I watched with deep sorrow a report broadcasted on Alhurra channel on January 25th, 2024, about the destruction that befell the Republican Palace, which dates back to the year 1826, almost two centuries ago. It reminded me of the story of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566) and the architect Mimar Sinan. When Sultan Suleiman tasked him with demolishing one of his old palaces and building a new one in its place.
After the completion of the demolition and construction, the Sultan noticed that the architect had used two groups of workers, one for the demolition and the other for the construction. When he asked about the wisdom behind this choice, the architect replied, “Those who are good at destruction are not fit for construction!”
Those who destroyed the Republican Palace, government facilities, and historical sites in the capital Khartoum and the states are not suited to rebuild them because they are part of the problem and the cause of the destruction.
However, the discussion about the reconstruction and state-building requires a separate section. Therefore, it is advisable to provide readers with a brief overview of the history of the Republican Palace, described by Professor Mohamed Ibrahim Abu Salim as “the beautiful White Palace overlooking the Blue Nile,” symbolizing the history of the Ottoman Turkish era in Sudan (1821-1885).
The Republican Palace served as a historic and sovereign symbol in the imagination of the Sudanese people, embodying decisive and contrasting moments in their modern and contemporary political history. Therefore, the question that arises is: when was this historic White Palace built, and why was it destroyed?
The Governor’s (Dar) Palace: Its Origin and Evolution
Historians attribute the establishment of the palace to the Governor Mahu Pasha Orfali (1826), who succeeded Governor Osman Bey Al-Burunji (1824-1825), who relocated the capital of the Ottoman Turkish rule (1821-1885) from Wad Madani to Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile. Mahu Pasha laid the foundation of the palace with bricks, and the palace was rebuilt from green bricks during the reign of Governor Ali Khorshid Pasha (1826-1838), who contributed significantly to the construction of several government institutions and public facilities in Khartoum.
Subsequently, Governor Abdel Latif Pasha Abdullah (1850-1851) rebuilt the palace for the third time using red bricks brought from the ruins of the ancient city of Soba on the Blue Nile, and white carved stones brought from Omdurman were placed in its corners.
At that time, according to the account of Abu Salim, the palace consisted of three floors, and had a semi-square shape, with its main structure extending from east to west. It had a grand circular tower entrance in the center, overlooking the Blue Nile. The wings extended from the eastern and western corners, north and south.
The palace underwent slight architectural modifications during the reign of Governor Ahmed Mutaz Pasha (1871-1872) and Governor Ismail Pasha Ayyub (1873-1876), during which the last Sultan of Darfur, Sultan Ibrahim Qorad (1873-1873), was eliminated, and Darfur became part of the Ottoman Turkish rule in Sudan.
Mahmoud Elgobbani described the city of Khartoum at that time as a city “that combines the beauty of its natural location, the advantages of civil order, and urban splendor. Most of its buildings are made of stone and red bricks, adorned with plaster and bricks. Its palaces are very delightful, and its streets are very organized. It has a street that starts from the Blue Sea shore and ends in the southern part called the New Way, borrowed from the name of the New Way in Cairo.
All its inhabitants adhere to their original customs, then Western traditions and habits of urbanization emerged. The ethics and customs of its first and second-class citizens even in their food and drink became purely European. The people of Khartoum have a strong inclination to decorate their homes with luxurious furniture, imitating Europeans in inventing new types of household furniture and clothing. They have more than five hundred entertainment centers, dancing venues, and coffee shops.” This was Khartoum before its siege and liberation in 1885.
When Charles Gordon took office as Governor (1883-1885) in Sudan for the second time with the aim of evacuating the country from the Egyptian military forces, which had failed to suppress the Mahdist revolution that erupted in the Island of Aba Ali on the White Nile and then spread to Kordofan, liberating its capital Al-Ubayyid.
Following the victories achieved by Imam Mohammed Ahmed Al-Mahdi (1844-1885) and his supporters in Kordofan and the island, Khartoum became the center of their attention until they laid a suffocating siege around it in the second half of 1884, which lasted for several months.
In the early hours of January 26th, 1885, the supporters declared an attack on Khartoum, resulting in the liberation of the city and the killing of General Gordon on the stairs of the palace, which was built by the Ottoman Turks as a symbol of their sultanate and an emblem of their sovereignty. After Gordon’s death, the supporters carried his head to Al-Mahdi, “where it was displayed in the open for three days” (Abu Salim, the Republican Palace, p. 18).
After the liberation of Khartoum, the Governor’s Palace and the capital buildings were demolished. Abu Salim analyzed the destruction witnessed by the city of Khartoum, stating, “The birth of a modern city beside an old city inevitably accelerates the ruin and disappearance of the old city because the modern city is established at the expense of the old city, either materially by taking its bricks, stones, and woods, as happened to Soba when Khartoum was established, or culturally and commercially, as happened to Sawakin when Port Sudan was established, and to the historical city of Barbar, weakened by the emergence of Atbara (Atbara).
The Governor General’s Palace during the Anglo-Egyptian rule (1898-1956)
After the victory of the supporters in the Battle of Karari (Um Durman) in 1898, the victorious invaders entered Khartoum, performing their Christian prayers in front of the ruins of the palace, thanking the Lord for enabling them to triumph over the “Dervishes” and honoring the spirit of the British general Gordon, then raised the British and later the Egyptian flag on the ruins of the destroyed palace as a symbol of their reinstated sovereignty over Sudan.
