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Abstract
This paper reviews political and administrative developments in the southern Funj, a region on the Ethiopian borderlands of the Sudan, during the first thirty years of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium. It arises out of historical and ethnographic research among the people of the Ingessana Hills, one of a diverse congeries of small ethnic groups in the region. Ingessana culture was not the outcome of a self-contained history detached and isolated from the wider region but, on the contrary, the consequence of a long and deep engagement of a particular kind. In the process of defending themselves from subordination, Ingessana culture and religious institutions came to reflect precisely those forces, which included invading imperial powers from the North such as the Funj Kingdom, followed by Turco-Egyptian rule, the Mahdist state, and then the Condominium. These circumstances, though often inchoate from the perspective of the people, should be identified as enduring and as having appropriately hostile and unpredictable characteristics. There is relatively little material in the public domain about the early decades of Anglo-Egyptian rule in the southern Funj. Yet this era is crucial toward understanding the historical formation of Ingessana society. This paper sets out to put on record some evidence for the later part of that history in order to assess the continuities and discontinuities of local government rule in the southern Funj. The evidence presented here suggests that for the first thirty years of the century there were considerable continuities from the nineteenth century in terms of the actualities of local government in the southern Funj. The question of continuities and discontinuities relates to the second purpose of the paper, which has to do with the history of British rule at the local level in Africa. The issue of ‘the colonial inheritance’ has a peculiarly ambiguous resonance here due to enduring aspects of the old Turco-Egyptian apparatus at the level of local government, which in some cases may have continued through Mahdist rule. The southern Funj presents a particularly complex ethnic, political, and administrative situation due to its location in the Ethiopian marshes and the fact that part of the administrative boundary of Southern Fung District has always also been an international frontier. On the Ethiopian side of the frontier Muslim rulers at various times enjoyed degrees of independence from, or acknowledged allegiance to, powers in the Sudan or in Ethiopia, according to political expediency. The international boundary was agreed by a treaty signed in Addis Ababa in 1902. Yet despite the hostilities arising out of, or amplified by, this international frontier, the boundary line itself has endured as one of the least disputed in Africa.
Le présent article passe en revue les développements politiques et administratifs dans le Funj du sud, une région située aux confins éthiopiens du Soudan, au cours des trente premières années du condominium anglo-égyptien. Il est le fruit d'une recherche historique et ethnographique parmi les gens des collines Ingessana, l'un des petits groupes ethniques formant une mosaïque hétérogène dans la région. Plutôt que l'aboutissement d'une histoire autonome détachée et isolée de la région au sens large, la culture Ingessana fut le résultat d'un profond engagement à long terme d'un genre particulier. En se défendant contre la subordination, la culture et les institutions religieuses Ingessana devinrent précisément le reflet de ces forces, comprenant les puissances impériales qui envahirent depuis le Nord tel que le Royaume Funj, suivies par la domination turco-égyptienne, l'Etat mahdiste, puis le condominium. Ces circonstances, bien que souvent rudimentaires du point de vue du peuple, doivent être reconnues comme durables et comme ayant des caractéristiques pertinemment hostiles et imprévisibles. Il y a relativement peu de matériel dans le domaine public concernant les premières décennies de la domination anglo-égyptien dans le Funj du sud. Pourtant, cette période est cruciale pour comprendre la formation historique de la société Ingessana. Le présent document ambitionne de consigner des indices sur la dernière partie de cette histoire afin d’évaluer les continuités et les discontinuités du régime de gouvernement local dans le Funj du sud. Les éléments de preuve présentés ici indiquent qu'il y avait, pendant les trente premières années du siècle, des continuités considérables avec les réalités de l'administration locale dans le Funj du sud au XIXe siècle. La question des continuités et les discontinuités est liée au second objectif du présent document, qui porte sur l'histoire de la domination britannique au niveau local en Afrique. Ici, la question de «l'héritage colonial» a un écho particulièrement ambigu en raison d’éléments persistants de l'ancien dispositif turco-égyptien au niveau du gouvernement local, qui, dans certains cas, peuvent avoir continué pendant le régime mahdiste. Le Funj du sud présente une situation ethnique, politique et administrative particulièrement complexe en raison de son implantation dans les marais éthiopiens et le fait qu'une partie de la frontière administrative du district du Funj du sud a également toujours été une frontière internationale. Du côté éthiopien de la frontière, des dirigeants musulmans à divers moments jouirent de différents degrés d'indépendance, ou prêtèrent allégeance aux puissances au Soudan ou en Ethiopie, selon les intérêts politiques. La frontière internationale a été approuvée par un traité signé à Addis-Abeba en 1902. Pourtant, malgré les hostilités découlant de, ou amplifiées par, cette frontière internationale, la ligne de démarcation elle-même est restée l'une des moins contestées en Afrique.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
† This article was first published as an Occasional paper (no. 61) by the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh in 1996. We are grateful for permission to re-publish it here.
