Hadendoa
Hadendoa is the name of a nomadic subdivision of the Beja people, known for their support of the Mahdiyyah rebellion during the 1880s to 1890s. The area historically inhabited by the Hadendoa lies today in parts of Sudan, Egypt and Eritrea.
Etymology
According to Roper, the name Haɖanɖiwa is made up of haɖa 'lion' and ɖiwa 'clan'. Other variants are Haɖai ɖiwa, Hanɖiwa and Haɖaatʼar.Language
The language of the Hadendoa is a dialect of Bedawi.History
The southern Beja were part of the Christian kingdom of Axum during the sixth to fourteenth centuries.In the fifteenth century, Axum fell to the Islamization of the [Sudan region], and although the Beja were never entirely subjugated, they were absorbed into Islam via marriages and trade contracts. In the seventeenth century, some of the Beja expanded southward, conquering better pastures. These became the Hadendoa, who by the eighteenth century were the dominant people of eastern Sudan, and always at war with the Bisharin.
Extensive anthropological research was done on Egyptian ethnic groups in the late 1800s and a number of skulls of people of Hadendoa individuals were taken to the Royal College of Surgeons to be measured and studied.
The Hadendoa were traditionally a pastoral people, ruled by a hereditary chief, called a Ma'ahes. One of the best-known chiefs was a Mahdist general named Osman Digna. He led them in the battles, from 1883 to 1898, against the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, the Hadendoa accepted the new order without demur.
In World War II, the Hadendoa allied themselves with the British against the Italians.
In popular culture
- Their elaborately styled hair gained them the name "Fuzzy-Wuzzy" among British troops during the Mahdist War, after which Rudyard Kipling wrote the poem of the same name.
- Corporal Jones, a character in the British TV series Dad's Army, frequently referred to the "Fuzzy-Wuzzies" when discussing his exploits in the army of Lord Kitchener.