Kitchener of Khartoum (1850-1916) acted as an “intelligence officer for the relief expedition to the Sudan to rescue Charles George Gordon; he continually pressed Wolseley, the commander of the expedition, to push forward more rapidly. Despite the expedition’s failure to save Gordon, Kitchener emerged with credit and some fame” (ODNB).
Sir Samuel Baker had preceded General Gordon as Governor- general of Sudan. He firmly believed that England should resume its involvement in the future of that country and, after the death of Gordon and the capture of Khartoum by the forces of the Mahdi, “with considerable foresight regarded Colonel Kitchener as the instrument most likely to bring this about” (ODNB).
Kitchener was determined that Gordon would be avenged. The charismatic Mahdi, whose mystical and implacable view of pure Islam led him to attack Westerners and, in his view, corrupt Ottoman and Egyptian rule, survived Gordon by only five months. At the time of writing, Kitchener was Sirdar, or Commander in Chief, of the Egyptian army. Six years later, on 2 September 1898, Kitchener finally defeated the last forces of Mahdism, led by the Khalifa Abdullah, at the Battle of Omdurman.
Here he writes: “I am immensely obliged to you for your notes which no doubt give the key to the whole question of the reoccupation of the Soudan. I only hope that it may fall to my lot to use your notes and recover the country … I wish something could be done to clear up the slavery question which I believe now that the religious mania of Mahdism is dying out is the main cause that prevents the Soudanese from kicking out their present oppressors they dread the general freedom of slaves which they believe would be bound to follow a reoccupation of the country …”
