THE MORU-MA’DI WERE PART OF LADOANS WHO LIVED IN THE LADO ENCLAVE
(THE FORMATION AND DISINTEGRATION OF THE LADO EMPIRE)
I. LADO ENCLAVE
Term Lado Enclave was introduced by Great Britain in 1894 to describe Lado as different Territory to its neighbouring Countries and was called so by the Belgians and other Europeans. It was named after the town Lado, a river port in South-Sudan within the former Congo Free State. The Enclave covered roughly the area of North-Eastern Congo, Northern Uganda and Southern Equatorial Sudan, in other terms, Central Africa, bordering Lake Albert (Nyanza) and situated on the West Bank of the Upper Nile. This area was administered by the Congo Free State from 1894 to 1909 and in 1910 was incorporated thereafter into the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. It has an area of about 15,000 sq. m., and a population by then estimated at 250,000 consisting of Bari, Moru, Ma’di, Kuku and other Nilotic Negroes
The Countries surrounding Lado are, viz., Sudan: North and South States, Uganda, Republic Democratic Congo (former Zaire), Ethiopia, Central African Republic (CAR) and Kenya. Territory of the State of Lado is a Separate Political Entity since 1815 up to 1885.
Lado Kingdom was improperly called Equatoria (from 20 May 1871) and the Turco/Egyptian Colonialists added “Province of Egypt.” The British called it either Lado Enclave or West Nile, Haut Nil by the Belgians and Modern Uganda adopts the English version, “West Nile,” but other people call it Southern or South Sudan. It is true that Equatoria is Lado or Lado is Equatoria. People confuse it with North-Western Region or West Nile of Uganda or the North-Eastern Region of Congo or the Equatoria Region of Sudan. The Regions of East, Central and West Equatoria are inhabited by Luu, Lui, and Lue People.
II. MADI-MORU STOCKS IN LADO ENCLAVE
We many times stated that, the Moru-Ma’di Related Stocks comprise of, viz., the Aringa (Uganda), Avokaya (South Sudan), Keliko (South Sudan and Congo), Logo (Congo Kinshasa), Lugbara (Uganda and Congo Kinshasa), Omi (Congo Kinshasa), but the proper Moru-Ma’di phylum comprises of the Moru (South Sudan), Ma’di (Uganda and South Sudan) and Olu’bo (South Sudan).
West Ma’di practically fell in the Ladò Enclave since 1893. The Enclave ran from Lake Albert (Uganda) up to Gondokoro (Sudan). It was given “on lease” by Britain to the Congo occupation of the Belgians; whose real occupation began in 1901. A Belgian detachment placed at Dufile was withdrawn in 1907, but the rest of the Ladò remained in Belgian hands till the end of 1909, at the death of King Leopold II.
Then in mid-1910, the Belgians stations of Northern Ladò (Between Nimule and Gondokoro: Bari and Kakwa) and those in southern Ladò (Ma’di, Lugbara and Alur) were given to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. In 1912, South – East Region of Lado, which the British nicknamed (The Nile Region was transferred from Sudan to Uganda and broken down to a District Level in Uganda which was a British Protectorate of Great Britain becoming practically the heaven of ivory hunters and tourists up to 1914. According to Fr. Toni, this area attracted President Roosevelt of America and he camped in Rhino-Camp for hunting (T. LA SALANDRA, The History of the Catholic Church In West Nile [1910-2000], Comboni Missionari, Arua [Uganda] 2004, 9).
III. WHY DID BRITAIN NEED BACK THE WEST NILE REGIONS?
Her dream was to control the waters of the Nile from the source to Cairo (Egypt). This is what the explorer John Speke came to do in Uganda in July 1862. It was meant to connect the British Crown from Cape Town in South Africa to Cairo in Egypt. You just understand how important West Nile was at the back of the Western brain; but the toughness of the locals frustrated their targets.
IV. THE SIX (6) REGIONS OF LADO ENCLAVE
Lado Enclave consists of six (6) Regions all named after Lado River Names. The following are the Regions of Lado Kingdom, viz.,
1. Ituri Regions – bordered by Democratic Republic of Congo / the former Zaire to the West). Divided in North Ituri Regions (Capital: Dungu – Aru) and South Ituri Region (Capital: Bunia).
2. Nile Region – bordered by Uganda to the East. Kala – Alia Region or West Nile (Capital: Arua).
3. Kinet Region (Torit Region) – bordered by Sudan and South Sudan inclusive, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda to the eorth – East (Capital Kapoeta – Torit).
4. Uele Region – bordered by Democratic Republic of Congo / the former Zaire and Central African Republic (CAR) to the North–West (Capital: Dungu).
5. Yei Region – bordered by Sudan and South Sudan and Central African Republic (CAR) to the North and North–West (Capital:
Juba).
6. Rohli Region – bordered by Sudan and South Sudan and Central African Republic (CAR) to the North and North West (Capital: Yambio).
V. THE LUGBARI, ARINGA AND THE MA’DI WERE SIMPLY MA’DI OF THE MORU-MA’DI STOCK AND HAVE ONE ANCESTOR AND ORIGIN
The Lugbari and the Aringa peoples are generally considered to be the descendants of the Moru and Ma’di tribes. The Lugbari, Aringa and the Ma’di believe that they originated long time ago from Ethiopia and through either Egypt of Old Sudan reached North African Saharan desert and came back to Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia through Chad and then went from Sudan to their respective places. The origin from Nigeria is an out of point.
The Lugbari hold dear Mountain Luku. Their Hero Sambala Naiga left Ethiopia after the Political upheaval which took place under his Reign over Ethiopia, abandoned it and came and settle first at the foot of Mt. Luku in Lado. Dribidu Tere the Founder of the Terego people, Aneclato Ataboa, Lemiro and Ayingani all lived at the foot of Mountain Iti, just as Jaki Lolo lived close to Mountain Liru all in West Nile Region in Lado Enclave. Jaki Lolo, Dribidu Tere and Sambala Naiga after leaving Ethiopia lived first at the foot of Mountain Rejaf in South Sudan and then proceeded to through Acholiland to West Nile Region and founded the Lugbari people. All the Ma’di, Lugbari and the Aringa reminiscently point to both Bahr-el-Ghazal and Rejaf in Bariland, near the present Juba, South Sudan, as their recent cradleland.
V. The Lubgari-Ma’di Chronological facts about Lado Enclav
C. 20,000 years ago: The ancestors of Moru-Ma’di had begun their long trek from Omo Valley (South Ethiopia) to the fertile Sahara-Sahel through either Old Sudan or Egypt.
C. 12,000-15,000 years ago: The fertile Sahara-Sahel turned into desert. The Moru-Ma’di ancestors settled in Chad (Chari).
7,000 B.C.: People began to settle in the Nile valley. They farmed the land, kept animals, and built permanent homes on the banks of the Nile.
3,000 B.C.: Lado People already sojourned along the Lower Nile Valley Basin.
3,100 B.C.: Narmer (first Pharaoh of Egypt) unified Upper and Lower Egypt. We are in the 1st Dynasty.
1,274 B.C.: Ramesses II fought in Battle of Kadesh. This was the beggining of hard life for the Moru-Ma’di people.
1,100 B.C.: Upper and Lower Egypt split, and the southerners get trouble and decide to descend to their old Country that was generally called Nubia. It was the 20th Dynasty going to the 21st.
The Sudanics left Egypt led by their War Hero Karanga (for the Lugbari, but Edebuga for the Ma’di) who was killed in the war in Egypt and then succeded by Laro. Dimmo, son of Ebebuga, will lead the Moru-Ma’di from Upper Egypt to the Sudan.
1,090 B.C.: Lado people had planed freedom war to become independent from Egypt but delayed because of the sophisticated military organization of the Egyptians.
749 B.C.: The War of Lado Independence against Egypt had begun. The Sudanic race settled at the foot of Mountain Lado. Some Moru-Ma’di went as far as Central Africa and not excluding North-Eastern Nigeria under their leader Likiji the Great (could be one of the sons of Dimmo).
728 B.C.: The Nubian King Piy conquered Egypt, but the Moru-Ma’di had already decided to leave Egypt. The Rescue was too late.
700 B.C.: The name and the People composed of the Present 29 Tribes of Lado can be traced. The Moru-Ma’di ancestors reached Central Egypt during the 25-30th Dynasties of the Persian Kings (747-332 B.C).
687 B.C.: The Ladoans of the Central Sudanic stock conquered and ruled from Sudan, Central Africa through Congo Rivers up to Lake Ombizako (Ombizapkwe) or Lake Albert (This is what we described as the Moru-Ma’di country.
671 B.C.: Assyrians attacked Egypt. This was the last blow to the Moru-Ma’di people.
640 A.D to 1270 A.D.: The Lado Hegemony in Ethiopia (7 centuries). The Ancestor (Negus) of the Ladoans was Sambala Naiga. This Great Man afterwards settled at Lake Tana, moved and settled at the foot of Mt. Luku as a Lado Hero. Some Moru-Ma’di on their wandering from Egypt went straight to Ethiopia.
9 May 847 A.D.: Modern Lado Kingdom was founded. National Entity is traceable in Central Africa escpeailly Chad, Sudan and Congo, not forgetting Central Africa. A modern Lado State replaced the Ancient one of 700 B.C.
13th to 14thCenturies: This was the era of Re-organisation of the Region (Sudan and Central Africa) under Great Agofe (King) Likiji. Under him, the 29 Lado tribes were re-organised.
1440: The Enslavement and Tortures of the Ladoans (up to 1840).
1452: Pope Pius II desired to create a Vicariate in the Sudan Central Africa.
1711: Direct contact between Lado and the Western European World commenced. Catholic Mission was founded in Ladoland (Sudan Central Africa) by the Franciscan Fathers from Austria during the Papacy of Pope Clement XI.
1715: The Ottomans occupied Egypt.
9th May 1772: The Lado Constitution was coined. Help came from
the Jesuits from Valleta house in Malta.
1815 – 1885: The Territory of the State of Lado is officially a seperate Political Entity till now.
1821: The beginning of the Turco-Egyptian occupation.
13th February 1841 – 1st April 1864: The Turco-Egyptian Firman, and the Turco-Egyptian Firman of 1st April 1869 were signed by the Ottomans, Europeans and United States of America for the occupation of Sudan Central Africa.
1841-1842: Lado was first visited by Europeans aiming at ivory and slave trade.
