Ancient mercenaries and Egyptian president

The mother of Mohammed Naguib, who became the first president of Egypt and toppled the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, was Sudanese. Southern Sudan is still a region of dispute where the Korean Hanbit Unit is dispatched as a peacekeeping force. People of this region date back to ancient Egypt, serving as the most elite mercenary forces of Egypt or combat groups that threatened Egypt. A relievo depicting war with Assyria exhibited in the British Museum shows Ashurbanipal the Second attacking Memphis, Egypt. A closer look at this work reveals that the soldiers fighting on top of the fortress are not Egyptians but Africans. At that time, Egypt was ruled by Nubians, who came from Southern Sudan.

Egypt and Nubia shared a love-hate relationship for thousands of years. Naguib was born in this complex relationship. His father was a ranking officer of the Egyptian Armed Forces, and his mother was Sudanese. Born in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, he became an officer for the Egyptian Armed Forces after graduating from Gordon Memorial College, the school named after Governor-General Charles Gordon, who was killed during the Madhi uprising.

The Egyptian Armed Forces fought terribly in the first Middle East war. Egyptian Armed Forces said that their problem was a lack of competent officers. If Egyptians had competent leaders, then their army would be transformed. Naguib set such an example.

Naguib became a war hero and became president by Gamal Abdel Nasser, who led the coup, but was also removed by Nasser. This fact creates confusion for us. From Sudan’s perspective, is Naguib a hero or traitor to Egypt? A fun fact is that the ancestors of Nasser had not been pure Egyptians either.

We are one generation away from becoming a multi-ethnic nation. We have lived so long as a mono-ethnic nation that this fact is new to us, and we tend to regard neighboring nations as either good or bad. International relations require diversity and realistic decisions, but we tend to be rooted in binary thinking, dividing those as friends or foes. Why is it so difficult to change this stereotype?