1. The alternative spelling Fung frequently occurs especially in Sudan Government publications and documents, e.g., as in ‘Fung Province’, or ‘the Fung Kingdoms of Sudan’, Spaulding, the historian of the Funj, uses ‘Funj’. See e.g., R. S. O'Fahey and J. L. Spaulding, Kingdom of the Sudan, Methuen, London (1974). In this paper the phrase ‘southern Funj’ refers to a geo-historical region while ‘Southern Fung’ and ‘Fung Province’ are the names of local government districts.
2. M. C. Jedrej, Ingessana; the religious institutions of a people of the Sudan-Ethiopia borderlands, Brill, Leiden (1995).
3. Certainly nothing comparable to D. Johnson, ‘On the Nilotic frontier, imperial Ethiopia in the southern Sudan. 1898–1936’. in D. Donham and W. James (eds), The Southern Marches of Imperial Ethiopia, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (1986), which deals with the situation in the borderland between the Upper Nile Province of the Sudan and the adjacent territories of imperial Ethiopia. Allessandro Triulzi, Salt Gold and Legitimacy: prelude to a history of a no man's land; Bela Shangul. WaIIaga Ethiopia 1800–1898, Instituto Universitario Orientale, Napoli (1981) is concerned with the Bela or Beni, Shangul which if not part of the southern Funj in the widest sense is adjacent to it on the Ethiopian side of the border. M. Daly, British Administration in the Northern Sudan 1917–1924. Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologische Institut te Istanbul, Leiden. (1980).pp.37–49, presents an overview of provincial administration in general during the period and conveys a sense of its haphazard character. R. O. Collins. Shadows in the Grass: Britain in the Southern Sudan 1918–1956, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, (1983), does not cover the Southern Fung since it was adminstratively part of the nonhern Sudan.
4. H. R. J. Davies, Tribal readjustment in the Nile valley; the experience of the Ingessana.’ Geographical Journal, vol. 130, pp380–389, (1964).
5. There is a reference to ma'murs in at least one Mahdist document. See P. M. Holt, The Mahdist State in the Sudan. Clarendon Press, Oxford (1958), p.lll. The lowest level of administrative officer during Turco-Egyptian (Ottoman) and then Anglo-Egyptian rule was known as a ma'mur sometimes assisted by a sub-ma'mur, and the area of his jurisdiction was a ma'muriya. The ma'muriya offices and the residence of the ma'mur were called the merkaz (‘centre’). Several ma'murs, who were during the first twenty five years of Condominium rule mainly Egyptian together with some Sudanese, came under the authority of a mu'fattish (‘inspector’) who was an Englishman. In the early years they were inavariably officers from the Egyptian Army on secondment from British regiments, but later they were replaced by civilians recruited directly into the Sudan Political Service. In 1921 the term inspector’ was replaced by ‘district commissioner’ in English. In Arabic ‘district commissioner’ continued to be rendered as mu'fattish. The military ethos was preserved in so far as these civilian officials wore a military style uniform with epaulettes of rank. The uniform, complete with pith helmets, has persisted for more than a quarter of a century after independence.
6. H. G. Marcus, ‘Ethio-British negotiations concerning the western border with Sudan 1896–1902’, Journal of African History, vol IV. no. 1. (1963), pp. 81–94.
7. Beni Shangul is also commonly used to refer to the wider area comprising Asosa, Beni Shangul, and Ghomasa. Where it is used in that sense here this is indicated by the phrase ‘the Beni Shangul’.
8. Triulzi, op. cit., pp. 172–179; A. J. Arkell. ‘A note on the history of the country of the Berta lying east of Kurmuk within the Abyssinian frontier’ which was compiled by Arkell when District Commissioner, Southern District. While Nile Province, from information received from Watawii and others recently convicted of complicity in the importation of slaves into White Nile Province and forwarded to the province Governor in 1928. Sudan Archive, Durham University Library, SAD 783/3/40-55
9. Arkell, op. cit SAD 783/3/45
10. J. W. Robertson. ‘A note on the Abyssinian frontier 1933’. SAD 517/2/6-7
11. Report by C. A. Willis, special commissioner for slavery and the pilgrimage, 12th July 1926. National Records Office, Khartoum. CRO CIVSEC 60/6/18.
12. Arkell, op. cit., SAD 783/3/47; Robertson. op. cit., SAD517/25
13. Arkell. op. cit.. SAD783/3/50-52
14. Robertson. op. cit., SAD 517/2/4
15. Willis. op. cit.. CRO CIVSEC 60/6/18
16. Robertson. op. cir.. SAD517/2/4
17. Robertson, op. cit., SAD517/2/10
18. Robertson, op. cit., SAD 517/2/6; Minute of the frontier meeting of 29th January to 7th March at Kurmuk, CRO BNP 1/60/416
19. Robertson, op. cit.. SAD 517/2/5,7; T. Hargey, The Suppression of Slavery in the Sudan, DPhil thesis, Oxford University, (1981), pp. 251–256; M. Daly, Empire on the Nile, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (1986). p. 443.
