North Sudan revisits imperial past

More than 120 years ago, Sudanese rebels fired at the British steamer Bordein as it made its last dash up the Nile to rescue the doomed Empire hero Gordon of Khartoum.

Today, descendants of those same Sudanese have rescued the boat's rusty shell and are busy restoring it - in a bid to tempt back the British, as tourists.

Sudan is looking for new ways to earn money as it faces losing its oil-producing south following last week's southern independence referendum.

Some are pinning hopes on reports of gold reserves in the north's Red Sea hills. Others are optimistic about another largely untapped resource, the country's colourful past.

Sudanese engineers found the 19th-century paddle steamer cut up into 12 pieces in a north Khartoum boatyard late last year.

They set to work, reassembled the iron-hulled boat in four weeks and moved it close to the scene of its old battles on the banks of the Nile in Omdurman.

"It is already starting to attract tourists," said Khartoum state minister of tourism Mohamed Awad al-Barodi. "On Friday we were astonished that two buses of European tourists came to the area. It was not opening until the 26th of this month."

For now, tourism remains a tiny industry. Mr Barodi had no statistics for numbers visiting the capital. Yet history buffs still cling to the stories of Britain's long entanglement with Sudan.

There have been at least seven films based on the novel The Four Feathers. The painting of Major General Charles George Gordon calmly facing his attackers on the steps of the governor's palace in Khartoum has become an icon of British stoicism.

Those memories will not be so rosy for the Sudanese who spent most of the 19th and early 20th centuries under foreign rulers, Turkish, Egyptian and British.

"That might be true, especially in the decades after colonialism, the 1960s and 70s. Now for the people of Sudan it is just part of their history," said Mr Barodi.

There are plans for a garden museum telling the story of the Bordein - thought to be the world's oldest paddle-steamer. It can already be seen at its new site next to the remains of the mud-walled forts thrown up by the "Mahdi", the Islamic leader who defeated Gordon in 1885. His army was massacred by the British in 1898, with 10,000 dead for the loss of 47 British.

Khartoum's tourism ministry has put in a request to president Omar Hassan al-Bashir to turn his palace into a museum. Another British gunboat, the Melik, lies awaiting restoration in the parking lot of the Blue Nile Sailing Club.That project is supported by the UK-based Melik Society which helped rescue the Bordein.

Mr Barodi is also looking for seven other boats brought into Sudan after the British routed the Mahdi and stayed until Sudan's independence in 1956.

One boat is still submerged in the Nile. Another is thought to be mouldering in a boatyard.

The plan is to give each their own place on the Nile's banks. "They deserve it," said Mr Barodi. "They were used also by the Sudanese. They are part of Sudan."