EMPIRE BUILDING IN THE SUDAN
I am just back from the palace at Khartum where I have had a long talk
with Sir Francis Reginald Wingate, the Sirdar of the Egyptian army and
the Governor-General of the Sudan. He is the ruler of a land one fourth
as large as all Europe and four times the size of any country in it
excepting Russia. He has great power and can do almost anything he likes
with this country and people. One of the chief officers in the wars
with the Mahdi and the Khalifa, he won decoration after decoration for
his bravery and military services, and was in command of the operations
which finally resulted in the death of the Khalifa. It was in that year
that he became Sirdar, and since then he has been bringing order out of
the chaos of this part of Africa. He has pacified the warring tribes,
has turned their lances and guns into ploughshares and shepherds’
crooks, and is now creating civilized conditions where before have been
barbarism, injustice, slavery, and war. An explorer of note before he
became Governor-General, he has his prospectors travelling through every
part of this vast region, and is laying out and starting the railroad,
canal, irrigation, and other projects which will open it up to trade and
progressive development.
The Sirdar is now in his prime. He has seen perhaps fifty years of
hard-working life, but he does not look over forty-five, and were it not
that his hair and moustache are mixed with silver, one would think him
much younger. His face is free from wrinkles and his complexion rosy,
his eyes are full of light, and his whole appearance indicates health
and strength. A great part of his career has been spent in the saddle.
He has not only travelled over most of Egypt and the Sudan, but has gone
on diplomatic missions to Abyssinia. He spends a portion of every year
travelling by boat or on camels through his far-away provinces, and has
just recently returned from a long trip to Kordofan. He talks freely
about his country, which he knows so well that what he says is of special
interest.
During my conversations with His Excellency I asked him about the
possibilities of the Sudan, reminding him that most people looked upon it
as nothing more than a vast desert. He replied:[1]
“That idea comes largely from the desolate sands through which the
railroad takes travellers on their way to Khartum. They have also read of
the immense swamps of the Upper Nile, and, putting the two together, they
look upon the country as only swamp and desert. The truth is the Sudan is
an undeveloped empire so far as its natural resources are concerned. It
is a land of many climates and of all sorts of soils. The desert stops
not far from Khartum, beyond which is a region where the rainfall is
sufficient for regular crops. Still farther south the country has more
rain than is needed. In the west are great areas fitted for stock raising.
“Take, for instance, the country along the Abyssinian border and that
which lies between the White and Blue Niles. Those regions have been
built up in the same manner as Egypt, and they contain all the rich
fertilizing materials which have made the Lower Nile valley one of the
great grain lands of the world. The only difference is that the Egyptian
soil, by the cultivation and the watering of thousands of years, has been
leached of its best fertilizing elements; while the soil of the Gezirah,
as the region I have referred to is called, has hardly been touched.
Indeed, the plain between the White and Blue Niles is so rich that, if
water is put upon it, it will produce four or five crops every year, and
that for many years in succession. We have millions of acres of such soil
awaiting only the hand of man to bring them into the world’s markets as
live commercial factors.”
“What kind of crops can be raised in that country, your Excellency?” I
asked.
“Almost anything that is now produced in Egypt,” was the reply. “The
Gezirah is already growing a great deal of dura, or millet. It produces
an excellent wheat and also maize. In fact, that plain is now the chief
granary of this part of the world. It raises so much that, when the
season is good, the crops are more than the people consume, so the grain
is stored away in great pits. I have seen dura pits forty feet deep and
about fifty feet in diameter. They are to be found about almost every
village. At ordinary times they are kept full of grain for fear of a
famine, but while the Mahdi reigned, his soldiers used to rob them. The
result was that whole communities were wiped out by starvation.”
“But if the bad years eat up the good ones, where is the Sudan to get its
grain for export?” I inquired.
“That will come by irrigation and better transportation. Until the Upper
Nile irrigation projects can be put through the people must rely, as they
do now, upon the rainfall, which is uncertain. When those plans have
been carried out the country can be irrigated by the two Niles without
diminishing the supply of water required for Egypt. Then the land will
have water all the year round. Improved methods of cultivation will
enormously increase the crops. At present the native merely walks over
the ground after a rain and stirs it up with a stick while his wife or
children follow behind dropping the seeds and covering them with their
feet. Nothing more is done until two months later, when the crop is ready
for reaping.”
