The Southern California Rapid Transit District (almost always referred to as RTD or rarely as SCRTD) was a public transportation agency established in 1964 to serve the Greater Los Angeles area. It was the successor to the original Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). California State Senator Thomas M. Rees (D-Beverly Hills) sponsored the bill that created the RTD, which was meant to correct some deficiencies of the LAMTA, and took over all of the bus service operated by MTA on November 5, 1964. RTD was merged into the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 1993.

Creation

RTD was created on August 18, 1964, to serve the urbanized Southern California region, including Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County, Orange County, and Riverside County. RTD replaced the major predecessor public agency, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, and took over eleven other failing bus companies and services in the Southern California region. RTD was placed in charge of creating a heavy rail public transportation system for Southern California, and for planning for bus improvements. In 1974, the El Monte Busway was opened, a bus-only lane (later converted to a high-occupancy vehicle lane). In 1973, RTD shed parts of its operations outside of Los Angeles County, (they were taken over by other agencies including what was then the new Orange County Transit District (now Orange County Transportation Authority), Omnitrans and Riverside Transit Agency although it continued to operate inter-county service to Riverside and San Bernardino until the formation of LACMTA.

Downtown terminal
From 1967 until 1982, RTD operated a main downtown terminal in the basement of the Greyhound bus terminal at 6th and Los Angeles Streets. Greyhound used it until 1991, when they moved to their current terminal on 7th St. Because of the positioning of mirrors in the single entrance/exit ramp, buses entered the ramp and drove in on the left hand side of the ramp (standard American practice is to drive on the driver's right side of the road or on a ramp), where at the bottom, a display lamp would indicate which of the 15 berths the bus was to terminate at. The driver would then turn left and go around the bus berthing area, which was in the center of the terminal. This prevented buses from ever having a danger of collision as the buses would always travel through the terminal in a clockwise direction, whereas in standard American traffic, vehicles drive on the right and a traffic circle or "roundabout" has traffic moving counterclockwise.

The terminal also had a rule, indicated on all signs leading to the bus berths, that cash payments were not accepted on buses in the terminal; a person had to either have a monthly pass or purchase tickets on the ground floor (one floor above the bus area). Tickets were standard paper coupons with amounts of 10¢ to $1.00, and could be purchased at any time, not merely when one was taking a bus. Tickets were accepted on all RTD routes at all times, and could also be purchased at various locations around the region, although RTD buses accepted cash everywhere, except when departing from the downtown terminal.

RTD eventually discontinued use of the Greyhound bus terminal in the late 1980s, and resumed having connections for buses on the various streets in the downtown area.

A similar practice occurred in Long Beach for the small number of routes that left its downtown area. RTD operated a small office on Ocean Boulevard, required tickets to be purchased, either there or in advance, and prohibited acceptance of cash payment for buses leaving the stop in front of its Long Beach downtown terminal. When the City of Long Beach introduced the consolidated transit mall, RTD discontinued the use of its own terminal, and allowed persons to pay cash on buses leaving the downtown Long Beach Transit Mall.

Animosity
RTD was essentially the "800 pound gorilla" as far as public transportation in Southern California was concerned. In a 1983 video created by RTD, the District stated its operating service area was larger than that of the transit systems of Miami, Buffalo, Atlanta, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. combined.

RTD operated all service in the city of Los Angeles, and operated some service to neighboring cities. Many of the local bus agencies operating in the county (all of them either owned by a municipality or operated on its behalf) either had a "live and let live" or an out-and-out hostile relationship with RTD. One of the more serious rivalries was between Long Beach Transit and RTD. RTD had wanted to take over all or part of the operation of Long Beach Transit. However, it was considered that RTD would probably stick to covering the major areas ("cream skimming") and might let service languish in the less profitable areas, as witness some of the problems that some of the poorer areas in Los Angeles (such as Watts) had had in getting reasonable bus service. As a result of the animosity, a kind of pettiness grew between the two agencies. One example of which is, of all the bus lines which operated in Los Angeles County: Long Beach, Norwalk, Cerritos, Torrance Transit, City of Santa Monica, Culver City Municipal Transit, Orange County Transit, and RTD, all of these agencies would allow any of the other's employees to deadhead free, if in uniform (or had identification issued by their agency), except that RTD and Long Beach would not allow each other's drivers to ride free on their buses.

Generous employee benefit
One benefit that RTD offered, which no other bus line in the region offered, was the very generous practice that, in addition to RTD employees being allowed to ride free on RTD buses (and as noted above, every other bus transit operator except Long Beach), their spouse and all children under 18 were also given free passes.

Restrictions and expansion
Two features of transportation in Southern California were the local restriction and the Long Beach South of Willow prohibition.

The local restriction prohibited any private carrier such as Greyhound or Continental Trailways from selling one way or round-trip bus tickets between any two points within the same area that RTD operated. For example, Greyhound sold a ticket for transport between Long Beach and the Magic Mountain amusement park (now Six Flags Magic Mountain) in Valencia, and the customer could optionally purchase admission to the park on the same transport ticket. This required the customer to change buses in Downtown Los Angeles to the bus bound for Valencia, and vice versa on return, but Greyhound could not directly sell a ticket for travel between Long Beach and Los Angeles, unless the person was traveling outside RTD's service area.

The South of Willow prohibition occurred because of the dispute between RTD and Long Beach Transit, wherein only Long Beach Transit was permitted to pick up passengers within the City of Long Beach south of Willow Street for transport to any other place in the city that was also south of Willow. RTD (and all other transit agencies except Long Beach Transit) were prohibited from providing a pick up and drop off both south of Willow Street. Generally, any pickup anywhere in the city which was south of Willow either had to be for transportation north of Willow Street or outside of the city. Buses which traveled into the area south of Willow Street could only discharge passengers, and could not pick up any passengers until they resumed travel either north of Willow or outside of Long Beach, and such passengers could not exit the bus until north of Willow or outside the city. On Long Beach Boulevard, for example, RTD was not allowed to discharge any northbound passengers anywhere on Long Beach Boulevard south of Willow Street. Buses going southbound were to be "discharge only" south of Willow, and were to be "embark only" going northbound if south of Willow Street.

Over the years, RTD made a number of strategic purchases and trades to extend service. The original bus line operating between Long Beach and Santa Monica was operated by Western Greyhound Lines from 1923 until it was acquired by RTD in 1974.  RTD broke the line in half, kept the portion running from Long Beach to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), then took the portion from Los Angeles International Airport to Santa Monica and sold or traded it to the City of Santa Monica Municipal Bus line in exchange for the right to run buses from Downtown Los Angeles into Santa Monica. As a result, persons traveling from Long Beach to Santa Monica would take an RTD bus from Long Beach to LAX, then transfer at the airport to a Santa Monica Municipal bus.

Transfers
All of the transit agencies in the county issued local transfers (a transfer from one of their lines to another). Most issued the same transfer blank for every bus on their route, where they just issued a single transfer where the driver punched in the route number, possibly the direction of travel (to prevent people who were taking short trips from getting on a bus going back where they came from without paying for the return trip) and the month and day. Long Beach issued a specific transfer preprinted with the specific route number. But RTD issued a new transfer every day, so that the transfer would have "Mon Nov. 27 1978" preprinted on transfers issued on that day.

Another different practice involved the issuance of "interagency transfers" where a rider was switching between one bus line (bus company) and another, e.g. Torrance Transit to Orange County Transit. RTD issued one transfer, which was good locally on its own system for all of its bus routes and functioned as an interagency transfer for credit toward the fare on a different bus line. All other bus lines issued an "interagency transfer" different from their own local transfers. It was believed that the reason for this was that RTD actually printed the interagency transfers and sold them to all the other bus lines. In the early 1980s, Long Beach Transit would also break from this system, and would have ticket printers installed on every bus to issue both local (Long Beach Transit-based) and interagency transfers (drivers would, in case the printer failed, keep a book of Long Beach and standard interagency transfer for just such emergencies.)

For a six-month period during the middle 1970s, RTD, and possibly other transit agencies in the county, received a massive subsidy, cutting prices for bus trips from 60¢ to $1.25, depending on the route, to 25¢ on weekdays and Saturday, and 10¢ on Sunday, for all trips anywhere within Los Angeles County. Trips outside the county remained the regular price. During this period, all transit agencies in the county discontinued issuing transfers. When the subsidy ended, prices returned to the original amounts, and RTD resumed issuing transfers.

Renumbering
Bus routes in the county originally had various identifications. The route from Long Beach to Los Angeles, which operated most of the route as an express service along the freeway of former California State Route 7 (now Interstate 710), was known as the 36F (for "Freeway Flyer"). Other routes had various numbers that at times seemed somewhat random, as they were added to the system when RTD had absorbed earlier systems—for example, routes 107, 108, 109, and 110 were in the Pasadena area, as they had been originally part of Pasadena City Lines, while routes 106 and 111 were elsewhere in RTD's system. In the mid-1970s, RTD began to group their routes by region—for example, routes in the 400s (such as 423, 434, and 496) served primarily the San Gabriel Valley, while those in the 800s (801 or 829, for example) served the southern Los Angeles County area. In addition to renumbering, most of the routes were modified into a more logical grid system, following major thoroughfares and moving route termini to near other routes to allow for efficient transfers. In theory, most residences were no more than a quarter-mile away from any bus route.

In 1983,  RTD would institute a new, massive renumbering system, while keeping the earlier grid pattern. The new numbering system is as follows:

Routes 1-99 — Buses which ran locally into downtown Los Angeles
100-199 — Buses which ran primarily east and west, but not into downtown
200-299 — Buses which ran primarily north and south, but not into downtown
300-399 — Buses operating limited service
400-499 — Buses which ran express into downtown Los Angeles
500-599 — Express buses not running to downtown
600-699 — Special Service not running to downtown

As a result of the renumbering, the 36F became the 456. The local bus running from Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles became the 60. The bus from Long Beach to LAX changed from 66 to 232. The local route from Pasadena to Pomona, numbered in the 1970s as route 440, became route 187, while a parallel route (numbered 434) that went from City of Hope in Duarte west through Monrovia, Arcadia, Pasadena (to JPL), La Canada Flintridge, then to downtown Glendale, was renumbered 177.

