Nubians were marked as outsiders in Egyptian military and society

Evidence

Osman never seems able to fit in as a soldier, as if everyone looking at him cannot quite place him as an Egyptian who would naturally have to serve in the military.All this confusion occurs as the other village headmen try—and fail—to come up with one live Egyptian conscript.Yet Osman has entry into the secrets of the Egyptian characters that they do not even share with each other. He gained access to those secrets through the intimacy he had as a servant to Egyptians. For Osman, this means persisting in his hope that Egyptians will treat him as a regular fellow, not merely as a black-skinned Nubian. But for characters like Foda, who are struggling with morality, treating Osman as an equal is difficult given his skin color. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 906

Categorization

• XREF: Internal Egyptian racial hierarchy toward Nubians parallels themes in the reader’s comparative study of Egyptian treatment of Sudanese subjects.
• SEED: Osman’s liminal status as a conscript whom Egyptians cannot quite place offers an angle on how colonial-era military service both absorbed and excluded racialized subjects.