“How about cotton?”
“I see no reason why the Sudan should not eventually be one of the big
cotton countries of the globe. We are experimenting with it in all the
provinces and are meeting with success. The land between the White and
Blue Niles might be made one great cotton plantation, and the quality of
the crop would be excellent. We are now raising fine cotton on the Red
Sea near Suakim, and the crop is a profitable one. Plantations are also
being set out by foreigners near Khartum. The cotton raised is fully
equal to the best Egyptian.”
“But how about your labour, your Excellency; have you the workmen
necessary to cultivate such crops?”
“That is a problem which only the future can solve,” replied the Sirdar.
“We have all kinds of natives here, representing the different stages of
savagery and semi-civilization. While there are a great many tribes whose
people can be taught to work, others will need many years of training
before they can be made into such farmers as we have in Egypt and India.
We have some who will work only long enough to get food and supplies for
their immediate needs and who, when a little ahead, will spend their time
in dancing and drinking the native beer until they become poor again. We
have also a large admixture of Arabs and other races who are of a far
higher character and of whom we expect much.”
[Illustration: There is at least one white Negro in Africa. The man in
the centre, who said both his parents were as black as the women beside
him, is pure Sudanese, yet he has a fair skin, rosy cheeks, and flaxen
hair.]
[Illustration: Services at the Coptic Church at Khartum sometimes last
five hours, while the worshippers stand barefooted on the cold floors.
The Copts, direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians, have been
Christians since St. Mark preached at Alexandria.]
“Do you see many changes in the condition of the natives since the
British occupation?”
“Yes. They are doing far better than in the past. They wear more
clothing, they have more wants, and are working to supply them. Formerly
many went naked, and as there was no security of property and few wants,
they had no incentives to save. When we came here the taxes were levied
at the will of the rulers, so the rich native was sure to be persecuted.
Now since the taxes are fairly levied, the people are learning that
their savings will be respected. They are coming to have faith in us.
Our first business was to make them realize that we intended to treat
them fairly and honestly, and I believe we have succeeded. We had also to
organize the country, so that it might be able to pay the expenses of its
government. We are fast reaching that stage.”
“Is your native population increasing?”
“Very rapidly,” replied Sir Reginald. “I am surprised at the large number
of children that have been born since we took possession of the Sudan.
The provinces fairly swarm with little ones. During a recent trip through
Kordofan I carried a lot of small coin with me to give to the children.
The news of this travelled ahead, so as soon as we approached a village
we would be met by the babies in force. Nearly every peasant woman came
forward with a half dozen or more little naked blacks and browns hanging
about her, and the children ran out of the tents as we passed on the way.
The Sudanese are naturally fond of children, especially so when times are
good and conditions settled as they are now. They want as many children
and grandchildren as the Lord will give them, and as most of the men have
two or three wives, it is not an uncommon thing for a father to have
several additions to his family per year.”
“Your Excellency has been travelling on camel back through Kordofan. Is
that country likely to be valuable in the future?”
“I do not see why it should not be,” replied the Governor-General. “It is
one of the stock-raising regions of this part of the world, producing a
great number of cattle and camels. Much of the meat now used in Khartum
comes from Kordofan, and camels are bred there for use throughout the
Libyan and Nubian deserts. The southern half of the country, which is
devoted to cattle, is inhabited by stock-raising people. Every tribe has
its herds, and many tribes are nomadic, driving their stock from pasture
to pasture. North of latitude thirteen, where the camel country begins,
one finds camels by the thousands. That section seems to be especially
adapted to them.”
“What is the nature of the land west of Kordofan?”
“I suppose you mean Darfur. That country is a hilly land traversed by a
mountain range furnishing numerous streams. It is well populated, and
was for a long time a centre of the slave trade. The natives there are
comparatively quiet at present, although every now and then a war breaks
out between some of the tribes. This is true, too, in Kordofan. The
people are brave and proud, and they have frequent vendettas.”
[1] Since this interview with Sir Reginald occurred he has retired from
office at the end of a lifetime spent in the Sudan. He will always be
considered one of the best authorities on that vast and comparatively
unknown region, and his views, especially when expressed, as here, in the
height of his activities, are of perennial value.