Fuzzy Wuzzy was the term used by British colonial soldiers for the nineteenth century Hadendoa warriors supporting the Sudanese Mahdi. Fuzzy Wuzzies are remembered today primarily for a popular English children's rhyme, and for a poem by Rudyard Kipling. Hadendoa (from Beja Hada, chief, and endowa, people) is the name of an East African nomadic tribe of Hamitic origin. ... Image:Mahdi3. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... A nursery rhyme is a traditional rubbish sony that edgar nursery invented while feeding a pig from his asssong or poem taught to young children, originally in the nursery. ... This article is about the British author. ...

Historical background

Hadendoa circa 1914

The Beja people were one of two broad multi-tribal groupings supporting the Mahdi, and were divided into three tribes. One of these, the Hadendoa, was nomadic along Sudan's Red Sea coast and provided a large number of cavalry and jihādiyya (referring to mounted infantry units). They carried breech-loaded rifles and many of them had acquired military experience in the Egyptian army. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Beja people are an ethnic group dwelling parts of North-Eastern and Eastern Africa including the area of the Horn of Africa. ... Location of the Red Sea The Red Sea is an inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. ... Soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback in combat are commonly known as cavalry (from French cavalerie). ... Mounted infantry were soldiers who rode horses instead of marching, but actually fought on foot with muskets or rifles. ... A breech-loading weapon, usually a gun or cannon, is one where the bullet or shell is inserted or loaded into the gun at the rear of the barrel, or breech; the opposite of muzzle-loading. ...

The name "Fuzzy Wuzzy" may be purely English in origin, or it may incorporate some sort of Arabic pun (possibly based on ghazī, "warrior"). It alludes to their butter-matted hair which gave them a "frizzy" look. Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... Ghazw (plural ghazawāt) (Arabic: غزو) is an Arabic word meaning an armed incursion for the purposes of conquest, plunder, or the capture of slaves and is cognate with the terms ghāziya and maghāzÄ«. In pre-Islamic times it signified the plundering raids organized by nomadic Bedouin warriors against...

The children's rhyme

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear

Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair

Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't (very) fuzzy, was he?

The Kipling poem (1890)

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

"Fuzzy-Wuzzy"

The poem could refer to either or both historical battles between the British and Mahdist forces where the Infantry square failed. The first was at Tamai, on March 13, 1884. The second battle was the following January 17 at the wells at Abu Klea. Kipling's narrator, an infantry soldier, speaks in admiring terms of the Fuzzy Wuzzies. Praising their bravery which, though insufficient to defeat the British, did at least enable them to boast of having broken "the square" - an achievement which few other British foes could claim. Image File history File links Wikisource-logo. ... The original Wikisource logo. ... Muhammad Ahmad ibn as Sayyid Abd Allah (1844 - June 22, 1885) was a Muslim religious leader, a faqir, in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. ... An infantry square is a battle tactic of infantry when faced with cavalry. ... Combatants Great Britain Mahdist Sudan Commanders Sir Gerald Graham Osman Digna Strength 4,500 troops, 22 guns, 6 machine-guns 10,000 troops Casualties 120 killed 4,000 killed The Battle of Tamai(or Tamanieh) took place on March 13, 1884 between a British force under Sir Gerald Graham and... March 13 is the 72nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (73rd in leap years). ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... January 17 is the 17th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Abu Klea is a halting-place for caravans in the Bayuda Desert of Sudan. ...

Fuzzy Wuzzy Fallacy

The Fuzzy Wuzzy Fallacy is a name for a wargaming theory coined by Richard Hamblen in the September 1976 of the Avalon Hill General wargaming magazine, loosely based on historical records of battles between the British and the Sudanese Mahdi. The Fuzzy Wuzzy Fallacy states that a single soldier with 2× firepower or attack strength does not equal to two soldiers with 1× firepower or attack strength. Instead, the soldier with 2× firepower is actually worth of the 1× soldier, if either soldier can be killed in a single hit. In fact this is little more than a rehash of Lanchester's law. Glory, an American Civil War game by GMT This article is about the civilian hobby. ... The word theory has a number of distinct meanings in different fields of knowledge, depending on their methodologies and the context of discussion. ... Lanchesters laws are mathematical formulae for calculating the strength of military forces. ...

As a result, tactics and strategy designed around this theory emphasize greater numbers and time, which the speed and mobility of the units in action can effect.

Trivia

• The Four Feathers, a novel remade into multiple movies, depicts battles with Hadendoa soldiers
• In the British sitcom Dad's Army, Lance-Corporal Jack Jones frequently tells anecdotes about his encounters with the Fuzzy Wuzzies. In approximately ten episodes, whilst brandishing his bayonet (which he calls 'the cold steel'), Lance-Corporal Jack Jones comments that "they don't like it up 'em".

To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require restructuring. ... Hadendoa (from Beja Hada, chief, and endowa, people) is the name of an East African nomadic tribe of Hamitic origin. ... Dads Army was a British sitcom about the Home Guard in the Second World War, written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. ... Lance Corporal Jack Jones is a fictional Home Guard platoon lance-corporal and butcher portrayed by Clive Dunn in the BBC television sitcom Dads Army. ... Lance Corporal Jack Jones is a fictional Home Guard platoon lance-corporal and butcher portrayed by Clive Dunn in the BBC television sitcom Dads Army. ...

See also

• Fuzzy wuzzy angels, Native Papuans with similar hair who assisted Australian soldiers during World War II
• Kalanchoe tomentosa var. fievetii, a tropical plant of the Kalanchoe genus, commonly known as 'Fuzzy Wuzzy'

The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels are a group of Papua New Guinean people who, during World War II, assisted and escorted injured Australian troops down the Kokoda trail. ... New Guinea, located just north of Australia, is the worlds second largest island, having become separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded around 5000 BC. The name Papua has also been long-associated with the island: this is discussed further under... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Species See text. ...

External links

• Historical background to the Kipling poem
• Kipling.org line-by-line explanation of references