Probably due to the success RTD had in clarifying where its routes went by the renumbering, Long Beach Transit would also change its numbering system as well.  Foothill Transit would also keep the line numbers that it inherited from RTD, and later from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Los Angeles County Transportation Commission
The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC) was formed in 1976 resulting from the requirement that all counties in the state form local transportation commissions. Its main objective was to be the guardian of all transportation funding, both transit and highway, for Los Angeles County. The creation of the LACTC required RTD to share some of its power. The governing structure of the LACTC was similar to that of the SCRTD, however, the city of Los Angeles had three of the eleven board members, compared to two on the SCRTD board). By law, the commission included the mayor of Los Angeles, a city council member appointed by the mayor, a private citizen appointed by the mayor, all five county supervisors, a member of the city council of Long Beach and two city council members from other municipalities, elected by the Los Angeles branch of the California League of Cities. Each of the members had an appointed alternate.

Metro Rail

In 1980 voters passed Proposition A, a half-cent sales tax for a regional transit system. The measure succeeded after proposals in 1968 and 1974 had failed. The map that accompanied the initiative showed ten transit corridors with the Wilshire subway line the "cornerstone" of the system, according to former SCRTD planning director Gary Spivak. Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn was the author of the proposition, declaring, "I'm going to put the trains back." The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission's first light rail line was on the old Long Beach Red Car route from Los Angeles to Long Beach, which passed through Hahn's district (this would become the Metro Blue Line). Caltrans surveyed the condition of former Pacific Electric lines in 1982.

On September 11, 1985, U.S. Representative Henry Waxman added an amendment to that year's Federal Transportation Budget removing all subway construction funds, citing safety concerns after an unrelated methane explosion in the Fairfax District.

By 1986, due in part to last-minute lobbying by RTD president Nick Patsaouras, a compromise was reached between Waxman and Representative Julian Dixon. The deal allowed funding to go through as long as it did not pass through the Wilshire corridor. With a Wilshire corridor alignment prohibited, the Metro Red Line was reprioritized and routed north up Vermont, the next highest projected ridership corridor, to Hollywood. Because of the change in alignment, a 1-mile (1.6 km) stub line on Wilshire between Vermont and Western persists until the D Line Extension is opened in 2024.

On October 27, 2005 an independent group of experts stated that there was no significant problem with methane explosion. Congressman Waxman then proposed legislation to lift the federal ban on subway construction in the Wilshire Corridor, which passed. By 2007, this lifting of the ban, along with several other factors such as traffic congestion, lessening racial prejudice, increasingly progressive and environmental attitudes, have rekindled interest in what has come to be known as the Metro Purple Line.

However, a separate measure passed locally in Los Angeles has prohibited use of Metro's local sales tax revenue on "new subway construction". This had deterred Metro from building underground,. However, the Metro E Line Eastside Extension light rail has a  segment where it runs underground.

In the following years, several light rail and subway lines were opened. In 1990, RTD opened the Metro Blue Line, the region's first modern light rail line. In 1993, the first segment (known as MOS-1 for Minimal Operable Segment 1) of the heavy rail Red Line opened, running from Union Station to MacArthur Park. Three years later, the Red Line was extended to Wilshire/Western in Koreatown.

RTD pioneered experimenting with alternate fuel buses in what the Transit Coalition derisively called "the fuel of the month club." At the start of Metro's existence, there were buses running on ethanol, methanol, regular diesel, low-sulfur (clean) diesel, and CNG. Battery-operated buses and trolleybuses were proposed but never operated in regular service.

Merger

The successor agency to RTD is the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority ("LACMTA").  LACMTA is the product of the merger of RTD and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC).

RTD and LACTC officially merged on April 1, 1993. Initially, the agency retained the locations of the predecessor agencies in Downtown Los Angeles, but later moved to the 25-story Gateway Plaza Building adjacent to historic Union Station in 1995. In the wake of local media reports of expensive Italian marble used in its construction, the structure was derisively dubbed the Taj Mahal. Housed within the building is the Dorothy Gray Transportation Library, a comprehensive collection of transportation-related books, videos, and other materials, said to be one of the largest in the nation. The library is open to the public.

References

Public transportation in Southern California
Electric railways in California
Light rail in California
Passenger rail transportation in California
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Public transportation in Los Angeles County, California
Public transportation in San Bernardino County, California
Public transportation in Orange County, California
Public transportation in Riverside County, California
Government agencies established in 1964
Government agencies disestablished in 1993
1964 establishments in California
1993 disestablishments in California
Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles
Defunct public transport operators in the United States


Temario "Temy" C. Rivera is a Filipino educator. Rivera was formerly professor of political science at the University of the Philippines Diliman, where he served as Chair of the Department of Political Science from 1993 to 1998. He was educated at the University of the Philippines Diliman (A.B., M.A.) and the University of Wisconsin–Madison (Ph.D.) In 1994, he authored the prize-winning book, Landlords and Capitalists: Class, Family and State in Philippine Manufacturing (published by the University of the Philippines Press).

Landlords and capitalists
Patently Marxist and combining Philippine elite historiography, his analysis in Landlords and Capitalists implicitly accepted the theoretical line of semi-feudal and semi-colonial of the Philippine revolutionary left, demonstrating that the social structure and economic topography of the Philippines is exhibiting hybrid features of capitalism and feudalism. The hybridity of this socio-economic architecture in a context of a weak state formation often captive by robust traditional social forces (clans, families) has caused and sustained the inequitable distribution of economic and political power in the Philippine society (described by Walden Bello as an "immobile class structure that is one of the worst in Asia") and the harnessing of democratic efforts towards patently conservative objectives such as obstructionist policies on land reform, inadequate social service, and anti-labor inclination among others. Rivera also faulted this unique feature for the continuing developmental morass that afflicts the Philippines, despite the fact that most of its neighbors in the Southeast Asian region have significantly achieved substantive development as newly industrialized economies.

Currently residing in Japan, he is professor of comparative politics at the International Christian University in Tokyo. He has also served as the editor in chief of the Philippine Political Science Journal since 1993.

References

External links
DAP profile

Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
University of the Philippines alumni
Academic staff of the University of the Philippines
Filipino political scientists
20th-century Filipino historians
Political science journal editors
Filipino expatriates in the United States
Filipino expatriates in Japan
21st-century Filipino historians
Philippine Collegian editors

Temario Rivera


The Black Dragon Society is a non-fictional Japanese secret society, also known as the Kokuryūkai, which appears in DC Comics. The publisher first used the name in 1942's All Star Comics issue #12 (August 1942) as Japanese saboteurs. They were created by Gardner Fox and Jack Burnley. The same name and concept was also used by several other 1940s comics publishers that were later bought out by DC. A modern reimagining of the group as ecoterrorists was presented in JLA.

Publication history
The Black Dragon Society is based on a real World War II organization of the same name. As such, three separate comics companies (National Comics, Fawcett Comics, and Quality Comics) used them as villains.

The Fawcett Comics version debuted in Master Comics #21 (December 1941), it had Minute-Man fighting against the Society, and was created by Bill Woolfolk and Charles Sultan. The DC Comics version debuted in All Star Comics #12 (August 1942) and was created by Gardner Fox and Jack Burnley, in the story "The Black Dragon Menace" in which a Japanese spy ring called the Black Dragon Society of Japan steals eight American inventions and kidnaps their inventors. Quality Comics' version debuted in Military Comics #24 (November 1943), and was created by Ted Udall and Vernon Henkel.

Fictional team history
The Justice Battalion are given orders to retrieve eight stolen military weapons, and subdue the agents of the Black Dragon Society who had orchestrated the thefts. Starman took on a huge dirigible which acted as a flying aircraft carrier and the planes it housed. The Society, loyal to Imperial Japan, was to use the planes to attack an American city but Starman prevented this. Because of Johnny Thunder's bumbling, the whole Battalion was transported to the American HQ of the Black Dragon Society. After a quick fight and a call to the US Army, the threat posed by the Black Dragons was over.

The Black Dragon Society as an anti-U.S. organization also fought Minute-Man, Atom, Black Condor, the Sniper, and Johnny Everyman during World War II.

The Dragon King was a Japanese national and scientific genius who struck off from the Society early on. It was the Dragon King, using a combination of the occult and super-science, who created the forcefield that protected the Axis countries from the superhuman operatives of the Allies. He somehow was able to combine the energies of the Spear of Destiny with those of the Holy Grail to accomplish this. At some point after the war he develops an immortality serum that transforms him into a reptilian humanoid.

The modern versions of the Black Dragon Society show up in the pages of an issue of JLA. This version appears to be made up of fanatical, east Asian eco-terrorists with the stated intention of putting an end to the exploitation of Pacific oil fields by the west. They take the executive board of the Petroil oil company hostage, and kill all of their security and support staff. A superteam known as the Power Company shows up and shuts down the Black Dragons before they can kill their hostages. At the end of the story, it is revealed that the entire incident was only part of making a TV commercial for the Power Company, with the Black Dragon members being dressed-up actors on a set. Whether the commercial was based on a real incident, and if the Power Company ever battled the real Black Dragons, is not known.

References

External links
 DCU Guide Black Dragon Society
 Power Company Indedx Fanzing #47

DC Comics supervillain teams
Fictional eco-terrorists

Black Dragon Society (comics)


The thicktail chub (Gila crassicauda) was a type of minnow that inhabited the lowlands and weedy backwaters of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers in the Central Valley of California. It was once abundant in lowland lakes, marshes, ponds, slow-moving stretches of river, and, during years of heavy run-off, the surface waters of San Francisco Bay. The thicktail chub was one of the most common fish in California. Within Native American middens it represented 40% of the fish.

The chub was a favored food of the native Indian peoples of Clear Lake and the Central Valley before being heavily exploited by commercial fishermen supplying the San Francisco market. A heavy-bodied fish with a thick tail and a small, cone-shaped head, the backs of the thicktail chub ranged in color from greenish brown to purplish black, while the sides and belly were yellow. It could reach a length of nearly ten inches. Although little is known about its behavior, it was probably carnivorous, feeding on small fish and invertebrates.

