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Fashoda

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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(renamed, 1904, KoDOK), a post on the west bank of the Upper Nile, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, in 9° 53' N., 32° 8' E., 459 m. S., by river, of Khartum. It is the headquarters of the mudiria (province) of the Upper Nile. The station is built on a flat peninsula connected by a narrow strip of land with a ridge which runs parallel with the river. The surrounding country is mostly deep swamp and the station is most unhealthy; mosquitoes are present in millions. The climate is always damp and the temperature rarely below 98° in the shade. The government offices are well-built brick structures. In front of the station is a long low island, and when the Nile is at its lowest this channel becomes dry. Several roads from Kordofan converge on the Nile at this point, and near the station is the residence of the mek, or king, of the Shilluk tribe, whose designation of the post was adopted when it was decided to abandon the use of Fashoda. At Lul, 18 m. farther up stream, is an Austrian Roman Catholic mission station.

An Egyptian military post was established at Fashoda in 1865. It was then a trading station of some importance, slaves being the chief commodity dealt in. In 1883-1884 the place fell into the hands of the Mandists. On the 10th of July 1898 it was occupied by a French force from the Congo under Commandant J. B. Marchand, a circumstance which gave rise to a state of great tension between Great Britain and France. On the irth of December following the French force withdrew, returning home via Abyssinia (see AFRICA, § 5, and EGYPT: History, and Military Operations).