26 January 1846: Pope Gregory XVI signed a Document on the 3rd April 1846 with the Breve “Ex Debito Pastoralis Officio” erecting the Vicariate of Central Africa, practically comprising all the territories of the interior of Africa not already part of the Vicariates along the coasts. Its Centre was in Khartoum (Tony, 3).
1850: Internal Re-organization of the Lado Kingdom.
1867: The last year in which the Jesuits remained in Lado and were replaced by the Verona Fathers (Comboni Fathers) from Italy.
1869: Sir Samuel Baker created an administration in the area called Gondokoro, suppressed the slave trade and opened the area to commerce.
1 April 1869: Lado was finally occupied by the Ottoman Empire Turco-Egyptian Firman with the consent of United States of America.
1869: Ismail gave to the Englishman Sir Samuel White Baker Baker the Administration of the Equatorial Province of Egyptian Sudan and the city of Lado, which he came to regard as his own private domain – Lado Equatoria Province of Egypt.
26 May 1871: Ottoman – Empire (Turkey) with the Consensus of the Europeans, the United States of America and following the Agreements of the The Turco-Egyptian Firman of 13th February 1841 and the Turco-Egyptian Firman of 1st April 1869 extended their Authority for the control of Lado under a British National in the service of the Ottoman Military called Sir Samuel White Baker. He was the First Governor General to Lado to serve the Ottoman Interests.
The Lado land was called Equatoria as a part of the Ottoman Empire’s Divide and Rule Policy. Lado was Administered through Egypt by Britain.
Lado was invaded by the joint forces from Britain, France, Italy, Austria and the United States of America and together with Turco Egyptian forces and was renamed Equatoria and left to be administered by Egypt as a Province of Egypt under the Sovereignty of Ottoman (Turkish) Empire.
26 May 1871: Major General Sir Samuel White Baker became the first Governor General to Rule Lado for the Khedive of Ottoman Empire.
1871-1873: The first Governor of Lado, Col. Sir Samuel White Baker.
1873: General Charles G. Gordon took over from Sir Samuel White Baker, but stayed at Khartum in Sudan without stepping in Lado.
Captain Romolo Gessi the Italian became the Right-hand side of as a Vice-Roy to General Charles Gordon in Lado as Gordon apparently refused to Stay and and step in Lado.
1874 – 1876: Col. Charles George Gordon. These two men were appointed through the British with the Consent of United State of America, but their salaries were paid by the Ottoman Empire. The latter, who never set foot on Lado, was succeded the Italian Soldier, Captain Romolo Gessi as his Vice Roy who even abandoned Lado.
1874: Charles George Gordon succeeded Baker as Governor of Equatoria noting the unhealthy climate of Gondokoro, moved the administrative centre downstream to a spot he called Lado.
Emin Pasha was appointed as Governor to replace Gordon and began to build up the region’s defences and developed Lado into a modern town, founding a mosque, Koranic school and a hospital, so by 1881 Lado boasted a population of over 5000 tokuls (round mud huts common to the region).
3rd August 1875 and Berlin – 26th February 1885: Lands and Peoples were legally established in the Treaties of Paris.
1876 – 1878: United States of America tried to occupy Lado Enclave. Two American Colonels became Governors of Lado, Colonel Henry G. Prout and Colonel Alexander A. Mason and neither the British nor the American Governors lasted very long as
formal Occupiers of Lado.
1879 – 1889: France was fighting Britain over Egypt and Britain would occupy it in 1882. A Ladoan war against Belgium to defend its Sovereignty.
German Prussian Edward Karl Schnitzer tried with a bit of more luck from 1879 to 1889 for the Khedive of the Ottoman Empire. Governor Schnitzer in pretended to be a Moslem to have the trust of the Khedive and took the name “Emin Pasha” and was the luckiest to have ruled for 10 years for the Khedive of the Ottoman.
1879: Belgium after defeating and occupying Congo begun a war against Lado.
1881: The Arabised Blacks in Sudan who wanted to seperate from the Ottoman Dominium and to remain Black (Sudan) Africans decided to create a Fighting Force a long side with the forces of Lado which was already in War, fighting the Belgians from 1879 to fight the Turco – Anglo / Egyptian forces and in the end defeated the Anglo Egyptian forces thus creating the Mahdi States from 1881 – 1899. But Lado remained as it is, “The Lado Nation – State,” never was the two a part of the Madhi States.
1884: The Russian explorer Wilhelm Junker arrived in the Lado.
15 November 1884 to 25 February 1885: The Berlin Congress.
25th February 1885: The Berlin Conference for the Partition of Africa was the major tsumani for the Lado Empire.
26 February 1885: The Berlin General Acts (Berlin Treaty). Lado empire begins to fall.
7th March 1887: Lado started to be Militarily Occupied by Belgium. Karanga (General) the Agofe / or King, His Majesty (H.M / or Culu) Ayingani Ajua, a Lugbara by Tribe of Lado, was assassinated by the combined Forces of Britain, Belgium, Turkey, America and Egyptian Military forces in the War against Lado People.
29 April 1887: The Paris Treaty between France and Belgium over the frontiers between the Congo – Leopoldville, Lado, and the French Equatoria Africa, Congo – Brazzaville, Central African Republic and Chad.
22 May 1887: The British Influence started when they signed the Constantinople Agreement.
1887 to 1907: The Borders between Lado and Sudan, Congo, Uganda were fixed by Turkey, Britain, Russia, Itally, France and Egypt. The Moru-Ma’di are devided.
Leuftnant Milz took over from his Commadant Van Kerckhoven who died before arrival to Wadelai which was the Capital of Lado.
1889: The 10 (Ten) years War between Belgium and Lado ended.
24 May 1890: A Treaty (the Macknnon Treaty) was signed between Britain and Belgium recognising the Frontier between Lado and British spheres of influence to the East of the River Nile.
The same year, Uganda was first under Germany East African Colony but in became a British Uganda Protectorate in the British East African Empire Extensions after the Germans exchanged Uganda for the Island of Heligoland which first belonged to Britain and of which the Germans were most interested to have.
17th September 1891: These Lado Soldiers were the former soldiers who served the Khedive of Egypt in Lado by then when Lado was a Province of Egypt. Britain recruited these Lado Soldiers through the Agreement which Britain made with Lado Authorities known in History as the KAVALI AGREEMENT whereby a British Imperial Army (King’s African Rifles) was established in 1891 under this Agreement. The Agreement was signed by the English Captain Frederick D. Lugard who later became the Governor – General of Nigeria for Great Britain and a Citizen of Lado, Major Selim Matera.
28th September 1892: The Peace Treaty of Wadelai (Wadelai was the Capital city of Lado) for the International Convention Recognition of Lado signed between Belgium and Lado (Lado ignored the sovereignity of Belgium). It was also called the Belgium-Lugbari Agreement (although was Moru-Ma’di).
Leuftnant Milz who succeded his Commadant Van Kerckhoven who died before arrival to Wadelai, signed it for Belgium, and Commandant Fadh El Mula Aga (A Lugbari tribe of Lado) signed it for the Ladoans. Belgium recognised the Crown Sovereignty of Lado.
The Belgium Flag at Wadelai (the Capital of Lado by then).
1 Apr 1893 – 30 May 1893: Sir Gerald Herbert Portal, British Commisioner.
30 May 1893 – 4 Nov 1893: (Acting) James Ronald Leslie MacDonald, British Commisioner.
4 Nov 1893 – 10 May 1894: Sir Henry Edward Colville, British Commisioner.
1893 – 1894: The Italians, having gained a foothold in Eritrea (on the Red Sea coast), invaded the Sudan and took over Kassala.
1894 – 1903, The Colonial Special Flag and the Coat of Arm were used in Lado.
1894 –1906: The Colonial Flag of Great Britain was introduced over Lado Enclave
1st April 1894: Uganda became a State on the International Convention Recognition signed by Britain and Uganda.
10 May 1894 – 24 Aug 1894: Frederick Jackson, as the acting British Commisioner.
12 of May 1894: An Agreement was signed between Britain and Belgium Recognizing the temporary possession to King Lepeold II. Lado territory became a Side Enclave (separated from the Province of Bahr el Ghazal).
The Brussels treaty was signed, and the term Lado Enclave was coined. It was meant to connect the British Crown from Cape Town in South Africa to Cairo in Egypt.
22 June 1894: The Brussels treaty of 12 May 1894 was denounced by the Belgium – British declaration of 22 June in favour of Germany.
14 August 1894: The Treaty of Paris between France and Belgium.
24 Aug 1894 – Dec 1899: Ernest James Berkeley, British Commisioner.
1896: The Britain leased Lado to Belgium and to have it back when King Leopold of Belgium would die.
1897 – 1901, The Lado Military Troops Mutiny in the Uganda Protectorate by the British Rule.
The Lado soldiers in Uganda refused to fight their own brothers in North Lado decided to fight the British rightly in Uganda.
The Troops of the Congo Free State under Louis Napoléon Chaltin attempted to take control of Lado enclave. In Frebuary of the same year they reached in the Nile at the town of Bedden and defeated the Mahdists in the Battle of Rejaf.
17 February 1897 – Nov 1897: The Belgium’s Top Commandant and Governor General Napoléon Chaltin for the 1st time, was allowed too to Station his Belgium Headquarters (Millitary Command Post) at Dungu Capital City of Uele Region in Lado and stayed at Uele up to November 1897.
The same year the French forces from Djibouti set off across Ethiopia aiming – unsuccessfully – to link up with the Fashoda expeditions and annex Southern Sudan to French West Africa.
Nov 1897 – 15 Dec 1898: Léon Charles Edouard Hanolet (1st time), Belgian Governor General.
1898: Anglo – Egyptian forces led by General Kitchener overthrew the Mahdist State (both North and South States) in the battle of Omdurman. The two countries (Britain and Egypt) agreed to establish the Condominium Rule over North and South Mahdist States which later became the Anglo / Egyptian Sudan.
15 Dec 1898 – 1 May 1900: Jean Baptiste Josué Henry de la Lindi, Belgian Governor General.
21 March 1899: Cairo-London Treaty signed by French Ambassador Paul Gabon and the British Lord Salsbury disengaged France from the problems of Lado.
The same year, Condominium Agreement was signed which involved France. French agreed to withdraw from South Sudan (Aglo-Egyptian Condominium Territory).
December of the same year, the Treaty of Arua between Lugbara (Lado) and Russia (USSR) during Nicholas II.
1899 – 1900: Gustave Ferdinand Joseph Renier, Belgian Governor General
December 1899 – Nov 1901: Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston, British Commisioner.