The primary cause of the thicktailed chub's extinction was the conversion of much of the Central Valley to agricultural use. Most of its habitat was destroyed by the drainage of sloughs and marshes, dam-building, and water diversion for irrigation. All this resulted in the loss of the sluggish water the species preferred. Competition from exotic species also contributed to its extinction. The last known example was caught on April 16, 1957.

References

Chubs (fish)
Gila (fish)
Fish of North America becoming extinct since 1500
Taxa named by Spencer Fullerton Baird
Taxa named by Charles Frédéric Girard
Fish described in 1854
Extinct animals of the United States
Fauna of the San Francisco Bay Area
Species made extinct by human activities

Thicktail chub


2-Chlorobenzoic acid is an organic compound with the formula ClC6H4CO2H.  It is one of three isomeric chlorobenzoic acids, the one that is the strongest acid.  This white solid is used as a precursor to a variety of drugs, food additives, and dyes.

Synthesis and reactions

It is prepared by the oxidation of 2-chlorotoluene.  The laboratory scale reaction employs potassium permanganate.  Alternatively it arises by the hydrolysis of α,α,α-trichloro-2-toluene.

The chloride is readily replaced by ammonia to 2-aminobenzoic acid.  Similarly, the chloride is displaced by diphenylphosphide, leading to 2-diphenylphosphinobenzoic acid.

At elevated temperature it decarboxylates.

References

Benzoic acids
Chlorobenzenes

2-Chlorobenzoic acid


Louis Albert William Longomba (born May 5, 1962), known professionally as Awilo Longomba, is a Congolese soukous singer, composer, drummer, songwriter, dancer, and producer. The second child of Vicky Longomba and maternal uncle of French player Claude Makélélé, Longomba is known for his avant-garde "techno-soukous" and performances.

Between 1980 and 1995, he made his music debut as a drummer for Viva La Musica, Stukas, Nouvelle Génération, and Loketo. He rose to fame in 1995 with the release of his debut solo studio album Moto Pamba, which catapulted him to stardom in Africa and Europe. The album's success won him two consecutive Best Artist of Central Africa at the 1996 and 1997 Kora Awards. In 1998, he released his second studio album Coupé Bibamba. The album's eponymous lead single, featuring Jocelyne Béroard, topped charts in Africa, Europe, and the Americas for consecutive weeks and is venerable as Africa's most serenaded Lingala compositions. He became the first artist to sell out the Lagos Stadium for three consecutive days. The song was later featured in the "World Tribute to the Funk" compilation by Sony Music, featuring a new funk remix version with James D-Train Williams. The remix became a summer hit and was later translated into Nigerian local languages and performed in churches. The song also gained popularity in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, and Malawi, and had a significant impact on the local culture.

Longomba is the first Congolese artist to have performed in São Tomé and Príncipe, as well as the only Sub-Saharan African, along with Miriam Makeba, to have performed in Libya. His third studio album Kafou Kafou, released in July 2000, later won him the Judges' Special Awards at the 2001 Kora Awards for his contribution to African music. He is also one of Africa and Europe's "most wanted" Congolese artists.

Early life and career

Awilo Longomba was born as Louis Albert William Longomba on May 5, 1962, in Kinshasa (formerly Léopoldville) to a Mongo father and a Ngombe mother from Équateur Province. His father, Vicky Longomba, was the lead vocalist and founder of Tout Puissant OK Jazz. His sister, Asta Paola, was Viva la Musica's female vocalist. As a child, Longomba spent every moment around music, frequently attending his father's rehearsals. His father, influenced by his perception of contemporary musicians as dissolute figures, often clothed himself in sartorial splendor and ardently discouraged his son from pursuing a career in music. Logomba's passion for music burgeoned exponentially, leading him to veer from formal pedagogy and become a drummer for various musical groups in Kinshasa, including "Orchestre de Lita Bembo." He later joined Viva La Musica, led by Papa Wemba as a drummer, and toured with Afro-zouk crooner Olivier N'Goma in 1985.

In 1986, as part of their Euro–Asia tours, Longomba and Viva La Musica toured Matonge, a culturally rich neighborhood known for its Congolese influences, to record their album Destin ya Moto in Gina Efonge's bar. There, his stature as an exceptional drummer within the group gained momentum. In 1989, he permanently relocated to Paris and applied for his Carte de Séjour. In Paris, he encountered discriminatory attitudes against African immigrants and grew resentful of the rise of Jean-Marie Le Pen's movement, which underscored the prevalence of racism in France, particularly within political parties like the National Front. Though not as high-profile as Ray Lema, he had settled into a life as a Parisian and had formed a personal attachment to the city. In 1992, Longomba left Viva La Musica and formed his musical ensemble, La Nouvelle Génération, of which he became the leader, alongside members Luciana Demingongo, Lidjo Kwempa, Fataki Ndoko José, and Fafa de Molokaï. The newly established band rapidly gained popularity within the precincts of Europe and produced several albums. He collaborated on numerous records in France and toured globally with renowned African artists such as Tshala Muana, Oliver N'Goma, and Kanda Bongo Man. He became a French citizen in 1994, having married a French woman.

1995–1998: Moto Pamba
In 1995, he left La Nouvelle Génération and went on to release his debut solo studio album Moto Pamba later that same year. He served as the album's composer, lead singer, and drummer, with support from Shimita, Ballou Canta, Dindo Yogo, Dally Kimoko, Sam Mangwana, Syran Mbenza and Rigo Star. The album was a great success and led to tours across Africa and Europe. In 1996, he promoted the album through a live show at Parc de la Villette and later won the Best Artist of Central Africa at the Kora Awards. He received the same accolade on October 1, 1997.

1998–2000: Coupé Bibamba

In 1998, he released his second studio album Coupé Bibamba, which was supported by the singles "Gaté Le Coin", "Mobimba Ya Mama", "Coupé Bibamba", "Manon", "Porokondo", "Sans Papier", "J'en Ai Marre", "Fifi", "J'en Ai Marre", and "Gâté Le Coin [Bonus Mix]"; and featured guest appearances by Jocelyne Béroard, Tutu Kaludji and Alain Mpéla Yoka. The album's eponymous single, "Coupe Bibamba," featuring Jocelyne Béroard, became a massive hit in Africa and Europe, as well as among diaspora communities worldwide, and remains a timeless classic in African music. Longomba's three consecutive sold-out shows at Lagos Stadium, each attended by 120,000 fans, solidified his superstar status across West Africa. "Coupé Bibamba" is a Congolese phrase loosely translated to "waist movement." The song is an energetic celebration of African dance and rhythm, blending traditional Congolese ndombolo dance music with modern elements. The song's music video featuring Longomba's electrifying choreographic prowess metamorphosed into a cultural phenomenon and introduced a new generation of music, leaving a massive impact on several African musicians. The song was adapted into local languages by indigenous artists in Nigeria. The lyrical incantations, encapsulated by the refrain "Comment t'appelle? Je m'appelle Coupe Coupe Bibamba," have been embraced by non-French-speaking fans and given meanings in their native Yoruba language, widely spoken in the Southwestern and Central Nigeria, and the Pidgin English spoken generally in Nigeria and West Africa.

The track "Manon" is dedicated to his daughter of the same name, while "Porokondo" emphasizes humility in both difficult and prosperous times. In the song, he included a mabanga, a practice where musicians "shout out" an individual's name during a song for a fee, directed at Robert Ogwal, also known as Rasta Rob, one of the most popular radio presenters in the African Great Lakes Region at the time.

2000–2017: Kafou Kafou, Mondongo and Superman

In July 2000, Longomba released his third studio album, Kafou Kafou. It later earned him the Jury Special Award at the 2001 Kora Awards, which he offered to Nelson Mandela at Sun City. During an interview with Foster Romanus on The Late Nite Celebrity Show, he expressed that having Nelson Mandela in attendance was a substantial gain in itself, due to his respect and appreciation for Mandela's impactful contributions to Africa. Towards the end of the year, Sony Music requested a funk remix of his hit "Coupé Bibamba" with James D-Train Williams, which gained popularity in France and the US. It was also featured in the "African Dance Floor" compilation, and Longomba later performed at Zénith de Paris alongside Jocelyn Lorette Brown, Oliver Cheatham, Jerome Prister, Imagination and Anita Ward, who were part of the compilation.

In September 2003, he released his fourth studio album, Mondongo, featuring hit singles like "Karolina", "Zumbeya", "Mupenzi", "Pinzoli", "Gladys", "Kayembe", "Mondongo", "Champion", "Mia Muliere", and "Dance Floor". The album blended Congolese rumba, soukous, R&B, and Kompa with the collaboration of other African artists, including Lokua Kanza. Mondongo garnered widespread recognition in several African nations and sold over 30,000 copies in France. The album's track "Karolina" became a staple at hall parties and the most-played song at African gatherings. In the song, Longomba eloquently expresses his admiration for his muse, Karolina, declaring her pulchritude from every angle – from head to toe, front, and back. To support his album, he embarked on a tour in Cameroon, with performances scheduled at Cinéma Le Wouri, Stade Mbappé Léppé, Cinéma Abbia, and Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium. In November 2004, he received a nomination for his song "Karolina" at the 2004 Kora Awards held in Johannesburg.

In March 2005, he took the stage at the Africa Live 2005 mega-concert, a malaria-fighting event held at the Iba-Mar-Diop Stadium, where he performed in front of a crowd of 40,000 people. His co-performers included Youssou N'Dour, Orchestra Baobab, Tinariwen, Didier Awadi, Corneille, Salif Keita, Rokia Traoré, Manu Dibango, and Seun Kuti. The event was organized by Youssou N'Dour as part of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM), an initiative launched in 1998 by the WHO, UNDP, UNICEF, and the World Bank. The festival's message was disseminated through approximately forty television stations, with about ten television channels, including Arte and TV5Monde.

To promote his album, he toured Africa and performed in several cities, including Libreville (July 2006), Sumbe (September 29-30, 2006), Abidjan (2007), and Antananarivo (June 2008).

