Luxury, Status, and the Importance of Slavery in the Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Northern Sudan

University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons

Department of Near Eastern Languages and Departmental Papers (NELC) Civilizations (NELC)

1994

Heather J. Sharkey University of Pennsylvania, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers

Part of the Islamic World and Near East History Commons, Labor History Commons, and the Political History Commons

Recommended Citation Sharkey, H. J. (1994). Luxury, Status, and the Importance of Slavery in the Nineteenth- and Early- Twentieth-Century Northern Sudan. Northeast African Studies, 1 (2/3), 187-206. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers/9

Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41931104 Conference Proceedings of the 12th Annual Sudan Studies Association Conference: 15-17 April 1993. Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. At the time of publication, author Heather J. Sharkey was associated with Princeton University. Currently, she is a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania.

This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers/9 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Luxury, Status, and the Importance of Slavery in the Nineteenth- and Early- Twentieth-Century Northern Sudan

Disciplines Islamic World and Near East History | Labor History | Political History

Comments Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41931104

Conference Proceedings of the 12th Annual Sudan Studies Association Conference: 15-17 April 1993. Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.

At the time of publication, author Heather J. Sharkey was associated with Princeton University. Currently, she is a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania.

This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/nelc_papers/9 Luxury, Status, and the Importance of Slavery in the Nineteenth- and Early-Tiventieth-Century Northern Sudan

HeatherJ. Sharkey PrincetonUniversity

Almost immediatelyafter the officialabolition of slaveryin 1899, the Condominium administration began to worry about the exodus of slaves fromthe farmlandsof theirowners and the correspondingslump in the northernSudan's overall agriculturaloutput.1 In an influential articleentitled "Economic Developmentand the Heritageof Slaveryin the Sudan Republic," McLoughlin comments on this period's labor shortageand the hardshipthat it created.He explains thatthe pains of social and economic adjustmentwere not surprising,since "the Sudan has been a slave-basedeconomy for at least threemillennia."2 McLoughlin's portrayalof slaveryin the Sudan is open to question on two grounds: he suggeststhat slaves had indeed been the corner- stone of the Sudanese economyfor millennia, and implies that the demand for slaves over that time span had primarilyreflected a demand for theirproductive labor. Both conclusions, though containingsome truth,are essentiallyflawed. It is truethat the territoriesof the Sudan had exportedslaves formil- lennia. One of the earliest extant written sources, dating from the fourthmillennium B.c., indicates that Egyptians under the Pharaoh Seneferupenetrated Nubia up to the fourthcataract and collectedslaves fromthe area between Abu Hamad and Khartoum. Later Ptolemaic recordsmention the Sudanese ivoryand slave eunuchs whichwere subject to duty at the port of Alexandria.3And so it continued,with the Sudan providing slaves and other exotic goods to the successive Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Mamluke, Ot-

®Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol.1, Nos. 2-3 (New Series)1994, pp. 187-206

187 188 HeatherJ. Sharkey toman,and Turco-Egyptianempires of Egypt.In manyways one could argue that the currentboundaries of the Democratic Republic of the Sudan representthe legacyof that southwardpush forslaves and other luxurygoods.4 Nonetheless,the mere factthat slaves were a luxuryitem forexter- nal markets- on a par with ivory and ostrich feathers- in no way provesthe existenceof a widespreadinternal Sudanese demandfor that same item.In fact,the passage of timehas so thoroughlyobscured inter- nal slave-owningpractices of the past few millennia thatpositing any theorieson its overall social and economic impactbecomes futile.Yet, where sufficientlydetailed sources do begin to exist- namely,after the foundationof the Funj and Kayra sultanatesin the early 16thand early 17th centuryrespectively - it appears that slave-owningoperated on a minorscale. As O'Fahey and Spaulding have noted, slave-owning,by and large, remaineda prerogativeof the elite duringthe few centuriespreceding the Turco-Egyptianconquest of 1820. The practicewas limitedto the sultans,petty chiefs, and feudalnoblemen of the Funj and Kayradynas- ties who settledslaves on entirevillages to farmthe royallands, who made slaves a prominent part of court life and the administrative hierarchy,and who reservedthe rightto bestow the privilegeof slave- owning on others.5O'Fahey speculates that the [Kayra] slave-owners were "the great,the rich,and the holy,"and indeed that slaves "were a symbolof power,wealth, or sanctity."6 By the early 19th century,within the power vacuum thathad been createdby the slow but steady demise of the Funj dynasty,prosperous tradersof the riverainareas began to acquire slaves.7But it was only with the Turco-Egyptianconquest of 1820 that a revolutionin slave- owningoccurred. One of Muhammad Ali's main reasons for launching the conquest was to obtain access to a cheap pool of slaves forhis armies.And so, he initiated massive slave hunts on an unprecedentedscale in the non- Muslim southernregions. Many slaves he incorporatedinto his armies, but countlessothers (including women and children)he sold in northern Sudanese marketsfor profit.8Independent slave-and ivory-traders followedin his path over the ensuing decades.9 Soon the marketwas Luxury, Status , and theImportance of Slavery 189 floodedwith slaves; cheap pricesmeant thatalmost all freenortherners became slave-owners. Thus Holroyd was able to write of Sennar in 1839 that"[m]ost of thelower orderspossess one or two slaves"10 The German geologist,Eduard Ruppell, estimated the number of slavesbetween Wadi Haifa and the fourthcataract of the Nile at around 4,500, or four percent of the total population, by 1820.11Up to that point, free cultivators predominated. All of this changed quickly. Spaulding estimates that by the end of the 19th century,slaves com- prised at least one-thirdof the population for that area and performed all of the agriculturalwork.12 Slave-owningon thisscale was a new developmentin theSudan. Own- ers,who now representeda wide socio-economicspectrum of the northern Sudanese populace, came to directthe labor of theirslaves toward much more than just agriculture:slaves became cooks, grain-grinders, blacksmithapprentices, caravan assistants, waiters, well-diggers, weavers, and muchmore. Female slavesoften bore thebrunt of theheavy labor, for it was theywho did such thingsas fetchingsupplies of waterfrom long distancesand luggingit back,building houses, and thelike.13 The explosion in the numberof slave-ownersduring the 19th century,and the concomitantdiversification of slave labor,might lead one to inferthat these slave-owningpatterns represented a sharpbreak from those of the Funj and Kayra periods. One thing,however, apparently stayedthe same in spite of all the change: a value systemthat under- pinned slave-owningand that bridged the slavery of Funj and Kayra timesto thatof the early20th century. The Funj and Kayra elites had relied on some slaves to farmtheir lands, thoughthey valued slaves as a whole fora loftierreason: the en- hancementof status and proofof power that the possession of slaves could bring.The clearestmanifestation of an owner's statusand power was the cultivationof leisure time and the shunningof physicallabor thatslave-owning permitted, as embodiedin a practicewhich Thorstein Veblencalled "conspicuousleisure"14 and in a social value which thisar- ticlecalls an "idleness ethic." In this regard,the slave-ownersof the post-conquestyears were no different.Indeed, the greatestservice that slaves may have providedto theirowners in the 19th and early 20th century- throughthe eyes of

