IDNO

N.19037.ROS

Description

Distant, out of focus, view of the remains of a building? in Omdurman.

Place

NE Africa; Sudan; Eastern Equatorial District; Rejaf

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

?Roscoe, John R.

Collector / Expedition

Roscoe, John R. [Mackie Ethnological Expedition, Uganda, 1919 - 1920]

Date

1919 - 1920

Collection Name

Roscoe Collection

Source

Format

Film Negative Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

This negative was kept in an envelope marked C29/212/ by the cataloguer. The envelope was kept in box marked C29/ by the cataloguer.
Previously stored on Shelf 4, in group of 4 wooden boxes numbered 180.

Context: “One day I was taken over to Omdurman, and saw the remains of the Mahdi’s house and the fort where the forces under him gathered against Gordon. It was here that they concentrated their strength for the final attack in which Gordon lost his life. Here, too, it was that Kitchener, made his great name and set on a firm foundation the tottering fame of Britain. Yet this is the land where the seed of the Moslem faith is being sown far and wide, and is, it seems, not only being allowed to grow but even watered and nourished by the British, under whose protection a crop of poisonous weeds, as noiseme as those which Kitchener destroyed, is fast springing up. I saw here one of the schools which the Government is establishing as branches of the Gordon College. It is a well-equipped, fine building, doing, as far as education goes, a splendid work; but it is plainly another of the agencies but which we, as a nation, are raising the propagators of Islam in Africa from a state of ignorance to the intellectual level of the advanced religions of the world. Under the old teachers of Islam in Africa that faith was doomed to give way before the advance of the higher and more progressive forms of religion, but an enormous impetus is now being given to it by the work of some of the best men of our British Universities in these schools. These men may indignantly deny the accusation, but there is not the slightest doubt that Islam is the religion which is encouraged. All forms and ceremonies of Christian worship are carefully excluded, but the college has its mosque, and the regular attendance of the pupils is enforced and supervised by the teachers, who do not only thus indirectly but also by direct teaching encourage the false and exclude the true. ...
In Omdurman there is a Christian hospital which is doing a good work in the face of many difficulties, for it receives but little recognition from the Government. I had not time to visit it, for my stay in Omdurman was limited to two or three hours, but as I passed I heard something about it and its work.” (Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.), p. 325.). [ED 16/10/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 2/1/2008]