1900 – Jan 1903, Gustave Ferdinand Joseph Renier, Belgian
Governor General.
1 May 1900 – Mar 1902: Louis Napoléon Chaltin (2nd time), Belgian Governor General.
Nov 1901 – 20 Nov 1907: Sir James Hayes Sadler, British Commisioner.
Mar 1902 – Jan 1903: Léon Charles Edouard Hanolet (2ndtime), Belgian Governor General.
Jan 1903 – Aug 1903: Albéric Constantin Édouard Bruneel, Belgian Governor General.
Jan 1903 – 24 Mar 1904: Georges François Wtterwulghe, Belgian Governor General.
Aug 1903 – Mar 1905: Henri Laurent Serexhe, Henri Laurent Serexhe, Belgian Governor General.
24 Mar 1904 – 1904: Florian Alexandre François Wacquez (acting for Wtterwulghe to 8 May 1904), Belgian Governor General.
8th April 1904: The treaty between France and Britain through which France undertook a neutral attitude over the question of Lado. This was because the Britain gave Moroco to France.
1904 – May 1907: Ferdinand, baron de Rennette de Villers-Perwin (acting to Aug 1906), Belgian Governor General.
Mar 1905 – Jan 1908: Guillaume Léopold Olaerts, Belgian Governor General.
May 1906: The British cancelled the Belgian lease of the Bahr-el-Ghazal.
9th May 1906: The Treaty of London with Belgium to obtain Belgium cooperation as a fellow Europeans to colonise Lado.
December 1906: A similar agrement with Italy and succesfully with Portugal, Spain and Germany, prohibiting them not to help militarily and not to trade with Lado.
30th December 1906: Italy signed the Kassala Treaty.
20 Nov 1907 – 31 Jan 1910: Sir Henry Hesketh Joudou Bell, British Commisioner.
The same year, the question of the Nile Region of Lado (West Nile, Uganda). Great Britain had laid down the Border between Lado and Uganda.
Britain reached another agreement with Russia to obtain the Russian abstention from assisting Lado when at war with Britain in exchange for Iran which was important to Russia.
Jan 1908 – Apr 1909: Léon Néstor Preud’homme, Belgian Governor General.
The same year 1908, Aliku ordered the killing of Bernardi Buccieri (Woroko).
Apr 1909 – May 1910, Alexis Bertrand, Belgian Governor General.
The same year, Treaty of Dufile (the Old Capital of the Madiland) between Lado and U.S.A during the period of President Theodore Roosevelt in the same year when King of Belgium – Leopold II died.
The same year, the American Former President (14th September 1901 – 4th March 1909). Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt in Lado and Dufile (Madiland). He stipulated the Dufile (Dufule) Agreement between Lado and U.S.A for the Friendly Cooperation between Lado and United States of America.
1 Feb 1910 – 18 Oct 1910: Sir Harry Edward Spiller Cordeaux, British Commisioner.
May 1910 – Jun 1910: Charles Eugène Édouard de Meulenaer, Belgian Governor General.
On 16th June 1910: Following Leopold’s death in 1909, Lado Enclave ceased to exist and officially became a province of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, with British Army veteran Captain Chauncey Hugh Stigand appointed administrator but another source talsk about Commander Charles Eugène Édouard de Meulenaer (Faith in action 46).
1910 – 1911: Sir Harry Cordeaux, British Commissioner in early 1910 and Governor General of Uganda.
1910 – 1914: The Partition of Lado in the following Central African Republic, Sudan, Uganda and Congo.
1911 – 1914: Captain Harry Ranken was posted to the Lado Enclave.
1911 – 1918: Sir Frederick Jackson, British Governor General of Uganda.
In the same year 1911, Mr. JRP Postlethwaite (Bwana Gweno) was appointed the first Assistant District Commissioner (ADC) in charge of Ma’di under the Sudan Condomium rule. His appointment lasted until 1914 when he was transferred to a second Acholi District called Chua with headquarters in Kitgum (created in 1914), the first Acholi district being Gulu which was set up in 1910. The two districts however were merged to form a unified Acholi District with its headquarters in Gulu in 1937 (cf. Faith in action 46).
1912: The southern half of the Lado Enclave was ceded to Uganda, then a British protectorate.
The same year, Captain Harry Kelly of the British Royal Engineers was sent to the region to adjust the Sudan-Uganda border.
Britain Partitioned Lado (the southern half was incorporated to Uganda.
Hunters arrived in great numbers and shot thousands of elephants before Sudanese officials were able to take control of the area. One of the most prolific was the Scottish adventurer W. D. M. Bell.
The renowned naturalist Dr Edgar Alexander Mearns travelled through the Enclave as part of his expedition through eastern Africa searching for new fauna and reported a new subspecies of Temminck's courser within the Enclave.
In 1912 and 1913: A joint Anglo-Belgian Commission mapped and drew the Belgian Congo/Uganda Protectorate boundary from Lake Albert north-eastward to the Congo/Nile watershed.
The same year, a Sudanese-Uganda Commission delimited the common boundary on the ground between Bahr-al-Jabal and the Belgian Congo tripoint, near the present Ariwara.
1913: The unsuccessful occupation of the Lado Kingdom by the British. Before this year, this area was an Independent and Sovereign Country
1914 – 1919, 5 (five) years War between Great Britain and Lado which in History is known as Lugbari – British Wars.
The Senior Police High Mr. Arthur E. Weatherhead came to Arua to end the war.
1914: A Senior Police High Commissioner in South Africa Arthur Evelyn Weatherhead became representing the British Interests in West Nile / Lado through Uganda. He was the first District Commissioner. He drew the first plan of Arua Town. Commonl, Weatherhead was called Njerekede or Ejerikedi (a brave honest man they could trust and who trusted them). A road in Arua is named after him, that is the Weatherhead Park Lane. He referred to the Lugbara as “wild and unapproachable,” and as “shy and unorganized,” requiring “severe measures before submitting to administration.”
Chief Aliku of Rendike (Moyo) was arrested by the British).
April 21, 1914: The new boundaries were officially promulgated by the British Government. The Map of West Nile and Ma’di was removed from Lado Enclave and ceded to Uganda by Britain. West Nile (South Lado Enclave) was transferred to Uganda Protectorate and became West Nile District; and in compensation, other eastern parts of the River Nile, or better, the area from the parallel of 5° E up to the boundary with Ethiopia was given to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
Arua Town was founded by A.E Weatherhead, the first District Commissioner of West Nile.
On February 3, 1915: These new boundaries were officially recognised by Belgium and Britain.
1920: The British ended the war with the Lugbari People of Lado by signing the Truce Treaty at Odupi in Lado. The non existence of British Crown over Lado was recognised.
A Peace Agreement (Truce) reached and signed by Britain and Lado.
The British Diplomat sent to Lado.
28 February 1922: Egypt got its Independence.
1923: Egypt’s Constitution presented.
1926: The British tried to divide the Kakwa Tribes of Lado in Sudan from the rest of the Lado Kingdom peoples. This was the perpetuation of the divide and rule.
1927: The British Governor General of Sudan by then (31 October 1926 to 10 January 1934), Sir John Loader Maffey, preached the
extermination of the significant Sudanics.
1929: Nile Waters Agreement.
1931 – 1936: The War of Kakwa – Kajo – Keji people against Great Britain.
1936 – 1942: Martin Willoughby Parr became Governor of Equatoria / Lado.
The same year 1936, the United States’ President Franklin D. Rooesvelt intervened and stopped the War between the Kakua – Kajo – Keji (Lado) and Britain (1931 – 1936).
The end of the above-mentioned war with the intervention of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in respect of the 1909 Treaty of Dufile.
1940: King or Agofe Lemiro was Assassinated by the British Agents.
1945: The Pan Africanism Association was formed of which the Agofe / King Ataboa of Lado became the Chairman of the African Chiefs / Heads in the Conference which was held in Manchester. Headquaters were established in Trinidad and afterwards in Tobago.
Kwame Nkrumah Francis was appointed Secretary and Jomo Kenyatta (Johnston Kamau) became Assistant Secretary to the King. But in 1947 the King will be assassinated for his diplomacy with USSR to raise the question of Lado at the UN in the same year.
1947: The Lado Issue was first presented to the United Nations.
28 April – 15 May 1947: UN Special General Assembly Session in New York, USA (KAARI in Lado meaning Kingdom). The Question of Lado was raised for the first time in the United Nations at a UN Conference lasting from by the then Soviet Permanent Representative to the U.N, Andrei A. Gromyko, who later became the Foreign Minister of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR. Key Issues, the Palestine Question, the creation of the new State of Israel, and the Independence of Lado. What we saw with our eyes that materialised that that of the State of Israel in 1948. About eighteen countries in the World still yaern for indepndence, of which the four are, Palestine, Western Sahara, Lado and St. Helena.
The same year, the Militia Liberation Groups of (Simba Military units of Ituri and Uele in Congo/Zaire and Anyanya Military units of Torit, Rholi, Yeyi of North Lado – Equatoria in Sudan) under the Agofe and who is the Military Commander-in- Chief of Lado Command based in the Nile Region of Lado. One of the Political Leaders of Lado Kingdom (North Lado), Rev. Father Saturnino Lokure who by the time was in South Lado (Nile Region of Lado) was Killed in Uganda by the Uganda Army, when he and some of his Assistants went to collect Medical Supplies for the Refugees and Diplaced Ladoans from (Yeyi, Torit, Rholi, Kineti of North Equatoria / Lado). This was in the Catholic Mission of Laco in Acholi / Acoli, Uganda.
Lado Kingdom disappeared from the World Map.
The Lado people asked for freedom from the United Nations Organisation (UNO). USSR played a very important role.
The beginning of the struggle for the Independence of Lado under Agofe / King of Lado Kingdom.
In the same year the Juba Conference was held, which was chaired by the Chief Secretary of Anglo / Egyptian Sudan (North Sudan, South Sudan United States) and the State of Lado (Lado Enclave / Haut Nil).
1948 – 1951: Major General Sir John Hall was the British Governor for Lado Affairs during the period of Prime Minister Winston S. Churchhill in 1951.
The three (3) years war against Britain (1948 –1951). The wise Prime Minister Winston S. Churchhill stopped the war in 1951. The Governor for Lado affairs by then was Major General Sir John Hall.
April of 1948: The Keego (Prime Minister of Lado) was assassinated by the British Colonial Authorities on his way to reach the UN for talks on Lado.