This content downloaded from 165.123.108.243 on Thu, 29 Oct 2015 18:08:06 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Luxury, Status , and theImportance of Slavery 189 floodedwith slaves; cheap pricesmeant thatalmost all freenortherners became slave-owners. Thus Holroyd was able to write of Sennar in 1839 that"[m]ost of thelower orderspossess one or two slaves"10 The German geologist,Eduard Ruppell, estimated the number of slavesbetween Wadi Haifa and the fourthcataract of the Nile at around 4,500, or four percent of the total population, by 1820.11Up to that point, free cultivators predominated. All of this changed quickly. Spaulding estimates that by the end of the 19th century,slaves com- prised at least one-thirdof the population for that area and performed all of the agriculturalwork.12 Slave-owningon thisscale was a new developmentin theSudan. Own- ers,who now representeda wide socio-economicspectrum of the northern Sudanese populace, came to directthe labor of theirslaves toward much more than just agriculture:slaves became cooks, grain-grinders, blacksmithapprentices, caravan assistants, waiters, well-diggers, weavers, and muchmore. Female slavesoften bore thebrunt of theheavy labor, for it was theywho did such thingsas fetchingsupplies of waterfrom long distancesand luggingit back,building houses, and thelike.13 The explosion in the numberof slave-ownersduring the 19th century,and the concomitantdiversification of slave labor,might lead one to inferthat these slave-owningpatterns represented a sharpbreak from those of the Funj and Kayra periods. One thing,however, apparently stayedthe same in spite of all the change: a value systemthat under- pinned slave-owningand that bridged the slavery of Funj and Kayra timesto thatof the early20th century. The Funj and Kayra elites had relied on some slaves to farmtheir lands, thoughthey valued slaves as a whole fora loftierreason: the en- hancementof status and proofof power that the possession of slaves could bring.The clearestmanifestation of an owner's statusand power was the cultivationof leisure time and the shunningof physicallabor thatslave-owning permitted, as embodiedin a practicewhich Thorstein Veblencalled "conspicuousleisure"14 and in a social value which thisar- ticlecalls an "idleness ethic." In this regard,the slave-ownersof the post-conquestyears were no different.Indeed, the greatestservice that slaves may have providedto theirowners in the 19th and early 20th century- throughthe eyes of

This content downloaded from 165.123.108.243 on Thu, 29 Oct 2015 18:08:06 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 188 HeatherJ. Sharkey toman,and Turco-Egyptianempires of Egypt.In manyways one could argue that the currentboundaries of the Democratic Republic of the Sudan representthe legacyof that southwardpush forslaves and other luxurygoods.4 Nonetheless,the mere factthat slaves were a luxuryitem forexter- nal markets- on a par with ivory and ostrich feathers- in no way provesthe existenceof a widespreadinternal Sudanese demandfor that same item.In fact,the passage of timehas so thoroughlyobscured inter- nal slave-owningpractices of the past few millennia thatpositing any theorieson its overall social and economic impactbecomes futile.Yet, where sufficientlydetailed sources do begin to exist- namely,after the foundationof the Funj and Kayra sultanatesin the early 16thand early 17th centuryrespectively - it appears that slave-owningoperated on a minorscale. As O'Fahey and Spaulding have noted, slave-owning,by and large, remaineda prerogativeof the elite duringthe few centuriespreceding the Turco-Egyptianconquest of 1820. The practicewas limitedto the sultans,petty chiefs, and feudalnoblemen of the Funj and Kayradynas- ties who settledslaves on entirevillages to farmthe royallands, who made slaves a prominent part of court life and the administrative hierarchy,and who reservedthe rightto bestow the privilegeof slave- owning on others.5O'Fahey speculates that the [Kayra] slave-owners were "the great,the rich,and the holy,"and indeed that slaves "were a symbolof power,wealth, or sanctity."6 By the early 19th century,within the power vacuum thathad been createdby the slow but steady demise of the Funj dynasty,prosperous tradersof the riverainareas began to acquire slaves.7But it was only with the Turco-Egyptianconquest of 1820 that a revolutionin slave- owningoccurred. One of Muhammad Ali's main reasons for launching the conquest was to obtain access to a cheap pool of slaves forhis armies.And so, he initiated massive slave hunts on an unprecedentedscale in the non- Muslim southernregions. Many slaves he incorporatedinto his armies, but countlessothers (including women and children)he sold in northern Sudanese marketsfor profit.8Independent slave-and ivory-traders followedin his path over the ensuing decades.9 Soon the marketwas 192 HeatherJ. Sharkey