In August 2008, he released his fifth studio album Superman, which contained standout tracks like "Super Man", "Torticolis", "Les Jaloux", "Malala", "Maze", "Meu Amor", "Banana", "La Go Là", "Baby", "J'Ai Envie de Toi", "BK", and "Banana Remix". Barbara Kanam also made a guest appearance on the album. He subsequently took the stage at Zénith de Paris on December 27, 2009, to promote his album. He later performed in Antananarivo to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Malagasy Independence on June 26, 2010.

In 2014, Longomba collaborated with the Nigerian duo P-Square on the track "Enemy Solo." On January 23, 2017, he released a single titled "Rihanna" featuring Nigerian singer Yemi Alade.

International recognition
Longomba is among the most sought-after Congolese artists in Africa and Europe. He has toured extensively throughout Africa, including countries such as Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Togo, Zambia, Namibia, Gabon, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Seychelles, Malawi, Sudan, South Africa, and Mali, among others. He has also performed in Europe, notably in Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, France, the UK, and Germany, as well as Japan, Australia, Malaysia, and the United States.

In February 2023, Nigerian singer Ayra Starr released her soukous-inspired single "Sability," which sample Longomba's "Coupé Bibamba".

Famous songs

 Karolina
 Coupe Bibamba
 Rosalina (Karolina Remix)
 Mondongo
 Fidele

Discography
 Coupe Bibamba (1999)
 Kafou Kafou (2001)
 Mondongo (2004)
 Super-Man (2008)

References

External links
Awilo Longomba Biography/Discography
https://web.archive.org/web/20110714042528/http://www.martinsinterculture.com/irawma-winners.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20061109045153/http://www.afrodicia.com/artist/awilo/index.html
http://www.africanmusica.com/awilo-longomba.htm
http://www.sternsmusic.com/discography/436
https://web.archive.org/web/20080101094243/http://www.africasounds.com/awilo.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20100219074713/http://www.topvisages.net/entrevue/14-02-10.php
http://myspace.com/awilolongombaofficiel

21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo male singers
Living people
1962 births
20th-century Democratic Republic of the Congo male singers
21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo people

Awilo Longomba


British Rail Class 23, originally called English Electric Type 2, was a class of ten diesel-electric locomotives built by the English Electric Company in 1959. They were numbered from D5900 to D5909.  The power unit was a Napier Deltic T9-29 9 cylinder engine of 1,100 bhp. This drove an EE generator, which powered the four traction motors. The Class 23 was nicknamed "Baby Deltic" because of its similarity to the Class 55.

23

British Rail Class 23


Penfield 1 railway station was located on the Penfield line located in what is now the northern Adelaide suburb of Edinburgh. It was located 23.2 kilometres from Adelaide station. The station opened between 1940 and 1942 and had a platform which was 213.4 metres long. The station closed on 4 January 1991, along with Penfield 2 station and the line. The station has since been demolished.

References

Disused railway stations in South Australia
Railway stations closed in 1991

Penfield 1 railway station


Luigi Canepa (January 15, 1849 – May 12, 1914) was an Italian opera composer. He is best known for his 1879 opera, Riccardo III. He was born and died in Sassari, Sardinia.

Biography
His father Francesco and her mother Angela Solari, of Genoese origin, soon discovered his musical talent, addressing it to study the flute at age eight and enrolling him to 10 years at the Milan Conservatory, where he remained until autumn 1861. The 'year later was enrolled as a student for a fee at the Conservatory of Naples directed by Saverio Mercadante where he reached excellent results, only fifteen years old, he won a competition for a place in the class of counterpoint and composition.

The October 14, 1867 fled from the conservatory to fight alongside of Garibaldi in the campaign for the liberation of Rome but was wounded and taken prisoner. On November 5, he returned to the Conservatory of Naples and shortly after he moved to Milan where he continued his musical studies.

In 1871 he composed his first opera, "Davide Rizio", libretto by Enrico Costa, countryman and cousin of Canepa. The opera in three acts, based on the life of David Rizzio and Mary Stuart, was performed for the first time at the Teatro Carcano in November of the following year and then bought by the publisher Lucca, who took her on stage in many Italian cities and Barcelona.

In 1874 he composed "I Pezzenti" with libretto by Fulvio Fulgonio which was staged at La Scala in September of that year and then in several European theaters.

Canepa was establishing itself more and more, and his third opera, "Riccardo III", composed to a libretto by Fulvio Fulgonio and staged for the first time in 1879, received unanimous praise from critics and other celebrated composers, like Giuseppe Verdi and Amilcare Ponchielli.

A serious illness interrupted his career and forced him to retreat to his native city, where he devoted himself to music criticism and teaching. In 1891 he ran for municipal elections is supported by young intellectuals who had recently founded La Nuova Sardegna is the unitary list of Republicans and moderate and, elected with broad suffrage, held for years the city councilor activities.

Improving his health returned to composing but his celebrity was now gone. In this period he wrote a Mass, a funeral march for Giuseppe Garibaldi and funeral elegy for Nino Bixio, performed in Genoa arrival of his ashes.

He ended his career as a composer with the operetta tragicomic "Amsicora", composed to a libretto by Salvatore Scano and staged at the Teatro Verdi in Sassari in April 1903.

To him they are named the Conservatory of Music of Sassari, the town band, a street of the same city and the Chorale Luigi Canepa, the oldest choral institution of Sardinia.

He is buried, along with his mother and his son Aldo Canepa, in the Monumental Cemetery of Sassari.

1849 births
1914 deaths
19th-century Italian composers

Luigi Canepa


The Saramaka, Saamaka or Saramacca are one of six Maroon peoples (formerly called "Bush Negroes") in the Republic of Suriname and one of the Maroon peoples in French Guiana. In 2007, the Saramaka won a ruling by the Inter-American Court for Human Rights supporting their land rights in Suriname for lands they have historically occupied, over national government claims. It was a landmark decision for indigenous peoples in the world. They have received compensation for damages and control this fund for their own development goals.

The word "Maroon" comes from the Spanish cimarrón, which was derived from an Arawakan root. Since 1990 especially, some of the Saramaka have migrated to French Guiana due to extended civil war in Suriname. By the early 16th century, the term "maroon" (cimarron) was used throughout the Americas to designate slaves who had escaped from slavery and set up independent communities beyond colonists' control.

Setting and language
The 90,000 Saramaka in Suriname (some of whom live in neighboring French Guiana) are one minority within this multi-ethnic nation. The Saramaka, together with the other Maroons in Suriname and French Guiana: the Ndyuka (90,000), and the Matawai, Paramaka, Aluku, and Kwinti (who together number some 25,000).

Since their escape from slavery in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Saramaka have lived chiefly along the Upper Suriname River and its tributaries, the Gaánlío and the Pikílío. Since the 1960s, they also live along the Lower Suriname River in villages constructed by the colonial government and Alcoa, a major aluminum company. They were relocated to allow flooding of approximately half their tribal territory for a hydroelectric project built to supply electricity for an aluminum smelter. Today, about one-third of the Saramaka live in French Guiana, most having migrated there since 1990 after warfare in Suriname.

The Saramaka and the Matawai (in central Suriname) speak variants of a creole language called Saramaccan. The Ndyuka, Paramaka, and Aluku, (in eastern Suriname), as well as the several hundred Kwinti, speak variants of another creole language, Ndyuka. Both languages are historically related to Sranan Tongo, the creole language of coastal Suriname. About 50 percent of the Saramaccan lexicon derives from various West and Central African languages, 20 percent from English (the language of the original colonists in Suriname), 20 percent from Portuguese (the language of the overseers and slave masters on many Suriname plantations), and the remaining 10 percent from Amerindian languages and Dutch (the latter were later colonists). Although lexically different, the grammar resembles that of the other Atlantic creoles and derives from West African models.

History
The ancestors of the Saramaka were among those Africans sold as plantation slaves to Europeans in Suriname in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Coming from a variety of West and Central African peoples speaking many different languages, they escaped into the dense rainforest – individually, in small groups, and sometimes in great collective rebellions. For nearly 100 years, they fought from the rainforest for their independence. They were so feared that late 18th century maps showed the defensive fortifications in the European colony intended to protect against their raids.

In 1762, a full century before the general emancipation of slaves in Suriname, the Maroons won their freedom and signed a treaty with the Dutch Crown to acknowledge their territorial rights and trading privileges. The Saramaka have a keen interest in the history of their formative years; they preserve their very rich oral tradition. Innovative scholarly research since the late 20th century has brought together oral and archival accounts in new histories. Like the other Suriname Maroons, the Saramaka lived almost as a state-within-a-state until the mid-20th century, when the pace of outside encroachments increased.

During the late 1980s, a civil war between Maroons and the military government of Suriname caused considerable hardship to the Saramaka and other Maroons. By mid-1989 approximately 3,000 Saramaka and 8,000 Ndyuka were living as temporary refugees in French Guiana. Access to the outside world was severely restricted for many Saramaka in their homeland. The end of the war in the mid-1990s initiated a period in which the national government largely neglected the needs of Saramaka and other Maroons while granting large timber and mining concessions to foreign multinationals (Chinese, Indonesian, Malaysian, and others) in traditional Saramaka territory. They did not consult the Saramaka authorities.

In addition, during this period there were numerous social changes, both on the coast of Suriname and in Saramaka territory. United States Peace Corps volunteers lived and worked in Saramaka villages, and Brazilian gold-miners arrived on the Suriname river. Such economic activities as prostitution, casino gambling, and drug smuggling became major industries in coastal Suriname and accompanied the miners to the interior.

In the mid-1990s, the Association of Saramaka Authorities filed a complaint before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights to protect their land rights. In November 2007, the Inter-American Court for Human Rights ruled in favor of the Saramaka people against the government of Suriname. In this landmark decision, which establishes a precedent for all Maroon and indigenous peoples in the Americas, the Saramaka were granted collective rights to the lands on which their ancestors had lived since the early 18th century, including rights to decide about the exploitation of natural resources such as timber and gold within that territory. In addition, they were granted compensation from the government for damages caused by previous timber grants made to Chinese companies. This was paid into a special development fund, which is now managed by the Saramaka.

