Chapter XIX: Education and the Gordon College

Probably the last thing that a military government might be expected to take an interest in is education, and yet few educational establishments are so widely famous as the Gordon College at Khartoum. As yet it owes its reputation to the fact that it was founded by one great soldier in memory of another, not to its achievements; it was born great. But already it has justified its founders; its mere existence marks an extraordinary contrast between the character of the present régime in the Soudan and that of any preceding.

Whenever the Soudan is mentioned, the first question asked is, ‘How is the Gordon College getting on?’ and the question cannot be answered in a word. The actual building is indeed for the present complete. It is a handsome structure of native red brick, built in the Moorish style, but retaining the collegiate character. It occupies two sides of a square, the front facing on the river. In the centre is the principal entrance, and over it a tower. If the original design is finally carried out, the whole quadrangle will be completed. Along the inside runs a cool and airy cloister, with winding stairs leading to the upper story; the class-rooms are spaciously designed. Its commanding position at the east end of the town makes it a conspicuous landmark for many miles round. From no point is this so remarkable as from the hill of Surgham, which overlooks the battlefield of Kerreri. Here is summed up much of the past and the future of the Soudan. On the one hand is the scene of the final overthrow of the forces of darkness and ignorance by war; on the other the symbols of that longer contest for the conquest of the Soudan by the peaceful arts of science and learning.

With the eye of faith it is easy to look forward into the future, and to imagine the time, generations hence, when the Gordon College will be a true centre of learning for all these vast territories. Then it will stand, a completed quadrangle, in the middle of large gardens, its own territory, as green and cultivated as they are now arid and dusty. Its halls and class-rooms will be crowded with picked students from all the provincial centres, not vainly pursuing a dry and vain scholasticism, as in the other degenerate Universities of the Mohammedan East, but eagerly following in the paths of living science, and learning by practical teaching in the laboratory and workshop to wrest from Nature her secrets, and to absorb the principles underlying practice in the departments of chemistry and medicine, mechanics, agriculture, and the arts. Perhaps once more, in years to come, the culture and science of the Arabs will be as famous as they were in the great days of Arab dominion.

It is a long way to travel from such stimulating forecasts to the actual state of learning and education in the Soudan to-day. There was not much learning under the Egyptians, but at least a certain amount of theological study went on. Under the Khalifa even that was sedulously discouraged, and the books were ordered to be destroyed because he feared that they might tend to discredit the unorthodox doctrine of Mahdism. Reading and writing were not likely to flourish under a ruler who, possessing neither of these arts himself, and entertaining strong suspicions of those who did, was wont to give drastic expression to his views. As a consequence, there never was a country more absolutely and wholly illiterate. Writing is practically an unknown art, and reading hardly less so. It is perfectly useless to post a Government Proclamation unless a competent person is stationed by it to read it out to any passer-by. At the same time, there flourishes the most exaggerated respect for a written document, which is regarded as a kind of magic book, and cases have been known in which swindlers have extorted large sums of money by going round exhibiting a paper professing to be an order to pay issued by the Government. Obviously, education has had to be on very humble lines at first, and must continue so for some time.

Was, then, the Gordon College a too ambitious attempt to anticipate the future? Is it a mere white elephant, doomed to be a vain monument of an ill-directed wave of enthusiasm? Such a view is far from the truth. It would be strange indeed if a project so dear to the heart of Lord Kitchener was of such a nature. Certainly, it is impossible to start a complete University right away with a building and an endowment of some £4,000 a year. Time is of the essence of the question. It is possible to argue that the money used in the building might have been more advantageously expended in other ways. But, apart from the fact that the subscribers doubtless wished to see some immediate result for their munificence, I am sure that it was the right policy to build at once.

For the Gordon College, though not yet a University, is much more than a college. It is the centre of all the new educational and intellectual influences in the Soudan. Its director is also head of the Education Department; the activities of both are inseparably connected. It acts as an extraordinary stimulus upon the authorities in the direction of education. It would have been so easy and so natural for a Government so hard beset for money to neglect education for other objects, apparently more practical and more immediately pressing. The actual material presence of the college makes it impossible for its claims to be overlooked. Very likely without it there would not have been an Education Department at all. Secondly, but for the existence of the building, the Soudan would certainly never have obtained such valuable gifts as those of Mr. Wellcome’s bacteriological laboratory and Sir W. Mather’s complete technical workshop apparatus, containing all that is necessary for the establishment and organization of departments for manual training and technical instruction. Thirdly, the building itself has been already, and will be to an increasing extent, of the greatest use; and, moreover, there is still about £100,000 of the original endowment remaining, the income from which is playing a great part, as will be shown, in providing the beginnings of education in the Soudan, and so laying the foundations for the future work of the college itself. Lord Kitchener was wiser than his critics. Among his many claims to fame, none is greater than the clearness with which he saw that a sound educational system is one of the fundamental requirements of the Soudan, as well as a substantial foundation for our rule.