Ostentationin the use of slaves was critical,as Junkersuggests, to provethe exalted stationof rich and powerfulmen and women. Hoard- ing one's wealth and projectinga modest frontwere not acceptableso- cial avenues forthe rich. Flagrantdisplay, on the otherhand, involving the use of slaves forluxury or prestigepurposes, enabled an individual to gain social respect and honor. Even the ascetic holy man Shaykh Hasan ibn Hassuna had playedthe game by these rules,engaging in the ostentatioususe of hundredsof slaves forhospitality displays as proof of his beneficence and charity,while just as flagrantlysubsisting on crumbsto provehis own piety. Not only mightysultans and reveredholy men sought to enhance theirglory through slave-owning. Even duringthe 19thcentury, slave- owners exploitedthe prestige-enhancinguse of slaves as much as their means allowed them.

Hair and Status

One avenue to the luxury-useof slave labor involvedhairdressing. The greatappeal of this practicerested in the factthat after slaves lavished vast amounts of time on an owner's head of hair,the resultantcoiffure stood as a symbol,indeed a beacon, announcingthe bearer's access to the time-consumingand sumptuousapplication of slave labor. The American G. B. English, who accompanied the conquering Turco-Egyptiantroops as an artilleryadvisor in 1820-21, noted the social importance of the coiffurewhile travelingwith a caravan near Berber.He observedtwo men bustlingaround the caravan guide."They were a long time engagedin frizzingand plaitinghis hair,and finished the operationby pouringover it a bowlfulof meltedmutton suet, which made his hair quite white. I asked for the meaningof this operationat this time; theytold me thatwe should be at the rivertomorrow morning, and that our guide was adorning himself to see and salute his friendsthere."25 About ten years later, someone informedthe Britisharchaeologist G. A. Hoskins that the elaborate coiffureof the Shendi mekk's (petty chief's) wife took nine hours forher slaves to arrange.(This lady was also the daughterof the formerShendi leader,Mekk Nimr,the man re- sponsible for killing Isma'il Pasha, Muhammad 'Ali's son who had Luxury,Status, and theImportance of Slavery 193 headed the 1820 conquest.) Hoskins, too, saw 20 of this lady's slaves grindingspices foran ointmentto rub into her hair and skin.26 The desirabilityof lavishingattention on hair, on the part of all able slave-owners,comes throughin a commentby the German botanist, Georg Schweinfurth.He says of slavery in the Red Sea port town of Suakin, "Black femaleslaves, instead of asses, which in Suakin would cost too much to feed,are indispensable[to the freeresidents] for carry- ing water fromthe well to the town. Whoeverpossesses fiftydollars in his bag and has one slave besides his water-bearer,is quite a magnate, and spends much labour in the profuse adornmentof his hair."27Al- thoughhaving a slave who could performthe criticalbut highlystrenu- ous task of water-fetchingwas firstpriority, adorning hair came in as a close second- forthe lattercertainly proved how much of a "magnate" a particularslave-owner was. The sheer decadence of slave-owning (that is, from the modern reader'sperspective) comes across in the followingdetailed description of the toiletteof a Baqqara Arab shaykh's wife, provided by the Bo- hemiantraveler Ignatius Pallme in his 1844 account on Kordofan.

The lady sat on an angareb(bedstead), surrounded by a numberof young and beautifulnegro girls, upon each of which a particular dutywas incumbent.The one fannedaway the flieswith a handful of the most beautifulostrich feathers, whilst the othersarranged her hair, an occupation requiringseveral hours for its perform- ance; forit is no easy task to open all the various mattedcurls with a single pointed wooden peg. A third slave washed her feet, a fourthground sulphur to a powderbetween two stones. Another slave held a gourd,filled with merissa,in her hand, to offerher mistressa cooling draughtwhenever she mightdemand it; while anothergirl held a cup, containingmore than one pound of melted butter,which was poured over the lady's head as soon as the hair was undone. All thebutter that dropped off her hair onto her back was rubbedin overher wholebody by an additionalattendant.28

Obviously,owning so many slaves to performluxury services at this level must have been rather exceptional, even within northern Su- danese society.On howeversmall or large a scale, though,elaborate hair 194 HeatherJ. Sharkey styling,the resultof slave labor, no doubt served as a commonsymbol of leisure,luxury, and affluencein the northernSudan.29

