Past and present conditions.It must be borne in mind in comparing the following account with former ones, that the Khalifa laid practically the whole of Kordofan waste at various times, and that when the province was re-occupied in December, 1899, all the large towns and most of the villages had ceased to exist. Thus, on the old road to El Obeid from Tura, viâ Abu Shok and Khursi not a single village or well remained, and the present road from El Dueim to Helba and Bara had to be taken. Bara was found almost deserted, all the old houses and gardens having been destroyed. Khursi, once a large place with a market, had no inhabitants, and has now only a few huts. At El Obeid there was not a single soul, and nothing was left of the old city but a portion of the mudiria buildings. Melbis is quite overgrown, and Abu Haraz is still in ruins. Between El Obeid and Taiara there are now six villages. In January, 1900, there was not one. At Foga, once the headquarters of troops and a telegraph station, the ruins can hardly be traced. At many places in Dar Hamid, hundreds of date palms had been cut down. Everywhere the destruction was wanton and complete.
The only people who successfully resisted the Dervish occupation were the Nubas; living in the hills, they closed the entrances to their villages with defensible walls. They were constantly raided by slave-traders in the old days and so knew how best to defend themselves. But although the Mahdi failed to force these hills, except in the case of a few small and detached ones, the inhabitants all suffered severely, especially from slave-raiding. Mek Geili said in 1900 that he had lost two-thirds of his people, and, judging by the number of deserted houses in his country, this statement is probably not much exaggerated.
Those Arabs who were not taken to Omdurman, and who rebelled against the Khalifa in 1896, fled after Mahmud’s raids to the Nuba hills, the Gezira, or Nahud, a place which, though never mentioned by old travellers, had over 4,000 inhabitants in March, 1900, and a large market with traders from the Bahr El Ghazal, Darfur, and Wadai. Many of these people have now returned to their villages, but they are, of course, greatly impoverished and reduced in numbers.
2. Inhabitants.
General.The inhabitants consist of Arabs in the plains and Nubas (or blacks) in the hills. The Arabs are either villagers or nomads; the latter being divided into camel owners (Siat El Ilbil) and cattle owners (Baggara). There are no camel owners south and no Baggara north of El Obeid; in the south they are horse and cattle owners.
Nearly all the nomads grow a crop of dukhn, and in the west, where there are no wells, melons are grown for the cattle during the dry season. Portions of these nomad tribes have been obliged to become sedentary in consequence of the destruction of their herds.
TAAISHA (BAGGARA) GIRL.
Villagers.The village Arabs own small herds of sheep and goats, a few donkeys, and some cattle, and sometimes a camel or two. Near the river they cultivate the islands and low ground, growing dura, beans, onions, etc. Inland, dukhn, simsim, and melons form the chief crops, with a little cotton in places. Throughout Eastern Kordofan gum is collected largely and exchanged for dura or cotton goods.
Very poor after the defeat of the Khalifa, in consequence of two good years, they are now becoming fairly prosperous. A large area round each hella (village) is under cultivation; in the gum country, the gardens show signs of attention, and both the men and women, instead of wearing the dirty waist-cloth seen when the province was first occupied, now wear Manchester cotton goods very largely. Silver ornaments are becoming common.