'Fuzzy Wuzzy; The Campaigns in the Eastern Sudan, 1884-85', by Brian Robson, published by Spellmount, ISBN I873376-15-4, price £ 19.95.

Curiously, given the extent to which the term 'Fuzzy-Wuzzy' has become part of the popular vocabulary, the campaigns in which it was born have not always received their due attention. Straddling, as they did, the unsuccessful Gordon Relief Expedition, the two campaigns fought in the Red Sea littoral by General Gerald Graham to suppress Mahdist forces under the command of Uthman ibn Abu Bakr Dignai - known to his enemies as 'Osman Digna' - were over-shadowed in the public imagination at the time, and are only now the subject of this thorough analysis. This is a shame, since they were interesting in a number of respects; they were the first time the British Army fought entirely in khaki, for example, they were waged in a particularly harsh environment, and they were characterised by some of the most ferocious fighting the British experienced during the Victorian period.

Although, as the author points out, the British soldier had fought a number of courageous enemies in his time, the Beja tribesmen of the eastern Sudan were possessed of a degree of fanaticism which unnerved all but the most experienced opponent. Their attacks were fast, furious, and, despite the fact that they were armed with spears and swords whilst the British were possessed of the most advanced weapon technology in the world, often devastating; on a number of occasions they came within an ace of 'breaking the British square'. As a result, the Red Sea battles had a destructive edge not always found in British Colonial battles, although the practise adopted by the British of killing enemy wounded out of hand was not entirely unprecedented - similar incidents occurred after the latter battles of the Zulu War.

Certainly, the bravery of the Beja earned them considerable respect amongst their enemies, to the extent that many officers felt uneasy about Britain's role in the Sudan in the aftermath of Gordon's defeat at Khartoum. It's interesting to note, however, that the term Fuzzy- Wuzzy was apparently coined by Kilding, rather than by the soldiers themselves, who referred to the Beja rather as Fuzzy-Wigs. Brian Robson's descriptions of the battles around Suakin, and the terrain in which they were fought, is both carefully analytical and vivid; it is refreshingly free of the overblown school-boy heroic style which still mars many books on Colonial campaigns. Although the book sets out to consider Digna's achievements within their proper context, both he and his followers remain illusive figures, since there is apparently an almost complete dearth of material on these battles from Sudanese sources.

Nevertheless, Fuzzy-Wuzzy remains one of the, most important books on the Sudan campaigns published in recent years, and is enlivened by some fascinating photographs of the forts and block- houses around Suakin.

Reviews

Introduction
Fearful Hard Times: The Siege and Relief of Eshowe 1879
Lord Chelmsford's Zululand Campaign 1878-1879
But Burdens Shouldered; Anglo-Zulu War Graves and Memorials in the United Kingdom
Deeds of Valour: A Victorian Military And Naval Trilogy
Warrior Chiefs of Southern Africa
Fuzzy Wuzzy; The Campaigns in the Eastern Sudan, 1884-85
Butler; A Scapegoat?
Steam, Steel and Shellfire; The Steam Warship 1815-1905
Victorian Military Campaigns
British Campaign Medals; Waterloo To The Gulf
Guns of the British Empire; Firearms of the British Soldier, 1837-1987
Reflections From The Bridge; The Victorian Sapper in Photographs
Osprey Round - Up: Colonial Titles
Pony Wars Round-Up

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com