Striving for Idleness Ultimately,the qualityfor which mostnorthern Sudanese slave-owners were strivingmay have been idleness.Personal idlenessindicated that a man or woman was successfuland affluentenough not to toil forsub- sistence.Thus the cultivationof idleness,perceived as a noble trait,became the aim of all who could affordit. The famedSwiss travelerJean Louis Burckhardtwrote of the Haden- dowa who occupy the Red Sea hills: "The Hadendowa are very indo- lent; the business of the house is leftto the wives and slaves, while the men pass the day eitherin payingan idle visitto some neighbouringen- campment,or at home reclinedupon the Angareyg(angareb, bedstead), smokingtheir pipes, and generallygoing to bed drunkin the evening."30 Pallme had encounteredthese attitudeswhile visitingKordofan. He wrote,"Every man, be his means everso small,endeavours to purchasea slave,and this poor wretchmust then do all the work,in orderthat his mastermay then lie all day in the shade, indulgingin idleness."31This same behaviorexasperated the American(U.S. Civil War veteran),H. G. Prout,who visitedKordofan in 1877 on a missionfor the Egyptian Army.32 Sonnini de Manoncourt,the French naturalistwho had traveledin Egyptand Nubia in the 1760s, illustratedthe greatgap in social values betweenEuropeans (and in thiscase, Egyptians)with wit. He said:

The Orientalists[sic], who are not under the necessityof labour- ing,remain almost always in a sittingposture...; theynever walk, unless theyare obligedto do so.... They have no idea of takinga walk.... It is a greatcuriosity to observe theirlooks, as theycon- template an European walking backward and forward,in his chamber,or in the open air, re-treadingcontinually the self-same steps which he had troddenbefore. It is impossible for them to comprehendthe meaningof that comingand going,without any apparentobject, and which they consider as an act of folly.The more sensible among themconceive it to be a prescriptionof our physiciansthat sets us a-walking about in thismanner, in orderto Luxury,Status, and theImportance of Slavery 195

take an exercisenecessary to the cure of some disorder.The ne- groesin Africa,have a similaridea of thispractice....33

From the idle man's pointof view,suggests Sonnini, the hustle and bus- tle of the European was ludicrous,superfluous, and utterlybaffling. Owners valued slaves for their labor, and for the leisured lifestyle that slave labor allowed them to lead; thus economic and social-status motivesfor slave ownershipthoroughly overlapped. Yet significantly,as many of the examples set forthabove reveal, owners oftenaspired to idleness not only forthemselves but fortheir slaves as well. Prestigeac- crued not simplyfrom possessing a bare minimumof slaves who could fetchwater and till fields,but fromowning an excess,an abundance,of slaves- so many that even the slaves could pass theirdays in relative leisure. Indeed if the idle man was honorable,then the idle man who had idle slaves was muchmore so. Northern Sudanese society's admiration for idleness was not an anomalylimited to thatregion. Many writerson slavery,covering a va- rietyof culturesthroughout the world, have discussed this resurfacing theme,emphasizing not only the appeal of idleness for slave-owners, but the appeal of relativeidleness or unproductivityfor slaves themselves. In a comparativestudy of Asian and Africanslavery systems, for example,Watson has written,"By supportingslaves who mightbe less productive than hired workers,the masters are, in effect,displaying their wealth for all to see."34What Siegel wrote about the kings of Dahomey,in one of the earliestanthropological treatments of slavery, applies to the elite circlesof the northernSudan as well. He said, "Polit- ical rank had constantlyto be justifiedby concomitantrenewal and in- crease of social prestigethrough the accumulationand regulardisplay of articlesof wealth."35In both societies,these articlesof wealth were in- evitablyslaves. Equally applicableto the Sudanese case is Shepherd'sobservation on idleness among ownersand theirslaves on the ComorosIslands, a trad- ing outpostin the waterseast of Madagascar,which like the Sudan, has a mixed Arab/African population. Shepherd writes, "Arabs, Swahilis, and Comorians concurredin findinga man who did no manual work (because he could affordslaves) superior to a man who did. What is more,the ideal was apparentlyto own so many slaves that theywere 196 Heather/. Sharkey idle much of the time,too. One of the importantways of ratinga man was to observehow many dependents- kin, clients,or slaves- he could affordto support...."36 It would be wrong,however, to reject the prestigeuses of slaves as formsof slave labor. Writingon "unproductive" labor, Watson says, "The coerciveelement is no less real in thisform of slaverythan it is in any 'productive' system; even slaves who are little more than status symbolsare expectedto performsome typeof service,if only to standin hallways. The exhibitionof idleness may be the slaves only real duty but this has to be extractedlike any otherservice."37 (No doubtVeblen would have agreed: he argued that the "performanceof leisure" or of idleness on the part of servantswas indeed a job or a servicefunction- ing to glorifythe master.38)Hairdressers, eunuch bodyguards,and train- bearers sweated a lot less than water-carriers,well-diggers, and grain- grinders,but theywere all equally slaves doingslave labor.

