 The Northern Sudanese merchant Al-Zubeir Rahma Mansur first came to Bahr El Ghazal in 1856 with a cousin on a mission for the major trader Ali Amuriyy, since the Egyptian government had been monopolising trade in Northern Sudan, which encouraged commercial expansion beyond the state control into the South.Zachary Berman argues that Zubeir was an imperialist "buccaneer" following the market as an archetypical agent, ""however unconsciously, of broader global market forces expressing themselves in Bahr al-Ghazal"", namely Great Britain and France through Egypt.At first he went for ivory, ostrich feathers and gum arabic, which were greatly demanded luxury goods in Europe.