Aba Island is an
island on the
White Nile
The White Nile ( ar, النيل الأبيض ') is a river in Africa, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile, the other being the Blue Nile. The name comes from the clay sediment carried in the water that changes the water to a pale color. ...
to the south of
Khartoum,
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
. It is the original home of the
Mahdi in Sudan and the spiritual base of the
Umma Party
The National Umma Party ( ar, حزب الأمة القومي , translit=Hizb al-Umma al-qawmmy; en, Nation Party) is an Islamic political party in Sudan. It was formerly led by Sadiq al-Mahdi, who served twice as Prime Minister of Sudan, and ...
.
History
Aba Island was the birthplace of the Mahdiyya, first declared on June 29, 1881 as a religious movement by
Muhammad Ahmad, the self-proclaimed
Mahdi.
The island was the site of
the first battle of the
Mahdist War
The Mahdist War ( ar, الثورة المهدية, ath-Thawra al-Mahdiyya; 1881–1899) was a war between the Mahdist Sudanese of the religious leader Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who had proclaimed himself the "Mahdi" of Islam (the "Guided On ...
on August 12, 1881.
In the early 1920s, between 5,000 and 15,000 pilgrims were coming to Aba Island each year to celebrate
Ramadan
, type = islam
, longtype = Religious
, image = Ramadan montage.jpg
, caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...
. Many of them identified
'Abd al-Rahman with the prophet Jesus, and assumed that he would drive the Christian colonists out of Sudan.
The British found that the Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi was in correspondence with agents and leaders in
Nigeria and
Cameroon, predicting the eventual victory of the Mahdists over the Christians. They blamed him for unrest in these colonies. After pilgrims from
West Africa held mass demonstrations on Aba Island in 1924, Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi was told to put a stop to the pilgrimages.
Airstrike (1970)
Responding to a 1970
Ansar protest against his newly established government in Khartoum,
Gaafar Nimeiry attacked the island with the help of Egyptian fighter-bombers, allegedly directed by
Hosni Mubarak who was then a young air force chief. About 12,000 Ansar were killed in the assault including the uncle of Sadiq al-Mahdi and the extensive holdings and property of the Mahdi family were sequestered by the state.
[Sudan: Darfur and the Failure of an African State](_blank)
New Haven Press: London, 2010. p. 63
References
Sources
*
River islands of Sudan
Islands of the Nile
{{Sudan-geo-stub