14 April 1948: The Prime Minister of Lado Colonel Anacleto Atobua who was being prepared as an Agofe, was assassinated by the British Authorities.
1951: British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill who entered in Lado for his Animal hunting thirst, killed a Big Wide Mouth (usually known as White Rhinoceros) in the Country (Lado Enclave), killed only one at Wadelai – Bora Land in Lado, is remberered for his efforts in stopping the three (3) years war (1948 – 1951) following the assassination death of the Prime Minister (Keego) of Lado by British Agents.
1952: Lado Envoy Extraordinary Atamva John Bart Agami (AGOFE or KING of Lado) was sent with assistance of President Colonel Abdel Nasser of Egypt to USSR to meet the Secretary General Marshal Joseph Stalin as Lado situation.
1953: Another Keego or Prime Minister of Lado was assassinated by the British because Lado had rejected the British intention of creating an East African Federation which would include Lado.
The same year, the Lado Envoy Extraordinary Atamva John Bart Agami was sent with the assistance of Ethiopia – Emperor Haile Selassie Tafari Makonnen to meet Prime Minister, Wiston S. Churchhill, in Malta.
1953: The AGOFE / KING of Lado Kingdom, refused to sign any Agreement with the British Authorities on the pretence that the Nile Region (West Nile and Madi) was to become British East Africa or Protectorate of Uganda.
1953: The Prime Minister Churchill mediated with the Lado Envoy.
1954: The Nile Bridge talks between the British and the indigenous figure, His Majesty Culu John Bart Agami Onzima II.
The same year, the Nile (Jinja) Bridge talks between Lado Envoy Extraordinary Atamva John Bart Agami and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II took place in Uganda. It was agreed that Lado would be independent in 1960 or 1961.
1955: Torit Massacre in Equatoria.
1955 – 1972: The Liberation War the Lado people of Torit Region, Yeyi Region, and Rholi Region fought (ANYANYA War in Lado / Equatoria). It was a War of Lado Liberation initated earlier on by Rev. Fr Saturnino Lokure (Luhure) a citizen of Lado, who was assassinated on 7 June 1967. Major General Joseph Lagu of Ma’di Tribe (Lado) was the Military Officer in charge of the Military Affairs by then.
1 January 1956: Lado Massacre and the same date, month and year was the Independence as the Republic of Sudan from Britain and Egypt (Anglo / Egyptian Dominium Authority).
The same year, a conference was held in Arua in Lado which included, the Chief Jalasiga (Rhowt of Alur who was from Mahagi Regions of Lado which was still under Belgium Congo by then), he acted as the Representative of the Head of Chiefs of Agofe of Lado, the Prime Minister (Keego) Mr. Gaspero Oda, Congo’s first Prime Minister, Mr. Patrick Lumumba. The main Agenda in the Confrerence included the question of Lado and its Peoples Rights to Self – determination and on the question of the Nile waters.
So, it was important the Agofe of Lado and the future Prime Minister of Congo in 1960, Mr. Patrick Lumumba had to meet for talks which took place in 1956.
1957: The Representative of Lado Atamva (Mr.) Ringe was assassinated. He was an Alur of Luo tribe who stood for the indeipendence of Lado Kingdom.
1958: General Elections of March 1958 were held to determine the Independence of Lado and the future Prime Minister after Decolonisation and the two People who stood in for the Elections were Atamva Gaspero Oda of Lugbara Tribe and Atamva Lobidra of Kakwa Tribe. Atamva (Mr.) Gaspero Oda (a Lugbari tribe) won the elections amongst all the candidates of the 29 tribes of Lado.
8th November 1959: Nile Waters Utilization Agreement.
1960: The Agofe of Lado Culu / His Majesty Mariko Anacia Boroa, O.M died of natural death. Britain seemed to be tready to grant Independence to Lado as promised by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
1961: Britain had to respect the 1954 Agreement. Benedict
Kiwanuka and the Kabaka of Buganda were ready to sign but at the last hour, Great Britain decided to nullify the Independence of both Countries: Lado and Uganda (leaving the issue of Lado to be handled by the Africans and under Ugandan Parliarment. The Lado people refused such a proposal and Lado still fights for her independence.
September 1962: The British tended once again to convince the Agofe to sign for the second time the annexation Treaty Documents, but once again the Agofe refused and September 1962 just before the Independence of Uganda on 09 October 1962, the Agofe himself (CULU/ or His Majesty, Colonel, John Bart Agami Onzima II ) was arrested and quickly Sentenced to seven (7) years of imprisonment in Luzira Prison at Kampala in Uganda.
9th October 1962: Great Britain gave Uganda Independence when the Lado leader then Culu John Bart Agami the Agofe was arrested, sentenced and jailed by the British Authority in Uganda and was released afterwards, but could no more do anything.
The same year, a few Ladoan and Sudanese Politicians including a Catholic Priest, Father Saturnino Lahure / or Lukure (a Ladoan) formed the Sudan African Closed Districts National Union (SACONU).
September 1963: The Guerilla Army (for Liberation of Equatoria / Lado) called the (Anyanya) was formed by the Ma’di and some some sympathizers from other Sudanese tribes (Moru, Nuer, Lotuko, Bari, Acholi, Zande, Dinka) against the filoarabs. Anyanya in Ma’di language means, “Snake venom” founded by the Ma’di Joseph Lagu. From 1978–1979, Lagu served as the second President of the High Executive Council of the autonomous region of Southern Sudan. This leader became the Vice President of Sudan under President Jaafar Muhammad an-Nimeiry.
1964: Sudan African National Union (SANU) was initated.
7 June 1967: Rev. Fr. Saturnino Lokure (Luhure) a citizen of Lado, was assassinated.
The same year, a new political constitution draughted in 1966 in Uganda, passed without any debate in 1967 which wrote a moratorium on the Lado Kingdom neglecting her sovernity or her being a seperate State from Uganda since 1892.
1969: The Rebel movement (the Anyanya) in the south was becoming more cohesive and effective under the dynamic leadership of Colonel Joseph Lagu (a Ladoan of Ma’di Tribe).
25th January 1971: Uganda had a plot to terminate the Ladoans as planned in 1967. The war was between Dr. Apollo Milton Obote (a Luo tribe) and Major General Idi Amin (a Sudanic – Kakua / Kuku by tribe from Lado) took over the State Affairs of Uganda on 25th January 1971). Idi Amin and the rest of Ladoans in Uganda became to be regarded as Foreigners Ruling Uganda.
27th March of 1971: The Kokora Policy. The World Council of Churches and the All Africa Conference of Churches, sought to bring the two sides together (Equatoria / Lado and the former Sudan Anglo / Egyptian Condominium). A conference was arranged in Addis Ababa between the representatives of the Khartoum Government (led by Abel Alier, Southern Dinka, who was Nimeiri’s Minister for Southern Affairs) and Representatives of the Lado / or Equatoria Lado Liberation Movement in the South Sudan (Political Wing of the Anyanya). An Agreement was signed at the end of the Conference, leading to the Regional Self-Government Act for the Southern Provinces, including the attached the North part of Lado Equatoria to South Sudan by the British Authorities in the pre – Independence Ruling of Sudan by the Sudan Anglo / Egyptian Condominium Rule.
27 March 1972: The Kokora Policy signed by President, General Jaafar Nimeeri of the Republic State of Sudan.
1973: The present Agofe of Lado Culu John Bart Agami Onzima II returned from Exile in France, requested the President of Uganda General Idi Amin Dada to freely open Lado Issues to be discussed between Uganda and Lado and hoped in working with Uganda gradually, and to reach a Political Solution on the Issue of Lado Kingdom. No good development, but the same year the same Agofe managed to Confirm the International recognised Boundary Agreement between Lado and Uganda of 1907 (which was fixed by Sir Winston S. Churchill, the British Prime Minister. This was called the Agreement of 31 May 1973 signed in the Nile Conference held in Kampala, between Lado and Uganda).
1974: The Agofe left Lado again for Exile.
1975: London Agreement of 1975 was reached. It was worked out in Lusaka in Zambia between Uganda and Britain, inclulding other Commonwealth Countries to fight the Sudanic tribes of the State of Lado.
1978: The elections in the South led to the resignation of Abel Alier and the Political emergence of Joseph Lagu as President of the High Executive Council with prominently Equatorian support.
1978 – 1979: War was declared on Lado and its people (predominately Sudanic race) from 6th October 1978 to April 1979, whereby 250,000 soldiers were assembled from all over the World especially from the British Commonwealth Countries and from the Political Allies of Britain. In the Diplomatic channel it was Denmark, a strong British Ally who undertook running the Diplomatic machinary to impliment the War and was the one who raised the issue in the United Nations under the cover that the War in Uganda was necessary to over throw the World’s worst Dictator ever known, General Idi Amin. After the over throw of Idi Amin, the coming true President of Uganda Professor Yusuf Lule said, “the Nile is between us,” confirming the existence of the two States, that was to say, Lado (since 1892) and Uganda (since 1894) by International Treaty Conventions.
March 1979: The Uganda Ethnic Groups (Bantu, Nilotics / Luo and Nilo Hamatics) and of Tanzania and other Africans held “Moshi Confrence” in Tanzania, finally to impliment the London Agreement of 1975. The Prime Minister of Lado was killed in 1979 by the so-called Ugandan Liberators assisted by Great Britain and her Allies, United States of America, Denmark and other Scandinavian Countries.
11 April 1979: General Idi Amin Dada (who was a Ladoan Origine in Uganda) was overthrown. In Uganda the Ladoans of Sudanic Origin in West Nile, Uganda were chased and massacared with impunity. Over 350,000 people of Lado were Massacred and the rest in exile either in Congo or Sudan.
9 May 1979: The Sudanic Refugee Organisation (SRO) was formed, instituted with Assistance of all the Chiefs of Lado under the Authority Office of Agofe (King), Culu John Bart Agami Onzima II.
1980 – 1981: Massive massacres of the Sudanics in the Southern Lado, in Uganda and in other East African Countries including destruction of Properties (cf. Uganda plans of 1967 and decree of 12 May 1980, Art. 5 and Art. 10). This was done with full cooperation of Tanzania.
1981: President Nimeiri proposed to “re-divide” the South into three separate Regions: Equatoria / Lado, and with the Advice from the Lado Agofe’s Office (the Green Bureau), this plan was accepted, supported and fowarded through to Major General Lagu to Political Independence on the other hand with the Countries of Uganda and DRC occupying other Lado Regions, like that of West Nile (Uganda) and Ituri – Uele Regions known as “North – East” of Congo (RDC).