Presence in French Guiana
The Saramaka maroons were originally living in Suriname. They first came to French Guiana in the 19th century as freighters to the interior. During the gold rush, their services became important for the economy. In 1883, the Governor of French Guiana and the Granman (paramount chief) of the Saramaka, signed an official accord that Samarakas could stay in French Guiana under the legal authority of the Granman. The accords have never been rescinded and allow the tribe entry to French Guiana without the risk of deportation.

Subsistence, economy, and the arts

Traditional villages, which average 100 to 200 residents, consist of a core of matrilineal kin plus some wives and children of lineage men. Always located near a river, for water, transportation and fishing, they are constructed of an irregular arrangement of small houses, open-sided structures, domesticated trees, occasional chicken houses, various shrines, and scattered patches of bush. (In contrast, the so-called transmigration villages, built to house the 6,000 Saramaka displaced by the hydroelectric project, range up to 2,000 people. They are laid out in a European-style grid pattern, used throughout larger South American cities. In many cases they have been located far from the riverside, making life difficult for the occupants.) Horticultural camps, which include permanent houses and shrines, are located several hours by canoe from each village. They are exploited by small groups of women related through matrilineal ties.

Due to their matrilineal ties, many women have a house in their own birth village, another in their horticultural camp, and a third in their husband's village. Men divide their time among several different houses, built at various times for themselves and for their wives. Traditional Saramaka houses are compact, wide enough to tie a hammock and not much longer from front to back; with walls of planks and woven palm fronds, and traditionally roofs of thatch or, increasingly, of corrugated metal. They do not have windows but often have elaborately carved facades. Since the Suriname civil war, the Saramaka have built an increasing number of houses in coastal, Western style. They use concrete as well as wood, and feature  windows and more expansive floor plans.

For more than two centuries, the economy has been based on full exploitation of the forest environment and on periodic work trips by men to the coast to bring back Western goods. For subsistence, the Saramaka depend on shifting (swidden) horticulture done mostly by women, with hunting and fishing done by men, supplemented by the women gathering wild forest products, such as palm nuts. They imported a few key items,  such as salt. Rice is the most cultivated crop, in dry (hillside) technique. Other crops include cassava, taro, okra, maize, plantains, bananas, sugarcane, and peanuts. Domesticated trees, such as coconut, orange, breadfruit, papaya, and calabash are mainly cultivated in the villages. There are no markets.

Until the late 20th century, the Saramaka produced most of their material culture, much of it embellished with decorative detail. Women sewed patchwork and embroidered clothing, and carved calabash bowls. Some men also produced baskets, and some women made pottery. Men built the houses and canoes. In addition, they carved a wide range of wooden objects for domestic use, such as stools, paddles, winnowing trays, cooking utensils, and combs. Today, an increasing number of items, including clothing, are imported from the coast.

Body cicatrization, practiced by virtually all Saramaka women as late as the 1970s and 1980s, had become relatively uncommon by the start of the 21st century. Numerous genres of singing, dance, drumming, and tale telling continue to be a vibrant part of Saramaka culture.

Once the men have cleared and burned the fields, horticulture is mainly women's work. Women cultivate and process a variety of crops, choosing which to develop to continue preferred qualities. They process the food for meals and storage of foods such as peanuts. They use parts of plants to make some needed goods.

The men conduct hunting of game with shotguns; they also do most of the fishing as well. Men have long devoted a large portion of their adult years to earning money in work in coastal Suriname or French Guiana. This allows them to buy the Western goods considered essential to life in their home villages, such as shotguns and powder, tools, pots, cloth, hammocks, soap, kerosene, and rum. During the second half of the 20th century, small stores were established in many villages, making more goods available. Outboard motors, transistor radios, and tape recorders became common consumer items. Today, cell phones are ubiquitous; both men and women have greatly increased communication with Paramaribo. New economic opportunities in the gold industry – mining for men, prostitution for women – are being exploited.

Social organization
Saramaka society is firmly based on a matrilineal kinship system. A clan (lo) – often several thousand individuals – consists of the matrilineal descendants of an original band of escaped slaves. Children are considered born into this clan. It is subdivided into lineages (bee) – usually 50 to 150 people – descended from a more recent ancestress. Several lineages from a single clan constitute the core of every village.

The matrilineal clans (lo) own land, based on claims staked out in the early 18th century as the original Maroons fled southward to freedom. Hunting and gathering rights belong to clan members collectively. Within the clan, temporary rights to land use for farming are negotiated by village headmen. The establishment of transmigration villages in the 1960s led to land shortages in certain regions. The success of the Saramakas in their lawsuit against the government of Suriname will now permit them to manage their lands with less outside interference.

Complex marriage prohibitions (including bee exogamy) and preferences are negotiated through divination. Demographic imbalance, owing to labor migration, permits widespread polygyny. Although co-wives hold equal status, relations between them are expected to be adversarial. The Saramaka treat marriage as an ongoing courtship, with frequent exchanges of gifts such as men's woodcarving and women's decorative sewing. Although many women live primarily in their husband's village, men never spend more than a few days at a time in the matrilineal (home) village of a wife.

Each house belongs to an individual man or woman, but most social interaction occurs outdoors. The men in each cluster of several houses, whether bee members or temporary visitors, eat meals together. The women of these same clusters, whether bee members or resident wives of bee men, spend a great deal of time in each other's company, often farming together as well.

Matrilineal principles, mediated by divination, determine the inheritance of material and spiritual possessions as well as political offices. Before death, however, men often pass on specialized ritual knowledge (and occasionally a shotgun) to a son.

Each child, after spending its first several years with its mother, is raised by an individual man or woman (not a couple) designated by the bee, girls typically are raised by women, and boys by men. Although children spend most of their time with matrilineal kin, father-child relations are warm and strong. Gender identity is established early, with children taking on responsibility for gender-typed adult tasks as soon as they are physically able. Girls often marry by age 15, whereas boys are more often in their twenties when they take their first wife.

A woman is required to go into seclusion during her menstrual cycle. The cycle is considered a time of transgression and destructive of village order. Women are not allowed to perform many of the village's functions and face other restrictions during their menstrual cycle. The Saramaka expression "to be in menstrual seclusion" is the same as "to be in mourning."

Political organization and social control
The Saramaka people, like the other Maroon groups, are politically and formally run by men. The 2007 ruling of the Inter-American Court for Human Rights helps define the spheres of influence in which the national government and Saramaka authorities hold sway.

Saramaka society is egalitarian, with kinship forming the backbone of social organization. No social or occupational classes are distinguished. Elders are accorded special respect and ancestors are consulted, through divination, on a daily basis.

Protestant missionary schools have existed in some villages since the 18th century. State elementary schools came to most villages only in the 1960s. Schools ceased to function completely during the Suriname civil war of the late 1980s and have been rebuilt only partially since.

Since the 18th-century treaty, the Saramaka have had a government-approved paramount chief (gaamá), as well as a series of headmen (kabiteni) and assistant headmen (basiá). Traditionally, the role of these officials in political and social control was exercised in a context replete with oracles, spirit possession, and other forms of divination. As the national government is intervening more frequently in Saramaka affairs (and paying political officials nominal salaries), the sacred base of these officials' power is gradually being eroded. These political offices are historically controlled and the property of clans (lo). Political activity is strongly dominated by men.

Council meetings (kuútu) and divination sessions provide complementary arenas for the resolution of social problems. Palavers may involve the men of a lineage, a village, or all Saramaka. They treat problems ranging from conflicts concerning marriage or fosterage to land disputes, political succession, or major crimes. These same problems, in addition to illness and other kinds of misfortune, are routinely interpreted through various kinds of divination as well. In all cases, consensus is found through negotiation, often with a strong role being played by gods and ancestors. In a type of reconciliation justice, guilty parties are usually required to pay for their misdeeds with material offerings to the lineage of the offended person. In the 18th century people found guilty of witchcraft were sometimes burned at the stake. Today, men caught in flagrante delicto with the wife of another man are either beaten by the woman's kinsmen or made to pay them a fine.

Aside from adultery disputes, which sometimes mobilize a full canoe-load of men seeking revenge in a public fistfight, intra-Saramaka conflict rarely surpasses the level of personal relations. The civil war that began in 1986, pitting Maroons against the national army of Suriname, brought major changes to the villages of the interior. Members of the "Jungle Commando" rebel army, almost all Ndyuka and Saramaka, learned to use automatic weapons. They became accustomed to a state of war and plunder. Their reintegration into Saramaka (and Ndyuka) society has been difficult, though their migration to the coast and French Guiana has provided a safety valve, if not for the receiving areas.

Belief system
Every aspect of Saramaka life is based in various religious beliefs. Such decisions as where to clear a garden or build a house, whether to undertake a trip, or how to deal with theft or adultery are made in consultation with village deities, ancestors, forest spirits, and snake gods. The means of communication with these powers vary from spirit possession and the consultation of oracle-bundles, to the interpretation of dreams. Gods and spirits, which are a constant presence in daily life, are also honored through frequent prayers, libations, feasts, and dances.

The rituals surrounding birth, death, and other life passages are extensive, as are those relating to more mundane activities, from hunting a tapir to planting a rice field. Today about 25 per cent of Saramaka are nominal Christians – mainly Moravian (some since the mid-18th century), but others Roman Catholic. Increasingly some are converted to Evangelicalism of one or another kind.

The Saramaka world is populated by a wide range of supernatural beings, from localized forest spirits and gods that reside in the bodies of snakes, vultures, jaguars, and other animals, to ancestors, river gods, and warrior spirits. Within these categories, each supernatural being is named, individualized, and given specific relationships to living people. Intimately involved in the ongoing events of daily life, these beings communicate to humans mainly through divination and spirit possession. Kúnus are the avenging spirits of people or gods who were wronged during their lifetime and who pledge themselves to eternally tormenting the matrilineal descendants and close matrilineal kinsmen of their offender. Much of Saramaka ritual life is devoted to their appeasement. The Saramaka believe that all evil originates in human action; not only does each misfortune, illness, or death stem from a specific past misdeed, but every offense, whether against people or gods, has eventual consequences. The ignoble acts of the dead intrude daily on the lives of the living; any illness or misfortune calls for divination, which quickly reveals the specific past act that caused it. Through the performance of rites, the ancestors speak, the gods dance, and the world is again made right.

