Talk:Fuzzy Wuzzy

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"Historical background

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 mounted infantry(called jehadiya). They carried breech-loaded rifles, and many of them had acquired military experience in the Egyptian army.

The name "Fuzzy Wuzzy" may be purely English in origin, or it may incorporate some sort of Arabic pun (possibly based on ghazi, "warrior"). It alludes to their butter-matted hair which gave them a "frizzy" look. This represents a rather weak attempt at humor on the part of British imperial troops, which had learned to respect the Hadendoa on the battlefield. [edit]

The children's rhyme

   Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
   Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
   Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?
       (Optional fourth line:) Was he bare?

Few today are aware of the nineteenth-century Sudanese origins of this familiar nursery rhyme. The first line, "...was a bear" translates roughly as "The Hadendoa warriors gave us (British) a great deal of trouble." The second line is odd as the "Fuzzy Wuzzy" were in fact well-known for their full heads of wooly hair."


>>> The bold words represent potential factual inaccuracies and some obvious hints of bias against the British?