AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE IN THE MAHDI'S KINGDOM.
Remarks on the agriculture and commerce of the Mahdiist kingdom--A
sandstorm in Omdurman--The paucity of cattle--System of taxation on
imports--Provincial beit el mals--Local manufactures--Slavery and
the slave-markets--Torture of slaves.
In the following chapter I propose to make a few remarks on the
agriculture, commerce, and business of the Mahdiist kingdom. The greater
part of the Sudanese live by agriculture and cattle-breeding.
Agriculture goes on most of the year; the lands are sown during the
tropical rains. The winter is called the "kharif," and in Omdurman
begins in July and lasts till the end of September. During this period
there are three or four very heavy falls of rain, usually at night, and
occasionally during the day there are heavy storms, which are at times
very grand.
These outbursts are preceded by great sultriness, the whole ground is
hot, everything is burning, even in the shade one dare not touch metal;
then in the east a cloud of dust arises, which indicates the coming
storm; the clouds bank up with astonishing rapidity, and now it is time
for people to make the best of their way home as quickly as they can.
The dust-clouds, lighted up by the evening sun, show the exact direction
of the storm; some are of an inky black, others gray, and in the
distance they can be seen dashing up against one another, and forming,
as it were, a series of hills and valleys; yet there is scarcely a leaf
moving, and all nature seems hushed.
Then the storm-clouds seem to touch the earth, there is a sudden
rustling of the leaves; the distant houses are lost in obscurity, and
now it is time to shut oneself up in one's house. In a few minutes day
has been turned into night, the wind howls round the house, windows and
doors creak and rattle, till one begins to think in another moment the
house will fall about one's ears. Lights are used, for now it is blacker
than the darkest night; the fine dust penetrates everywhere and covers
everything; the heat is overpowering, one perspires at every pore, and
the dust cakes on one's face and hands, giving one the feeling of being
intensely begrimed and dirty; but there is nothing for it but to wait
patiently for the return of daylight, when one rises with one's eyes and
mouth full of dust, and nothing but a complete bath makes one feel in
any degree clean again. These sand-storms are generally followed by
heavy showers, which completely lay the dust.
A tropical thunderstorm is also full of solemn grandeur--deafening peals
of thunder and howling wind, followed by a veritable deluge, which seems
to transform the country into a lake in a few minutes.
These sudden storms are a source of no small danger to Omdurman,
especially in the quarter where the mosque and market are situated. Here
there is no outlet for the water, which overflows into the yards and
houses, and melts the mud-built walls like sugar. During the first year
or two of Omdurman's existence, and before the people had much
experience, several of the huts collapsed during a storm, burying the
inhabitants in their ruins. The intense obscurity which always
accompanies these deluges adds still more to the general alarm. However,
after about two days the whole town becomes dry again; the hot sun and
thirsty earth soon absorb all the moisture, and one would scarcely know
that rain had fallen.
Generally about a month before the rains begin, and when the Khalifa
permits it, the people leave the town in crowds and repair to the
fields, which they set to work to clear. After the famine year of 1889
the Khalifa did everything in his power to induce the people to turn
their attention to agriculture. Plentiful rain and hard work produced
excellent crops in 1890. Dhurra, dukhn, cotton, sesame, onions, and
various sorts of beans are grown.
The operation of sowing requires little time or trouble; the fields are
cleared of all the stumps, roots, &c., of the preceding harvest, which
are burnt, then every one raises a small bank of earth around his
ground, so as to retain the water and enable the earth to become
thoroughly saturated. This measure is specially necessary in the
Gezireh, where the clay soil does not absorb quickly, whilst in the
sandy plains of Kordofan it is exactly the reverse.
As soon as the parched ground has absorbed the first rains, sowing is
begun without delay; the soil is turned over with iron or wooden hoes,
and the seed thrown down. Weeds spring up in great profusion, and it
requires endless trouble to prevent their choking the young growth.
Dhurra ripens in about two months, dukhn in three. The fine quality,
such as Shilluk dhurra, takes six months to come to maturity. The
gathered corn is threshed, and then stored in holes in the ground, where
it can be kept without deteriorating for upwards of ten years.