May 1983: SPLM brakes away from Equatoria (Lado). Already in a mutiny at Bor had begun the revolt. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) was soon formed under an ex – Army Colonel, John Garang’ de Mabior trained in America (U.S.A).
June 1983: Nimeiri unilaterally re-divided the Southern Region into three Regions, based on the former Equatoria / Lado, Bahr-el-Ghazal and Upper Nile.
September 1983: The imposition of a form of Sharia – Islamic Law on all parts of Sudan. Nimeiri had become increasingly involved with Renascent Fundamentalism. He was infliuenced by the Muslim Brotherhood and their leader Hassan el-Turabi.
The same year, the formation of Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) against the Ladoans (Anyanya) supported by Britain.
April 1985: The fall of Nimeiri and the success of the SPLA under the Anglo / American – USA military might.
1986: About 500,000 Sudanics of Lado were Killed.
The summer of the same year, the SPLA controlled most of the southern Countrysides and deeply entered in Equatoria Lado, except some Southern border areas and where the SPLA was confining the National Sudanese Army to the Garrison towns.
1988: Possibly half a million deaths from war, famine and disease.
1 January 2002: Lado Petition to United Nations. Agofe Culu John Bart Agami Onzima II sent a Petition to the UN Security Council and requested the UN Secretary General to act under Article 99 and to implement the UN General Assembly Resolutions 43 / 47 of 22 November 1988, UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960 and Article 1 and Article 73 of the UN Charter of 26 June 1945.
9 January 2005: The “Nairobi Agreement held in Kenya” which was to bring Peace between the Rebel Forces SPLM (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement) and the Sudan Government in Khartoum, was reached. Creating a New Sudan, the Lado soveringity is once more forgotten.
Year 2011: The United Republic of Sudan divided into 2 Independent States as North Sudan and South Sudan. This way the New (South) Sudan becomes the unwanted synonym of Lado Enclave. Who in South Sudan will talk anymore about Lado Enclave given that they have their own Country? UN did that purposely to cancel the Lado Enclave Memorandum. British feared this Kingdom and so now do the UN.
VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY
ASCHERSON, N., The King Incorporated: Leopold II in the Age of Trusts, Granta Books, 2001.
COLLINS, R.O., "The transfer of the Lado Enclave to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1910," Zaïre: revue congolaise, Vol. 14, (1960): Issues 2–3.
DEGEFU, G.T., The Nile: Historical, Legal and Developmental Perspectives, Trafford, Victoria 2003.
EMERSON, B., Leopold II of the Belgians, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1979.
ERWAGA, ISAAC NEWTON, The long trek of the Moru-Ma’di ancestors (Major Phases). Ardor Publication Rome (Italy) July 2014.
-------------------, The quasi lost culture of the Aethiop-Sudanic-Aigyptian Empire. Ardor Publication, Rome 2014.
-------------------, Kampala: The modern capital city de facto of Catholicism in Africa and Madagascar (1969-2019). The glorious Catholic Ecclesiastical history in Uganda. Reference to Baganda and Ma’di cultures, the White Fathers and the Comboni Missionaries, Ardor Publication, Cosenza (Italy), April 2020.
GLEICHEN, A.E.W (ed.), The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan: A Compendium prepared by officers of the Sudan Government, Harbisons & Sons, London 1905.
GRAY, R., A History of the Southern Sudan 1839-1889, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1961.
HOCHSCHILD, A., King Leopold's Ghost, Mariner Books, 1999.
LA SALANDRA, TONY., The History of the Catholic Church In West Nile (1910-2000), Comboni Missionari, Arua (Uganda) 2004.
LORI MALAYI, SILAS, King Leopold II and the great Lado Enclave. A brief history of the North Western Region from the days of the Lado Enclave to date, with emphasis on the rise and fall of Idi Amin Dada and the take over by the Movement Government in 1986, Moyo (Uganda).
MALI, MICHAEL – TAKO, GEOFFREY – MUNDRUKU CHRISTOPHER – KINYAA AYIA, RUFINA, Faith in action, Centenary of the Catholic faith in Moyo Parish North Western Uganda (1917-2017), Moyo Catholic Parish (Editor: Sr. Susan Clare Ndeezo), Moyo (Uganda) 2017.
MIDDLETON, J., "Colonial rule among the Lugbara" in Colonialism in Africa, 1870-1960, vol. 3., (ed. Turner, V.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971.
OKUONZI LULUA, RONALD, “File History Memory Information On Lado Kingdom In Africa For Its Independence Still,” published 12 May, 2014.
---------------------------, “South Sudan Carved Out To Hide Lado Kingdom” published 9/3/2013.
PAKENHAM, T., Scramble For Africa, Harper Perennial, 1991.
PIERLOZ, PATRICK, « L'héraldique civique du Congo belge (1908 – 1960) » ("Heráldica municipal del Congo Belga (1908 – 1960), en "Kisugulu", número 75, marzo de 2001.
STENGER, S.J., "The Congo Free State and the Belgian Congo before 1910", in Colonialism in Africa, 1870-1960, vol. 1, (ed. Gavin, L.H. & Duignan, P.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1969.
STIGAND, C. H., Equatoria: The Lado Enclave, Volumen 56 of General Studies Series, Library of African Study Series, Taylor & Francis Group, London 1968.
WACK, H.W., The Story of the Congo Free State: Social, Political, and Economic Aspects of the Belgian System of Government in Central Africa, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York 1905.
Thanks for reading.
I remain your Madiologist,
Rev. Fr. Dr. Isaac Erwaga Newton, p.o.c.r.
Don’t miss the next topic.THE MORU-MA’DI WERE PART OF LADOANS WHO LIVED IN THE LADO ENCLAVE
(THE FORMATION AND DISINTEGRATION OF THE LADO EMPIRE)
I. LADO ENCLAVE
Term Lado Enclave was introduced by Great Britain in 1894 to describe Lado as different Territory to its neighbouring Countries and was called so by the Belgians and other Europeans. It was named after the town Lado, a river port in South-Sudan within the former Congo Free State. The Enclave covered roughly the area of North-Eastern Congo, Northern Uganda and Southern Equatorial Sudan, in other terms, Central Africa, bordering Lake Albert (Nyanza) and situated on the West Bank of the Upper Nile. This area was administered by the Congo Free State from 1894 to 1909 and in 1910 was incorporated thereafter into the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. It has an area of about 15,000 sq. m., and a population by then estimated at 250,000 consisting of Bari, Moru, Ma’di, Kuku and other Nilotic Negroes
The Countries surrounding Lado are, viz., Sudan: North and South States, Uganda, Republic Democratic Congo (former Zaire), Ethiopia, Central African Republic (CAR) and Kenya. Territory of the State of Lado is a Separate Political Entity since 1815 up to 1885.
Lado Kingdom was improperly called Equatoria (from 20 May 1871) and the Turco/Egyptian Colonialists added “Province of Egypt.” The British called it either Lado Enclave or West Nile, Haut Nil by the Belgians and Modern Uganda adopts the English version, “West Nile,” but other people call it Southern or South Sudan. I
#geo_east
Isaac Erwaga
Eastern, Northern & Port Sudan
This article is dedicated to Dr. Taha Bamkar, a distinguished expert and university professor in economics and planning.
Book History of the Beja tribes of the Sudan
A. Paul 1953 Britain p64 Chapter VII The Arab Infiltrators At some time in the 9th century A.D. there began a slow and by no means a continuous process of infiltration by Arab tribes, never at any time of great proportions, yet sufficiently pronounced as to result eventually in all the Beja peoples becoming Moslem.
The earliest arrivals were not however Moslem, and are said to have been a fragment of a Himyarite tribe which came by way of Red Sea from Shihr in Southern Arabia and settled among the Beja of the Atbai and Sinkat hills, intermarrying with them, and acquiring predominance partly by virtue of superior culture, and partly by reason of the matrilineal system of succession in vogue among them....
Their arrival prior to the Hegira is well established, for they are later spoken of as Jacobite Christians who were converted to Islam only after the appearance of Arab invaders from Egypt in the 9th century. These immigrants, to give them the name by which they were most commonly known by Arab writers and travellers, were the Hadareb, a Beja corruption of Hadarma, or inhabitants of the Hadramaut.
To the Beja, however, they were as commonly known as the Bellou by the reason of the fact that on arrival they spoke a strange tongue, the Beja for which (as it still is) was Bellaweit, though it was not until they had been driven south from the Atbai in the 15th century that the latter name replaced the former in common usage. Thus, though they are indeed one and the same people, the use of two different names at different times have given rise to confusion and assumption that they were two, a confusion, which, however, never existed in local minds. “It is well known", says the Amarar historian, “that the Bellawiyan are Arabs who came from Arabia before the main immigration of the Arabs to the Sudan, and dwelt in the Beja and mingled with them." (Sudan government archives) Most writers have been content to classify them as Beja which, in some sense, after centuries of intermarriage with genuine Beja tribes they indeed became, the Himyarite strain in their blood gradually disappearing. Described variously as Belo, Ballaw, and Balau, sections have been traced as far south as Harar, and they have been identified, wrongly, with the Kelew, an autochtonous Beja tribe at one time living in the Gash and Barka valleys, and also as a Beja tribe from the Tigrean plateau with Abyssinian connections, which drifted to the western lowlands some time in the 14th century. Longrigg yet again states: ‘that these (the Belu) were of Beja origin is certain; that they entered Eritrea as pagans and soon (at the latest by the 15th cent) adopted Islam on the coast, and Christianity elsewhere, not less so’. (A short history of Eritrea p 32) This description is not altogether accurate. It is not improbable, as Rossini believes, that there
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were at least two groups of Bellou, a northern one, the Hadareb of the Atbai and the Sinkat hills, and a southern one, which was the nucleus of the Bellu kingdom which flourished between the latitudes of Suakin and Massawa from how early on is not known, and whose fortunes will be traced in a later chapter. (Munzinger dates the rise of this kingdom as ca 1370) Kirwan (A.A.A., Vol. xxiv, p74-5) advances the theory that the name Bellou derives from Blemmyes. This demonstrably untrue in that the Bellou were Himyarites who emigrated from Southern Arabia in the 6th cent A.D. and could therefore have no previous connection with the Hamitic Beja. Idrisi who infers that they had something to do with the Rum (Greeks?) is obviously mistaken and confused by the fact of their Jacobite Christianity. Munzinger says that they came from the north in the 15th century.
p66 So far as the history of what is now Eritrea is concerned that is correct, for it was about this time that they were driven south from the Atbai and then from the Sinkat area. Crawford rightly attributes to them an Arabian origin, but, failing to connect them with the Hadareb, dates their arrival some 8 centuries too late. (The Funj kingdom of Sennar, 1950, p.111-2)..... It is necessary also to distinguish between the medieval Hadareb (the Bellou) and their modern counterparts so unflatteringly described by 19th century visitors to the Sudan, mainly Arteiga, Ashraf and others, who by then were predominantly Beja by blood, but including also large numbers of half-caste Beja, the result of intermarriage with Turks, Egyptians, Circassians, Bosnians, etc., all rag-tag....Osman Digna was not untypical product of Hadareb society... It would appear from the little that is known of them at this period the Hadareb cannot have arrived in any great number although they acquired the status of a ruling caste, they failed to establish their own language and, from being idolaters, imitated the Beja in adopting a form of Christianity.