Individual specialists who supervise rites oversee the major village- and clan-owned shrines that serve large numbers of clients, as well as the various categories of possession gods, and various kinds of minor divination. These specialists generally pass on their knowledge to selected individuals before death. A large proportion of Saramaka have some kind of specialized ritual expertise, which they occasionally exercise. They are paid in cloth, rum, or, increasingly, cash.

Saramaka ceremonial life is not determined by the calendar, but rather regulated by the occurrence of particular misfortunes, interpreted through divination. The most important ceremonies include those surrounding funerals and the appeasement of ancestors, public curing rites, rituals in honor of kúnus (in particular snake gods and forest spirits), and the installation of political officials.

Every case of illness is believed to have a specific cause that can be determined only through divination. The causes revealed vary from a lineage kúnu to sorcery, from a broken taboo to an ancestor's displeasure. Once the cause is known, rites are carried out to appease the offended god or ancestor (or otherwise right the social imbalance). Since the 1960s, Western mission clinics and hospitals have been used by most Saramaka as a supplement to their own healing practices. During the Suriname Civil War of the 1980s and 1990s, most of these facilities were destroyed. They have only been very partially restored since.

The dead play an active role in the lives of the living. Ancestor shrines – several to a village – are the site of frequent prayers and libations, as the dead are consulted about ongoing village problems. A death occasions a series of complex rituals that lasts about a year, culminating in the final passage of the deceased to the status of ancestor. The initial rites, which are carried out over a period of one week to three months, depending on the importance of the deceased, end with the burial of the corpse in an elaborately constructed coffin filled with personal belongings. These rites include divination with the coffin (to consult the spirit of the deceased) by carrying it on the heads of two men, feasts for the ancestors, all-night drum/song/dance performances, and the telling of folktales. Some months later, a "second funeral" is conducted to mark the end of the mourning period and to chase the ghost of the deceased from the village forever. These rites involve the largest public gatherings in Saramaka and also include all-night drum/song/dance performances. At their conclusion, the deceased has passed out of the realm of the living into that of the ancestors.

Isolation
The Saramaka people beyond Gaan Lio lived in relative isolation and as an uncontacted people group from the time of their ancestor's escape from slavery in the eighteenth century. In the latter part of 1993, a local, independent missionary by the name of Steve Groseclose and a small group of Saramaka men from other less remote villages ventured beyond the main barrier point called Tapa Wata Sula, translated as Shut Off Rapids. This initial excursion led to subsequent trips and began the gradual influx of increasing outside influence throughout the following years. A local Saramaka man named Pompeia had left one of the uncontacted villages to visit the capital city of Paramaribo earlier that year. His knowledge of the villages beyond Tapa Wata Sula made him an invaluable guide on the first trips into the area.

Ethnographic studies
Ethnography among the Saramaka was first conducted by Americans Melville and Frances Herskovits (during two summers in 1928 and 1929). Americans Richard and Sally Price have also studied the people (intermittently between 1966 and the present: in Suriname until 1986, and in French Guiana thereafter). This late-20th century fieldwork complements the modern fieldwork carried out among other groups of Suriname Maroons, such as the Ndyuka ethnography of Dutch scholars Bonno Thoden van Velzen and his partner Ineke van Wetering.

Edward C. Green, an American medical anthropologist, conducted fieldwork among the Matawais between 1970 and 1973, with intermittent visits since. His doctoral dissertation focused on changes underway then in the matrilineal kinship and indigenous spiritual belief systems. He has become known for his work on processes related to AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, especially in African nations, and making use of indigenous healers.

Notes

References

Further reading

 Brunner, Lisl. 2008. "The Rise of Peoples' Rights in the Americas: The Saramaka People Decision of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights." Chinese Journal of International Law 7:699-711.
 "Case of the Saramaka People v. Suriname." Inter-American Court for Human Rights (ser. C). No. 172 (28 November 2007)
 Green, Edward C. The Matawai Maroons: An Acculturating Afro American Society, (Ph.D. dissertation, Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 1974.) Available through University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1974.
 Green, Edward C., "Rum: A Special purpose Money in Matawai Society", Social and Economic Studies, Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 411 417, 1976.
 Green, Edward C., "Matawai Lineage Fission", Bijdragen Tot de Taal Land En Volkenkunde (Contributions to Linguistics and Ethnology, the Netherlands), Vol.133, pp. 136 154, 1977.
 Green, Edward C., "Social Control in Tribal Afro America", Anthropological Quarterly, Vol 50(3) pp. 107 116, 1977.
 Green, Edward C., "Winti and Christianity: A Study of Religious Change", Ethnohistory, Vol.25, No.3, pp. 251 276, 1978;
 Herskovits, Melville J., and Frances S. Herskovits. 1934. Rebel Destiny: Among the Bush Negroes of Dutch Guiana. New York and London: McGraw-Hill.
 Kambel, Ellen-Rose, and Fergus MacKay. 1999. The Rights of Indigenous People and Maroons in Suriname. Copenhagen, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.
 Migge, Bettina (ed.). 2007. "Substrate Influence in the Creoles of Suriname." Special issue of Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 22(1).
 Polimé, T. S., and H. U. E. Thoden van Velzen. 1998. Vluchtelingen, opstandelingen en andere: Bosnegers van Oost-Suriname, 1986-1988. Utrecht: Instituut voor Culturele Antropologie.
 Price, Richard. 1975. Saramaka Social Structure: Analysis of a Maroon Society in Surinam. Río Piedras, Puerto Rico: Institute of Caribbean Studies.
 Price, Richard. 1983. First-Time: The Historical Vision of an Afro-American People. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
 Price, Richard. 1983. To Slay the Hydra: Dutch Colonial Perspectives on the Saramaka Wars. Ann Arbor: Karoma.
 Price, Richard. 1990. Alabi's World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
 Richard Price (ed.). 1996. Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 3rd edition.
 Price, Richard. 2002. "Maroons in Suriname and Guyane: How Many and Where." New West Indian Guide 76:81-88.
 Price, Richard. 2008. Travels with Tooy: History, Memory, and the African American Imagination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
 Price, Richard. 2011. Rainforest Warriors: Human Rights on Trial. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
 Price, Richard, and Sally Price. 1977. "Music from Saramaka: A Dynamic Afro American Tradition", Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Folkways Recording FE 4225.
 Price, Richard, and Sally Price. 1991. Two Evenings in Saramaka. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
 Price, Richard, and Sally Price. 2003. Les Marrons. Châteauneuf-le-Rouge: Vents d'ailleurs.
 Price, Richard, and Sally Price. 2003. The Root of Roots, Or, How Afro-American Anthropology Got Its Start. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press.
 Price, Sally. 1984. Co-Wives and Calabashes. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
 Price, Sally, and Richard Price. 1999. Maroon Arts: Cultural Vitality in the African Diaspora. Boston: Beacon Press.
 Thoden van Velzen, H.U.E., and W. van Wetering. 1988. The Great Father and the Danger: Religious Cults, Material Forces, and Collective Fantasies in the World of the Suriname Maroons. Dordrecht: Foris.
 Thoden van Velzen, H.U.E., and W. van Wetering. 2004. In the Shadow of the Oracle: Religion as Politics in a Suriname Maroon Society. Long Grove: Waveland.
 Westoll, Andrew. 2008. The Riverbones: Stumbling After Eden in the Jungles of Suriname. Toronto: Emblem Editions.

Indigenous land rights
Surinamese Maroons

Saramaka


The Lord-Dane House is a historic house in Alfred, York County, Maine.  Built in about 1803 as a country retreat for a ship's captain, it is a high-quality example of Federal architecture in a rural context.  The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

Description and history
The Lord-Dane House is set at the northwest corner of Federal and Gore Streets, a few miles north of Alfred's village center.  Federal Street was, at the time of the house's construction, the primary road from the village to the northern reaches of the geographically large municipality.  The house is a rambling two story L-shaped wood-frame structure, with a main block connected via ells to a former storehouse and carriage barn, which are now fully integrated into the structure.  The main block has a hip roof, central chimney, and clapboard siding.  There are major entrances on both the south and east-facing facades of the main block.  Extending west from the main block is a gable-roof ell, which joins a similar ell at right angles.  That ell extends south to connect to the carriage barn, whose door bays have been replaced by false fronts resembling doors.  Portions of the house's exterior exhibit 19th-century stylistic alterations, including Greek Revival and Italianate elements.

The house was built about 1803 by Tobias Lord, a wealthy ship's captain and merchant operating out of Kennebunk.  His second wife, Hepzibah Conant, whom he married in 1781, was an Alfred native, and the couple moved to Alfred after building this house.  He died in 1808, she in 1816, and it was sold out of the family in 1821 by their heirs.  Its most notable 19th-century resident was Nathan Dane, a lumber merchant and banker who also served in the state senate and as state treasurer in the 1860s.  Dane lived here from 1830 to 1868.

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in York County, Maine

References

Federal architecture in Maine
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Houses in York County, Maine
Alfred, Maine
National Register of Historic Places in York County, Maine

Lord-Dane House


Charles David Beard (born October 2, 1959) is a former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, Chicago Cubs, and Detroit Tigers from 1980 to 1989.

Following his high school days at Sequoyah High School in Doraville, Georgia, Beard was drafted by the Athletics in the sixth round of the 1977 amateur draft. After two strong minor league seasons in three years, Beard was promoted to the Athletics and made his major league debut at age 20 on July 16, 1980, pitching the ninth inning of a loss to the Tigers. He appeared in twelve more games that season, all in relief, and earned one save and one loss on the season, posting an earned run average of 3.38. The Athletics tended to use him in games they were losing; in fact, his team was on top only twice when he was summoned to the mound, and their only win in a game where Beard appeared was when he earned his lone save on August 1 against the Cleveland Indians.