The Idleness Ethic and Post-Abolition Attitudes

Onlyby understandingthe importanceof slaves as criticalenhancers of social standingand as power indicatorscan one fathomthe deep sense of loss which many northernSudanese feltas abolition attemptsjeop- ardized this human commodity.Slaves were virtuallythe only way to earn prestige.In the Kayra and Funj periods,as in the 19th and early 20th century,slaves providedthe major route to social differentiation, pushingtheir owners up a few rungson the social ladder in accordance withtheir numbers.39 Any suggestionthat the post-abolitionslave exodus single-handedly triggeredthe Sudan's agriculturalslump in the early Condominiumpe- riod is both misleadingand simplistic.Years of war duringthe Mahdiya, the resultof both internalstrife and externalbattles with British,Egyp- tian,Abyssinian, and even Italian forces,ravaged the population.Adding to the dropin numberswere a hostof epidemicswhich left death and des- olationin theirtrail. Men and women,slave and free,died by the thou- sands, makingthe task of post-Mahdiyareconstruction more difficultin theagricultural sector.40 Labor shortagesshould have come as no surprise. Concernsover labor shortageswere genuine.41Yet what mayhave in- tensifiedthese concernswas the difficultythat the formerslave-owning Luxury,Status, and theImportance of Slavery 197 classes faced in adjustingto the new post-abolitionmilieu. Confronted with the prospectof slavelessness,they nonetheless remained reluctant to workthe land themselves.There were thusa multiplicityof factors- Mahdiya-erafatalities, a slave exodus, and a repugnanceto labor on the part of the old slave-owningclasses - that exacerbatedthe labor short- ages in thisperiod. For a while, at least, owners contrivedto keep their slaves on the land and under their control,or managed to get hold of a few new slaves throughthe flourishingunderground slave traffic.42Some were luckyenough to have access to the cheap labor of the West Africanmi- grants,who were called the Fellata.Many of these people had journeyed intothe Sudan as pilgrimson theirway to Mecca, thoughlarge numbers settleddown permanentlyand formeda criticalclass of unskilledlabor in the Sudan.43 Eventually,many familiesresorted to having theirown childrendo the agriculturalwork - even ifthat meant pulling them out of school be- forethey completed their studies.44 This scenario promptedone official to note in 1907,"The new generationpromises, so far as the riverain population is concerned, to be a better race than their fathers,as, whether the parents work or no, the whole of the children have to work,"starting around the age of four.He goes on to explain thatmany of the men in the regionformerly owned from20 to 200 slaves,but suf- feredbadly when many of these slaves ran away afterthe 1898 Anglo- Egyptian"reconquest." He continued,"Now theyare betteroff; they de- cline to work,but theymake theirchildren work. On the estate of the Sudan Plantation syndicate there are generallyat least 100 children working,while their fathersrecline leisurelyat home dressed in fine raiment.I have reprovedthem for turning their children into slaves,but withoutmuch result."45As this excerptshows, many triedto followold customsof the leisure and idleness ethicin spite of the staggeringsocial changescaused by abolition.

Conclusion

This studyhas brieflyconsidered one small facetof domesticslavery in the nineteenth-and early twentieth-centurynorthern Sudan, by con- centratingon the status-enhancingapplications of slave labor. It has fo- 198 HeatherJ. Sharkey cused strongly,though not exclusively,on the slave-owningpatterns of the elite,and has suggesteda continuityin social values fromFung and Kayratimes until the abolitionera. It has postulatedthe existenceof an "idleness ethic" involvingboth conspicuousleisure forowners and the conspicuous display of non-economically productive labor for their slaves, intendedmore to enhance prestigeby the expenditureof wealth than to increasewealth itself. It is by no means the intentionof this studyto minimizethe importance of labor-intensiveslavery in the Sudan, nor to denythe frequency withwhich slaves performed arduous tasks such as grain-grindingor con- structionwork. What it does intend,rather, is to focuson social values, and on the effortsof slave-ownersto projectwealth and social stature throughslave-owning as much as theirmeans allowed them.The loss of slavesafter abolition threatened the workings of thisvalue system. The reliance of the free northernSudanese population, rich and humblealike, upon slaves forfarming, tending livestock, cooking, child- minding,or even forarranging their hair and servingtheir guests was indeed great.Yet partially,too, theirreliance was so heavy because the idea of doing "slave" work galled Sudanese slave-owners so thor- oughly.46Baqqara Arab cattle nomads, Nile farmers,and urban Khar- toum merchantsalike undoubtedlyfelt a tremendousjolt at the mere thoughtof abolition.Picking up a hoe, herdingsome cattle,or fetching water- basically,doing any of the degrading,mundane work associated with slaves- would have symbolized a blot on their social prestige. What ultimatelyworried slave-owners about abolitionwas not only the prospectof labor shortagesbut also, and moresignificantly, the threatto personalhonor thatslavelessness would pose.

Notes

1. Taj Hargey,"The Suppressionof Slaveryin the Sudan, 1898-1939" (D.Phil, thesis,University of Oxford,1981), 110. 2. PeterF. M. McLoughlin,"Economic Development and theHeritage of Slaveryin theSudan Republic,"Africa 32, no. 4 (October1962): 368. 3. R. W. Beachey, The Slave Trade of Eastern Africa (London: Rex Collings,1976), 2-3, 121. Luxury,Status, and theImportance of Slavery 199

4. On this theme see William Y. Adams, "North and South in Su- danese History,"in SecondInternational Sudan Studies Conference Papers,Vol. 1 (Durham, United Kingdom: Universityof Durham, 1991),17-24. 5. R. S. O'Fahey, "Slaveryand Societyin Dar Fur,"in Slavesand Slav- eryin Muslim Africa,ed. John Ralph Willis, vol. 2 (London: Frank Cass, 1985), 88-94; and JaySpaulding, "Slavery, Land Tenure,and Social Class in the Northern Turkish Sudan," The International Journalof African Historical Studies 15, no. 1 (1982): 8-9. The great Scottishtraveler James Bruce had commentedon the high-ranking slaves of the Funj sultanate,saying that "the firsttitle of nobilityin this countryis that of slave; indeed, there is no other.... All titles and dignitiesare undervalued,and precarious,unless they are in the hands of one who is a slave. Slaveryin Sennaar [sic] is the only truenobility." James Bruce of Kinnaird,Travels to Discover the Source ofthe Nile, in theYears 1 768, 1 769, 1 770, 1 771, 1 772, and 1 774, vol. 4 (Edinburgh:J. Ruthven,1790), 459. 6. O'Fahey,"Slavery and Society,"88. 7. R. S. O'Fahey and J. L. Spaulding,Kingdoms of the Sudan (London: Methuen,197),81-82. 8. Richard Hill, Egyptin theSudan: 1820-1881 (London: OxfordUni- versityPress, 1959), 7-12, 25, 27. 9. See, forexample, Hill, Egypt,49; and Richard Gray,A Historyof the SouthernSudan, 1839-1889 (Westport,Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978), 50-54. 10. ArthurT. Holroyd,"Notes on a Journeyto Kordofan,in 1836-7/' Journalof the Royal GeographicalSociety 9 (1839): 169. 11. Eduard Ruppell, Reisen in Nubien, Kordofanund dem petraischen Arabien(Frankfurt am Main: FriedrichWilmans, 1829), 29. 12. Spaulding,"Slavery, Land Tenure,"9-11. 13. For a descriptiveand analytical explanation ot the types or slave labor, see Heather Jane Sharkey,"Domestic Slavery in the Nine- teenth-and Early Twentieth-CenturySudan" (M.Phil, thesis,Uni- versityof Durham,United Kingdom,1992), 36-53. 14. Thorstein Veblen, The Theoryof theLeisure Class (New York: Pen- guin Books, 1979), 35-67. 200 HeatherJ. Sharkey

