Slavery in the Sudan: a Historical Survey 23

Durham E-Theses Domestic slavery in the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century northern Sudan Sharkey, Heather Jane How to cite: Sharkey, Heather Jane (1992) Domestic slavery in the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century northern Sudan, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5741/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Domestic Slavery in the Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Northern Sudan by Heather Jane Sharkey A thesis submitted to the University of Durham in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Modem Middle Eastern Studies. Centre for Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies University of Durham 1992 ? 1 Dec 1992 Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv A Note on Orthography and Transliteration v Chapter 1: The Subject and the Sources 1 Chapter 2: Slavery, Domestic Slavery, and Theory 9 Chapter 3: Slavery in the Sudan: A Historical Survey 23 Chapter 4: The Labour and Utilization of Slaves 36 Chapter 5: Luxury, Labour, and the Value of Slavery 54 Chapter 6: The Treatment of Slaves 69 Chapter 7: The Slave Psychology: Adaptation and Acculturation 88 Chapter 8: The Social Absorption and Integration of Slaves 104 Chapter 9: Slave Names and Social Stigma 125 Chapter 10: Concubinage and the Umm al-Walad 136 Chapter 11: Prostitution among the Sudan's Slave and Ex-Slave Women 154 Chapter 12: The Slave Family 174 Chapter 13: Conclusion 191 Bibliography 199 Primary Published Sources Archival Sources Secondary Published Sources Dissertations and Conference Papers Auxiliary Sources © Heather Jane Sharkey The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be pubhshed without her prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Acknowledgements The completion of this thesis would not have been possible without the help and support of both individuals and organizations to whom I owe thanks. I am most indebted to the British government and the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission for so generously providing me with a British Marshall Scholarship to study for two years at the University of Durham. To express the depth of my appreciation would be impossible. Very many individuals have helped me along the way, whether by supplying me with personal insights into Sudanese history or simply with moral support. I am especially grateful to Jane Hogan of the Sudan Archive, Durham for her unstinting help, guidance, and encouragement throughout my research efforts. Others who generously gave their assistance include Martin Daly; Lesley Forbes; Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr. (who gave me the initial idea of researching in the Sudan Archive!); Richard Lawless; Gabriel Piterberg; Beth Rainey; Donald Ratchffe; Peter Sluglett; Paul and Janet Starkey; and Peter Woodward. Professor Brockett and the staff of the Centre for Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, University of Durham, have been extremely helpful as well. Ruth Davis of the Marshall Commission played a decisive role in facilitating my research efforts. Although I have benefitted tremendously from the kindness of friends, peers, and faculty members, any shortcomings in the following work are nonetheless my responsibility alone. Ill Domestic Slavery in the Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Sudan by Heather Jane Sharkey MPhil Thesis, University of Durham 1992 Abstract This study concentrates on the experience of domestic slaves-men, women, and children who were affiliated to an owner's household~in the nineteenth-and early twentieth-century northern Sudan. Whereas most studies on Sudanese slavery show concern for the slave trade, the anti- slavery movement, or the abolition effort, this study instead examines the slaves themselves, and how they lived, worked, and functioned within their society. A few key themes surface throughout this thesis. One relates to the rapid pace of change, both political and social, which occurred in the northern Sudan in the period under study and had a profound effect on slavery. In the course of a single century, slave-owning changed from a preserve of the elite to a commodity for the free majority, before coming under the onslaught of abolition. Another recurring theme pertains to the tremendous diversity within the slave experience—in terms of occupation, treatment, outlook, and so forth. Finally, the study also grapples with the question of slavery's relative benevolence in the Sudan, while discussing opportunities for the eventual assimilation and social integration of the servile elements. A gaping hole exists in the historical record: namely, the absence of a large body of materials revealing the slave's own perspective. Thus