Grainger, John The Mahdi and Africa

Muhammad Ahmad and Sudan's Mahdist Revolution in Context

The story of the Mahdi of Sudan is generally told from a British perspective, although it was more of an African event. The Mahdi's uprising was the last in a series of Islamic rebellions and wars that had begun in the 18th century. It also had a profound impact on the rest of North and East Africa, destroying the Egyptian Empire and provoking Ethiopia into a new unification that enabled it to successfully defend itself against the Mahdists, the Egyptians and the Italians. It prompted British forces to advance from the East African coast to Uganda, fearing that a European power might capture the sources of the Nile and block the river's course. Finally (but only after several humiliating defeats), the Mahdist state was overthrown by a British invasion (led by Kitchener and with the participation of Churchill); this also led to a difficult confrontation in Fashoda between the British conquerors and a French expedition triggering a European crisis. The author considers the Mahdi War in the broader context of Africa and Islam, as well as in the context of the development of African states, but also takes a look at the present, in which the most important development in Africa is the far-reaching Islamic uprising that repeats that of the 19th century.