PRISONER OF THE KHALEEFA: 12 Years a Slave at Omdurman – Charles (Karl) Neufeld

PRISONER OF THE KHALEEFA: 12 Years a Slave at Omdurman - Charles (Karl) Neufeld
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  • Paperback : 446 pages
  • ISBN-13 : 979-8564714846
  • Dimensions : 5 x 1.01 x 8 inches
  • Publisher : Notoir Books (November 14, 2020)
  • Language: : English

The other “12 YEARS A SLAVE”.
Imagine: you are a European businessman, you travel to a country on a commercial mission, only to get captured by some Dervish types somewhere in North-Africa, and kept imprisoned by the leader of a ‘caliphate’ or something, for the next 12 years. That is exactly what happened to Karl Neufeld.

In 1887, German merchant Karl (Charles) Neufeld had a stroke of bad luck, and was captured and enslaved by the Mahdists and transferred to Omdurman, where he spent twelve years in captivity.

This is his gripping account, first published in 1899, the year of his release by the British Commander-in-Chief Hebert Kitchener. Neufeld retells in vivid detail his capture, enslavement, torture and imprisonment by the Dervishes, the death of his buddy Gordon at Khartoum, and the conquest of the Sudan by the British Army.

In a weird way this forgotten book from the 1900s is still actual. Luckily for us, we can read about it, and compare those times with today, only to find out that some things haven’t changed that much.