Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-05-05
NEW MAHDI.
His Name Is Senussi and His Home Is In the
Sahara,

England Is eeIClnR Workeu uP oVei
the tidings that new African Mahdi
is preparing his 100000 followers
for holy war which may break out
this year. This successor of him who
fell in the Soudan is Senussi, and he
Lives just now in Joffo, south of Trip
oil.
This cloud on the North African
horizon has been gathering for some
time. It is by no means generally
known that at any moment a cyclone OF
Moslem fanaticism may sweep over
Egypt, Algeria and Tunis.
This is in the north. And further
south in the tragic continent, owing to
the same cause, civilization in Nigeria
and the French Soudan may be put
back for another generation, The
rapid expansion of Mahometan se-
cret society, with its inevitable Jehad,
or holy war, among the Arabic, Berber
and negroid races of the Western and
Central Soudan, is factor in current
life in the Dark Continent which at
any moment may assume terrible i'm
portance.
The year that Gordon's life went
at out Khartum, 1896, The followers of
Senussi were estimated at about 3,000,.
900. Since then the movement has
grown so enormously that probably
over 100000 sons ofthe prophet are
sworn members of this organization.
Far away from the "White Mans
Africa" buried in the heart of the
long sandy waste that spreads in end
less silence from Tripoli to Lake
Tchad, is being accumulated vast
stores of the most modern war mater
ial, without the possibility of inter-
ference by the Christian powers most
concerued-Eugland and France.
JoAo, the headquarters of the new
Mahometan Messiah, is 500 miles west
of the Nile and about 700 from the
North African littoral. 1t lies point
due south of Tripoli and little to the
east of the caravan route to Bornou.
There is reason to believe that at the
front in South Africa, among the In-
dian bearers, there are several repres-
entatives of the new Mahdi, who have
enlisted to report upon the events of
the war. The most extraordinary
feature of this conspiracy is that some
of it's members declare they have &C.
quired the strange secret Of brain tel
egraphy, whereby they are enabled to
send messages over vast distances.
A year or two ago massacre of
British officers took place at the hands
of Emin Pasha's Soudanese troops in
Uganda. Two days afterward Herbert
Vivian heard of these murders while
sitting in a native cafe in the city of
Tunis. Sir Harry Johnson who was
formerly English consul general in
Tunis, and who is now ruling Uganda,
has told some strange instances of this
strange form of brain signaling. 1t
seems almost incredible, yet it is said
to be fact that members of the Sen
ussi society in Algiers were aware of
Methuen's disastrous action at Mayors
fontien before the news reached the
London newspapers.
Perhaps the two most important
centers for the requirement of infor'
nation for Senussi are Paris and Cairo.
Messengers for him leave every week
from these two cities.
Every complication that England or
France falls into is noted by him, and
if, as has been predicted, the two
countries are at war next fall then to
certainty Jehad will carry fire and
sword from the Soudan to the Medi-
terranean. Reports of disafection
among the Egyptian officers at Omdur-
man and symptoms of unrest at the
other side ofthe continent at Solkatoo,
would seem to point to the lately de-
veloped activity of Senussi.
As a military force his followers are
infinitely superior to the alarmed
Soudanese whom the Anglo Egyptian
army defeated at Atbara and Omdur-
man. Twenty thousand Manlicher
rifles, it is said, have been bought at
Liege, Belgium, for the new Mahdi.
Every one of these weapons were
landed at Tripoli and carried on
camelback to Joffo. The Italian war
office has lately been offering for sale
a number of its disused field guns.
Several have been bought and, curious
ly enough, shipped to Tripoli. Always
Tripoli, for there the Sultan of Turkey
reigns supreme, and that astute mon
arch is too wise-to run foul of the lea
der of 100000 of the most reckless
fanatics that Islam has enrolled.
What is the policy what are the
aims of this truculent Moslem ? In a
word to revive great militant Ma
hometan empire in North and Central
Africa, and incidentally to turn out
the two unbelieving powers. 1t is one
of the qualifications of a great leader
to bide bis time. Senussi has waited
for a quarter of century. The pres