15. Regarding the value of European travel accounts for Sudanese history,and a discussion of the positive and negative prejudices therein,see Abbas IbrahimMuhammad Ali, "Anglo-SaxonTeutonic Images of the Peoples of the Sudan, 1772-1881," AfricanStudies SeminarPaper No. 6 (Khartoum,Sudan: Universityof Khartoum, Sudan ResearchUnit, May 1969). 16. W. G. Browne,Travels in Africa, Egypt,and Syria, from the Year 1 792 to1798 (London: T. CadellJunior and W. Davies, 1799), 213, 350. 17. Note thatthe Kayra sultanateof Dar Fur did not fall to the Turco- Egyptiansuntil 1874, in part because of its remotenessfrom Khar- toum.Nachtigal visited the sultanatejust priorto its collapse. 18. Gustav Nachtigal, Sahara and Sudan , vol. 4, trans. Allan G. B. Fisher and HumphreyJ. Fisher,with Rex S. O'Fahey (1889; Lon- don: C. Hurst,1971), 197. 19. Cited in Allan G. B. Fisher and HumphreyJ. Fisher,Slavery and MuslimSociety in Africa (London: C. Hurst,1970), 163-64. 20. S. Hillelson, "Tabaqat Wad Dayf Allah: Studies in the Lives of the Scholars and Saints,"Sudan Notesand Records6, no. 2 (1923): 213, 229-30. So powerfulwas this shaykh,as indicatedby his innumer- able slaves, thatone mightconsider him to have been a pettychief in his own right. 21. In tryingto definebaraka in the case of Moroccan Sufi holy men, Geertz has pointed not only to qualities of piety,charisma, and "spiritualelectricity," but also to materialwealth as an indicationof God's blessing.The same definitionof baraka could applyin Hasan wad Hassuna's case, since he combinedpiety and wealth in strong doses. See CliffordGeertz, Islam Observed(Chicago: Universityof ChicagoPress, 1971), 44. 22. The Americanworld traveler,writer, and later U.S. ambassadorto Berlin,Bayard Taylor, described his own meetingwith "Lady Nasra" in a roughlycontemporary account. See Bayard Taylor,Life and Landscapesfrom Egypt to theNegro Kingdoms of the White Nile, Being a Journeyto Central Africa (London: Sampson,Low, 1854), 295. 23. Richard Lepsius, Lettersfrom Egypt , Ethiopia,and thePeninsula of Sinai, trans. Leonora and Joanna B. Horner (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853), 179. Luxury, Status, and theImportance of Slavery 201

24. WilhelmJunker, Travels in Africaduring the Years 1875-1878, trans. A. H. Keane (London: Chapman & Hall, 1890), 163. 25. G. B. English,A Narrativeof the Expedition to Dondola and Sennaar (London: JohnMurray, 1822), 224. 26. G. A. Hoskins, Travelsin Ethiopia,above theSecond Cataract of the Nile (London: Longman,Rees, 1835), 124-25. 27. Georg Schweinfurth,The Heart ofAfrica: ThreeYears' Travelsand Adventuresin the UnexploredRegions of Central Africa, from 1868 to 1871, vol. 1, trans.Ellen E. Frewer (1873; London: Sampson, Low, 1969), 29. 28. Ignatius Pallme, Travels in Kordofan(London: J. Madden, 1844), 124-25. 29. An owner's ability to change elaborate hairstyleswith some fre- quencymay have furtheremphasized one's wealth. 30. John Lewis Burckhardt,Travels in Nubia (London: Association for Promotingthe Discoveryof the InteriorParts of Africa,1819), 62. 31. Pallme,Travels, 58-59. 32. [Major] H. G. Prout,General Report on theProvince of Kordofan, Sub- mittedto GeneralC. R Stone,Chief of the General Staff Egyptian Army (Cairo: PrintingOffice of the General Staff,1877), 38-39. 33. Charles Nicolas SigisbertSonnini de Manoncourt,Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt: Undertakenby Order of the Old Governmentof France,vol. 1, trans. Henry Hunter (London: J. Stockdale, 1799), 246-47. 34. James L. Watson,"Slavery as an Institution:Open and Closed Sys- tems,"in Asian and AfricanSystems of Slavery, ed. JamesL. Watson (Oxford:Basil Blackwell,1980), 8. 35. BernardJ. Siegel, "Some MethodologicalConsiderations for a Com- parative Study of Slavery," American Anthropologist47 (1945 {reprint1975}): 374. 36. Gill Shepherd,"The Comoriansand the East AfricanSlave Trade," in Asian and AfricanSystems of Slavery, ed. James L. Watson (Ox- ford: Basil Blackwell, 1980), 84-85. Kopytoffand Miers have stressedthe importanceof African slavery systemsas a means of enlargingthe kin groupand therebyenhancing the familyleader's prestige.See Igor Kopytoffand Suzanne Miers, "African'Slavery' as 202 HeatherJ. Sharkey

