The White Flag League sought Nile Valley unity yet barred Egyptians from membership

Evidence

In 1924, Alï abd al-Latïf formed a political party with other Sudanese officers and lower-level civil servants called the White Flag League, named after the emblem they chose for their representation, a white flag with the map of the Nile Valley emblazoned on it. Their stated goals were to unite the Sudan with Egypt and to force the British to leave the Sudan eventually, although they claimed not to be hostile to the “present government which legitimately exists in the Sudan in accordance with the Anglo-Egyptian Conventions of 1899.” These somewhat nebulous and contradictory goals were to be achieved through protests that would be engineered to help Egypt in its negotiations with the Labor Government of Ramsey MacDonald. The league also declared its opposition to discrimination against the many tribes that composed the southern Sudan. Although they proclaimed strong support for unity with Egypt, this was a league that granted membership only to Sudanese. No Egyptians were allowed to join. Still, British officials considered Alï abd al-Latïf and his colleagues puppets, “half-civilized dupes of Egyptian politicians.” — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 1027

Categorization

• XREF: Nuances the Sudan-Egypt relationship against the reader’s assumption of simple pro-unity nationalism; echoes patterns of early nationalist ‘self-expression before outsiders’ movements.