The same colonial expedition carried radically different meanings for its various participants.

Evidence

The answer lies in the different ways in which the expedition was interpreted. For Selim Qapudan, the expedition had been sent by Muhammad Alï as a means of gathering information and offering the Nilotic tribes a glimpse of the civilization that was extending its authority over their territories. For the Shilluk and the Kik, it was an act of conquest by armed men sent without warning to their land by a nameless authority. For European geographers and scientists interested in the Nile Valley, it was a knowledge-seeking campaign that opened new pathways into the “mysteries of Africa.” And for Muhammad Alï, the real author of the expedition, it was a gesture that would dignify Egyptian control of the Nile Valley with European ideals about the values and uses of such scientific information. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 212

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows how ‘interpretation’ of a colonial act is multiple and contestable, central to understanding coloniality’s shades.