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Slavery, Anglo-Egyptian Rule, and the Development of the Unified Sudanese Grain Market, 1896–1913

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Starvation and the State

Part of the book series: Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies ((IOWS))

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Abstract

The Mahdist state, like the Anglo-Egyptian administrations of the Nile frontier and the Red Sea littoral, benefited from the food crisis that plagued the region at the end of the 1880s. In the chaos and social dislocation of the sanat sitta famine, the Mahdist state enacted a number of policies that placed key fertile regions in the Jazira (the region between the Blue and White Niles south of Khartoum) and near Qadarif and Qallabat (on the Abyssinian and Eritrean frontiers) under state control. During the famine, Mahdist officials forcibly appropriated grain yields in these regions in order to supply Umm Durman, the capital,1 and to provision military forces loyal to al-Khalifa.2 When these policies caused the famine to spread to the Abyssinian frontier, al-Khalifa authorized an expedition against the Shilluk and Dinka in Southern Sudan. However, the Shilluk and Dinka successfully defended themselves and remained outside of Mahdist control.3 After the acute food crisis subsided, the Mahdist state expropriated large tracts of land in grain-producing regions to the south and southeast of the capital in order to reward key allies and punish rebellious communities. When the continued requirement to provide the state with large amounts of grain led cultivators in the Jazira, in November 1891, to revolt against the government,4 al-Khalifa responded by turning land belonging to the rebels over to the Jihādiyya, his personal slave army.5

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Notes

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  1. Steven Serels
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© 2013 Steven Serels

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Serels, S. (2013). Slavery, Anglo-Egyptian Rule, and the Development of the Unified Sudanese Grain Market, 1896–1913. In: Starvation and the State. Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137383877_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137383877_5

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-48070-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-38387-7

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