In 1981, Beard was called up to the big leagues when rosters expanded September 1, and he appeared in eight games over the final month, collecting three more saves and his first big league win, which came in the first game of a doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays on September 22, when he held Toronto scoreless for the final 5 innings of an extra inning tilt. He made two postseason appearances with the playoff-bound A's. His first appearance was a 1-inning save to close out the Divisional Series against the Kansas City Royals. However, his ALCS appearance versus the New York Yankees would be less successful; he allowed three earned runs in  of an inning in game 2 as the Yankees swept the A's out of the playoffs.

Still, Beard impressed enough to earn a roster spot for 1982, when he spent nearly the entire season in the big leagues for the first time, going 10–9 with 11 saves and a 3.44 ERA. However, injury hit in 1983, and Beard struggled to a 5.61 ERA and a 5–5 record while posting 10 more saves. After the season, Oakland parted ways with Beard, trading him to the Seattle Mariners with Bob Kearney in exchange for Darrel Akerfelds and Bill Caudill.

With Seattle in 1984, Beard had injury issues again, with 37 days between big league appearances at one point during the season. He went 3–2 with only five saves and an even higher ERA of 5.80. They released him after spring training in 1985, but he was signed by Cleveland less than two weeks later. After 16 appearances with their AAA club in Maine, Cleveland shipped Beard to the Cubs organization in exchange for Tom Grant. Beard posted a sparkling 0.56 ERA in 11 games for the Cubs AAA team in Iowa, posting two wins and three saves, before being called up to the big leagues again when rosters expanded in September. He managed just a 6.39 ERA in nine appearances and was released after the season.

The Atlanta Braves signed Beard as a free agent in December 1985. He spent all of 1986 with their AAA team before again opting for free agency. Beard was out of baseball for 14 months before signing with the Tigers. He then spent all of 1988 and much of 1989 as a starting pitcher in Detroit's farm system, working his way back to the majors again. He made his first start since June 29, 1982 when the Tigers called him up for a July 18 game in the 1989 season. Unfortunately for Beard, four unearned runs scored early due to a Doug Strange error, and his day did not get much better. He took the loss in what would be his penultimate major league contest. His final appearance was three days later, and after allowing two runs in  of an inning, Beard found himself back in the minors. He was released after the 1989 season and subsequently retired.

External links

1959 births
Living people
Baseball players from Atlanta
Chicago Cubs players
Seattle Mariners players
Oakland Athletics players
Detroit Tigers players
Ogden A's players
Waterbury A's players
Maine Guides players
Iowa Cubs players
Glens Falls Tigers players
Richmond Braves players
Toledo Mud Hens players
Tacoma Tigers players
Modesto A's players
Salt Lake City Gulls players
Medicine Hat A's players
Major League Baseball pitchers

Dave Beard


Joseph Barclay Pentland (17 January 1797 – 12 July 1873) was an Irish geographer, natural scientist, and traveller.  Born in Ballybofey (County Donegal, Ireland), Pentland was educated at Armagh.  He also studied in Paris, and worked with Georges Cuvier.

With Woodbine Parish, Pentland surveyed a large part of the Bolivian Andes between 1826 and 1827.  He published his Report on Bolivia in 1827.  From 1836 to 1839, he served as British consul-general in Bolivia.  He corresponded with Charles Darwin and William Buckland.

Pentland died 12 July 1873 in London, and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

Legacy
The mineral pentlandite, which Pentland first noted
The crater Pentland on the Moon
The Andean tinamou (binomial name, Nothoprocta pentlandii)
The Puna tinamou (binomial name, Tinamotis pentlandii)
The cactus Lobivia pentlandii which Pentland discovered and sent to Kew Botanic Gardens, London

Sources
 Mineral names
 The Darwin Correspondence Online Database

References

Further reading
Sarjeant, W.A.S. and Delair, J.B., "Joseph Pentland: a forgotten pioneer in the osteology of fossil marine reptiles," Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeology Society, 1976, pp. 12–16.
Sarjeant, W.A.S. and Delair, J.B., "An Irishman in Cuvier's laboratory.  The letters of Joseph Pentland, 1820-1832," Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History, Historical Series, vol. 6, no. 7, 1979, pp. 245–319.
Sarjeant, W.A.S., "Joseph Pentland's early geological and geographical work in Bolivia and Peru," in S. Figueiroa and M. Lopes (eds.), Geological sciences in Latin America.  Scientific relations and exchanges.  (Papers presented at the XVII INHIGEO Congress, Campinas, SP, Brazil, July 19–25, 1993).  Campinas Brazil: Universidade Estadual de Campinas.  Instituto de Geociencias, pp. 11–27.

1797 births
1873 deaths
Irish naturalists
19th-century Irish explorers
Irish surveyors
British diplomats
British explorers
Burials at Brompton Cemetery
People from Ballybofey

Joseph Barclay Pentland


Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680–1800, is a book written by historian Allan Kulikoff. Published in 1986, it is the first major study that synthesized the historiography of the colonial Chesapeake region of the United States. Tobacco and Slaves is a neo-Marxist study that explains the creation of a racial caste system in the tobacco-growing regions of Maryland and Virginia and the origins of southern slave society. Kulikoff uses statistics compiled from colonial court and church records, tobacco sales, and land surveys to conclude that economic, political, and social developments in the 18th-century Chesapeake established the foundations of economics, politics, and society in the 19th-century South.

Historiographic background
During the early 20th century, the historiography of the Chesapeake colonies was dominated by the Cavalier myth. Studies focused exclusively on the white planter elite who were portrayed as both the descendants of English Cavaliers and the progenitors of the Virginia dynasty that controlled the first fifty years of post-Revolutionary American politics. Much attention was given to the families of prominent Virginian statesmen George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Challenges to the Cavalier myth and its influence on the historiography appeared in Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker's Torchbearer of the Revolution: The Story of Bacon's Rebellion and Its Leaders (1940), Wesley Frank Craven's The Southern Colonies in the Seventheenth Century, 1607–1689 (1949), and Carl Bridenbaugh's Myths and Realities: Societies of the Colonial South (1952).

Despite revision of the traditional historiography, African American slaves and women remained in the periphery of studies of the Chesapeake until the 1960s.  Winthrop D. Jordan's White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812 (1968) offered the first interpretation of the roles of women and slaves in the Chesapeake colonies.  Since the 1960s, scholars have produced broad examinations of colonial Chesapeake society. Gerald W. Mullin's Flight and Rebellion: Slave Resistance in Eighteenth-Century Virginia (1972), Edmund S. Morgan's American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (1975), Lois G. Carr and Lorena S. Walsh's article "The Planter's Wife: The Experience of White Women in Seventeenth-Century Maryland" (1977) printed in the William and Mary Quarterly, Rhys Isaac's The Transformation of Virginia, 1740–1790 (1982), and Jan Lewis's The Pursuit of Happiness: Family and Values in Jefferson's Virginia (1983) and Kathleen D. Brown's Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia (1996) offer analyses of women, slaves, and poorer whites in the Chesapeake.

Along with social and cultural histories, historians of the Chesapeake continued to study the relationships between politics and the economy that drew the Chesapeake colonies into the Revolution. Ronald Hoffman's A Spirit of Dissension: Economics, Politics, and the Revolution in Maryland (1973), Paul G. E. Clemens's The Atlantic Economy and Colonial Maryland's Eastern Shore: From Tobacco to Grain (1980), Gloria L. Main's Tobacco Colony: Life in Early Maryland, 1650-1720 (1982), and Isaac's Transformation of Virginia forward diverse interpretations of the connections between politics, economy, and revolution and the changes they elicited. Out of this historiographic milieu, Allan Kulikoff produced Tobacco and Slaves in an attempt to synthesize the disparate interpretations and analyses with his own research of the Chesapeake.

Kulikoff's argument
In Tobacco and Slaves, Kulikoff states that there have been two tendencies among modern historians of the Chesapeake. Scholars either stress the importance of economic and demographic patterns of development in the 17th century or the political and cultural transformations in the 18th century. "Both groups," asserts Kulikoff, "tend to slight the significance of the half-century before the Revolution." "In contrast," insists Kulikoff, "the kind of familial, class, and race relations found in the antebellum South first developed in the Chesapeake region between 1720 and 1770."  In this period, Kulikoff argues that three structural changes led to the creation of a racial caste system: a decline in opportunity for social mobility for whites, the beginnings of natural increase among whites, and the rise of chattel slavery.  These changes encouraged the formation of classes through efforts by the gentry to "mak[e] slaves efficient workers and devis[e] a ruling class ideology."

Kulikoff analyzes the consequences of these structural shifts for white and black residents of the Chesapeake. White inhabitants experienced the creation of patriarchial families, the evolution of kinship networks, and the formation of the gentry and yeoman classes. Slaves, on the other hand, witnessed the development of black communities, the creation of extended families and eventually kinship networks, and finally the development of a new racial etiquette that governed the relationship between master and slave.

Notes

Further reading
• Kulikoff, Allan. The Agrarian Origins of American Capitalism.

External links
 Tobacco and Slaves at University of North Carolina Press.
 Tobacco and Slaves at Google Books.

1986 non-fiction books
20th-century history books
African-American history of Maryland
History of slavery in Maryland
African-American history of Virginia
American history books
Books about African-American history
Province of Maryland
Colony of Virginia
History of agriculture in the United States
History of slavery in Virginia
History of the Southern United States
History of the Thirteen Colonies
Works about the tobacco industry
Neo-Marxism
Non-fiction books about American slavery
History books about the United States
University of North Carolina Press books
Books about Virginia

Tobacco and Slaves


Charlotte (Gustava Charlotta) Slottsberg (29 May 1760 –  29 May 1800) was a Swedish ballerina.  She was one of the first native members of the Royal Swedish Ballet.  She was also known as a courtesan and as the controversial mistress of the future Charles XIII of Sweden.  She was the first native star of the Royal Swedish Ballet.

Life

Charlotte Slottsberg was born in Stockholm as the daughter and only child of the wig maker Andreas Slottsberg and the dancer Lovisa Charlotta Schumbardt.  The home was described as poor.