Their Arabian origin manifests itself in their possession of horses, animals which the Beja at all times have heartily disliked, and Idrisi, the only Arab writer of the time to speak of them as Bellou, and not Hadareb, says: " The neighbourhood of Assuan is invaded by black horsemen called Belliyun, and it is claimed they had been Christians since the time of the Egyptians. They wander in the desert between the Beja and the Habash, and come as far as Nubia.
p 69 The historian Yagoubi, writing at the end of 9th cent A.D. names six Beja kingdoms lying between Assuan and Massawa. (FN Kitab al Buldan pt I, p218-9. The very frequent use by chroniclers of the terms 'king' and 'kingdom' is misleading, and a truer picture emerges if for 'king' we read 'chief' and for kingdom 'district'.) (1) Tankish, extending from Assuan to Khor Baraka, and inhabited by various tribes, Hadareb, Zenafig, Arbagda, and others. In this kingdom were mines of gold, emeralds, and marble. (2) Belgin, a land of many cities, inhabited by pagans who were also magicians and plucked out their eye-lashes and front incisor teeth.. (3) Bazin, bordering on Belgin and the Nubian kingdom of Aloa. (4) Jarin, extending from Badi' on the Red Sea to Khor Baraka, and ruled by a powerful king.
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(5) Qita'a, between Badi' and Feikun, very difficult of access. (6) Nagash, whose capital Ka'bir was on the coast near Dahlak, and whose inhabitants were merchants and Christians. The only one of these which can be identified with certainty is Tankish, with its population of Hadareb and their vassals, the Zenafig, of whom Makrizi, writing much later, and quoting Ibn Selim el Assuani (c. 970 A.D., on p 64n), states: ' Among them (the Beja) are another race, the Zenafig, more numerous than the Hadareb, but subject to them. They act as servants and guards and supply them with cattle, and every chief of the Hadareb has among his followers peoples of the Zenafig, who are as slaves whom they inherit.' (Burchhardt, Travels in Nubia, 1822, p389). p 70 This is clearly a description of the caste system brought with them from Arabia by the Hadareb, like the Sabeans before them, and which in some parts was to survive until well into the 20th century. The Hadareb were thus a ruling caste who, by reason no doubt of their Arab blood, were early converts to Islam (though Masudi remarks that they were very poor Moslems) whereas their serf tribes remained idolaters, with some veneer of Christianity, until sometime in 14th century.
.... Hadjar, Dherbe, or Hejer, the Beja capital, was said by Yagoubi (end of 9th century) to be situated in the extremity of the island of Beja, and has been placed by some authorities as far south as the angle between the Baraka and the Anseba.
(p 68 ... Anseba Ibn Ishak, the last of the Arab governors of Egypt, sent against them (Beja 9 a carefully prepared expedition under Mohammad Abdullah Ibn Gami' (after 854 A.D. Beja rise against Egypt).
p 72 The Rabi'a, the Guhayna, and the Mudr were not, however, the only Arab settlers in the Beja country during this period. Towards end of 7th century a small group of the Hawazin crossed the Red Sea into Hammasien, where they acquired the name of Halenga, and whence they were later expelled by the enmity of the local inhabitants. By following the valley of the Mereb (the Gash) they eventually reached Taka and settled at the vicinity of the hill of To Lus (Kassala) and thus have the distinction of being the first Moslem Arabs to settle among the Beja. The tribes whom they found there have since disappeared, and there is reason to believe that at that time the Haffara and the Karabkinab were the principal tribes of the area...
p73 The Beja of the Atbai were to be brought into yet closer contact with the outer world from now on by the development of the small port of Aidhab as a pilgrim station and as a principal entrepot for the far east trade up the Red Sea to Egypt China trade flourished.... New prosperity was brought to Aidhab in the 12th century by the closing of the overland pilgrim routes by the Crusaders of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The port was thought to be beyond Christian reach (a miscalculation as Renauld de Chatillon's galleys raided it in 1183. (Newbold, 'The crusaders in the Red Sea and the Sudan', S.N.R. Vol. XXVI (2), 1945, p 221), and it developed despite its unpleasant climate and situation, on account of a deep-water roadstead close inshore, and the absence of offshore reefs. The Beja were not slow to profit by this prosperity. They conducted caravans through
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the desert to and from Kus, and made themselves responsible for local supplies such as milk, water, and firewood, and since they controlled the hinterland and could make trade impossible, they claimed successfully to share the port revenues with the governor appointed by the sultan of Egypt. Ibn Batuta, who visited it in 1316, reports that the king of the Beja (called El Hidirbi, a title, not a name) collected two thirds of the imports through his agent, where the sultan received one third only. Even so the persons and property of pilgrims were far from being safe.
Many died of the hardships of the desert journey, in which they were deliberately misled and robbed by their Beja guides, and in 1316, shortly before Ibn Batuta's visit, the ambassador of the Yemen and a large caravan of merchants were seized and plundered of all they had..... Of the Hadareb who controlled it (Aidhab) Makrizi says they were as beasts, wild animals rather than men, and that the pilgrims who survived the rigours of the double passage and the desert journey (and they were few) had the appearance of men but lately rescued from the grave...
p76 In years of famine and want the Beja were apt to come raiding as they had done in Roman times, or to cut the trade routes from Aidhab to Kus, and on such occasions retaliation was necessary. Otherwise the sultans were content to let well alone, and from 1187 onwards, after Saladin had crippled the power of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem at Hattin, the pilgrim route to Aidhab became of very much less importance.
p 76 Its end came in 1426 when the Mamluke sultan Bars Bey punished the plunder of a caravan carrying gifts to Mecca by an expedition which destroyed the port, and with it the power of the Hadareb in the Atbai.
... The fortunes of the Hadareb had been in decline ever since the middle 14th century, when the gold and emerald mines became exhausted and were abandoned in the reign of Mohammad Hassan Ibn Kala'oun. The destruction of Aidhab completed a process already begun. Many of the Hadareb fled south, and there must have taken place something in the nature of a tribal resurgence resulting in the emergence of the tribes we know today. Legend agrees that the Besharin drove the Bellou (as they should now be called) from the Atbai late in 15th century, though they remained still in the hills round Erkowit and Sinkat, retaining some of their serfs, and possibly acquiring others until about mid 16th century, when the Fung first appeared in the scene.
A Fung expedition force is alleged to have defeated the combined forces of the Bellou and Arteiga in a battle fought at the gates of Suakin as early as 1506, and to have occupied the port. I consider this to have been quite impossibly. Omara Dunkas, the first of the Fung kings, had established his kingdom in the Gezira with the help of the Abdullab only two years previously, and it is extremely improbable that his armies should have ravaged so far so soon. The eastward expansion of the Fung, or rather of the Abdullab, occurred in the time of the great Mangilak, El Agib Abdullah, who defeated the Bellou in about 1580 or even earlier, who is reputed to have spent much of his time at Suakin, and to have been responsible for the digging of the water tank now known as Haffir el Fula.
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p77 The Turks occupied Suakin in 1520 to find that the Arteiga had succeeded the Bellou as the masters of the port. The latter were steadily becoming less powerful, and about this time also the Hadendowa, according to tribal legend originally a warrior clan only forty strong, drove them south into the hill country beyond Khor Baraka. Legend also makes a certain Sheik el Telu (Shaikatel) who had given his name to a mountain north-west of Sinkat, a king of the Bellou, and father-in-law of the Hadendowi hero who killed him and expelled his people.
Their alleged pedigree is as follows: Mohammed. Hadab (the lion) (Sherifi) = d. of Shaikatel, chief of the Bellou Mohammedd. Mubarak (Barakwin the fearless) = Hadat b. Mohammedd. el'Alawi (Sherifia)
The Hadendowa FN The name Hadendowa is thence supposed to derive from 'hadabendowa' =the lion people, or Hadatendowa = Hadat's people. Another explanation not inconsistent with the tribal view of itself is that it simply means 'hada endowa' = the best or first people....
p78 Bent, on the other hand, holds that the name (Saba'ia) indicates an Axumite origin, but I myself am inclined to agree with Floyer that they are named from Jebal Saba'i in the eastern desert of Egypt at the source of the Wadi Zeidun, where there were iron mines. They were said to be obtainable only from a tribe of women who had the secret of their manufacture, had intercourse only with their clients, and killed all male children at birth. The majority of the Beja converted to Islam in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, and accordingly found it politic to adopt a proper Arab ancestry....With the adoption of Islam they abandoned the matrilinear system and in doing so, 'their women', says Murray, 'had lost in freedom but gained in morality'. (The sons of Ishmael, 1935, p. 22)
THE SUBJECTION OF THE TIGRE (750-1700)
p 80 The Almada, ca 36,000 in Eritrea, appear for a short time at least, to have established a kingdom on the coast between Massawa and Agig, and, even after their overthrow and enserfment by the Beit Asgade´ in the early 16th century, seem to have retained something of their greater past, so that aristocratic castes had no scruples about taking their daughters in marriage. It is tempting to suppose that they might be none other than the Almodad, one of the lost tribes of the Joktan, of which, however, no evidence exists other than the suggestive similarity of their names, and they themselves declare that they are descendents of one Mahmoud el Madai, from whom also stem the tribes of Meikal and the Red and Black Targeila. The Hammasien and the Ad Fadil say they are the result of the union of a certain Mahmoud Abu Makrouh with a Bellou girl, and Abhasheila claim to be kin to the Beit Ma'ala on the distaff side, and the Rigbat have the misfortune to trace descent from Abdullah Ibn Abu Bakr el Siddiq, whom everyone knows to have died childless...
