Ten Years' Captivity in the Mahdi's Camp 1882-1892

In 1882, Father Josef Ohrwalder arrived in Sudan with fellow missionaries, carrying the evangelical optimism of the age. Within months, he was imprisoned in the Mahdi's camp - and he would not escape for ten years. This memoir is the closest thing we have to a diary from inside the Mahdist revolution: a priest's daily witness to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, the collapse of Egyptian authority, and the brutal machinery of a holy war. Ohrwalder records the paradoxes of his captivity - the guards who protected him, the theological debates with the Mahdi's followers, the slow erosion of hope across a decade. His account captures the Mahdist War from within, not as distant history but as lived reality. This is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the collision of empires and faiths that shaped modern Sudan, told by a man who survived by his wits and his God.