Ten Years' Captivity in the Mahdi's Camp 1882-1892

by Josef Ohrwalder; Sir F. R. Wingate

The revenue of the beit el mal is expended almost entirely on the Baggaras; all the fertile islands in the neighbourhood, and the best-cultivated portions of the Nile banks as far as Berber, have been made over to them, whilst the original owners of the soil have been turned out without a piastre's compensation; they are, therefore, owners of all the best lands, and serve as a foreign garrison in occupation of a conquered country.

Woe to the native who happens to have a Baggara as his neighbour! His cattle are robbed, and he must share the product of the fields with his overbearing master; wherever they go the Baggaras take their horses with them, which must be fed and cared for at the expense of the local inhabitants; complaints against Baggaras are not taken the slightest notice of, or—as it more often happens—the complainant receives a heavy punishment for having ventured to make a statement which is invariably construed as untrue and incorrect. Thus these bold tribesmen have every inducement to become more and more truculent the further removed they are from the Khalifa's supervision. I will cite an example.

A rich native of the Gezireh had a dispute with a Baggara, and struck his oppressor a blow with a stick in self-defence. Fate decreed that the Baggara should die twenty-eight days afterwards, but his death was not caused by the blow; the other Baggaras, however, seized the opportunity of demanding blood-money, and if refused they threatened to report the matter to the Khalifa. The stupid native was actually intimidated into giving the Baggara 10,000 dollars, and the matter was declared to be ended; but somehow it came to Yakub's ears, and learning that the supposed murderer was a very rich man, he advised the friends of the deceased Baggara not to accept blood-money, but to insist on the native's death. This was agreed to. The poor man was arrested, dragged to Omdurman, and hanged; whilst his property, consisting of a number of goats and 30,000 dollars, was confiscated.

Not content with this, the Khalifa also ordered that the seven villages in the neighbourhood should be burnt, on the plea that the inhabitants had made common cause with the murderer in resisting lawfully constituted authority; and it was only when the inhabitants of these villages went en masse to the Khalifa, begging to be spared, that he at length acceded to their request.

When it was found that the revenue of the beit el mal was insufficient to provide for the rapidly-increasing Baggara population, Abdullah ordered half the produce of the Gezireh lands to be given to the beit el mal, the other half being retained by the owners. This was published as a solemn decree, and all judges enjoined to see that it was properly carried out. Ibrahim Nur, the son of Nur Gereifawi, was sent with a body of soldiers and Baggara to assist in carrying out the order in the Gezireh, and he gained an unenviable notoriety for the ruthless severity with which he enforced his authority.

In accordance with the Khalifa's instructions, out of every hundred ardebs he seized a half, and on the remaining half he levied the "ushr" and "zeka" taxes, so that eventually the unfortunate cultivator retained only thirty-seven and a half per cent. of his original quantity; besides, he was made responsible for the transport to the river of the sixty-two and a-half per cent. Frequently the fields were far distant from the river, which involved hiring camels to carry the grain, so that finally the owner was probably left with absolutely nothing. In this way Ibrahim gathered upwards of 60,000 ardebs from the Blue and White Niles.

Ibrahim gained the title of the "Gordon of the Gezireh" from the extraordinarily rapid way in which he moved from one village to the other and gave his instructions.

Here is another proof of the Khalifa's injustice when dealing in matters concerning his own countrymen. About two days' journey from Omdurman up the White Nile are certain very highly-cultivated districts, and it occurred to the Khalifa to send there the Taisha who were not then employed, so that they might cultivate and at the same time remain in touch with him. He therefore sent a certain Sheikh Wad el Bedri to select the most favoured spots in which the Taisha were to settle.

When the inhabitants of these districts learnt what was intended, they begged and prayed Wad el Bedri to avert this terrible calamity which threatened them, assuring him that if he would assist them they would do anything he wanted, short of having the Baggara as settlers in their country; this request they accompanied with a good round sum of money.

Bedri then returned to Omdurman, waited on the Khalifa with a most beaming countenance, and reported that the inhabitants of the White Nile were very pleased that the Khalifa of the Mahdi[S] had been graciously pleased to think of sending the Taisha to their country; but at the same time they most humbly begged to submit to him that possibly the Taisha might find it a trouble to move so far with their families and followers. If, therefore, the Khalifat el Mahdi should, in his great wisdom, deem it advisable, they were quite ready to send to their masters everything they required, and so spare them the toil of making this extended emigration.