Equatoria began as a province of Egypt, located in the extreme south of present-day Sudan along the upper reaches of the White Nile. It was an idealistic effort to create a model state in the interior of Africa that never consisted of more than a handful of adventurers and soldiers in isolated outposts.
Equatoria was established by Samuel Baker in 1870. Charles George Gordon took over as Governor in 1874, followed by Emin Pasha in 1878. The Mahdist Revolt of the 1880s finally put an end to the pretense, and Equatoria ceased to exist as an Egyptian oupost in 1889. Important settlements in Equatoria included Lado , Gondokoro, and Wadelai .
Under Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Equatoria became one of the eight original provinces. The state of Bahr al Ghazal was split from Equatoria in 1948. In 1976, Equatoria was further split into the states of East and West Equatoria. The region has been troubled with violence during both the First and Second Sudanese Civil War, as well as the anti-Ugandan insurgencies based in Sudan, such as the Lord's Resistance Army and West Nile Bank Front.
Reference
- R. Gray, A History of the Southern Sudan, 1839-1889 (London, 1961)