To this period belongs the rise and decline of the port of Badi' on the island of Erie some 15 miles south of the present village of Agig. It appears to have flourished between the years 600 and 1150 circa, to have been suddenly abandoned, and have been a ruin by end 12th century.
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Its inhabitants are of mixed Arab origin intermingled with some local (Beja) blood, who traded in local products as tortoise-shell, pearls, ivory and alabaster. There remain of the port today only a number of underground cisterns, used by the herdsmen who graze their flocks on the island during the winter rains. In the early 16th century the Beit Asgade, founders of the Habab and other tribes of Eritrea, descended from the high plateaus of Akele Guzai and succeeded in overrunning the tribes of the coastal country between the Anseba and the Sea, and in establishing themselves as their feudal overlords.
In this they but aped the Bellou, at that time still the dominant authority in the area between Suakin and the district of Mazaga, at the confluence of the Atbara and the Setit, and also in the hinterland behind Massawa. This is very much the territory assigned to them by John Senex in his map dated 1709, and Sir Peter Wynche in 'A Short Relation of the River Nile', of Royal Society in 1673.. from Jesuit Lobo 1626....Winches speaks of Suakin as an island occupied by Turks but: 'of natural right belonging to a Powerful and warlike King whose Kingdom is called Bellow (anciently Negran), the Inhabitants are moors, the men, horses, and sheep the fairest I have ever seen; the water melons the most delicious I have ever tasted' (The Gwineb of Suakin, still noted for its water melons, p. 3-4)' this would appear to show that the Bellou still controlled the hinterland behind Suakin in early 17th century, though I do not think that there can be any doubt that they were in fact driven out by the Abdullab before 1600.
The explanation lies in the fact that Fra Lobo obtained most of his information from Abyssinian sources, and followed them in referring to all tribes of Eastern Sudan generally as Bellou. The horses and the men who aroused his enthusiasm were probably a detachment of the famous Fung cavalry. (The Abyssinian chronicles refer frequently to raids on the Balaw along the western frontier from Suakin to the Blue Nile, and it is clear from the context that they mean in fact either the Fung, or the tribes on the eastern boundaries of the Fung, referred to by the latter as the Sobaha.) The discomfiture of the Bellou at the hands of the Fung, or more probably of the Abdullab, took place about 1580, when they were defeated decisively in a three day battle at Asarmaderhib in the hills behind Agig. Their king, Mohammed Idris Adara, was killed, and they were driven, a broken remnant, to take refuge in the environs of Massawa, where they still remain.
The Abdullab army had contained a contingent of Sha'adinab/Jaalin who remained behind when the raiders withdrew, and like the Beit Asgede before them, imposed themselves as a ruling caste upon the serf peoples whom the Bellou had abandoned, and whom they now designated (themselves included) as Beni Amer. According to tribal legend the name derives from Amer, whose father Ali Nabit, a wandering holy man of mixed Jaaliin and Melhitkinab descent, had met his death at the hands of the Bellou after having married the granddaughter of Mohammed Idris Adara. Amer, when he grew to manhood, is supposed to have led the army which revenged his father's death, and the
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Jaaliin interlopers adopted the name of Nabtab (derived from Nabit) to distinguish themselves from their subject peoples. The caste system which they, the only true descendants of Amer, now adopted and imposed was much more rigorous than any which had preceded it, and while they adopted the language of their inferiors, intermarriage was forbidden, and caste distinctions between Nabtab and Tigre´(as the serf peoples now came to be called) were most strictly enforced. The pulverization and dispersion of the indigenous tribes was not yet, however, even now at an end. About the middle 17th century a group of Melhitkinab migrated from the Gash to the Red Sea as a result of a blood feud, and settled in the coast south of Agig, where they embarked on a long conflict with the Beit Behalyai (an aristocratic caste of the Habab related to the Beit Asgede) ending in the virtual extermination of the latter and the transfer of their serfs to their victors, and, in an even greater degree, to the Nabtab of the Beni Amer.
The new tribal group thus created came to be known as the Aflanda, and its aristocracy as the Egeilab. It was about this time also that tribes such as the Haffara, Sinkatkinab, Labat, and Karabkinab, whether as a result of Bellou pressure or of that of other Beja tribes beyond them, removed into what is now the Agordat district, where they still remain. Thus by end of 17th century or about, the whole coastal region between Khor Baraka and Massawa came to be occupied by three main tribal groups, the Habab, the Beni Amer, and the Aflanda, each consisting of a small, alien, superior caste imposing itself by force of arms on a very much larger number of indigenous serf peoples.
p83 The decisive factor of these conquests (as also in medieval Europe) was the strong arm of the mail-clad horsemen. The Beja have always a strong instinctive dislike of horses, animals which they have never been able to control or acclimatize, and they scorn all forms of protective armour other than their bull hide shields, relying for effectiveness in battle on speed, agility, surprise, and ferocity in attack.
p. 84 The warriors of Beit Asgede, Sha'adinab and Abdullab wore helmets and chain armour, and their horses were protected also by skirts of thick quilting. Against them the naked Beja spearmen on foot stood little chance, and although the Hadendowa repulsed the Fung, the less warlike, meeker Tigre tribes succumbed easily, and fearful memories of the mailed and panoplied horsemen could scatter them like sheep are still alive in them today.
FN There is a vivid description of the Fung cavalry in Bruce, who saw four hundred of them in camp near Sennar with the Vizier Adlan in 1772. (Travels to discover the source of the Nile Vol iii, 1805, p352) The ruling castes of the Beni Amer and Aflanda being of Arab origin and Mohammedans, the conversion of their vassal tribes to Islam followed fairly rapidly, but among the Habab Christianity of a sort was to linger on into the 19th century.... The caste system which the Nabtab enforced on their vassal tribes for some three centuries to come was borrowed in its entirety from their forerunners the Bellou who brought the system with them from the Hadramaut-a system which in far earlier times had been imposed on the Hamitic tribes south of Khor Baraka by immigrants from Southern Arabia and the nobility of Axum.
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The aristocratic caste of Nebtab had, however, the reputation of enforcing caste distinctions much more rigorously than others, and so provide the classic example of the domination exercised by a small but extremely powerful ruling caste over a very much larger subject population... The relationship between master and serfs (the Tigre) was a purely personal one. All Tigre were born into serfdom as the serfs of individual members of the Nebtab nobility, a state of social inferiority from which there was no legitimate means of escape.
Their condition, however, was not that of pure slavery: they had certain recognized rights, might own cattle and other property, and might not be sold or alienated by their masters, although transfer of serfs was practised in such transactions as marriages and blood settlements.
If a serf was injured or killed by a Nabtabi the matter was one for adjustment with his master by payment of compensation, and should a serf kill a Nabtabi he was not himself punished, but his master was required to make restitution by transfer of the offender and five of his relatives to the dead man's family. The system in theory, and at its best in practice, was, however, one of mutual obligation, and serfs paid tribute, and rendered certain aids and services, in return for protection, and in particular provision of a marriage portion and customary gifts on the occasion of births, circumcisions, and other ceremonies. One of its most striking features was the complete fragmentation of the serf class, and it is probable that in this the aristocracy carried out a deliberate policy of splitting up serf groups with the object of keeping them weak and divided, so that it was possible to find serfs of one small clan widely scattered among several Nebtab sections, and under control of different masters. At the same time they enjoyed a considerable degree of physical freedom, and it was unusual for Nabtab and serfs to share the same encampments or grazing grounds. The lordly, indolent Nabtabi rarely went far afield, but the serfs, continually in search of water and grazing for cattle, ranged far and wide, and were often so far beyond effective react that it might seem surprising that any connection was maintained at all. This was provided.
p. 86 This was provided for in the appointment of a Nabtabi as ba'ala'ad or 'master of the camp' for the purpose of settling disputes, keeping the serfs in order, and entertaining guests. His tent was pitched in the centre of the camp, and he was entitled to a fee from the father of every girl married in the encampment. Herding the milking of the cattle were among the main services rendered by a Tigre, for by custom no Nabtabi might milk, and this remained until recently the principal distinction between those of aristocratic and serf origin. It was a distinction which applied to cattle only, the reason very possibly being that the Nabtab, coming from camel-owning stock, knew nothing about cattle, and left the herding and milking of them to the serfs to whom originally they belonged, so that in time the fact that the Nabtab never milked came to have the force of a caste distinction.
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Among the Tigre themselves there is a division into those who milk and those who do not, and as far as can be ascertained those who do are the Almada, Asfada, and some others, and those who do not are the Hamassien, Abhasheila, and the Wilinnoho. As to how this division arose no one appears to be certain, but it is probable that they were not in origin serfs but only became so when they sought the protection of, or were defeated by, one of the dominant castes. Serfs were allowed always to own cattle and other animals, and in this respect many of them became wealthier than their masters, but they were under obligation at all times to supply cattle for milking, butter and other products on demand, and on occasions such as marriages and funerals had to produce animals for slaughter, milk or other products in kind, as well as personal labour, and when their master moved camp they provided animals for his transport. Latterly many of these obligations had fallen into disuse. Gifts of butter were offered rarely, and the custom of gifts on ceremonial occasions was more strictly observed by the serfs among themselves than between them and the Nebtab. The outward signs of serfdom had also become much less common, and it was often impossible at first sight to distinguish between some serfs and their masters.
