Kitchener, who used to harass us, was drowned by God in the North Sea, my brother: How did Kitchener mishandle the Battle of the Somme (1916)? (1-2)

By Abdullah Ali Ibrahim

I spent all of yesterday responding to friends on my Facebook page regarding their comments on the Battle of Omdurman (Karari) on the occasion of its anniversary. Many of them criticized the Khalifa (Abdallahi ibn Muhammad) for not taking the advice of Prince Ibrahim al-Khalil in the war council convened for that purpose. Al-Khalil had suggested attacking the invading army during the night rather than waiting for the morning of the battle. None of the friends, however, seemed to reflect on the fact that this suggestion was made during a war council and that the council chose not to follow it. We do not know the exact details of the discussions that took place during that council. However, it’s essential to recognize that the Khalifa, often accused of stubbornly imposing his will, was not the sole decision-maker, even if his opinion carried significant weight.

What I found objectionable in my friends’ views was their firm belief that had the Khalifa followed al-Khalil’s advice, they would have defeated the British and repelled them. Consequently, they argue, there would have been no colonialism and no subsequent troubles. This interpretation fails to consider that Omdurman was merely one battle in a broader wave of European colonial expansion, which did not turn back across the African continent, with the single exception of the Battle of Adwa in Ethiopia in 1896. In that battle, the Italians, far less equipped than the British or French, were defeated. Italy never forgot the disgrace of Adwa and returned during World War II to reclaim Ethiopia for a short period.

It is true that European armies were occasionally defeated in individual battles, but they never lost the overall war. They would regroup, replenish their forces, and exploit their superior military capabilities and maneuvering strategies, not to mention the significant disparity in weaponry between them and African forces. Victory in the colonial wars to divide Africa was nearly impossible for the locals. Hence, one of their poets expressed this reality in the following verse:

“Whatever happens, we have got, the Maxim, and they have not.”

“Whatever happens, the Africans don’t have the Maxim gun, which we possess.”

What I couldn’t understand from my friends was their almost cinematic belief that a commander, like a hero in a movie, could never lose. Commanders do lose. War always produces both a winner and a loser. As the poet Baligh once said, the one who built the ship to sail the seas also knew that it might sink in those same waters. Similarly, the one who wages war knows that someone will lose, yet they still fight.

As for the victor in Omdurman, Kitchener, it was his fate to be the losing commander in the Battle of the Somme in Europe during World War I.