an Institutionof Marginality,"Slavery in Africa:Historical and An- thropologicalPerspectives , ed. Suzanne Miers and Igor Kopytoff (Madison: Universityof WisconsinPress, 1977), 19-22, 67. 37. Watson,"Slavery as an Institution,"8. 38. Veblen,Theory of Leisure, 59-60. 39. Pattersonhas made a similar point. "In many primitivesocieties where therewas little differentiationin the possession of wealth, slaves were usually the major (sometimesthe only) formof wealth thatmade such differentiationpossible." Orlando Patterson,Slavery and Social Death: A ComparativeStudy (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UniversityPress, 1982), 33. In a similar vein, see David Brion Davis, Slaveryand Human Progress(New York: OxfordUniversity Press,1984), 28. 40. OfficialBritish sources claimed thatthe populationdipped froman estimated8.5 million at the start of the Mahdiya in 1881 to 1.75 million by the end, in 1898. See Sudan Government,"Statistics of the Populationin the Sudan," in Reportson theFinances, Admin- istrationand Conditionof theSudan: 1903, 12-13; Sudan Archive Durham 400/8/6: Ryder Memoirs, "Destruction under the Mah- dists";and PeterF.M. McLoughlin,"A Note on the Reliabilityof the EarliestSudan RepublicPopulation Estimates," Population Review 7 (1963): 53-64. One must treat the Britishfigures with great cau- tion, since they may have been swelled in order to serve as anti- Mahdistpropaganda. 41. See Hargey,Suppression of Slavery, 107. 42. Ibid., 111. On the continuationof slaveryand slave-tradingbeyond abolition,see Sudan Archive Durham 299/1/168:"Slave Raids in the Sudan: A SuccessfulPatrol," Morning Post, 28 September1910; Sudan ArchiveDurham 300/1/63,77, 78-79: (F. R. WingatePapers) Letters fromWingate on the slave trade in Dar Fur, the French Congo, and the Bahr al-Ghazal Frontier,1910-1911; Sudan Archive Durham 294/18/3-15:"The Bandit," by A. S. Redfern,1935 (on slave-raidingin the 1930s near the Sudanese-Ethiopianborder). 43. See "Memorandumfrom Lieutenant Sir R. Wingate to Sir Eldon Gorst,"in Reportson theFinances, Administration and Conditionof theSudan: 1909, Sudan Government,54-55. Luxury,Status, and theImportance of Slavery 203

44. McLoughlin,"Economic Development,"373. Robertsand Miers refer to the frequencyof this practice throughoutAfrica. See Richard Robertsand Suzanne Miers, "The End of Slaveryin Africa,"in The End ofSlavery in Africa,eds. Suzanne Miers and Richard Roberts (Madison:University of WisconsinPress, 1988), 41. 45. "AnnualReport, Berber Province," in Reportson theFinances, Admin- istrationand Conditionof the Sudan: 1907,Sudan Government,190. 46. For a parallel with the attitudesof Ethiopian (Abyssinian) slave- owners toward manual labor, see Richard Pankhurst, "The EthiopianSlave Trade in the Nineteenthand Early TwentiethCen- turies: A Statistical Enquiry,"Journal ofSemitic Studies 9, no. 1 (1964): 220-21.

References Books, Articles, Reports and Theses Adams, William Y. "North and South in Sudanese History."In Second InternationalSudan StudiesConference Papers, 17-24. Vol. 1. Durham, UnitedKingdom: University of Durham, 1991. Ali, Abbas IbrahimMuhammad. "Anglo-SaxonTeutonic Images of the Peoples of the Sudan, 1772-1881."African Studies Seminar Paper No. 6. Khartoum,Sudan: Universityof Khartoum,Sudan ResearchUnit, May 1969. Beachey, R. W. The Slave Trade ofEastern Africa. London: Rex Col- lings,1976. Browne,W. G. Travelsin Africa, Egypt,and Syria,from the Year 1 792 to 1798. London: T. Cadell Juniorand W. Davies, 1799. Bruce,James. Travelsto Discover the Source of the Nile, in theYears 1 768, 1 769,1 770,1 771,1 772,and 1 774. Vol. 4. Edinburgh:J. Ruthven,1790. Burckhardt,John Lewis. Travelsin Nubia. London: Association forPro- motingthe Discoveryof the InteriorParts of Africa,1819. Davis, David Brion. Slavery and Human Progress.New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1984. English,G. B. A Narrativeof the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar.Lon- don:John Murray, 1822. 204 HeatherJ. Sharkey