Dress, weapons, and the use of animals became more taste matter and convenience than of custom, and it was latterly no longer obligatory for a serf to refrain from riding a horse, wearing a turban or a sword, or from using a riding saddle on his camel. Intermarriage was, however, unknown, at least among the Sudan Nebtab, who have always taken exceptional pride in the elaboration of their marriage ceremonies and the higher dowries required for Nebtab girls.....
p. 87 In the advent of Egyptian govt, the levy for the Diglel was replaced by a fixed tribute, and section chiefs were appointed c. 1850, the system did not greatly alter save that the serfs had now to pay twice, once to the official chief, and again to the Shirfaf. This system applied to all Tigre speaking peoples who, at one time or another, fell under the domination of the Nebtab, and the Bellou when they fled south to Massawa, either abandoned, or were deserted by, the bulk of their serf followers....
p. 89 The name the various clans have the collective names known as Hadareb, the same the Bellou were known as,...is probably the name Hadareb was mistakenly applied to them on account of their language and previous association with the Bellou.... By contrast the Hadareb are in every way more nearly akin to the northern Beja tribes, whose language they speak; as shy and aloof as the Tigre, but for different reasons; impatient of interference, tough, independent and self-sufficient to a degree. Yet the kinship is there, not only between them and the Tigre, but with other Hamitic groups...
p. 90 The Beni Amer are not therefore, a tribe at all in the correct sense of the word, consisting as they do of two widely distinct Beja groups, the one until recently dominated very closely, the other hardly at all, by a small, alien aristocracy. When, therefore, some authorities talk about typical Beni Amer they are describing something
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which does not exist, for depending upon from which group they made their selection, the subject matter might be a typical Tigre of Hamitio-Semitic origins, a Hadarbi, of a much poorer Hamitic strain closely akin to the more ancient Beja peoples, or else a Nabtabi of predominantly Arab blood, or much diluted by intermarriage with other tribes of admitted aristocratic strain, such as Arteiga, Ashraf, and Ad Sheik.
p. 92 Don Juan de Castro wrote in 1540 of the Beja ' they are never at peace with their neighbors, but continually at war with everybody. They have no king or great Lord over them, but are divided into Tribes and Parties, over each of which there is a Sheykh. They build no Towns, nor other fixed habitations; their Custom being to wander from one place to another with their cattle' (Kennedy Cooke, 'The Red Sea Coast in 1540', S N R Vol. xvi (2), 1933) The 16th century, therefore, repeats in other authentic and credible from accounts from earlier ages, and the wandering nomad Beja, carrying war into the Nile valley, raiding each others' herds, admitting, within the limits of their power, no central control, and fighting continuously over grazing and water, are as they always were, still are today, and no doubt always will be.
p 93 This particular age, though largely unchronicled, was for them one of unusual ferment, and tribal units as we know them today, the Amarar, the Besharin, and the Hadendowa, which were in process of emergence and consolidation, had to fight strenuously for survival not only among themselves, but also against the attempts of the Fung kingdom in the south-west to extend its influence into the Red Sea hills. The extent to which the Sultanete of Sennar made its power felt in the Eastern Sudan is by no means clear, and its attempts to extend the limits of authority were only partially successful. Repeated expeditions were against the Beja, possibly in an attempt to discover and exploit the Red Sea gold mines.
In this they were unsuccessful. They failed also to reduce the outpost tribe of Hadendowa, at that time a small, but exceedingly aggressive clan, who occupied the hill country round Sinkat and Erkowit, whence they had only shortly before expelled the Bellou, the Sinkatkinab, and others who are now classed as Beni Amer. The Fung failed to penetrate to the Atbai, but as related in the previous chapter they had better fortune farther south against opponents less warlike than the northern tribes. There they succeeded, c. 1600, in establishing a vassal administration (the Beni Amer) in the hills south of Khor Baraka, and it seems reasonably certain that they held the line of the Atbara with posts at Asubri and Goz Regeb, and from there dominated the Gash and Setit tribes, the Halanga, Hamran and others. Furthermore the Arab aristocracy who had imposed themselves by the sword over a large Beja serf population, and now called themselves the Beni Amer, relied, at least to begin with, on their support.
Their chief (who came to be known as the Diglel) was given a horned cap and the title of Mangil; as late as 1730 the question of the succession was referred to Sennar for settlement, and the Abdullab chronicle states that the Abdullab were the overlords of ten districts of the Sobaha (i.e. the tribes of the Eastern Sudan) including the Nabtab, Halenko and Homran. (Penn, 'Traditional stories of the Abdullab tribes' S.N.R. Vol. xvii (1) 1934, p 64).
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p.95 ...Agib the Mangilak killed at the battle of Kalkol in 1611, it is possible to establish the existence of the Besharin and Hadendowa as fully developed tribes with clearly distinct sub- sections as early as mid 17th century, or even earlier still.
p. 101 .. after the foundation of Kassala, posts were established in the friendly Beni Amer country, and in the newly acquired territory of Boghos, stretching from the Setit to Keren, and also at Goz Regeb and near Aroma in the Gash. That order of a sort was maintained can be gathered from the reports of numerous travellers who visited the country and survived to write their recollections of it,...fear of the Beni Amer of superior weapons of the ' Turks'
p 102 The only tribe other than perhaps the Halenga (who soon regretted it) to welcome coming of the Egyptians was the Beni Amer. They were a large unwieldy tribe who found themselves unhappily placed between more warlike peoples, the Abyssinians in the south, and the Hadendowa in the north-west.
In this extremity they were prepared to welcome the Egyptians, with whom they duly came to terms in 1848, finding ' in the "Turks", the common enemy of all, a support against the Hadendowas'. (Junker, Travels in Africa, 1890, p 95) p 105 Battle of Gundet 1875, Diglel of the Beni Amer lost his life.
p 133 BEJA CHRONOLOGY B.C. ca. 2750 possible date of first exploitation of Eastern Desert gold mines by the VIth Dynasty.. ca 1000-600 approximate date of Sabean colonization of Tigrean highlands.... ca. 110 Invasion of Africa by Abraha 'Dhu el Manar' from the Yemen.
A.D. ca. 340 Axum converted to Christianity by Frumentius. Aizanas of Axum destroys Meroe. 525 Himyarite kingdom in the Yemen conquered by Asbaha of Axum. 533 Justin proposes anti-Persian alliance with Axum.. 540 Decisive defeat of the Beja by Silko of Nubia. 550-600 Nominal conversion of Beja to Christianity.
ca. 600 Appearance of Badi' as a Red Sea port. Bellou settlement in the Atbai.. 690 Possible date of Halenga settlement in the Gash. 700-800 Decline of Axum. 854 Rising of the Beja, who raided as far as Esna. 900 Approximate date of Yagoubi's description of six Beja kingdoms between Assuan and Dahlak.
1028 First mention of Aidhab as a pilgrim port. ca 1150 Badi' abandoned by its inhabitants. 1183 Aidhab sacked by the Crusaders. 1426 Aidhab destroyed by Bars Bey. ca. 1470 Hadareb (Bellou) driven from the Atbai by the Besharin. 1500-1600 Infiltration of northern Tigre by Bellou and other Beja.
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1504 Foundation of the Fung kingdom by Omara Dunkas. 1520 Occupation of Suakin and Massawa by Ottoman Turks. 1520-40 Expulsion of Bellou from Sinkat area by the Hadendowa. ca. 1530 Invasion of the Red Sea coast by the Bet Asgade (Habab) 1580 Overthrow of the Bellou by the Nabtab (Beni Amer).
1800 Hadendowa in occupation of Gash and middle Atbara. 1821 Egyptian occupation of Sudan 1823 first Egyptian raid on Taka under the Defterdar. 1823,1836 Further raids by Khurshid Pasha. 1840 Town of Kassala founded by the Egyptians.
1844 Exp of Taka by Ahmed Pasha Menekli. 1848 Egyptian agreement with the Beni Amer. 1872 Munzinger occupies Keren.
p. 137 BEJA TRIBES AND SUB-DIVISIONS (3) HADENDOWA
Their most important sections are: Wailaliab Samarar Gemilab Hakolab Bushariab Meishab Shara'ab Samarandowab Geri'ab Kalolai Hamdab Beiranab Buglinai Tirik Emirab Shaboidinab Gurhabab Rabamak total 110,000
TOKAR DISTRICT BENI AMER Nabtab Egeilab Tigre: Almada Asfada Targeila Hamasein Abhasheila Meikal Aflanda Wilinnoho Ad Fadil Rigbat Hadareb: Sinkatkinab Labat Hadoigoboiab Libis Ad Kokoi Beit Musa Sogaiet Beit Awat Beit Goreish Ad el Khasa Total 30,000
KASSALA DISTRICT BENI AMER 15,000
p. 140 THE ARTEIGA TRIBES When the Bellou were pushed south in turn of 16th century the Arteiga replaced them as the masters of Suakin, and inherited also from the old Beja name of Hadareb or Hadarba, by which they became known all over the Sudan.
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The Emir of the Hadarba, who shared the pickings of the port with the Turco-Egyptian governors, was also the chief of the Arteiga, and lived on the mainland with his people who organized trade in slaves and other goods with the interior, and who are remarked on with little favour by Burckhardt at Shendi and elsewhere in 1813....
p. 142 They were also, like the Halenga, until fairly recently a Tigre-speaking people.
THE HALENGA p. 144 This small tribe, now ca only 2500 strong, is of interest as being probably the first of the Ishmaelite Arabs to enter the Sudan after conversion of Islam, and by a route entirely different to any others. It is said by some that they are Beni Saad, who crossed the Red Sea in the days of Caliph Abu el Malik Ibn Marwan (A.D. 685-705) but it is more probable that they are of the same stock as the Arabian tribe of Hawazin.
According to tribal legend, they settled first in the highlands of Tigre early 8th century and were later expelled by the enmity of the indigenous tribes. At that time the Axum kingdom was in decline, conditions generally were unsettled, and despite the good relations which had existed almost a century before between Axum and Mecca the settlement of a Moslem tribe among a predominantly Christian population could not but have led to discord. The Halenga, thus ousted, fled by way of Mereb (Gash) valley until they came to Taka, where they settled in the vicinity of the great hill of To Lus (Jebal Kassala) and extended their authority and cultivations as far north as Deba'ab (Mekali) in the Gash delta and beyond. Here they intermarried not only with local Beja and Tigre tribes (Beni Amer, Gadein, Bilein, Haffara, Sigolab, Melhitkinab and others) but also with Arabs such as the Abdullab, Ashraf, Rubatab, and Jaaliin, a process which still continues....
p 145 In ca 1780 the Fung sultan, Adlan II, sent an exp against them which was unsuccessful, both its leaders being killed. By late 18th century the Hadendowa, pressing southwards to the Atbara, drove them in on Jebal Kassala and their main settlement of Fakenda, roughly on the same site as present-day town of Kassala, and they were later to earn enduring ill-fame among the Beja by calling in the Egyptians in the hope of redressing their fortunes. The result was the plundering expeditions of Ahmed Pasha Abu 'Udan and Ahmed Pasha el Menekli and the founding of Kassala, and though it is true that for a short time the Halenga enjoyed some prosperity as minor officials and auxiliaries under Turco-Egyptian rule, they paid for it in the Mahdia when they were all but exterminated. Lejean, who visited Kassala in 1860, believed, erroneously, from their language and customs that they were a tribe of the Hamassien, and remarks that they are the only Tigre-speaking tribe whose social system gives equality to all.
Source: Carolina Rediviva University Library, Uppsala - Swede
#geo_east#geo_north
Ahmed Hintolay
Eastern, Northern & Port Sudan