Her mother and maternal aunts were both active as dancers, and she was likely given her first training by them, and reportedly also performed with them during her childhood, though it is not confirmed where.  Her father occasionally worked for the French theatre, where she came to know Louis Gallodier, and she was enrolled as a student of the French ballet during her childhood, and made her debut in a ballet at the age of eight at the Confidencen on Ulriksdal Palace in 1768.    In October 1771, her mother "Madame Slottsberg" and her two aunts are both registered as members of the Ballet of the French theatre.

Career in the Royal Swedish ballet

When the French Du Londel theatre was dissolved by king Gustav III of Sweden after his succession to the throne in 1771, many of its ballet dancers were transferred to the newly founded Royal Swedish Ballet, as was Charlotte Slottsberg, her mother and aunts.  At the foundation of the Royal Swedish Ballet and the Royal Swedish Opera, there were initially few trained native performers, particularly in the ballet, and foreign artists mainly from France and Italy were engaged to educate the first generation of Swedish ballet dancers, often consisting of the children of musicians and members of the domestic staff of the royal court: in the first ballet of 1773, Charlotte Slottsberg and Magdalena Lundblad are noted to have belonged to the minority of already trained native dancers.

On 18 January 1773, she participated in the famous opera Thetis och Pélée by Francesco Uttini at the inauguration performance of the Royal Swedish Opera (as well as the Royal Swedish Ballet) in the role of Virtue opposite her personal friend Betty Olin (daughter of Elisabeth Olin) as Love. Carl Christoffer Gjörwell called her "as beautiful as a spring day" and noted: "Our new M.lle Slottsberg will become one of the greatest dancers in Europe, and never set foot in the theatre without the most constant applause from the Royal box."

Charlotte Slottsberg arguably became the first native ballet celebrity in Sweden, during a time when the Swedish ballet was otherwise dominated by foreign dancers such as Elisabeth Soligny and Giovanna Bassi, and was a celebrated star of the Ballet.  She was a favourite partner of the male star ballet dancer Antoine Bournonville, was appointed premier ballerina in the 1786–87 season.

Among the parts she danced was Aurora in the Procris och Cephal by Grétry with Carl Stenborg and Lovisa Augusti the season of 1777–78, Lucile in the pantomime ballet La Rosiére de Salency by Jean Marcadet with Antoine Bournonville and Carlo Uttini (1786–87), as Bellona opposite Giovanna Bassi as Pallas in the ballet made by Louis Gallodier to the opera Gustav Adolf och Ebba Brahe by Gustav III (1787–88).

"The undeniable girl" Slottsberg's performance in the opera Acis och Galathea by Lars Lalin after Händel the 1773–74 season was one of the few individual performances to receive unanimous admiration in that opera.  On 22 September 1789 she played Elmira in Soliman och de tre sultaninnorna (Soliman and the three sultanesses) by Joseph Martin Kraus in the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Bollhuset.

Courtesan

Charlotte Slottberg was widely regarded as a high class courtesan in parallel to her career in the ballet, and she is known to have several rich lovers from whom she benefited financially.  Her mother and her two maternal aunts were reportedly also prostitutes.    Already in 1774, at the age of fourteen, she was reported to be the mistress of "the nasty old" Austrian ambassador count Joseph Clemens von Kaunitz-Rietberg, and she reportedly made her debut as prostitute to help her father out of a debt.   Among her other known lovers were the statesmen count Fredrik Sparre and Carl Wilhelm Seele and several other men from the aristocracy and political and diplomatic world.

From 1777, she is known to have been the mistress of Prince Charles, Duke of Södermanland, brother to king Gustav III, who became the most known of all her lovers.  Their affair continued on an on-an-off basis for about twenty years, was regarded a scandal and attracted much negative publicity to Duke Charles.  Unlike her colleague in the Ballet, Sophie Hagman, who was the mistress of Charles' brother Prince Frederick, Charlotte Slottberg was never allowed to attend the royal court or have any position of an official mistress because of her reputation as a courtesan, and her affair with Charles was in contrast to that of Hagman and Prince Frederick never publicly acknowledged in any way.  Their relationship was never exclusive in either part.   In parallel to her, Duke Charles had a string of other lovers simultaneously - his affairs to Charlotte Eckerman and Françoise-Éléonore Villain, among others, all took place when Slottsberg was his mistress.  Charlotte Slottsberg herself also had several acknowledged lovers in parallel to Charles.  Nevertheless, Slottsberg was referred to as the "Favourite Sultaness" of his "harem" and as someone he always returned to in the end, and Johan Magnus af Nordin referred to her as "the Concubiness, the deputy duchess and regentess etc".

Charlotte Slottsberg is attributed influence over Duke Charles, and her purported influence exposed her to hostility. She is said to have given him an interest in culture, inspired him to attempt to write plays, and encouraged him to share her interest in champagne, and cheered him up when he was depressed.  In 1790, she was rumoured to have been given an allowance from king Gustav III of Sweden in exchange for influencing his brother Charles to his advantage,  which was commented to in a letter by Charles' sister, princess Sophia Albertina of Sweden on 13 April 1790: "He is truly so blinded and enchanted by that nasty Slottsberg, who makes him do all these stupid things and controls him: she is herself bought by the king, who provides her with a pension and inform her of everything, which he wants the duke to do."

The dislike of the alleged influence of Slottsberg became more intense during Charles' reign as regent during the minority of his nephew king Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden in 1792–96.  It is not known if she ever met the de facto regent Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm or had any real influence, but she was often mentioned in the political debate.    When silk and coffee was (temporarily) banned in an extremely disliked sumptuary law by the regency government, the public opinion pointed to the disregard for this law among the upper classes and "In Stockholm it was loudly said, that as long as the mamsell's Slottsberg and Löf (the mistresses of the duke) wore silk and all kinds of finery, such things should not be banned."
During the pillorying of Magdalena Rudenschöld, who had been judged guilty of conspiracy against the regency government of Charles, the crowd was reportedly saying that Charlotte Slottsberg should have been standing on the platform instead of Rudenschöld, and an incident followed in which her carriage was attacked.

Duke Charles gave Slottsberg the honorary title Överfataburshustru - the title Fataburshustru was the title for the Mistress of the Royal Linen and Textiles and a non-aristocratic court office, but Slottsberg was called "Chief Fataburshustru" ('Överfataburshustru') and in practice had nothing to with the actual office. In 1795, Duke Charles further more allowed Charlotte Slottsberg to use a carriage of a design normally reserved for noblewomen introduced at the royal court - a carriage with seven glass windows - manned by guards in the livery of the Duke.    This created a scandal and widespread dislike at court, voiced by the duchess, which caused the regent Duke Charles to see a need to make his relationship with Slottsberg less visible, he stopped allowing her to use this type of a carriage and drivers with his ducal livery.

In 1797, the relationship between Slottsberg and Duke Charles was finally terminated.

Private life

Through her connections, she acquired a substantial fortune.  Charlotte Slottsberg lived in an apartment furnished in great luxury in Stockholm. She also had a country estate in Järva near Ulriksdal Palace.  Slottberg was described as a confident woman but also as vulgar, rude and provocative.  On one occasion, she attracted attention by racing through the streets of the capital in an expensive carriage after black horses.

Privately, Slottsberg was in love with the cavalry rider Adolf Fredrik Heitmüller, who reportedly pawned the jewelry given to her by Duke Charles.

In 1799, she married captain Adolph Granholm, a former marine officer: he was the same age as she and described as good looking but "stupid as an ox."  She died in Stockholm in a heart attack after a miscarriage.

After her death, her former lover Duke Charles confiscated her fortune despite the protests of her widower and her surviving mother, claiming that she had debts to him which amounted to the value of her entire estate. This was considered a scandal and "not very royal" of him.  Charlotte Slottsberg was given a grand funeral.

Letter of Charlotte Slottsberg

In one of her letters to count Sparre, she inform him that she had noticed that a letter from the duke had been taken from her room. The letter, which is partially misspelled, is a part of the Sparre collection and quite well known:

Noble Sire. When I am so bold as to write a few lines to your Excellency, I would most humbly ask Y. Ex. not to take offence if I remind you of the letter which Y. Ex. took from the pot in my bed room and which I did not with consent allow Y. Ex to take with him and it is now the second time I write to Y. Ex. about this without having it been given back to me and I did not expect such a noble gentlemen to behave this way. I must receive it before tonight if not the highly distinguished gentleman who will come to me then and who left the letter with me will know that it has left my rooms, but I will have to be as bold to say, that if it is not back by then, I will say that your Excellency have taken the letter with him and that is something you do not wish for anything, and except the agony I have now suffered for the sake of Y. Ex, everything will be forgotten if I have the letter returned and Y.Ex. can be assured of as much favouritism as before. The letter must be with me at nine o'clock this evening. Your Excellency's most humble servant Ch. Slottsberg.

References

Sources
 Österberg, Carin, Lewenhaupt, Inga & Wahlberg, Anna Greta, Svenska kvinnor: föregångare nyskapare, Signum, Lund, 1990
 Kjellberg, Bertil, Beijer, Agne & Andersson, Ingvar (red.), Gustavianskt: [1771-1810], Wahlström & Widstrand, Stockholm, 1945

 Kungliga teaterns repertoar 1773-1973 ['Repertoire of the Royal Theatre 1773-1973'], 1974

 "Svenska män och kvinnor, bok nr 7", Torsten Dahl, 1954,
 Löfgren, Lars, Svensk teater, Natur och kultur, Stockholm, 2003
 Klas Ralf, Prisma, Operan 200 år. Jubelboken ['Opera 200 Year Jubilee Book']
 Oscar Levertin: Teater och drama under Gustaf III, Albert Bonniers förlag, Stockholm, Fjärde Upplagan (1920). ['Teater och drama under Gustaf III'] (in Swedish)
 Grimberg, Carl Gustaf,  Svenska folkets underbara öden, Stockholm : Norstedt, 1916

Further reading

1760 births
1800 deaths
Mistresses of Charles XIII
Swedish ballerinas
18th-century Swedish ballet dancers
Swedish courtesans
Royal Swedish Ballet dancers
Gustavian era people
Deaths in childbirth

Charlotte Slottsberg