Feasting on Famines Food Insecurity and the Making of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1883-1956 ...

357 Pages·2012·2.46 MB·English

Feasting on Famines
Food Insecurity and the Making of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1883-1956

Steven Serels
Department of History, McGill University, Montreal

April 2012

A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements
of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
© Steven Serels 2012

Abstract

The cycle of famine and food insecurity that afflicted much of Northern,
Central and Eastern Sudan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was
part of an inter-generational process that fundamentally altered indigenous
economic, political and social structures and, in so doing, allowed British imperial
agents to conquer the Sudan and, subsequently, to seize key natural resources,
including the Nile and fertile regions in the Jazira and Eastern Sudan. This cycle
was triggered by British military policies pursued in the 1880s to contain the
Mahdist Rebellion (1883-1898). These policies eroded the food security of
indigenous communities in Dunqula, Eastern Sudan and the Red Sea Hills and
precipitated a series of famines that destabilized the Mahdist state. Though
British-led forces were unaffected by these nineteenth century food crises, the
British-controlled Anglo-Egyptian government was, in the years following its
establishment in 1898, weakened by a prolonged period of food insecurity during
which indigenous communities exerted their right to control their slaves, land and
produce. Subsequent innovations in the colonial economy, notably the
development of a common grain market, precipitated a number of early twentieth
century famines that impoverished many indigenous communities and, thereby,
prevented indigenous resistance to state efforts to develop Sudanese resources for
the benefit of British industry. At the same time, the Anglo-Egyptian government
actively promoted the economic interests of a select group of indigenous elites by
allowing them to invest in the resources seized by the state during food crises and,
after independence, these elites maintained many of the agricultural policies that
had failed to assure food security.

Résumé

Le cycle de la famine et l’insécurité alimentaire qui a affligé plusieurs peuples
dans les régions du Nord, du Centre et de l’Est du Soudan vers la fin du dix-
neuvième et le début du vingtième siècle était à cause d’un processus
intergénérationnel qui a changé les structures économiques, politiques et sociales
des communautés soudanaises et qui a permis aux agents impériaux britanniques
de conquérir le Soudan et, par la suite, s’emparer de ressources naturelles
importantes, incluant le Nil et des régions fertiles dans le Jazira et l’Est du
Soudan. Ce cycle fut déclenché par des politiques militaires britanniques
poursuivis dans les années 1880 pour contenir la Rébellion mahdiste (1883-1898).
Ces politiques ont érodé la sécurité alimentaire des communautés indigènes à
Dunqula, à l’Est du Soudan et aux Massifs de la Mer Rouge et ont précipité une
série de famines qui ont déstabilisé l’État mahdiste. Bien que les armées dirigées
par les Britanniques ne fussent pas affectées par ces crises alimentaires du dix-
neuvième siècle, l’État anglo-égyptien, qui était contrôlé par les Britanniques, a
été affaibli pendant les années suivant sa fondation en 1898 par une longue
période d’insécurité alimentaire qui a permis aux communautés indigènes de
maintenir le contrôle de leurs esclaves, leurs terrains et leurs produits agricoles.
Des innovations dans l’économie coloniale, notamment le développement d’un
marché commun des grains, a précipité des famines au début du vingtième siècle
qui ont démuni plusieurs communautés indigènes et ont ainsi empêché la
résistance indigène contre le développement des ressources soudanaises au profit
de l’industrie britannique. En même temps, l’État anglo-égyptien a encouragé les
intérêts économiques d’un groupe d’élites indigènes en leur permettant d’investir
dans les ressources saisis par l’état pendant les crises alimentaires. Après
l’indépendance, ces élites ont maintenu plusieurs des pratiques agricoles qui
avaient échoué à assurer la sécurité alimentaire.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. i
Note on Transliteration ...................................................................................................... iv
Glossary of Foreign Terms ..................................................................................................v
List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... vi
Chapter 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................1
Chapter 2. Famine on the Nile; War, Depopulation, and the Making of Sudan’s
Northern Frontier, 1883-1896 ...............................................................................37
Chapter 3. The War on Grain; Anglo-Egyptian Defensive Strategies in Eastern
Sudan and the Red Sea Hills, 1883-1889...............................................................86
Chapter 4. Famine as a Weapon; The Grain Market and Indigenous
Collaboration in Eastern Sudan and the Red Sea Hills, 1889-1904 ...................135
Chapter 5. Plenty of Want; Slavery and the Making of the Common Sudanese
Grain Market, 1896-1913 ....................................................................................178
Chapter 6. The Era of Cheap Dhura is Over; Economic Development, Cotton and
the Common Sudanese Grain Market, 1913-1940 ...............................................243
Chapter 7. Uncooperative Tenancies; Food Insecurity and the Transition to
Independence, 1940-1956 ....................................................................................291
Chapter 8. Conclusion ......................................................................................................314
Appendix – Maps .............................................................................................................325
Bibliography ....................................................................................................................331
Acknowledgements

