THE EASTERN SUDAN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 111, 13 May 1931, Page 11

THE EASTERN SUDAN

DEVELOPMENI OF AREA ENTRANCE OF CIVILISATION BENEFIT OF BRITISH RULE ( ! A ery rapid changes in the vast terri- " tory of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in e the past ten years are spoken of by Mr '? and Mrs P.*N. Mac Diarmid, who re- '■ turned last week, states the New Zea- • land Herald. They are pioneer agents of the Sudan United Mission, and their L work is -well known throughout New Zealand. i- The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is an area of about 1,000,000 square miles, stretchn ing roughly for about 1500 miles south a of Khartoum, which itself is some 1200 a miles from the mouth of the Nile. ie About the end of last century, owing to Lt the dreadful results of the Mahdi mis(l rule, its population was reduced to I about 2,000,000, but under wise an 1 , r ' firm British administration it has since *’ increased to between £6,000,000 and „ 7,000,000. e Reference to conditions of travel , gives a clear indication of how rapidly events have been moving in the Eastern r Sudan. When, at the request of the :t Government, Mr and Mrs Mac Diarmid r ‘ went out in 1910 to start a mission sta- ’■ tion at Heiban, a centre in the Kordoe fan province, it entailed a journey' of e 17 days by camel and three days, on c horses to reach their destination from !r the Nile. Now, from Heiban they can ° reach the railway in one day’s motorill ing, or even, in the event of emergency, r. ■ in about an hour and a-half by aero- ’ plane, for there are plenty of suitable o landing grounds scattered about the lr country. A Pacifying Influence. It was impossible to use the direct c route ten years ago because of the dann gerous hostility of the native tribesmen, and Heiban was a strong military c post maintained to keep order. Five it years after the establishment of the ic mission station the natives had become 1- so much more peaceful that the military 9 post was abandoned as unnecessary. >f Whereas ten years ago no native could go far from his own home without ie danger of attack from enemies, they travel all over the country now with , v entire freedom. Mr Mac Diarmid’s personal acquaintance with the Sudan dates back to .1913. lt when he went out with the first party of Australian and New Zealand misII sionaries to start the work of the Sudan United Mission in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. After seeing them settled at 5 - Melut, on the Nile, he pushed on alone through southern Sudan, Uganda and d Kenya, finally coming out at Mombasa. During the war he gave three years’ h service with the Y.M.C.A. in the Sudan, t- and was most successful in organising it the Boy Scouts movement there. 3t An important link in the developm ment of the country commercially has lc been the work of the Government in I . deepening and improving the harbour ie at Port Sudan on the Red Sea, until it has become a very busy and important port frequented by large liners. It is a |fT coaling and oil station and an outlet for j the export of cotton. tR Growth of a Town, id re Mr Mac Diarmid quoted one specific h. instance as typical of the developments ic now going on. Ten years ago the little town of Kadugli was a very small tradre ing post with no cotton grown in the I neighbourhood. Five years ago it sent I away 5000 kantars —a kantar is about ' 1001 b. of cotton. Last year it sent ; away 100.000 kartars, and had to put ’. v up a second ginnery to cope with the trade. It is now a large market in •a which such imports as Australian but--1: ter, dripping and tinned foods may be •k bought. A large part of the world’s ie supply of gum Arabic comes from the o- Kordofan, and among its untouched na[l! tural resources are forests of frankincense. jp When Mr and Mrs Mac Diarmid first n . knew the country none of its languages > s had ever been reduced to writing. Now at the mission press at Heiban books are printed in two of the languages by boys trained in the school there. For ni her successful and scholarly work in re--1,1 ducing the language of the Heiban ■ s Nubas to writing, and for a thesis she ' c wrote on the language, Mrs Mac Diarmid ra was recently granted the very rare dcrt gree of Doctor of Literature of the 10 University of New Zealand. 1,1 Mr and Mrs Mac Diarmid had a particularly interesting commission to exrente for the Government just before a- they left the country. They agreed to ?d make as complete a survey as possible es of all the languages in use in the Koril- dofan Province, an area considerably larger than New Zealand. T ‘ I K . A Language Survey. With travelling facilities provided by a ‘ the Government they succeeded in th identifying 45 different dialects, which i u t later examination proved could b<‘ I he clasified into ten distinct groups. They j he made a number of interesting discov- ■ hi cries which it is hoped will throw light , ly on the somewhat mysterious origin of i he the Nubas and their ethnological rela- j tionships. The whole matter is the sub f ce ject of a report which has been sub I ng mitted to the Sudan Government. >w The Governor-General, Sir John l Maffey, and other leading officials have ns been so impressed with the work of the [l( ] mission through its schools and medical n . and preaching services as a civilising on and pacifying agency that they are 0( j most anxious that it should extend its avtivitics westward to pagan tribes I IC hitherto quite untouched by any outside influences. To this end the Government I c has offered from a special fund under 11 its control to pay for the building of new stations in strategic centres ami finance the upkeep of them and of schools attached to them by yearly ' grants. The mission is asked to find ( and support the stafl’ to work these stalso tions, ami a special effort is to be made 1 ’ to take advantage of this most, favourable offer at as early a date as possible. o 'jT’hc mission is also valued by the Government; as an important, agency in