to say, his representative and successor (1885). Abdullah immediately
set aside the relatives and compatriots of the mahdi, Nuba of Dongola
and Kurdufan, and surrounded himself with Darfur people, several
thousands of whom he brought to Omdurman. He organised a
powerful army, which he sent against Abyssinia; the city of Gondar was
taken and pillaged by the bands of the khalifeand the negus John was
killed (1888). In 1892, the troops of Abdullah established themselves
in Equatoria, which Emin-Pasha had abandoned in 1889. Shortly after-
wards, however, the ephemeral power of the “Dervishes” began to
decline: in 1896, the Anglo-Egyptian troops reoccupied Dongola and,
in 1897, Berber; on 10 July 1898, Captain Marchand, later General,
seized Fashoda; the Sirdar Kitchener took Omdurman the following
September 2, and in 1899, Abdullah, in refuge in Kurdufan, was
defeated and killed by Colonel Wingate.
PPooppuul laat tiioonns s iinn tthhee NNe ei igghhbboouur rhhoooodd oof f AAbby yssssi inni iaa aanndd
TThhoos see oof f tthhee EEaas st teer rnn PPooi innt t oof f AAf frriiccaa
We have just seen in what fashion, rather disastrous in general, Islamic
influence was exercised over the countries between Chad and the Nile.
On the other side of the great African river, it was another influence that
predominated the greater part of the time, that of Christian Abyssinia.
This influence was, without contradiction, considerable on the Negro
and Negroid populations comprised within the limits of the
Abyssinian empire or neighbouring these limits. If one thinks of the
part that this empire has played in the destinies of ancient Egypt; if it
is remembered that at the birth of Mohammed (570) it exercised the
suzerainty on the other side of the Red Sea, over Yemen, and that it
sent an army of almost 40,000 men against Mecca; if one considers
the extraordinary renown that the power of the famous “Prete-John”^16
enjoyed in Europe during the Middle Ages; if one reflects that this
Female figure (Lomwe/Nguru), 1901.
Malawi or Mozambique.
Wood, height: 41 cm.
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz,
Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin.
Different groups among the Lomwe tattooed their bodies with distinctive
markings, the motif and positioning of which indicated status. High ranking
people tended to have many more tattoos than others. This figure has an
elaborate pattern of engraved lines which undoubtedly is meant to represent
tattoos as well as a high status. If one examines the base, it is easy to conclude
that it represents a stool. The marks may be indicative of the ancestress of a
particular chiefly matrilineage, which was likely used in the context with an
ancestral cult and originally kept among the shrine to the chief.