Egyptian nationalists regarded the Sudanese as backward and needing fanatical leadership

Evidence

One intelligence report claimed that two prominent Egyptians, “volunteers of the Wafd,” had met with the “Grand Qadi” and other notables (presumably Egyptian, given that they bore the title bey) to learn which Sudanese parties could be approached for support of the Wafd movement.The report continued, mimicking the language of nationalism: “The Egyptian notables were advised not to try to interview or utter a word to any Soudan personality; the religious leaders being traitors to their religion, who have sold their conscience during the war for British money, and other Soudanese are animals who know nothing except their women and food.The Soudanese nation is still in an ignorant condition, does not comprehend higher things, and requires fanatical leaders to move it.” The report also stated that the Egyptian volunteers did not leave Khartoum without hope, however, as they were optimistically counseled that a new generation of merchants who had “just begun to understand the British method of enslaving people” would be coming of political age in about nine or ten years, and would be of even more trouble to the English than the Egyptian nationalists themselves. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 833

Categorization

• XREF: Illustrates the intra-colonial condescension between Egypt and Sudan that parallels wider patron-client nationalist hierarchies; connects to literature distinguishing Egyptian hegemonic ambitions in Sudan as a subset of coloniality.