The British knew full well the power of this Sudanese Black Nation. Eighteen years before, in 1881, the followers of Sudanese preacher Muhammad Ahmad declared him the Mahdi (the Guided One who will lead the victory over the Disbelievers). Between 1881 and 1885, the Mahdist State in Sudan defeated four British led armies and captured over 20,000 modern weapons including Maxim machine guns, artillery, rocket tubes, and millions of rounds of ammunition. The British decided to evacuate Sudan and assigned popular General "Chinese" Gordon to lead the evacuation, but he disobeyed orders and chose to stay in Khartoum and fight the Mahdi's armies.

    The siege of the wall cities of Khartoum and Omdurman (defended by 7,000 British armed troops) lasted from Oct. 21, 1884 to Jan. 21, 1885. Mahdist troops stormed the city. Gen. Gordon was beheaded three days before worn-down British relief forces of 10,500, sent in August, arrived on the Nile in steam-gunboats. They immediately turned back. Despite great public outcry in England, the British did not return to Khartoum for another fourteen years.

    This time (1898), they were as prepared as technologically possible. They took two years to build a 200 mile railway through one of Africa's most inhospitable semi-deserts just to supply one battle. They designed steel-plated gunboats that could be transported in sections, assembled and then armed with 50 lb. exploding shells, high powered Maxim machine guns and long distance artillery. They sent 15,000 troops packed like sardines in ships crashing down dangerous Nile rapids and, then on a forced march of nearly 60 miles. The British forces included 8,200 English troops, 17,600 Egyptian and Sudanese soldiers, 44 field guns and 20 Maxims on the land, 36 big guns and 24 Maxims on water, 2,470 horses, 5,250 camels and 2,500 local Arabs. Following their exploits were 16 reporters, including young Winston Churchill, who was getting his first taste of battle.

    On the African side, over 70,000 followers of Khalifa Abdullahi (the Mahdi had suddenly died in 1885) had rallied around the Black banner. They had built 17 new forts, mined the harbors and amassed most of their artillery. Seeing that they had far superior numbers, the Sudanese decided to wait and force the British to charge the city. They did not know, however, that the new artillery could bombard the city from three miles away.

    By the third day of the battle, Omdurman was captured, the Mahdi's tomb bombed from a distance and desecrated,  Khalifa Abdullahi slain, and the corpses of 20,000 dervishes in their patched garb had transformed the banks of the Blue Nile into a putrid, bloody field. The river's water turned a sickly yellow from bodies of dead and dying men and beasts. Churchill's book, The River War, made him a celebrity in England.

    Truly one of the great battles in modern African history, the knowledge of events such as the Battle of Omdurman helps us understand how distorted the image of the "great white hunter" scaring off the vast majority of Africans with his "lightning stick" and "White Man's magic" can be. Large and epic battles were characteristic of many regions during the so-called "Scamble for Africa" (1885-1915), and the spirit of massive resistance to foreign domination drove and inspired subsequent generations of African freedom fighters until, less than 70 years later, most of Africa was free from colonial, foreign rule.