Along the Nile, sowing and reaping goes on the whole year through. Water
is drawn up by the sakiehs, or water-wheels, and distributed over the
fields. After the wars, numbers of these water-wheels which had been
destroyed, were reconstructed. Now there are a great number in working
order, and the banks are covered with green. All work is done with the
iron or wooden hoe, and the plough is not used at all. The only plough I
ever saw in the Sudan was one worked by an Egyptian in Khartum, and it
caused no small astonishment amongst the natives. Wheat and maize--or,
as it is called in the Sudan, "Aish er rif" (Egyptian bread)--ripens in
forty days.
In Kordofan quantities of broad beans are grown, as well as sesame,
sugar-cane, cotton, onions, garlic, bamiahs, radishes, tomatoes,
cucumbers, and water-melons; while Indian figs, pomegranates, lemons,
oranges, citrons, bananas, and grapes are grown in profusion in the
Khartum gardens. Date-palms are plentiful on the Blue Nile and further
south; but it is not possible to dry them, for they at once become full
of insects. Rain often spoils the date harvest.
Besides agriculture and cattle-breeding, the Sudanese may be called a
thoroughly pastoral nation. During the long wars against the Government,
as well as in the internal disturbances, the camels and oxen were almost
exterminated; and in 1889 a cattle plague still further reduced the
numbers.
When Fashoda was occupied, quantities of cows were taken from the
Shilluks and sent either to Gezireh or on to the Berber market, in order
to try and stimulate breeding. There are quantities of goats and sheep,
as only a comparatively small number of these have been killed; but the
greatest loss has been in camels, and it is not so easy to replenish the
country in this respect. There are still a considerable number of
donkeys, which are used both for riding and as pack-animals. A good
donkey will fetch from forty to two hundred dollars.
The Sudanese are born traders and dealers; it is almost a passion with
them, and they like the travelling which trade involves. Of course the
flourishing commerce of the old days has been quite destroyed. The
import of goods to the Sudan from the north and east was formerly in the
hands of one merchant. The Berber-Sawakin and Berber-Korosko roads were
opened through Wad Adlan, and the re-occupation of Tokar by Egypt has
done a great deal to help commerce. Wad Adlan's successor, Nur
Gereifawi, established the ushr (or one-tenth tax) on all important
goods, in addition to the "zeka," or two and a-half per cent., which was
formerly the only tax levied.
This increase in taxation has rather impaired than improved trade, but
it is still fairly brisk. However, the "ushr" was levied twice, in both
Omdurman and Berber, so that the beit el mal obtained twenty-two and
a-half per cent. profit on all imported goods. This exorbitant taxation
led to goods being smuggled into the town by night. In spite of every
precaution being taken, smuggling still continued; and at last it was
decided that all merchants should have their goods stamped at the beit
el mal.
This stamp bears the words, "Ushr beit el mal el umum" ("The
tenth--general beit el mal"), and no goods are allowed to be sold unless
they are thus marked. The head of the beit el mal himself also went to
the market and personally stamped all the private goods of merchants;
and in this way the fraud was stopped. A merchant selling unstamped
goods would have all his property confiscated.
All went well for a time; but soon it was discovered that false stamps
were in use. This led to another inspection of all goods in the market,
and the confiscation of a considerable quantity of property, an
operation which caused business to be suspended for about eight days.
Large quantities of printed cotton stuffs are imported; also perfumes,
medicines, cloves, rice, sugar, and dried fruits. The home-trade is, of
course, much brisker than imported trade, and consists for the most part
of provision dealing. Dongola and Dar Shaggieh supply Omdurman with
dates; Berber sends salt, mats and baskets made of palm leaves; from
Kordofan comes gum, sesame, and dukhn; the Gezireh exports dhurra,
dammur, and cotton; Karkoj supplies sesame and a small quantity of gold.
Omdurman is thus the great wholesale and retail mart, which in turn
supplies the provinces. Here the whole population--men, women, and
children from eight years of age--are all dealers.
The older women have their own quarter of the market, in which they sell
oil, grease, pearls, vegetables, drugs, dhurra, and dates. Young women
are not allowed to go to the market; but they send their slaves, who
take charge of the goods. The latter are obliged to render full accounts
when they return in the evening; and woe to the unfortunate slave who
makes a mistake in his calculations! Quantities of vegetables are grown
in the gardens in Khartum, Buri, and Gereif, and are brought to Omdurman
for sale. The Baggara women are naturally good dealers, and have now
secured almost the entire custom.
