Karl Kumm’s Social and Natural History of the Sudan

To understand this book you will need to forget the borders of the modern nation of Sudan because, as the map above shows, in the 1900s “Sudan” referred to a much larger area. Karl Kumm’s work provides a wealth of background information about this region. My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing me with a copy to scan. This book is in the public domain.

H. Karl Kumm [1874-1930], The Sudan. A Short Compendium of Facts and Figures about the Land of Darkness. London: Marshall Brothers, [1907]. Hbk. pp.224. [Download complete book in PDF]

Contents

Introduction

1. Welcome – White Man
2. Where is the Sudan, and what is it?
3. Who has Explored it?
4. Who has Conquered it?
5. A Crisis
6. An Expedition of Investigation
7. Up to Bautchi
8. The Last Night at Pioneer Camp
9. The Open Sore of Africa – Slave Raiding
10. Only a Woman
11. The Land of the Lions and Leopards
12. What Grows in the Land? (Botany)
13. What makes things grow? (Meteorology)
14. The Water-ways (Hydrology)
15. Where are we?

Addenda

Introduction

We were sitting in the little Cur bar church. Outside across the hayfields, the summer winds were blowing, and the big ox-eyed daisies nodded in the sun. Inside, the vicar’s well-known voice was reading morning service, and as he read one saw the scenes the Second Lesson pictured. The pillared aisle and Gothic windows of the church, through which one caught a glimpse of Derbyshire hills and meadows; gave place to inner vision, and we were far away in old Jerusalem.

Instead of organ, choir, and reading desk, one saw in thought the Temple court, the thronging crowds of people, the surging and the tumult of the Apostle Paul’s last day – last hour in that scene. The “Jews which were of Asia” have stirred up the whole city to cast out the man who teaches “all men everywhere” the news of the new King – CHRIST. Swarming from filthy alleys and up steep streets of steps, the rabble of the city has joined with Scribes and Pharisees in one wild howling outcry against Paul. [Continue reading]