whole of the Sudan. In the course
of the civil war since 1983, the front line has advanced and retreated northwards
and south again several times. The region has experienced the arrival
of the SPLA, and its appealing message to local, marginalized populations,
and has also suffered the full range of government and militia reprisals,
resulting in deaths, displacements, and deep distrust of any authority.
Many characteristics of the civil war as a whole can be seen in the pattern
of its impact in this small region. Reports from Darfur in 2004-5,
for example, echo reports from the Southern Blue Nile from the late 1980s
onward. The current situation in Darfur has become known to a global
audience, who can scarcely believe the gap between what the Khartoum regime
says and what it does. A better understanding of earlier phases of
the war, which had little publicity at the time, can help contextualize the
current news from Darfur. Accounts will be quoted from informants on the
ground, collected over the period 1988-2000.