Citation:
Thesis Type:
PhD dissertationAbstract:
My dissertation, "Colonized Colonizers: Egyptian Nationalists and the Issue of the Sudan, 1875-1919," examines the seemingly contradictory identification with both the colonizer and the colonized that shaped the inception and the development of the Egyptian nationalist movement. This paradox of identifications began during a strange confluence of political events in Egyptian and Sudanese history. The first Egyptian nationalist movement, known as the 'Urabi revolt, arose in 1881, only to meet defeat at the hands of the British, who invaded and occupied Egypt in 1882. The same year that sparked the 'Urabi rebellion in Egypt also witnessed an even more popular and powerful uprising in the Sudan, the Mahdi's rebellion. The leader of this movement aimed to rid the Sudan of the Egyptian administration, which had been established after Egypt conquered the Sudan in 1820. By 1884, the Mahdi had succeeded in besieging Khartoum, the last stronghold of the Egyptian army. By 1885, the Egyptians had lost all authority in the Sudan to the Mahdi.
In roughly four years, then, Egyptians had become occupied by the British and in effect colonized, while simultaneously losing their territory in the Sudan. These linked events produced a startling phenomenon in Egyptian nationalism. The same Egyptians who called for the overthrow of the British and proclaimed Egypt's rights to self-determination also demanded the reconquest of the Sudan, and the return of the region to Egyptian hegemony.
Many of these nationalists concerned with Egyptian independence and Sudanese dependence also participated in a literary renaissance in Egypt, in which they cultivated the arts of journalism, plays, poetry, short stories and songs. These new media became the instruments by which the nationalists could project their image of Egypt, and share that image with an ever-broadening community of Egyptians.
The Sudan and the Sudanese often became the background against which nationalist writers measured and evaluated their own society. When these writers discussed the Sudan or represented its people, their conflictual identification with both colonizer and colonized emerged. My dissertation examines the work of prominent nationalist writers and thinkers and how they used the Sudan and the Sudanese in their construction of Egyptian national identity.