Cairo to Kisumu

by Frank G. Carpenter

“The Khartum of to-day was laid out after somewhat the same plan as your capital at Washington; at least the reasons that determined the plans were the same. As I recall it, Washington was plotted at about the time of the French Revolution by a French engineer. Major L’Enfant laid out the city so that it could be easily defended in case of a rebellion and at the same time be beautiful. For that reason the streets were made to cut one another at right angles with avenues running diagonally through them, forming squares and circles, where one cannon could command many streets. Lord Kitchener had the same idea as to Khartum. He directed his architects to make the streets wide, with several large squares, and to have the whole so arranged that guns placed at the chief crossings could command the whole city. The result is Khartum as you now see it.

“The town is laid out in three great sections, and all building plans must be submitted to the government architects before permits of construction can be issued. The section along the Nile is devoted to the government buildings and the residences of the officials and others who can afford good houses. Back of that there are streets where less pretentious houses may be built, while farther back still and more to the south is a third section of houses for natives. The town is so planned that it can grow along these lines, and we believe it will some day be one of the largest and most beautiful of the cities of interior Africa.”

I have now been in Khartum over a week and find it most interesting. In coming to it, I rode for hours and hours through the sands and rocks of Nubia, and it was not until I was within a few miles of Halfaya that I saw signs of vegetation. The train then entered a region of thorn bushes ten or fifteen feet high; farther on patches of grass bleached by the sun were to be seen, and closer still other evidences of cultivation. The Arabs were digging out the thorn bushes on the edge of the desert and stacking them up in piles for fuel. There were a few animals grazing on the scanty grass.

Out of such dull and cheerless desert surroundings rises a city of green. All along the river, for a distance of more than two miles, runs a wide avenue shaded by trees and backed by buildings and private houses in beautiful gardens. From one end of it to the other this avenue is a succession of parks. It begins with the botanical and zoölogical gardens, where all the trees of the tropical and sub-tropical regions grow luxuriantly and where one may see the soap tree, the monkey-bread tree, and other curious examples of Sudanese flora. There are several lions and tigers in the garden, and there is also a mighty giraffe which I photographed this afternoon as he was taking a bite out of a branch at the height of a two-story house.

Next to the zoölogical garden is the Grand Hotel, a long, bungalow-shaped structure shaded by date palms, while beyond are the two-story homes of many officials, all well shaded. The first public building on this avenue is the post and telegraph office. Beyond it are the offices of the Military Bureaus with public gardens behind them. Directly on the river and in front of a wonderful garden is the great white palace in which the Governor-General of the Sudan lives and has his offices. Farther along the avenue are the Sudan Club and the hospital. Away at the south rise the large buildings of the Gordon Memorial College, with the British barracks at the end of the street. On the edge of the river are the inevitable sakiehs raising the water to the tune of their monotonous creakings. They start at seven o’clock every morning. Their wheels are never greased and as they move they screech and groan and sigh. There is one in front of the Grand Hotel which serves as my alarm clock, for sleep is murdered at the moment it begins.

In Khedive Avenue, which runs parallel with the embankment, is a statue by E. Onslow Ford, of General Gordon on an Indian camel. So far as I know this is the world’s only camelestrian statue. It is a work of fine art and full of the spirit of the famous hero it represents.

The business parts of Khartum are on the streets back from the river. There is one great square devoted to the markets. This must cover ten or more acres, and the Abbas Square, a little farther west, in which the mosque stands, is fully twice as large. The business section has two banks and a large number of stores managed chiefly by Greeks. There are more Greeks here than any other foreigners, and next to them come the Italians, some of whom have important establishments. One of the biggest of all is the house of Angelo Capato, a man who might be called the Marshall Field of the Sudan, for he has a large business here, with branches all over the country and desert stores far up the Nile. The stores have covered porches in front of them or they face arcades which keep off the sun.

The mosque of Khartum is one of the most beautiful buildings in Africa. It is a great two-story structure of white stone with minarets rising high above it. The galleries of the minarets have a lacework of stone around them and the towers are covered with Arabic carvings. The building is named after Khedive Abbas Hilmi who, I am told, furnished much of the money for its erection.

Khartum has also a big Coptic church as well as one built by the Church of England and the schools and chapels of the United Presbyterian Mission of our country. So, you see, notwithstanding its position on this far-away part of the globe, it has abundant religious facilities.