the selfsame travellers' accounts and administrative records from which historians have shaped their narratives on trading, raiding, and abohtion inform this study. Undeterred, this thesis launches an indirect attack on the subject. By piecing together observations made by witoesses to the slavery scene, and by filling in the gaps with carefully-considered hypotheses, a clearer and more colourful portrait emerges of the slave experience. IV A Note on Orthography and Transliteration Where this thesis uses Arabic words in their classical Arabic sense, such as umm al-walad. it has applied a consistent transliteration based roughly on the Library of Congress system. An apostrophe (') serves to represent the letter 'ayn. while the hamza has been omitted. Unfortunately, computer graphics limitations prevent the writer from indicating vowel length as one would expect according to the system. Where this thesis uses Arabic words in a strictly Sudanese colloquial sense, however, there has been no attempt to impose any standard transliteration system. Pronunciation and/or common written usage have determined spelling. Thus melek or mekk. meaning "petty chief, appears instead of the strictly classical malik. Place names do not appear in any strictly transliterated form at all. Instead, recognizability has been the main goal. Two sources have furnished most spellings: the Sudan Government's Index Gazetteer of place names, compiled in 1920, and The Oxford Map of the Sudan, published in 1980. Hence "Merowe" appears instead of "Marawi," "El Obeid" instead of "al-'Ubayyid," and so forth. Chapter 1: The Subject and the Sources Writing about domestic slavery in the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century northern Sudan, as this thesis attempts to do, is a daunting task. Abolitionist fervour charges many of the Western sources and ultimately taints their assessment of the Sudanese social landscape. The relatively fewer sources by Sudanese and other Arab scholars often respond by pointing to Islamic guidelines of benevolence towards slaves, delineated in the Quran, as "proof of the mildness and social acceptability of slavery in the Sudan. Ironically, in the course of this struggle over the ideology of slavery, both groups lose sight of the slave protagonist who is at the base of the argument. This thesis attempts to sketch a picture of the Sudanese slave experience, an aspect of slavery which many nineteenth- and even twentieth-century sources have largely overlooked or forgotten. The relatively well-documented concerns of slave raiding and trading, the anti- slavery movement, and the abolition/ emancipation effort will momentarily fall to the wayside. Instead, the goal at hand is to piece together as many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle as possible, drawn from scattered references, in order to gain a clearer image of the diverse ways that Sudanese slaves lived, worked, and functioned within Sudanese society. By covering a time-frame that stretches from the early nineteenth through to the early twentieth century, the following study straddles a period of tremendous social and political change. Two dynasties presided over most of the region at the dawn of the nineteenth century: while the Kayra sultanate continued to rule Dar Fur (in the west) until 1874, the Fung sultanate based at Sennar (on the Blue Nile) held a faltering grip on the northern riverain regions over which it had once sfrongly dominated. In 1820, the Turco-Egyptians under Muhammad 'Ali initiated a conquest of the northern Sudan, destroyed the remnants of Fung power, and instituted their own regime in its place. Approximately fifty years later, the Turco-Egyptians added Dar Fur to the territories under their rule. Yet alienation towards the regime's policies intensified over the decades. Finally, in 1881, a man named Muhammad Ahmad ibn 'Abdullah emerged and called himself the "Mahdi"~the Expected One, according to Muslim millenarian thinking of the time, who it was believed would guide the region out of its troubles in a period foreshadowing the Day of Judgment. The Mahdi and his supporters challenged and ultimately defeated the Turco-Egyptians in a series of battles, which culminated with the death of Gordon at Khartoum in 1885. The Mahdi set up a government at Omdurman and ruled on the basis of his own interpretation of Islamic law. Although the Mahdi died in 1885, shortly after the fall of Khartoum, Mahdist rule nevertheless continued under his successor, the Khalifa 'Abdullahi. British and Egyptian forces vanquished the Mahdist state in 1898, and set up a new government, called the Condominium, which theoretically represented a joint British-Egyptian rule (with the British in fact retaining most of the power).

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