A village boy’s worldview equated racial blackness with slavery’s limits until shown otherwise

Evidence

This apparent social upheaval upset `Alï Mubärak deeply. He turned to his father for answers about how a dark-skinned African could ever achieve so high a position. They mulled over it together: … “This ma´mür is not a Turk, since he’s black,” I said. … My father answered, “Maybe he is a freed slave.” “Can a slave become a government official when even provincial notables cannot, and even less so slaves?” … My father searched for answers but still could not satisfy me. He said, “Perhaps the cause of his rise is his morality and his knowledge?” — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 258

Categorization

• XREF: Relevant to Egypt-Sudan colonial comparison: Egyptian racial attitudes toward dark-skinned Africans (here Abyssinian) framed Sudan as a place of slaves and subordinate peoples.
• QUESTION: How did `Ali Mubarak’s later career as a modernizer reshape or preserve such racialized hierarchies toward Sudan?