I am deeply grateful for the support that I received from a number of
individuals and institutions while researching and writing this dissertation. First, I
would like to thank my co-supervisors, Gwyn Campbell and Elizabeth Elbourne,
for their assistance and guidance and for reading and commenting on earlier
drafts. I would also like to thank Gwyn Campbell for allowing me to use the
resources of the Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill University. I would like to
thank Janice Boddy (University of Toronto) for discussing my work and reading
drafts of some early chapters. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the rest of the
students and staff in the Indian Ocean World Center, as well as to the faculty and
staff in the Department of History, McGill University. I would also like to thank
the staff of the McGill University Library System.
Researching and writing this dissertation was facilitated by a number of
grants including a Research Fellowship from the Indian Ocean World Centre,
McGill University (2007-2010) and a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social
Studies and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2010-2011). A travel
bursary from the Indian Ocean World Center financed my research at the National
Archive in London. Research in the Sudan was funded by an Arts Graduate
Research Travel Award and an Arts Graduate Student Travel Award, both from
the Faculty of Arts, McGill University. Early research was supported by a
McCall/MacBain Graduate Award and the Daisy A. Lartimer Memorial Prize in
History, both from the Department of History, McGill University, as well as by a
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Graduate Fellowship from the Centre for Developing Area Studies (now the
Institute for Studies in International Development), McGill University (2007-
2008). A Graduate Excellence Fellowship from the Department of History,
McGill University (2012) supported the final stages of writing this dissertation.
In the Sudan, I would like to thank the Institute for Africa and Asian
Studies, University of Khartoum and, especially, Abdelrahim Mugaddam, its
director, for providing me with academic affiliation and allowing me to use the
institutes facilities. I am greatly indebted to the staff of the National Records
Office in Khartoum and, particularly, to Ms. Awatif and Dr. Bashir for allowing
me access. I would also like to thank ‘Abd al-Mun‘im, in the archive’s public
relations office, for his hospitality and friendship. I am also very grateful to my
good friends, Muhammad and al-Tarayfi for making me feel at home in
Khartoum.
In the United Kingdom, I would like to thank the staff of the National
Archive, in London. I also would like to thank the staff of the Palace Green
Library of Durham University. I am especially thankful to Jane Hogan for her
assistance in navigating Durham University’s wonderful Sudan Archive. In
addition, I am grateful to Diane and Graham Adams for the hospitality that they
showed me while I was undertaking research in Durham in 2010 and in 2011.
Draft sections of this thesis have been presented as lectures to the Indian
Ocean World Centre’s Visiting Speaker Series, the Montreal British History
Seminar and the Kulturpsychologisches Kolloquium at the Technische Universität
(Berlin). They have also been delivered as papers at a number of conferences held
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at the Indian Ocean World Centre, including its annual Graduate Conferences on
Africa, as well as its conference on ‘Enslavement Bondage and the Environment
in the Indian Ocean World’ and on ‘Debt and Slavery.’ In addition, I have
delivered papers at conferences sponsored by the German Historical Institute
(London), the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation
(University of Hull), and the Africa Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies.
Some of the contents of chapters three and four appeared in greatly modified form
in the article ‘Famines of War; the Red Sea Grain Market and Famine in Eastern
Sudan 1889-1891’ copyright C2012 by Michigan State University. This article
originally appeared in Northeast African Studies Vol. 12, Iss.1 (2012), pages 73-
94. I would like to thank the editors of that journal for allowing me permission to
include this material in my dissertation.
I would also like to thank my friends and family, whose support was
indispensable. I would like to thank my parents, M. Mitchell and Ruth Serels, as
well as Alain, Anna, Diana, Dan, Chad, Haeli, Evan and Jordan. I also would like
to thank Patrick Drouin for helping me at every step of the process, Damien
Calvet and his sisters for being there when I needed them and Gerard Reyes for
being there when I finished.

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