Postcard from Sudan…

Sudan’s Republican Palace Museum (once an Anglican Church) sits on the grounds of the Presidential Palace–the site of General Charles Gordon’s murder and the former seat of the Anglo-Egyptian government. On Monday, a new Presidential Palace (built by the Chinese and located next to the old one) was inaugurated 130 years to the day that General Gordon was hacked to death on the steps of the Presidential Palace by soldiers of the Mahdi–who Gordon had come to Khartoum to “smash.” In the 1966 movie Khartoum, Charlton Heston played the role of Gordon, while the Mahdi was played by Laurence Olivier in blackface. A New York Times review of the movie noted that the role of the Mahdi was “impressively and eloquently played by a dark-stained Sir Laurence Olivier, wearing a gleaming white burnoose and addressing his seething cohorts and General Gordon in beautifully chiseled words.” The screenplay was nominated for an Oscar.