Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations, Figures & Maps
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Egyptian Army Ranks & Turkish Honorifics
- Transliteration Note & List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: ‘Ali Jifun's Fashoda Homecoming
- 1 “Backbone of the Egyptian Army”
- 2 “Servants of His Highness the Khedive”
- 3 “Flavour of Domesticity”
- 4 “Brotherhood that Binds the Brave”
- 5 “Tea with the Khalifa”
- Epilogue: Mutiny at Omdurman
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - “Brotherhood that Binds the Brave”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations, Figures & Maps
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Egyptian Army Ranks & Turkish Honorifics
- Transliteration Note & List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: ‘Ali Jifun's Fashoda Homecoming
- 1 “Backbone of the Egyptian Army”
- 2 “Servants of His Highness the Khedive”
- 3 “Flavour of Domesticity”
- 4 “Brotherhood that Binds the Brave”
- 5 “Tea with the Khalifa”
- Epilogue: Mutiny at Omdurman
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
At the Atbara's margin there was a rare scene of welcome and congratulation when the Soudanese and the British met…the Soudanese, dancing with delight, ran in amongst the British, cheering, waving their rifles aloft, and with their big fists shaking hands with the “Tommies.” It was a meeting never to be forgotten I was a spectator of. Mr. Atkins returned their enthusiastic greeting quite as warmly in his own way, hurrahing for the Soudanese and Egyptian troops. Brothers in arms, blacks and whites, their fraternal unity had been cemented by mutual goodwill and close companionship in danger, which must be helpful in any future Soudan campaign. As “Tommy” himself has been overheard since to say, “The bally blacks, after all, can fight a bit, you bet.”
Daily Telegraph correspondent Bennet BurleighInteractions between Sudanese and British soldiers during the River War existed in something of a paradox. Certainly, one finds plentiful proof of British bigotry in contemporary accounts, the scope and character of which would not surprise any student of Victorian attitudes to race. However, these relationships were also marked by both camaraderie and competition, what correspondent Bennet Burleigh called “a brotherly challenge ‘twixt white and black to intrepidity.” And while it is true that British soldiers and war correspondents often segregated themselves from Sudanese troops and held them in rather low regard, commonly referring to them as “savages” and “Sambos,” there is also evidence that this perception was neither monolithic nor unchanging, particularly following the heat of battle.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Slaves of FortuneSudanese Soldiers and the River War, 1896-1898, pp. 121 - 154Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011