Abu Salim described the ruins of the palace at that time as “a bleak and desolate sight, as the supporters had taken from it the windows, doors, roofs, and everything useful. Only a part of the ground floor wall remained, and the walls of the first and second floors were demolished to use their bricks, which were transported to Omdurman, filling the ground floor and its sides.”
After the situation stabilized in Khartoum, the conquerors began rebuilding the Governor General’s Palace based on its old stone foundation and Turkish layout, which was a semi-square three-story structure, with its walls initially built from red bricks. The construction was completed in 1900, and the first Governor General to reside in it was Sir Francis Reginald Wingate Pasha (1899-1916).
The Republican Palace during the National era
After the independence of Sudan on January 1st, 1956, and the departure of Sir Knox Helm (1955-1956), the last British Governor General of Sudan, the palace became the official headquarters for the members of the Sovereignty Council. The first council included: Ahmed Mohammed Yassin, Abdelfattah Elmagoub, Ahmed Mohammed Saleh, Sarsio Eiro, and Aldaridry Mohamed Osman; rotating presidency between them.
The palace housed rooms for hosting heads of states and prominent visitors. It hosted the Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah (1960-1966), Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser (1954-1970), Yugoslav president Josip Tito (1953-1980), Leonid Brezhnev (1964-1982), Saudi King Faisal bin Abdulaziz (1964-1975), Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie (1930-1974), and Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022).
Events such as the fourth summit conference of the Arab League, held against the backdrop of the setback in 1967, known as the “three no’s conference: no peace, no recognition, no negotiation with the Zionist enemy before the return of rights to its owners,” were witnessed within the palace corridors.
The palace gardens also hosted a series of annual celebrations for the birthdays of the kings of Egypt and Britain and their reigns. Notable national occasions and social events were celebrated there, including the presentation of the honorary award to the historian Sheikh Mohamed Abdulrahim (1878-1966) in 1967.
The Republican Palace (the residence of officer Osman Haj Al-Hussein Abushaiba) was also the site of the disappearance of the Secretary of the Sudanese Communist Party, Abdel Khalif Mahjoub (1927-1971), and the president Jaafar Nimeiri, and some members of his government during the July 1971 coup.
The Palace Museum
The palace complex includes a small museum overlooking the University Street in the southeast section. Its collection includes various archaeological artifacts, some presidential vehicles, and cars used by British rulers and some national presidents. It also contains oil paintings and photographic portraits of prominent figures from the colonial and national eras, in addition to gifts presented to some rulers and presidents, along with musical instruments, household items, and furniture.
Most of these artifacts were located at the entrance and the extended eastern and western hall of the palace, organized and arranged by the curator Sadeq Al-Nour, the former head of museums at the Sudan Antiquities Service. However, the collection was moved to the Cathedral Church building, which was opened in 1912 for Christian prayers but closed in 1971 due to security reasons, and relocated to a church in the residential area, serving as a replacement. On December 31st, 1999, President Omar al-Bashir (1989-2019) inaugurated the museum at its new location, which unfortunately suffered partial destruction, as shown in the images displayed by the Emirati Alhurra Channel.
The Palace Library
The Governor General’s Palace obtained a significant number of books, maps, and official reports related to Sudan. However, they were not preserved, indexed, or organized during the dual rule (1898-1956) and part of the national government era.
In 1976, the palace administration decided to gather these books, maps, and reports from the palace’s offices and storerooms, tabulate and preserve them in a library designated for this purpose in the main palace building. In 2006, the palace administration ordered the library to be moved to the southeastern section of the building to make space for the Vice President’s office.
In its new location, two halls were dedicated to the library, one for archiving government documents and official archives, and the other for displaying books and publications, along with a third hall for reading and receiving readers and researchers.
Regrettably, these valuable and rare collections suffered destruction and fire due to the mutual shelling between the armed forces and the rebels of the Rapid Support Forces, or due to the ignorance of the soldiers staying in the palace, who failed to grasp the importance of these historical artifacts, which are priceless and irreplaceable. Their loss is a loss of a precious heritage.
Conclusion
The Republican Palace represents a source of modern and contemporary Sudanese history and a symbol of its sovereignty. However, people who do not appreciate the value of treasures and historical artifacts are people who do not appreciate the value of human generosity. Thus, Ibn Khaldun described them as products of “wilderness” that became “coarse and mountainous” and behaved contrary to urbanization and contradictory to it. They have no limits in seizing the money and goods of the people. When they prevail in winning and kingship, politics ceases to protect people’s wealth, and urbanization is ruined.
To reach this goal, civil forces need to agree on a program that saves Sudan from its current crisis. The focus should not be on unity among political forces but on presenting each political force’s proposal to alleviate the plight of the country. Avenues for dialogue should be objective, drawing from accumulated experience, and guided by ethical commitments that prioritize the national interest over narrow party agendas.
These outcomes could potentially produce a practical program for reconstruction and state-building based on modern and innovative foundations, meeting the aspirations of Sudanese youth who dream of a brighter future.
Attaining this requires fundamental reviews of the structural and intellectual formations of civil forces, political parties, security and military systems, resulting in the emergence of new leadership and clear visions for the future. It also necessitates proposing sustainable root solutions, steering clear of the traditional formula of “power and wealth sharing” safeguarded by the mouths of guns and devoid of strategic planning.
The restoration of Sudan requires departing from looking at the past of pain and suffering and embracing a future vision built on unity, cooperation, and mutual respect. Thus, the unity of civil forces is not just about merging, but about presenting reform policies that everyone can agree upon to extricate the nation from its abyss and chart a brighter future for all Sudanese.
