Battle of Spion Kop

The Battle of Spion Kop (; ) was a military engagement between British forces and two Boer Republics—the South African Republic and the Orange Free State—during the campaign by the British to relieve the besieged city Ladysmith during the initial months of the Second Boer War. The battle was fought 23–24 January 1900 on the hilltop of Spion Kop(1), about west-southwest of Ladysmith.
It resulted in a Boer victory.
Prelude.
Planning and crossing the Tugela.
General Sir Redvers Buller, VC, commander of the British forces in Natal, was attempting to relieve a British force besieged in Ladysmith. The Boers under General Louis Botha held the Tugela River against him. Although Botha's men were outnumbered, they were mostly equipped with modern Mauser rifles and up-to-date field guns, and had carefully entrenched their positions. In late December, 1899, Buller made a frontal assault on the Boer positions at the Battle of Colenso. The result was a heavy British defeat.
Over the next few weeks, Buller received further reinforcements, and also acquired sufficient carts and transport to operate away from the railway line which was his main supply line. Buller devised a new plan of attack to relieve Ladysmith. His army was to launch a two-pronged offensive designed to cross the Tugela River at two points and create a bridgehead. They would then attack the defensive line that blocked Buller's advance to Ladysmith. The area was only from Ladysmith. Buller delegated control of his main force to General Sir Charles Warren, to cross at Trichardt's Drift. Buller would then send a second smaller force, under Major-General Neville Lyttelton to attack east of Warren's force as a diversion at Potgieter's Drift. Once across the Tugela the British would attack the Boer defensive positions and then cross the open plains to relieve Ladysmith.
Warren's force numbered 11,000 infantry, 2,200 cavalry, and 36 field guns. (2nd and 5th Divisions) On the 11th they marched westward to cross the Little Tugela and take up position in front of Potgieter's Ferry. However their march was easily visible to the Boers, and so slow (due in part to the massive baggage trains necessary to British officers at the time – Warren's included a cast iron bathroom and well-equipped kitchen) that by the time they arrived at the Tugela, the Boers had entrenched a new position covering it. On the 18th British mounted troops under the Earl of Dundonald enterprisingly reached the extreme Boer right flank, from where there was little to stop them riding to Ladysmith, but Warren recalled them to guard the force's baggage. Once all his force had crossed the river, Warren sent part of the 2nd Division under Lieutenant-General Francis Clery against the Boer right flank positions on a plateau named Tabanyama. The Boers had once again entrenched a new position on the reverse slopes of the plateau, and Clery's attack made no progress. Meanwhile, the secondary British attack by Lyttelton at Potgieter's Drift had yet to commence in full.
Battle.
Spion Kop, just northeast of Warren's force, was the largest hill in the region, being over in height (relative height from its base). It lay almost exactly at the centre of the Boer line. If the British could capture this position and bring artillery to the hill then they would command the flanks of the surrounding Boer positions. On the night of 23 January, Warren sent the larger part of his force under Major-General Edward Woodgate to secure Spion Kop. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Thorneycroft was selected to lead the initial assault. (Thorneycroft was one of six "special service" officers, among whom were also Robert Baden-Powell and Herbert Plumer, despatched to South Africa shortly before the war to recruit local irregular corps. Thorneycroft's mounted infantry were raised in Natal and numbered 360.)
The British climbed up the hill at night and in dense mist. They surprised the small Boer piquet and drove them off the kop at bayonet point. Of the 15 men in the Boer piquet, one was mortally wounded and his grave lies on the hill to this day. Ten British soldiers were wounded in the charge. The surviving Boers retreated down the hill to their camp waking up their fellow Boers by screaming ""Die Engelse is op die kop!" (The English are on the hill!). A half-company of British sappers began to entrench the position with a mere 20 picks and 20 shovels (while almost 1,000 soldiers stood around idle) and Woodgate notified Warren of the successful capture of the hilltop.
As dawn broke, the British discovered that they held only the smaller and lower part of the hilltop of Spion Kop, while the Boers occupied higher ground on three sides of the British position. The British had no direct knowledge of the topography of the summit and the darkness and fog had compounded the problem. Furthermore, the British trenches were inadequate for all defensive purposes. Because the summit of the kop was mostly hard rock, the trenches were at most deep and provided an exceptionally poor defensive position – the British infantry in the trenches could not see over the crest of the plateau and the Boers were able to fire down the length of the crescent-shaped trench from the adjacent peaks.
