LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

heather j. sharkeyideas of Nile Valley unity and of Sudanese-Egyptian brotherhood. Indeed, whenanti-British revolts broke out in the Northern Sudan in 1924, manydemonstrators and army mutineers sang his songs as they marched (Najila 1964:149–54; Farah 1977). In this way, more than any other poet among his peers,Khalil Farah helped to extend nationalist ideas beyond male reading elites, andtowards illiterate or semiliterate men and women.Precisely because the 1924 Sudanese uprisings posed the greatest challengeto the British presence since the colonial conquest, the government’s responsewas swift and strong. British authorities expelled Egyptian army units along withmany Egyptian civilian employees (on the grounds of their subversive influence);sentenced dozens of Northern Sudanese agitators to prison terms (many underbleak conditions in southern jails, where death tolls were high); and executedfour army mutiny leaders by firing squad. With their ties to local elites, mostmembers of the modern educated classes were able to escape punishment bydrawing on family connections, but nonetheless suffered from a loss of trust andstatus which had professional repercussions. Namely, after the uprisings, Britishauthorities turned towards Indirect Rule and the cultivation of notables in thegovernance of rural areas, and began to rely less (psychologically if not always inpractice) on the administrative assistance of effendis. After 1929 and the onsetof the world Depression, economic woes compounded job insecurity. To keeptheir positions and still, perhaps, rise on the job ladder at a time of widespreadcutbacks, the educated Northern Sudanese had to remain on good behaviour.By practical necessity, young nationalists became quietists after 1924. Farfrom challenging the British authorities in verse, employees after 1924 weremore likely to compose and recite praise poems for their British superiors, asthey came or left on transfer. In this way they replicated a practice of theirelders (some of whom had submitted rhymed oaths of allegiance to the Britishconquerors right after the 1898 conquest), 4 signalled their cooperation ingovernment, and more generally, demonstrated local standards of courtesy.In the climate of repression that followed the 1924 uprisings, the educatedNorthern Sudanese focused renewed efforts on literary activity. Withdrawing,for the most part, from anti-colonial agitation, they turned their attention tosocial reform, literary experimentation and modernisation – the last reflecting afaith in new technologies (such as electricity), and in the higher living standardsthey promised. In this period, taqaddum or progress became the goal of poetnationalists,and applied to everything from the content of newspapers to theextension of paved roads and piped water systems.Increasingly convinced that poetry could both reflect and propel nationalprogress, poets chronicled, evaluated and encouraged socially constructivedevelopments, praising in the 1920s, for example, the construction of SennarDam, the marvels of photography and, more controversially at the time, the— 170 —www.taq.ir