In 1901 the Soudan Government spent £1,421 on education, in addition to the Gordon College endowment; in 1902, £3,577; and in 1903 something over £6,000. With such resources as these, it is obvious that nothing heroic could be attempted. Only the more immediate needs could be attended to. Looking to the necessity for the education of a class of native public servants, it was most important to establish some sound primary schools, in which the boys should be given a fair general education in reading, writing, and arithmetic, besides a certain amount of history and geography and English. Four of these schools are now in existence; two of them, those at Halfa and Suakin, were established some eight or nine years ago by the Egyptian Government, and have only recently been handed over to the Soudan; they are in an efficient condition. The most interesting, considering their recent establishment, are those at Khartoum and Omdurman. That at Omdurman was the first, the direct offspring of the Gordon College. It now numbers over 200 pupils, and is in a most flourishing condition. There are constant applications for admission, partly, no doubt, from the reason that pupils of the school are thought likely to obtain Government employment, but partly also from a real appreciation of the advantages of education.

The school course is divided into four years, and the curriculum is based on the Egyptian one—modified to the extent that no subjects are taught in English, except English itself. An inspection of the school made it clear to me that, at any rate, in the subject which I could understand—the teaching of English—the methods were thoroughly sound, and the results good. Pupils in their last year are also taught land-measuring. The reason is the great demand which comes from every province for land-measurers—a most important thing in view of the assessments for the land-tax—while no trained men are available. This part of the work is taught both in the class-room and practically in the field. I am certain that in a very short time there will be land-measurers available of very good ability, so excellent was the quality of some of the work done.

Some, of course, of these boys are the sons of Egyptians in the Government service, to whom it is a great blessing to be able to get a good education for their children on the spot. But far the majority of them—at least 90 per cent.—are genuine Soudanese, some of them members of good Arab families, whose fathers were prominent in the service of the Khalifa. Originally it was intended that this school should be transferred to Khartoum, and housed in the college as soon as the general exodus took place. But as Omdurman shows no signs at present of diminishing, and is, indeed, once more increasing, the school has been kept on, and another started on similar lines in Khartoum itself. This school is also flourishing, but it naturally contains a larger proportion of the Egyptian-born pupils; altogether it has about 120 scholars. This school is now housed in the Gordon College itself.

Book-learning is not the only channel of instruction employed. I had the good fortune to be umpire in the first football match between Khartoum and Omdurman schools, in the mosque square at Khartoum. It was a hot afternoon, and I felt as though I should get a sunstroke whilst umpiring; but these boys, all hatless as they were, played with great energy, and appeared to derive nothing but benefit from the heat. They played a good game, and it was pleasant to see that what they lacked in experience they made up in courage and determination. All the players, of whatever shade of black or brown, and the shades were very various, showed a spirit which augurs well for the future. Anybody who can play football with energy in Central Africa must have good stuff in him. The match was drawn.

In another direction also an encouraging start has been made. There is at present in the Soudan no skilled native labour; blacksmiths, tinsmiths, carpenters, and bricklayers, are all in demand, and have to be imported from outside at great trouble and expense. In the hope of meeting this demand, an industrial school has been established at the Dockyard Works, which are now on the river at Omdurman, but which will eventually be moved to Halfaya. The head of the Steamboat Department agreed to take in sixty boys as apprentices. These are divided into two shifts of thirty each, and they alternately receive a day’s schooling and do a day’s practical work at their separate trades as carpenters, fitters, or riveters. In school their time is divided between reading, writing, and arithmetic, and also drawing. The plan has been found to answer admirably. Not only does the education they receive improve their intelligence as workers, but some of the boys have shown such proficiency in drawing that they are able to copy engineering and building designs with such accuracy as to be able to relieve the English superintendents of a good deal of work. Many of these boys are sons of men employed in unskilled labour at the works, who take the greatest interest in seeing their sons advance so far beyond themselves. Many applications for admission have to be refused, and there is little doubt that when Sir W. Mather’s technical school at the Gordon College is in full swing, it will fill a great need in the requirements of the country.

On the whole, the most difficult task which the Director of Education has to face is that of diffusing the elements of knowledge among the masses of the people. The great distances to be covered alone impose a tremendous obstacle. But it is extremely important that at least a portion of the population should be able to understand the outlines of the machinery of government as laid down in notices and proclamations, so as to be able to protect themselves against the exactions of minor officials and the frauds and deceits practised on them by wandering rogues. It has wisely been determined to proceed along the lines laid down by Mohammedan tradition. The kuttabs, or preliminary schools, are a well-known part of the ordinary religious organization. They are supposed to give instruction in reading and writing and the Koran, and there are many of them scattered over the Soudan, as in other Mohammedan countries. They are, in fact, a sort of private elementary school, something like the old dames’ schools once existing in parts of England. Unfortunately, they are almost entirely useless at present. The teachers are incredibly ignorant. What little instruction they give is confined to teaching by rote certain passages from the Koran, the meaning of which is understood by neither pupil nor teacher. The buildings are usually filthy to the last degree. The idea is to establish model kuttabs in different parts of the Soudan, and to make them as efficient as possible, so as to improve the others by their example. To quote the words of the Director:

‘The process of formation has been in all cases the same. With the help of the Mudir, a suitable building is put up; then the least incompetent sheikh that can be procured is installed. After confidence has been established, and the nucleus of a school formed, he is superseded by a trained teacher from Egypt, who, under the local supervision of the Mudir and occasional supervision from my office, begins to reduce chaos to order.’

