Khartoum

The Nile was always there.

Long before Cairo, long before

the tombs of kings...

it was the reason

for everything.

It's a little hard to grasp how

far this river's been flowing.

This is the rain

that fell on Abyssinia.

These are the waters drained

from central African lakes...

that have flowed 4,000 miles

to make Egypt green.

The Nile has its memories.

The story of Khartoum

is a recent one...

less than a century old.

That's yesterday

in this part of the world.

But however far back

you may go...

all the Nile's recollections

have several things in common.

There's always God,

for instance.

Or, if you prefer, the gods.

It seems to have been

quite impossible...

to live beside this river...

and not to have visions

of eternity.

And there's always mystery.

You never quite know.

You wind up with a few questions

that no one can answer.

One more thing.

Why is it that everything

was always so big...

outsized, larger-than-life?

Vanity? Perhaps.

Or visions.

Vanity was always mixed up

with vision.

And that's

part of this story, too.

But it's the Nile

that remains the original fact.

The Nile and, of course,

the desert.

Move up, up the Nile.

Leave Egypt behind

and the green land.

Enter the Sudan.

A million square miles

of desert and scrub.

It was here out of the vast,

hot African nowhere...

that a man of the Nile,

a man of vision...

and mystery and vanity

rose up in the 1880s...

to challenge first Egypt,

and then the world.

He called himself the Mahdi,

the Expected One...

and he gathered about him

his desert tribesmen...

and he cried out for holy war.

Egypt hired an army

of 10,000 men...

and a professional English

soldier to command them...

and sent them 1,600 miles

up the Nile to Khartoum...

and on into the desert

to destroy this man, the Mahdi.

Our history might have taken

a quite different turn...

had Colonel William Hicks not

forgotten, if he ever knew...

the Sudan's great fact...

its immensity.

The Mahdi led him on and on...

and on.

- Keep those men back!

- Right you are! Keep order!

Back!

Bugler!

Deploy!

Get those rifles

to the high ground!

Mahdi!

Beloveds,

you're men of the desert.

My Lord Mohammed, blessings

and peace be upon him...

commands me to speak...

for I am the Mahdi,

the Expected One...

and I am sprung from

the forehead of the family...

of my Lord Mohammed,

blessings be upon him.

My beloveds,

did I not promise thee...

a miracle would fall from heaven

from the Prophet Mohammed?

And was not this so?

We fight a holy war against

the fat and the corrupt...

and the sinful

and the unbelieving.

We fight a war to restore to a

disobedient, forgetful world...

the laws and commands

of the Prophet Mohammed...

blessings and peace

be upon him...

whose instrument on Earth I am.

Exalt ye not that men are dead,

since more must die tomorrow.

My beloveds, in a vision...

the Prophet Mohammed

has instructed me.

Let mountain and desert tremble.

Let cities shudder,

and let the fat and the rich...

and the corrupt in far places

mark this moment...

and turn in fear

of all those miracles to come!

And let none in all Islam,

from this victorious hour...

believe I am other

than the Expected One...

the true Mahdi.

Beloveds,

it is the hour of prayer.

Explain to me, somebody, where

in heaven's name is Wolseley?

Explain to me

how a rabble of tribesmen...

armed only

with spears and swords...

can destroy a modern army?

Not a British army,

Prime Minister.

- To the last man.

- An Egyptian army.

I don't care whose army.

10,000 men...

a British officer commanding.

Why did Egypt have to hire

an Englishman?

Colonel Hicks was a fool.

Clearly. A fool.

That's not the question.

Why did he have to be English?

"Avenge Hicks."

"Uphold Britain's Honor."

Wolseley, I have the press

at my throat.

I was summoned to Scotland

to explain to Her Majesty.

Will you explain to me...

Mr. Gladstone,

Colonel Stewart...

recently attached

to military intelligence.

The colonel's just back

from Khartoum.

He will be able to explain

better than I.

Colonel Stewart, sit down.

Are these bulletins

from Khartoum true?

It's over a month's travel

from the Sudan, sir...

so, obviously, I left before

these events took place...

but I assume they're true.

Why?

I was sent to Khartoum to

assess the Egyptian capacity...

to deal with the uprising.

I assessed it as nil.

Military intelligence?

There's intelligence for you.

After the event,

they knew all about it.

My reports were delivered

to Sir Evelyn Baring...

in Cairo before the event.

I was aware of the reports.

I just didn't believe them.

- I'm Granville.

- My Lord.

The reports still don't

explain to me, however...

how a modern army

could be slaughtered...

virtually to the last man.

Colonel Hicks and his men, sir,

were fighting for wages.

The Mahdi and his men

were fighting a holy war.

Also, Hicks made

a very bad mistake.

He thought he was fighting an

ignorant savage, and he wasn't.

The Mahdi is

the most extraordinary man...

the Sudan's ever seen.

And he knows his people.

He promised them a miracle.

He had to deliver it.

Even so, Colonel Stewart,

the extent of the disaster...

The disaster, sir, has little to

do with the loss of 10,000 men.

It's their arms.

Egypt was unequal to a horde

of desert tribesmen...

when they'd scarcely a pistol

to call their own.

What does he do now...

now that they've captured

10,000 Remington rifles...

five batteries of artillery...

and very nearly five million

rounds of ammunition?

And I must add

what will become of Egypt...

if the Mahdi occupies Khartoum

and the Khartoum arsenal?

What a jolly day you'll have

with Her Majesty tomorrow.

Gentlemen,

let me make one thing clear.

I'm sending no armies

up the Nile.

You, Hartington,

your imperialist friends...

you're looking for any excuse

to move into central Africa.

We are discussing Egypt.

We have a moral responsibility

to Egypt.

A moral responsibility.

We have the Suez Canal.

Say it.

Egypt protects Suez.

We protect Egypt.

Why in heaven's name

can't Egypt protect herself?

We've just heard

from Colonel Stewart.

She's not up to it.

Colonel Stewart?

I've no doubt

he's like the rest of you.

He can see himself

leading a British army...

1,600 miles up the Nile,

flags flying, glory for all.

I beg your pardon, sir.

Before I'd accept

such a command...

I'd resign my commission.

I wouldn't spend

one British life...

to oppose the Mahdi,

not in the Sudan.

I assumed you were

for intervention.

You didn't ask my opinion, sir.

Well, I want it, by heaven,

if it agrees with mine.

Gentlemen, I shall suggest...

to Her Majesty

in Scotland tomorrow...

that we shall discharge

our obligations to Egypt...

by evacuating all

the Egyptians from Khartoum.

How, without either

a British army...

or loss of British honor?

I shall entertain suggestions

as to just how.

Gordon.

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