Title: A Different Shade of Colonialism: Egypt, Great Britain, and the Mastery of the Sudan
Abstract: Eve Troutt Powell. A Different Shade of Colonialism: Egypt, Great Britain, and Mastery of Sudan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. xi + 260 pp. Notes. Works Cited. Index. Price not reported. Paper. Eve Troutt Powell's A Different Shade of Colonialism presents refreshing contribution to growing but underdeveloped field of slavery in Islamic societies. Furthermore, her work adds tremendously to discussions of both nationalism and empire, particularly role of in defining both. She sees development of nationalism as something more than a Manichean binary relationship between colonizer and colonized. ... Instead it was a fluid relationship in which colonizer came from more than one continent, and colonized could aspire to be colonizer not only by adopting tools of British or traditions of Ottomans, but also by making part of what defined as truly Egyptian (8). Her work opens with case that represents microcosm of all issues associated with relationship between Egypt, Great Britain, and Sudan. In 1894, British discovered illegal transport and sale of six Sudanese women. The most prominent of purchasers was AIi Pasha Sharif, president of Legislative Assembly, who recently had petitioned government to close down Slave Trade Bureau on grounds that trade no longer existed. For nationalists, this case meant proving that Islamic slavery was not same as New World slavery and that indeed such purchase was part of mission to civilize Sudanese, providing women with education and opportunity. For occupiers, it represented another example of barbarity and despotism that kept Egyptians from being able to govern themselves, which justified British presence in Egypt (2). In chapter 4, Powell examines intricacies of this fascinating case. AIi Sharif tried to shield himself from prosecution by claiming Italian citizenship. This move was successful only in granting him trial separate from slave dealers and other prominent purchasers. The dealers claimed that women were wives; however, testimony by at least one of woman proved that they were commodities. Both arguments by slave dealers claiming marital bonds and those by purchasers emphasizing magnanimity of Islamic slavery and its connection to household confirmed British suspicions about flawed nature of family life. Referring to work of Lisa Pollard on this subject would have further enhanced Powell's arguments here. The great irony of 1894 case was that Sudanese women were given manumission papers and stay in Cairo Home for Freed Slaves, where they would receive training for domestic service. In other words, they were freed into volatile world of an uncertain labor or marriage market to do same work they would have performed as slaves in an elite (or at least middle-class) household. Powell argues that this case was metaphor for control of Sudan, and just as oddly as case ended, so too did legal framework for control after Omdurman: an Anglo-Egyptian Condominium. Between introduction where she first discusses case and subsequent chapter where it is dissected, Powell lays groundwork for understanding its significance. Chapter 1 deals with Muhammad Ali's conquest of in 1821 and Egypt's rule of area until 1863. In particular, it examines narratives of four bureaucrats whose works demonstrate the interplay between personal experience and memory, popular myths, and changing constructions of racial identity that occurred in society after official conquest of Sudan (29). Western and historians have long discussed Sudan's significance for Muhammad AIi in terms of hopes for gold and creation of new army. Powell digs deeper, seeking to understand how both viceroy and his bureaucrats sought European categories of classification to define and map Sudan, and in doing so created territorial and theoretical nation. …
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
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