Progress has not been very rapid. Lack of money and lack of competent schoolmasters sadly hamper all operations. But kuttabs are now established, attached as a sort of junior class to the schools at Khartoum, Omdurman, Halfa, and Suakin. A model kuttab has been established at Berber, which is reported to be doing well, and another is being built at Dongola. The like is also being attempted at Wad Medani, a populous town on the Blue Nile, capital of the province of Sennar, with about 40,000 inhabitants. Reference has been made to the lack of trained schoolmasters. Egypt itself feels this difficulty, and Egypt is at present the only source of supply on which the Soudan can draw. It was to meet this demand—at least, so far as the kuttabs are concerned—that a small training college for native sheikhs was opened in the beginning of 1901 in connection with the school at Omdurman. At first this interesting experiment was not very successful. The students, who all belonged to the best Arab families, were all proud, ignorant, and lazy; and as Arabs they were inclined to despise the Egyptian schoolmasters, whose task it was to teach them. But now there is a great improvement. They have increased in number to about thirty, and only lack of room prevents a further increase. I watched them doing their own lessons, and also receiving practical instruction in teaching by taking a class of the school under the guidance of a master. It was impossible to doubt the value of the experiments. They were nearly all fine-looking, intelligent young men, some of them really handsome, with the keen, clear-cut features that mark the pure-bred Arab. Three of them had come from distant Kassala, where at present there are no means of education whatever. The course lasts three years. At the end of it they are to be examined as to their fitness, and they will then be drafted off either to teach in their kuttabs or else to some posts in connection with the native Courts. Whether as schoolmasters or Cadis, they will be most useful elements in the development of the Soudan.

In the negro portion of the Soudan, inhabited by the pagan tribes, the people are so backward in civilization that the question of education does not at present arise, or, if it does arise, assumes a totally different aspect. Here is the field for the missionary. Two missions are already established—one, the American Medical Mission, on the Sobat; and the other, the Austrian Roman Catholic Mission at Taufikieh, on the White Nile. Both are doing good work, and both are to be encouraged and assisted by the Government. In other parts of the Soudan it must be remembered that we are dealing with a fanatically Mohammedan population, and any suspicion that the Government was trying to proselytize would immediately wreck all schemes of education, and probably be the signal for grave disorders.

It will be a long time before the schools turn out sufficient pupils to fill the Government Civil Service, and there does not seem to be any danger of producing mere ‘babus,’ hanging about and relying on a certain knowledge of English to procure them a job. The teaching of English is entirely confined to those boys who are going to make use of it in the Government Service or in commercial pursuits, where its knowledge is required. For the ordinary mass of the population nothing is to be gained by an imperfect knowledge of English. The authorities are unquestionably right in discouraging such teaching; the supposed political advantages of it are small, if not entirely imaginary. The Soudan can never be a real white man’s country; its rulers must always be speakers of Arabic, and its people will do far better to employ their time in more useful ways than struggling with a foreign language.

The Gordon College is the centre of education, but even now its activities are not confined to mere teaching. It is proposed to form a collection of books dealing with the Soudan, its peoples, its natural history, and its various productions, accompanied by specimens to illustrate them, and some progress has been made. Mr. Wellcome’s valuable bacteriological research laboratory is in full working order, and a skilled expert from Scotland has been in charge of it for some months. He is doing a work of great importance, not only to the Soudan, but also to the scientific world in general. The Soudan is a land where strange diseases both of men and animals abound. There is a wide field for research. The scientific and systematic examination of these obscure subjects is already bearing fruit, and cannot fail to ameliorate the conditions of life in these tropical regions for the European as well as for the native.

Lord Cromer has promised that more shall be done for education in the future. There is no need for hurry; indeed, it is essential that the educational system shall be built up slowly with caution and patience. But in time each province will have its own primary and technical schools, whose pupils will be selected from the elementary kuttabs. Afterwards, when all this has been carefully organized, the provincial schools will in their turn pass on their more promising students to Khartoum to receive the higher education which will then be demanded. Then the Gordon College will at last become a real college. In it the germ of a most hopeful future is contained. If the work proceeds on the same sound lines as hitherto—which there is no reason to doubt—great days are coming. The Arab is capable of a very high degree of civilization, and has a great intelligence, which has as yet had no chance of development. And in those days, I doubt not, those who founded the Gordon College, and first kindled the fire of learning, will be praised by its students as sincerely and as deservedly as the benefactors of any of our own Western foundations.