20. A note on aspects of the administration of Kumuk District 1926–31 by A. W. W. Disney, dated 7th August 1932, CRO 2CIVSEC 1/2/9
21. DC Soulhern Fung, Roseires, to Governor, Fung Province, Singa, 21st September 1926, CRO BNP 1 Box 7.
22. Military Intelligence Report CRO 1 Dakhlia 112/1/100.
23. Disney, op. cit.
24. Disney, op. cit. Mu'allim, ‘teacher’, but here in the sense of a master of Islamic learning and civilisation with a following of obedient but still ignorant pupils. Omda is the title of a notable officially recognised as having legitimate fiscal and judicial authority in the structure of Native Administration introduced widely after 1927. A nazir had similar powers but they normally extended to include more than one ethnic group or several tribal sections of the same ethnic group. A mek in the southernn Funj was equivalent to an omda
25. H. G. Wedderburn Maxwell. DC Kurmuk, to Governor, Blue Nile Province, November 1935, CRO 1 Dakhlia 112/16/105
26. G. M. Hancock, DC Fung, to Governor. Blue Nile Province 11th May 1938, CRO 2 ClVSEC 1/2/9
27. M. Daly, Empire on the Nile, pp.360–379
28. Daly, ibid., p. 367.
29. Sir James Currie, Director of Education in the Sudan, in a letter dated 30th June 1929. Cited by Daly, ibid., p368
30. E. N. Corbyn, Governor, Fung Province, Singa, to D C Southern Fung, Roseires, CRO 4 Dakhlia 112/16/101
31. Hancock, op.cit., CRO 2CIVSEC1/2/9
32. Hancock, ibid.
33. Daly, Empire on the Nile, pp232–3
34. Daly, Empire on the Nile, pp. 235,444; Hargey, op. cit., pp 209, 225.
35. Arkell, op. cit., SAD 783/3/53
36. Daly, Empire on the Nile, p. 444
37. Willis, op. cit
38. A. I. Arkell, DC Southern District, White Nile Province to Governor, White Nile Province, 3rd July 1928. CRO ClVSEC 60/6/19; also T. R. H. Owen SAD 414/2/5; White Nile Province Diary June 1928 CRO ClVSEC 60/6/19. Arkell's anti-slavery activities soon passed into British expatriate folklore in the Sudan, Miss lna Beasley, inspector of girls’ schools in the Department of Education, Omdurman, writing to her sister in 1945 recounted two such tales. The first is that the slaves were all brought together and the DC, Arkell by name, gave a man a plot of land to cultivate and then asked if the man was married. If he were not he then picked out a healthy looking wench and handed her over to the man, saying, ‘and here's a wife for you as well’. Subsequently children were doled out on rather the same terms. The second story concerns one of the slave owners who lost his slaves because of Arkell's activities. Mr Arkell was by now government archaeologist and supervising a dig. Now such work was usually done by convicts. Anyway the dig was successful and proving to be very fruitful and Arkell jumped into the trench himself, took a pick axe and started swinging. Then one of the dispossessed slave owners came along and saw Arkell at work. He went back to his village and told his friends what he had seen. ‘It's a hard government’, he said, ‘but a just one. They've caught that fellow Arkell at last. I've just seen him digging with the other prisoners!’ SAD 657/6/6
39. Arkell, ibid., SAD 783/3/34
40. Willi,. op. cit CRO ClVSEC 60/6/18
41. E. A. Balfour, ADC Singa, 1933–4 in a letter home, SAD 606/4/1
42. ‘AM el Ghaffar Mohammed Ahmed, Shaykhs and Followers, political struggle in the Rufa'a al Hoi Nazirate in the Sudan, Khartoum University Press. Khartoum, 1974, pp.56–7
43. Davies to Governor, Fung Province. 16th June 1928, CRO CIVSEC 60/6/18
44. Arkell, op. cit., SAD783/1/1-53
45. Arkell. ibid.
46. Arkell. ibid.
47. CRO ClVSEC 60/6/19
48. This account is based entirely on the material in CRO BNP 1/60/416 where besides a lengthy minute, probably written by Robertson, there are also several communications between army general staff officers and the provincial administration concerning the troops and military aircraft
49. See Johnson op.cit., p 229 for details of Kbojali Hasan's activities further south among the Nilotes
50. Robertson. op. cit.
51. This was not necessarily always the case. During the first two decades of the century it seems that Abu Shok raided his own domains extensively for slaves. See W James. ‘Lifelines: exchange marriage among tbe Gumuz’, in Donham and James/ op. cit., pp 121–2
52. See also D. Johnson, The fighting Nuer: primary sources and the origins of a stereotype’, Africa, vol. 51, (1981), pp508–527, which describes how colonial efforts at ‘pacification of the Nuer’ contributed to the problems which pacification was supposed to solve. J. Ford. The Role of Trypanosomiases in African Ecology, Clarendon Press. Oxford (1971) describes a similar relationship as regards colonial ideas and practice concerning disease in Africa.
53. D. Johnson. Nuer Prophets, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1994). p8