Taking revenge

(I continue to be amazed by the similarities between British imperial 
response to the Mahdist revolt and that of the USA to 9/11. After 
Khartoum fell, the great "hero" Colonel Gordon had his head chopped 
off and displayed on a pike. This would be roughly analogous to the 
Vietnamese not only taking control of Saigon in 1972, but 
decapitating the top US officer while they were at it. British grief 
was only matched by British anger, which finally found satisfaction 
with the re-conquest of the Sudan in 1898--a banner year for 
imperialism. This is from Alan Moorehead's fascinating "White Nile," 
a book that while displaying the imperial arrogance of the author, 
who had been the chief public relations officer in the British 
Ministry of Defense, still manages to be fairly blunt about the 
frequently bloodthirsty and racist character of colonialism. All the 
crap about national anthems, sobbing, tracking down perpetrators and 
killing them, restored sense of national pride, etc. should be 
nauseatingly familiar.)

In Omdurman, Kitchener proceeded to establish the honours of victory. 
The Mahdi's tomb had already been damaged severely by the 
bombardment, and now the body of the Mahdi himself was dug up and 
flung into the Nile--not, however, until the head was severed, and 
this was purloined by Kitchener as a trophy of war. He appears to 
have had the notion that he might have used the skull for an inkstand 
or a drinking cup, or alternatively that it might have been forwarded 
as a curiosity to the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and it was 
sent down to Cairo.

There was an outcry about this matter when it became known to the 
public, and not even the General's popularity in England (where he 
was idolized after Omdurman) was able to protect him from it. Queen 
Victoria was deeply shocked--she thought the whole affair 'savoured 
too much of the Middle Ages'--and Kitchener was obliged to write her 
a mollifying letter. Baring in Cairo meanwhile quietly possessed 
himself of the skull, and sent it up to the Moslem cemetery at Wadi 
Haifa, where it was secretly buried by night.

But these events were to follow later as part of the disillusionment 
and sense of anti-climax which usually succeeds a victory. In 
Khartoum during these first days of exaltation after the battle 
Kitchener had another function to perform which was much more to the 
public's taste. Not many relics of Gordon remained; the earthworks he 
had caused to be dug were still visible, the Bordein was captured, 
and the telescope through which he had gazed so often from The Palace 
roof was recovered in perfect condition from the arsenal. But at this 
moment Gordon's memory was very bright. On September 4 a picked guard 
of soldiers was drawn up in a square before the ruins of the Palace, 
and four chaplains conducted a funeral service. Gordon's favourite 
hymn, 'Abide with Me', was sung, the British and Egyptian flags were 
broken out from poles erected on the rubble of the roof, and after 
the two national anthems had been played, three cheers were raised 
for the Queen and three more for the Khedive of Egypt. The gunboats 
crashed out a salute from the river. Kitchener, standing in the 
centre of the square, was deeply moved. Eye-witnesses declared that 
his shoulders were observed to be shaking with sobs, and that, 
turning away, he was obliged to ask one of his officers to dismiss 
the parade. Afterwards he walked for a long time in the Palace garden 
below the stairs where Gordon had been killed. 'Surely he is 
avenged,' the Queen wrote in her diary when she heard of the 
ceremony.

-- 
Louis Proyect, lnp3@panix.com on 11/15/2001

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