In the early days of Mahdiism everyone lived in the most simple way, and
dressed even more simply. The staple article of food is dhurra, which is
merely boiled, made into a cake and eaten. Bread, which is generally
known as "kesra," is eaten with a sauce which is usually made of pounded
bamiehs boiled with red pepper and salt. Sometimes beans are used
instead of bamiehs. Meat is scarce, but a meat sauce boiled in milk and
mixed with pounded dried fish is a favourite dish. Quantities of fish
are obtained from the Nile, and tortoises, which sometimes take the
place of meat, are not uncommon. But whilst the rich live in comparative
luxury, the poor people exist in the greatest want and misery.
Good clothing is seldom considered; the richer a man is, the dirtier
will his dress be. This is, of course, meant to blind the eyes of
inquisitive slanderers. The Baggara chiefs have no reason to conceal
anything; but it must be quite apparent to all that a form of government
which preaches a continual despising of the good things of this life is
not likely to promote any of the higher comforts of civilization.
In matters, however, regarding war and the preparations required for a
jehad, it is entirely different. Blacksmiths are always busy forging
spears and knives; and in this description of work the results are
remarkable. Saddlers make every description of leather ornament for
horse and camel decoration; tanners prepare the leather, and dye it red
or black; tailors now make much better jibbehs than before; the patches
are generally made of good cloth, and the best garments are now valued
at about sixteen dollars each. The women spin the cotton, and the men
weave the dammur from it. The best dammur comes from Berber and
Metemmeh. The Darfur women are also famed for their good and even
spinning; but Abyssinian dammur is generally considered better than any
of Sudan manufacture.
Tin-smiths make drinking cups and tin receptacles of various sorts for
household use. Cooking-pots are made of copper. Jewellers make gold and
silver filigree work for the ladies; but this work is not nearly as good
as it used to be in the days of the Egyptian Government. All these
various trades are carried on in the market.
[Illustration: A SLAVE-GIRL FROM EQUATORIA.]
Mahdiism has re-established the slave trade, which is now in full
vigour, and almost all those slaves who were liberated in the
Government days have been sold again as slaves. Wherever there is a beit
el mal there is also a slave-market. The largest is, of course, in
Omdurman, to which all captured slaves are sent. The beit el mal sells
the slaves by auction. Well-grown male slaves are generally taken into
the army.
Close to the beit el mal is the female slave-market, where generally
fifty or sixty women of various ages are to be found. The slave-dealers
are for the most part Egyptians. The slaves are arranged in lines under
the open sky; their bodies are generally well bathed in oil to preserve
the gloss of their skin. Intending purchasers make the most careful and
minute examination, and the price varies from twenty to a hundred
dollars.
Young females are kept apart from the rest, as they are generally
selected as concubines, and as such they are subjected to a most
critical scrutiny; the shape of their hands and feet, and the form of
their mouth, nose, ears and teeth are all carefully noted. Black are
preferable to copper-coloured slaves, and the latter colour necessitates
a considerable reduction in price.
Young male slaves are sold at from thirty to sixty dollars each, and
these have generally to learn a trade. Purchasers ask all sorts of
searching questions as to whether they have good moral qualities, are
likely to run away, &c., &c. The salesman must produce a certificate
showing the tribe, a full descriptive return, and the legal authority
entitling to ownership.
During the early days of Mahdiism the slave trade received an enormous
impetus, more especially subsequent to the capture of Bahr el Ghazal and
the occupation of Darfur. After Gessi Pasha's victory over Zubeir
Pasha's son and the dispersion of the slave-dealers, several of the
latter fled into the interior, where pursuit was impossible; then
followed the era of liberty under the Mahdi's banner, the slave-dealers
emerged from their hiding-places, and, with quantities of slaves,
proceeded to Omdurman.
When at El Obeid I often saw as many as 500 of them marching along to
the sound of music. Slaves were dragged from Darfur, bound together
with leather thongs round their necks in batches of thirty. Abu Anga
brought thousands of them from the Nuba hills. The only districts
untouched hitherto were those in the vicinity of the White Nile, but
quite recently the garrisons of Fashoda, Regaf, and Lado have been
busily engaged in this human traffic; these blacks, however, who during
the intervals of peace had been gradually recovering their strength, now
determined to resist the Dervish authority, which was not very strong in
those far-distant districts. It would have been a great thing if the
Dervishes could have been turned out of Lado and Regaf. The Abyssinian
campaigns also brought quantities of slaves to Omdurman, but these are
little fitted for hard work, and are employed for the most part in
grinding corn, carrying water, and as concubines.
