Freed Sudanese slaves voiced ambivalent gratitude toward Egyptian masters

Evidence

These women claim descent from Bakhïta and, in so doing, redefine an insult and make it a badge of courage. They remake their identity with the same kind of ingenuity—experienced under difficulties perhaps as power- ful—shown by their ancestors, the Blessed Bakhïta and Zanüba. It is both striking and sad that Egyptian nationalists like Yaqüb Sanüa, Ibrahïm Fawzï Pasha, and even Huda Sharawï recognized these women and others like them as part of the Egyptian family but never seemed to have really known them. — <cite>Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 1069</cite> (#complicates`, via linked claim)

Although the experience of being captured and the treks of slave car- avans on the Forty Days’ Road (darb al-arbaïn) were notoriously difficult for recently enslaved Sudanese, once in Egypt their experiences did tend to be milder than those of American slaves. — <cite>Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 662</cite> (#expands`, via linked claim)

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

Related

• Sudanese refugee women transformed the slave insult into a badge of courage (similarity 0.84)
• Formerly enslaved Sudanese reclaimed a slur as a badge of courage (similarity 0.82)
• Former Sudanese slaves sometimes credited masters for civilizing them (similarity 0.82)
• Egyptian nationalists regarded the Sudan as Egyptian property to be reconquered. (similarity 0.82)
• Displaced Sudanese women reclaim slavery as a badge of honor and identity (similarity 0.81)
• Egyptian intellectuals defended Islamic slavery as inherently milder than Western slavery. (similarity 0.80)
• Egyptian defenses of slavery glossed over the Sudanese slave trade’s harshness (similarity 0.80)
• A Sudanese slave woman openly declared her own enslavement in an Egyptian court (similarity 0.79)
• Egyptian soldiers felt the loss of Sudan more personally than other Egyptians did. (similarity 0.79)
• Sudanese former slaves mocked Egyptian captives and inverted the master-slave relation (similarity 0.79)
• Sudanese slaves themselves contested imperial labels by asserting Arab identity over black identity (similarity 0.79)
• Egypt’s anti-imperialism was entangled with ambitions to recolonize the Sudan (similarity 0.79)
• Slave-descended Sudanese were deemed too lowly to speak for the nation (similarity 0.79)
• Slavery can be redefined as martyrdom and honor through religious identification. (similarity 0.78)
• A freed slave’s poetry inverted Egyptian color prejudice into celebration (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• A freed slave’s poetry inverted Egyptian color prejudice into celebration #complicates (0.55)
• Displaced Sudanese women reclaim slavery as a badge of honor and identity #complicates (0.45) — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 1069
• Sudanese enslaved in Egypt fared better than African slaves in the Americas. #expands (0.40) — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 662