Al-Zubayr attributed Egyptian failure in Sudan to ignorance of the governed.

Evidence

But civilization and modern culture could not be brought to these regions unless accompanied by a true understanding of the customs and beliefs of the inhabitants. The governor really had to under- stand those whom he governed. This was why, according to al-Zubayr, the Egyptian government (the Turks, as he and other Sudanese termed the gov- ernment) was never able to hold on to the Sudan. They did not possess any understanding of the Sudanese “and treated them as if they were the inhab- itants of Cairo, or Istanbul.” — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 565

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: A native Sudanese causal theory of why colonial governance fails — comparable to later critiques of indirect rule and to al-Zubayr’s earlier claim of understanding the governed.

Related

• Al-Zubayr blamed Egyptian misrule of Sudan on ignorance of Sudanese customs. (similarity 0.95)
• Egyptian colonial failure in Sudan stemmed from not understanding local customs. (similarity 0.94)
• Egyptians held romanticized ignorance of Sudan despite ruling it for decades (similarity 0.82)
• Nineteenth-century Egyptians were largely ignorant of the Sudan they ruled. (similarity 0.81)
• Sudanese interpretations of their own political geography were ignored in 1894. (similarity 0.81)
• Sudanese memory of the Turkïya obscures Arabic-speaking Egyptians’ real role in that colonial administration (similarity 0.81)
• Egyptian nationalists denied Sudan colonial status by naming it Upper Egypt (similarity 0.80)
• Egyptian perceptions of Sudan shifted during Muhammad Ali’s rule (similarity 0.80)
• Ordinary Egyptians, not Gordon, actually administered the Sudan on the ground (similarity 0.80)
• Egypt’s Ottoman-elite ruling class treated the Sudan as an Egyptian colony. (similarity 0.80)
• Mubarak saw Egyptian colonialism in Sudan as necessary self-strengthening (similarity 0.80)
• Egyptian colonial writers justified domination by styling Sudanese identity as deficient (similarity 0.80)
• Egyptian colonialism used educated Sudanese children as proof of its civilizing hegemony (similarity 0.80)
• Egypt’s colonizing discourse toward Sudan was a projection of European civilizing ideology. (similarity 0.79)
• Egyptian satire of Sudanese speech mirrored the pattern of khedival domination (similarity 0.79)