Egyptian exiled nationalists recast Sudanese Mahdist resistance as pan-Egyptian heroism, erasing friction

Evidence

Sanüa's writings on the Mahdï brought the Sudan into the public domain. Sanüa discussed him possessively, claiming him as a hero not only because he fought for the Sudanese nationalist cause but also because he upheld Egyptian independence. From his perspective, in Paris, the protagonists in the struggle in the Sudan were grouped quite simply: the invading armies were British, the brave warriors were Sudanese, and the grateful cousins were Egyptians. There is little mention of the fact that there remained, in 1885, many Egyptian soldiers still fighting in the Egyptian army against the Mahdï’s forces and that, in fact, the khedive saw the Sudan as an appropriate place to send the disgruntled soldiers who had supported Uräbï. Instead, Sanüa presents all confrontations between the Mahdist armies and the British generals as heroic tableaus of nationalism, from which the entire Nile Valley will emerge victorious. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 466

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to broader literature on how anti-colonial nationalisms appropriating neighboring struggles (later Nasserist pan-Arabism claiming Sudan) distorts local Sudanese agency — relevant to the reader’s Egypt-vs-Sudan colonial framing.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing later: how did actual Sudanese nationalists respond to Egyptian claims of Mahdism as pan-Egyptian heroism?