Slave-hunting, too, is not carried on in the same way as it used to be.
The Khalifa is too knowing to send large raiding expeditions for slaves
into the distant provinces, as he fears they might possibly become
independent and turn upon him; besides, private individuals are no
longer permitted to be in possession of firearms.
Blacks captured in the Khalifa's various wars are sold as slaves, and,
while the free Mussulman tribes have been greatly weakened and reduced
in numbers by war and famine, the blacks have, on the other hand, been
growing both in numbers and in strength. There is abundant proof of this
in the great difficulties which the Dervish force at Fashoda is now
experiencing, being scarcely strong enough to quit their steamers and
sailing boats. The inhabitants of Jebel Nuba are once more almost
independent, and now the Dervishes do not dare even to go to the foot of
the hills. The withdrawal also of the various Baggara tribes from the
neighbourhood of Shakka, &c., to Omdurman has rid the local blacks of
their hated presence in their country.
The once notorious Jaalin and Danagla slave-hunters are now beginning to
experience in a degree what a slave's life is, and, indeed, it almost
seems as if the Khalifa Abdullah was an instrument of Heaven's
vengeance on those bloodthirsty and ruthless slave-hunters.
The lot of a slave is indeed a miserable one. He is looked upon as an
animal created, as the Sudanese say, to make the life of Moslems easy;
he must do all the hard work, both in the household and in the field. It
is the idea of the Sudanese, that if a slave gets sufficient food he
always becomes proud and unmanageable. His dress consists merely of a
rag tied round his loins: whatever money he may make by his work is the
property of his master.
The female slaves carry water and grind corn, in return they are
continually blamed and cursed; any disobedience or dishonesty is
punished by flogging, or their bodies are gashed with razors, salt being
rubbed into the wounds, and, lest they should have any cause to forget,
their half-healed cuts are often ripped open again and salt rubbed in
afresh.
In the treatment of their slaves women are more cruel than men, more
especially if jealousy is the cause of their anger. Woe to the
unfortunate female slave who shows any love for her master! She suffers
a species of torture which it would be impossible for me to describe
here, and what wonder is it that in despair they often fly from their
masters and mistresses?
Yet it is only by this harsh treatment that slaves can be made obedient;
it is a very true saying that a person who is forcibly deprived of
liberty can only be brought into subjection by force. Slaves under
Mahdiist _régime_ have so many different ways of revenging themselves on
their masters that they never fail to seize an opportunity when it is
offered.
The immorality of slaves is quite beyond description; but it cannot be
the fault of the unfortunate creatures themselves, for in their own
savage homes it is not so. They learn all the vices of their masters,
and, indeed, are forced to participate in them or submit to a flogging;
consequently, disease of the most loathsome kind is everywhere
prevalent, and to be free from it is thought to be the mark of a poor
creature. In many cases which have come within my own knowledge, the
offspring of such people die young, putrid by disease; of fifteen
children of one father, thirteen died in five years. At first the
Baggara were not infected to any large extent, but contact with the
inhabitants of the Nile valley has communicated the pest, which is now
eating into the constitutions of this, the most powerful and warlike
tribe in the Sudan.[R]
Export of slaves to Egypt and the Red Sea is forbidden, because the
Khalifa fears that the English may intercept them and make soldiers of
them; but a certain number of female slaves are still smuggled through.
By the re-occupation of Tokar the Red Sea route, which had been
extensively used, was closed to the Dervishes. It is permissible to give
male and female slaves papers of freedom, but the custom is never
practised. If a female slave bear a child to her master she cannot be
sold, and after her master's death she becomes a free woman; if she bear
a child to a freed man, who is not a black, her position remains
unaltered, and the child grows up a slave, because it is considered to
be illegitimate.
Omdurman is full of slaves; even in the poorest houses one female slave
at least will be found. Hard work and ill-treatment ages them very
rapidly. Many of them long for their native homes and detest slavery,
but the great majority of them submit without a murmur to their wretched
fate.
FOOTNOTES:
[R] The disease lies dormant in the summer, but acquires
virulence with cold weather. The medicines used are iodide of potassium
and sarsaparilla.