Babikr Bedri was a Mahdist warrior who later became a social activist and laid the foundations for women's education in the Sudan. Bedri began with a small school for his own daughters. Over time the school moved to the Sudanese capital and formed the basis for today's al-Afhad University for Women.
From a girls' school to a university for women
Bedri was present at the battle of Omdurman, where the Mahdist army was destroyed. After the battle he migrated to Rufaa, a small town in the region of the Blue Nile. There he founded the first school for girls in Sudan in 1907 and named it “al Ahfad”. Initially, the classes were held at his home, and were attended by nine of his own daughters and eight of his neighbours' young girls. The school was inspected by Currie, the Condominium Director of Education, but he warned Bedri that the responsibility was entirely his, as would be the cost of running such a new establishment. A private donation was made that year by Currie's deputy, John Winter Crowfoot. Later the school began to receive funding from the Condominium authorities. Babikr Bedri's ideas about girls’ education were strongly opposed by older Sudanese who were suspicious of the idea of sending girls to school; the colonial authorities were also wary of an innovation that might unsettle the wider population. Bedri's ideas about female education combined traditional Islamic devotion to learning while providing secular education and religious instruction for both girls and boys. At that time, the main aim of the schooling was to ensure better nutrition and healthcare, with a view to ensuring healthier children. In his memoirs Bedri describes taking Miss Evans, the new woman inspector of girls' schools, to Rufaa in the early 1920s and their lively exchange:
During our inspection of the school Miss Evans turned to me and said bluntly,"They keep saying 'Shaykh Babikr this and Shaykh Babikr that.' What IS it so splendid that you have achieved?" With a smile I answered her, "My achievement is your coming to Sudan. In a year or two's time it is I who will be asking you what you have achieved, you may be sure." She was too disconcerted to reply.
On his return to Khartoum Bedri was taken to task by John Crowfoot, the Director of Education for his remarks to Miss Evans. "In response I asked him why he had selected this inspectress for the girls' schools and related how she had treated his wife. Thereupon he dropped the matter without further censure."
In 1943 the school moved from Rufaa to Omdurman, across the Nile from Khartoum, and a companion high school for boys was established. In 1991 the Al Ahfad girls' school was transformed into a college and then into the University of that name by Yusuf Badri, Babikr Bedri's son.
"My Life"
Babikr Bedri's autobiography My Life is considered a Sudanese classic. It is an important source on the History of Sudan in the Mahdist era and the subsequent period of British colonization. These memoirs have also been partially translated into English. A first volume covers the years from Bedri's boyhood in the mid-19th century to the fall of Omdurman in 1898. The second volume appeared in 1980 and covers the period from 1898 to 1927. Babikr Bedri himself commented:
"An autobiography contains stories of many kinds, some of no account except to amuse, and others of significance as examples to be followed or shunned."
Babikr Bedri was "a pioneer of modern education in a traditional context" write the editors of his first volume of memoirs in English, "and a remarkable personality". From the beginning of the 20th century until his death in 1954—his age is uncertain, he was either 94 or 98—he was, in their words, "the outstanding figure in Sudanese education and one of the best known Sudanese intellectuals".
