A hero made for reasons

There are always reasons behind what’s happening in the world. Indeed, there is a long history when you look closely, even thousands of years. It sometimes leaves you dumbfounded or scared other times.

Located south from Egypt is Sudan, which was previously called Nubia in ancient Egypt. Nubians often appear in Egyptian relics – a mural of Pharaoh conquering Nubians, of Nubians described as prisoners of war with a rope around their neck, of Nubians transferring contribution, and a statue of a Nubian Pharaoh. Nubians were a rough tribe that was used to battles. Egypt hired Nubians as mercenaries, and there was a time when Nubians dominated Egypt. Nubia and Egypt had maintained a long relation filled with conflicts with Egypt mostly dominating Nubia as if a subordinate state.

Some four thousand years later in 1948 during the Palestine war, the Egyptian army was defeated by Israel. There were some battles that the Egyptian army won. Three Egyptian battalions were sieged by the Israeli army in a small town called Fallujah in the east of Ashkelon. The Egyptian battalions held on under a complete siege until the end of the war. They were Sudanese battalions that fought the best in the war. The biggest hero was a Sudanese Colonel Said Taha nicknamed black wolf. However, Major Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt emerged as the hero of the war after it ended. Nasser left big impressions on Egyptian people with his popularity during this time and became a president-for-life after a successful coup in 1953.

Nasser was a competent major and fought well in the Fallujah battle. However, Colonel Taha made bigger achievements and was not recognized as a hero like Nasser. Nasser wrote his experience with the Fallujah battle in detail to add more popularity, while Taha did not write about his roles in the war. Taha was a competent soldier, while Egyptians wanted somebody who could save the country from a disaster. Military heroes are born in battlegrounds, but heroes of people are chosen by people. Sometimes, the standards for such choices are created based on emotions and fantasy.