Fuzzy-Wuzzy

For other uses, see Fuzzy Wuzzy (disambiguation).

"Fuzzy-Wuzzy" is a poem by the English author and poet Rudyard Kipling, published in 1892 as part of Barrack Room Ballads. It describes the respect of the ordinary British soldier for the bravery of the Hadendoa warriors who fought the British army in the Sudan.

Background

A Hadendoa Beja nomad.

"Fuzzy-Wuzzy" was the term used by British colonial soldiers for the 19th-century Beja warriors supporting the Sudanese Mahdi in the Mahdist War. The term Fuzzy Wuzzy is purely of English origin and is not connected with Arabic. The Beja are not Arabic speakers: their language, Tu Bedawi, is of Cushitic origin and is related to Somali and Afar.

The Beja people were one of several broad multi-tribal groupings supporting the Mahdi, and were divided into three tribes, Haddendowa, Amarar and Bishariyyin. All of these are semi-nomadic and inhabit the Sudan's Red Sea Hills Libyan desert and southern Egypt. The Beja provided a large number of warriors to the Mahdist forces. They were armed with swords and spears and some of them carried breech-loaded rifles which had been captured from the Egyptian forces, and some of them had acquired military experience in the Egyptian army.

The poem

Kipling's poem Fuzzy-Wuzzy praises the Hadendoa for their martial prowess, because "for all the odds agin' you, Fuzzy-Wuz, you broke the square". This could refer to either or both historical battles between the British and Mahdist forces where British infantry squares were broken. The first was at the Battle of Tamai, on 13 March 1884, and the second was on 17 January 1885 during the Battle of Abu Klea. Kipling's narrator, an infantry soldier, speaks in admiring terms of the "Fuzzy-Wuzzies", praising their bravery which, although 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.

The poem should be read against the background of bayonet drill, (thrusting a bayonetted rifle into a straw filled dummy). As in "'ere's to you Fuzzy Wuzzy" whilst thrusting firmly forward with rifle and bayonet.

Other references

In the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Caractacus' father refers to the "Fuzzy-Wuzzys" when speaking of his time in the army. Additionally, in the BBC situation comedy Dad's Army, Lance Corporal Jack Jones (Clive Dunn) continually refers to the Fuzzy-Wuzzies in his reminiscences about his days fighting in the Sudan under General Kitchener.

In the film The Four Feathers (1939), when the camp of the Mahdi supporters is shown (at 49.35 min.) a title appears: THE KALIPHA'S ARMY OF DERVISHES AND FUZZY WUZZIES ON THE NILE. Also, towards the end of the film (1.52.40 min.) the old General states: "All you boys had to do was deal with Fuzzy-Wuzzy."

During the hard fought Kokoda Track campaign during World War II, Australian soldiers called the local Papuan stretcher bearers "fuzzy wuzzy angels".^[1]

References

↑ "Kokoda: 'Fuzzy wuzzy angels'". Australia's War 1939–1945. Department of Veterans' Affairs, Australian Government. Retrieved March 8, 2014.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Fuzzy-Wuzzy

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

Rudyard Kipling

Novels	The Light that Failed (1891) Captains Courageous (1896) Kim (1901)

Collections	Plain Tales from the Hills (1888) Soldiers Three (1888) The Story of the Gadsbys (1888) In Black and White (1888) The Phantom 'Rickshaw and other Eerie Tales (1888) Under the Deodars (1888) Wee Willie Winkie and Other Child Stories (1888) From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches, Letters of Travel (1889) Barrack-Room Ballads (1892, poetry) The Jungle Book (1894) "Mowgli's Brothers" "Kaa's Hunting" "Tiger! Tiger!" "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" The Second Jungle Book (1895) "Letting in the Jungle" "Red Dog" All the Mowgli Stories (c. 1895) The Seven Seas (1896, poetry) The Day's Work (1898) Stalky & Co. (1899) Just So Stories (1902) Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) Rewards and Fairies (1910) The Fringes of the Fleet (1915, non-fiction) Debits and Credits (1926) Limits and Renewals (1932) Rudyard Kipling's Verse: Definitive Edition (1940)

Poems	"The Absent-Minded Beggar" "The Ballad of the "Clampherdown"" "The Ballad of East and West" "The Bell Buoy" "The Betrothed" "Big Steamers" "Cold Iron" "Danny Deever" "The Female of the Species" "Fuzzy-Wuzzy" "Gentleman ranker" "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" "Gunga Din" "Hymn Before Action" "If—" "In the Neolithic Age" "The King's Pilgrimage" "The Last of the Light Brigade" "The Lowestoft Boat" "Mandalay" "My Boy Jack" "Recessional" "A Song in Storm" "Sons of Martha" "Submarines" "The Sweepers" "Tommy" "Ubique" "The White Man's Burden" "The Widow at Windsor"

Short stories	".007" "The Arrest of Lieutenant Golightly" "Baa Baa, Black Sheep" "Bread upon the Waters" "The Broken Link Handicap" "The Butterfly that Stamped" "Consequences" "The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin" "Cupid's Arrows" "The Devil and the Deep Sea" "The Drums of the Fore and Aft" "Fairy-Kist" "False Dawn" "A Germ-Destroyer" "His Chance in Life" "His Wedded Wife" "In the House of Suddhoo" "Kidnapped" "Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris" "Lispeth" "The Man Who Would Be King" "A Matter of Fact" "Miss Youghal's Sais" "The Mother Hive" "Ortheris" "The Other Man" "The Rescue of Pluffles" "The Ship that Found Herself" "The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo" "The Taking of Lungtungpen" "Three and – an Extra" "The Three Musketeers" "Thrown Away" "Toomai of the Elephants" "Watches of the Night" "Wireless" "Yoked with an Unbeliever"

Related	Bibliography Bateman's home Indian Railway Library Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer Iron Ring The Law of the Jungle Aerial Board of Control My Boy Jack (1997 play) Rudyard Kipling: A Remembrance Tale (2006 documentary) My Boy Jack (2007 film)

Family	Elsie Bambridge (daughter) John Kipling (son) John Lockwood Kipling (father) MacDonald sisters (mother's family) Stanley Baldwin (cousin) Edward Burne-Jones (uncle) Edward Poynter (uncle) Alfred Baldwin (uncle)

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