Fisher,Allan G. B., and HumphreyJ. Fisher.Slavery and MuslimSociety in Africa.London: C. Hurst,1970. Geertz, Clifford. Islam Observed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1971. Gray,Richard. A Historyof theSouthern Sudan , 1839-1889. Westport, Conn.: GreenwoodPress, 1978. Hargey,Taj. "The Suppression of Slavery in the Sudan, 1898-1939." D.Phil, thesis,University of Oxford,1981. Hill, Richard.Egypt in theSudan: 1820-1881. London: OxfordUniver- sityPress, 1959. Hillelson,S. "Tabaqat Wad Day fAllah: Studies in the Lives of the Schol- ars and Saints."Sudan Notesand Records6, no. 2 (1923): 191-230. Holroyd,Arthur T. "Notes on a Journeyto Kordofan,in 1836-7."Jour- nal ofthe Royal GeographicalSociety 9 (1839): 163-91. Hoskins, G. A. Travelsin Ethiopia, abovethe Second Cataract of the Nile. London: Longman,Rees, 1835. Junker,Wilhelm. Travelsin Africa duringthe Years1875-1878. Trans- latedby A. H. Keane. London: Chapman & Hall, 1890. Kopytoff,Igor, and Suzanne Miers. "African'Slavery' as an Institution of Marginality."In Slaveryin Africa:Historical and Anthropological Perspectives,edited by Suzanne Miers and Igor Kopytoff,3-81. Madi- son: Universityof Wisconsin Press, 1977. Lepsius, Richard.Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia , and thePeninsula of Sinai. Translated by Leonora and Joanna B. Horner. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853. McLoughlin,Peter F. M. "Economic Developmentand the Heritageof Slavery in the Sudan Republic." Africa 32, no. 4 (October 1962): 355-91. "A Note on the Reliabilityof the Earliest Sudan RepublicPopula- tion Estimates."Population Review 7 (1963): 53-64. Nachtigal,Gustav. Sahara and Sudan. Vol. 4. Translatedby Allan G. B. Fisher and HumphreyJ. Fisher,with Rex. S. O'Fahey. 1889. London: C. Hurst,1971. O'Fahey, R. S., and J. L. Spaulding. Kingdomsof theSudan. London: Methuen,1974. Luxury,Status, and theImportance of Slavery 205

"Slavery and Societyin Dar Fur."In Slaves and Slaveryin Muslim Africa,edited by John Ralph Willis, 83-100. Vol. 2. London: Frank Cass, 1985. Pallme,Ignatius. Travels in Kordofan.London: J. Madden, 1844. Pankhurst,Richard. "The EthiopianSlave Trade in the Nineteenthand Early TwentiethCenturies: A StatisticalEnquiry." Journal of Semitic Studies9, no. 1 (1964): 220-28. Patterson, Orlando. Slavery and Social Death: A ComparativeStudy. Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard UniversityPress, 1982. Prout,[Major] H. G. GeneralReport on theProvince of Kordofan, Submit- ted to General C. P. Stone; Chiefof the GeneralStaff Egyptian Army. Cairo: PrintingOffice of the GeneralStaff, 1877. Roberts,Richard, and Suzanne Miers. "The End of Slaveryin Africa." In TheEnd ofSlavery in Africa,edited by Suzanne Miers and Richard Roberts,3-68. Madison: Universityof Wisconsin Press, 1988. Ruppell, Eduard. Reisen in Nubien, Kordofan,und dem petraischen Arabien.Frankfurt am Main: FriedrichWilmans, 1829. Schweinfurth,Georg. The Heart ofAfrica: Three Years' Travelsand Ad- venturesin theUnexplored Regions of Central Africa, from 1868 to1871. Vol. 1. Translatedby Ellen E. Frewer.1873. Reprint,London: Samp- son, Low, 1969. Sharkey,Heather Jane. "Domestic Slaveryin the Nineteenth-and Early Twentieth-CenturySudan." M.Phil, thesis, Universityof Durham, UnitedKingdom, 1992. Shepherd,Gill. "The Comorians and the East AfricanSlave Trade." In Asian and African Systemsof Slavery, edited by James L. Watson, 73-99. Oxford:Basil Blackwell,1980. Siegel,Bernard J. "Some MethodologicalConsiderations for a Compara- tive Study of Slavery."American Anthropologist 47 (1945) (reprint 1975): 357-92. Sonnini de Manoncourt,Charles Nicolas Sigisbert.Travels in Upperand LowerEgypt: Undertakenby Orderof the Old Governmentof France. Vol. 1. Translatedby Henry Hunter.London: J. Stockdale, 1799. Spauldmg,Jay. "Slavery, Land Tenure,and Social Class m the Northern Turkish Sudan." The InternationalJournal of African Historical Stud- ies 15, no. 1 (1982): 1-20. 206 HeatherJ. Sharkey

Sudan Government.Reports on theFinances, Administration and Condi- tionof the Sudan. Khartoum,1903, 1907,1909. Taylor,Bayard. Life and Landscapesfrom Egypt to theNegro Kingdoms of the WhiteNile, Being a Journeyto CentralAfrica. London: Sampson, Low, 1854. Vehlen,Thorstein. The Theoryof theLeisure Class. New York: Penguin Books, 1979. Watson,James L. "Slaveryas an Institution:Open and Closed Systems." In Asian and AfricanSystems of Slavery, edited hyJames L. Watson, 1-15. Oxford:Basil Blackwell,1980.

Archival Documents (Sudan Archive Durham) SAD 294/18/3-15:"The Bandit,"by A. S. Redfern,1935 (on slave-raiding in the 1930s near the Sudanese-Ethiopianborder). SAD 299/1/168:"Slave Raids in the Sudan: A SuccessfulPatrol," Morn- ingPost, 28 September1910. SAD 300/1/63,77, 78-79: (R R. WingatePapers) Lettersfrom Wingate on the slave trade in Dar Fur, the French Congo, and the Bahr al- Ghazal Frontier,1910-11. SAD 400/8/6:Ryder Memoirs, "Destruction under the Mahdists."