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

by Josef Ohrwalder; Sir F. R. Wingate

A BAGGARA WOMAN.

While in Kordofan the Mahdi had professed that he was virtually the owner of all property, but that he left it in the hands of its original tenants that they might administer it until he should require it; and now no stone is left unturned to enforce his theory of the true ownership. The Khalifa directs his special attention to the merchants, who, he supposes, make large profits out of commerce and trade.

Hitherto the Baggaras have had nothing to do with external commerce, they never go to Sawakin or to Egypt. All trade with the outside world is conducted by Hadarba, Jaalin, Danagla, and Barabra merchants, also on the southern frontier of Egypt by Ababdeh and Kenuz people; but in Omdurman itself the Baggaras, and especially the women, take a large share in the retail business. Although they have scarcely ever owned a piastre in their lives, the shining dollar has excited the most inordinate cupidity amongst them. They are very quick to learn, and already surpass the Aulad-belad in many branches of trade; this fact has delighted the Khalifa, and he encourages it to the fullest extent.

The continuous support which the Khalifa gives to his own compatriots at the expense of the rest of his subjects not unnaturally irritates the latter, and out of their oppression a species of courage has sprung. The Khalifa Sherif bitterly resents being debarred from all share in the government of the country. He is highly favoured amongst the late Mahdi's widows, and the Ashraf look to him as their head.

Abdullah, however, employs every means to lower his position and diminish the respect in which he is held by the Ashraf, whose loose mode of life he never loses an opportunity of exposing. For instance, Ahmed Sharfi's second son had a concubine to whom he was much devoted, and who used to saddle his horse for him herself; but in secret she was not always faithful to her master, and when one day he returned to find her absent, he revenged himself on her return by hanging her with his own hands. When this outrage came to the Khalifa's ears, he ordered the perpetrator to be imprisoned and all his property confiscated, whereas, according to Mahdi law, a master has complete power to deal as he likes with his own slaves. Another of Ahmed Sharfi's sons was discovered to be leading a very immoral life, and he was exiled up the White Nile.

Another similar and even worse discovery, of which the principal agent was one of the Mahdi's near relatives, gave Abdullah an opportunity of openly accusing the Ashraf of leading lives which did not entitle them to the smallest respect; and having established this fact, he set to work in the most public manner to show them every mark of disrespect.

The Mahdi's uncle, Sayid Abdel Kader, a very proud man, who prior to, the Mahdi's appearance had gained a livelihood by doctoring donkeys, thought, under the altered circumstances, that his profession was not a very honourable one; he therefore took to doctoring human beings with the aid of a few old Arabic books on medicine which he possessed. He made no secret of his dislike of Abdullah, and openly deplored the decay of true Mahdiism; he never attended at the mosque, and studiously avoided the Khalifa on every occasion. Abdullah, however, was fully alive to the situation, Sayid's every step was dogged by spies, and at length, when his impudence got beyond all bounds, the Khalifa suddenly summoned him to the mosque, and addressed him publicly as follows—"Why should you not come to the mosque twice a week and greet me occasionally?" The Sayid replied proudly, "I worship God and pray to Him daily in my house."

This speech greatly annoyed the Khalifa, who replied, "Pray in your house; but I shall cut off the hand and foot of everyone who associates with you, whether in your house or out of it, and I shall send to your house to have all these Arabic books removed; you can then pray to God without distraction." Suiting the action to the word, he at once had the Sayid's books seized and burnt. After this Abdel Kader thought it as well to pray five times a-day in the Mahdi's mosque.

Thus the breach between the Mahdi's and the Khalifa's households is widening daily; the former are continually holding secret meetings and consultations, of which the latter takes good care to be fully apprized.