page_title: Roger Carmichael Robert Owen
section_title: Sudan
hierarchical_section_title: Roger Carmichael Robert Owen / Sudan
caption_attribution_description: English: General Sir Francis Reginald Wingate, 1st Baronet
context_page_description: Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Carmichael Robert Owen CMG OBE was a British Army officer who joined the Sudan service in 1903. He was Sudan Agent in Cairo from 1905 to 1908. Owen was then appointed Governor of Mongalla Province in South Sudan from 1908 to 1918.
context_section_description: IN 1908 Owen was appointed Governor and Officer Commanding the Military District of Mongalla Province in Sudan. 
  In February 1910 Theodore Roosevelt visited the province. Owen told Governor General Sir Reginald Wingate that everything would be done for the former president of the United States, but also pointed out that his troops had not even one donkey.
  In June 1910 the British Sudanese forces took over the Lado Enclave from the Belgians.
  The Anglican and Roman Catholic missionaries asked that Sunday be retained as a sabbath, as it had under the Belgians, rather than Friday as in the rest of the Sudan. 
  Owen opposed retaining Sunday.
  He felt that the more "bigoted" Muslims in the army would object to working on Friday, and noted that all recruits to the army were instructed in the Moslem religion.
  A few months later, however, Owen proposed creation of an Equatorial battalion composed entirely of southerners. This force would be taught to follow English commands and to follow Christian observances, forming the basis of a Christian population that would in time connect with that of Uganda and would prevent spread of the Muslim faith farther south. He was against the Moslem faith on the basis that it "may at any time break out into a wave of fanaticism". Owen's plan was approved by Wingate. On 7 December 1917 the last of the northern Sudanese troops were withdrawn from Mongalla, replaced by Equatorial troops.
  When Hasan Sharif, son of Khalifa Muhammad Sahif, was exiled to Mongalla in 1915 after taking place in a conspiracy in Ondurman, Governor Owen said "...I told him he is lucky to come and see this part of Sudan for nothing, when tourists pay hundreds of pounds ... I fear he doesn't see the joke...".
  Owen was part of the Beir Expedition in 1912 acting as a political officer and was involved in the Expeditionary Force, Lafit and Lokoia Mountains, Southern Sudan.
  Owen's administration in Mongalla was ruthless, often using what his superiors considered to be excessive force. This may have stemmed in part from his military background, in part from the endemic violence of the South Sudan after two decades of colonial activity.
  After Owen had been governor for almost ten years, Wingate described him as "not of that mentality which is altogether desirable, especially in the more remote districts".
caption: General Sir Francis Reginald Wingate, Governor General of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
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