The Boer generals were not unduly concerned by the news that the British had taken the kop. They knew that their artillery on Tabanyama could be brought to bear on the British position and that rifle fire could be brought to bear from parts of the kop not yet occupied by the British. However, the Boer generals also knew that sniping and artillery alone would not be sufficient to dislodge the British – and the Boer position was desperately vulnerable. If the British immediately established positions on Conical Hill and Aloe Knoll (the two unoccupied kopjes on the kop itself) they could bring their artillery to bear on Tabanyama, threatening the key Boer positions there. More importantly, there was a risk that the British would storm Trinity Peaks "(Drielingkoppe)" to the eastern end of Spion Kop. If Twin Peaks fell, the British would be able to turn the Boers' left flank and annihilate the main Boer encampment. The Boer generals realised that Spion Kop would have to be stormed quickly if certain defeat were to be averted.
The Boer artillery began to bombard the British position, dropping shells from the adjacent plateau of Tabanyama at a rate of ten rounds per minute. Meanwhile, Commandant Hendrik Prinsloo of the Carolina Commando captured Aloe Knoll and Conical Hill with some 88 men, while around 300 burghers, mainly of the Pretoria Commando, climbed the kop to launch a frontal assault on the British position. Prinsloo told his men: "Burghers", we're now going in to attack the enemy and we shan't all be coming back. Do your duty and trust in the Lord." Minutes later, hundreds of Boers swarmed in to attack the British positions at the Spion Kop crestline, much to the surprise of the British. It was very unusual for the Boers to launch a daytime massed attack quickly resulting in vicious, close-quarters combat. This was not a custom of the Boers' style of warfare. The British Lee–Metford and Lee–Enfield rifles were no less deadly than the Boer Mauser rifles. However, both sides exchanged fire at close range and engaged in hand-to-hand combat, with the British wielding fixed bayonets and the Boers wielding hunting knives and their own rifles used as bludgeons. After suffering serious losses, the Boer assault carried the crest line after several minutes of brutal hand-to-hand combat, but could advance no further.
Over the next several hours, a kind of stalemate now settled over the kop. The Boers had failed to drive the British completely off the kop, but the surviving men of the Pretoria and Carolina commando now held a firing line on Aloe Knoll from where they could enfilade the British position and the British were now under sustained bombardment from the Boer artillery. The British had failed to exploit their initial success, and the initiative now passed to the Boers.
Morale began to sag on both sides as the extreme heat, exhaustion and thirst took hold. On one hand the Boers on the kop could see large numbers of burghers on the plains below them who refused to join the fight. A sense of betrayal, the bloody failure of the frontal assault, the indiscipline inherent in a civilian army and the apparent security of the British position proved too much for some Boers, who began to abandon their hard-won positions. On the other hand, the bombardment began to take its toll on the British. Woodgate fell at about 08:30, mortally wounded by a shell splinter. In quick succession, Colonel Blomfield of the Lancashire Fusiliers took command but was wounded soon after Woodgate's death, while the sappers' officer, Major H.H.Massy, and Woodgate's brigade major, Captain N.H. Vertue, were killed. Officers and men from different units were intermingled, and the British were now leaderless, confused and pinned down by the heavy Boer artillery and rifle fire. The British artillery, positioned lower down the slopes of Spion Kop, were unable to hit back at the Boer guns. The British artillery was also missing their marks causing one soldier to remark in his diary of the events "our gunners, by the inaccuracy of their fire did far more damage to our front line of infantry than to the Boers!"
Colonel Malby Crofton of the Royal Lancasters took charge and semaphored a plea for help, "Reinforce at once or all is lost. General dead." After that the stunned colonel failed to exercise any leadership. Thorneycroft seems to have taken charge, leading a spirited counterattack that failed in the face of withering fire.
Warren had already dispatched Major-General John Talbot Coke's brigade of two regular battalions and the Imperial Light Infantry (raised in Durban) to reinforce the summit. However, he refused to launch an attack on Tabanyama and barred his guns from firing on Aloe Knoll, believing this to be part of the British position. At 11:40, Buller, who could see that things were not going well, suggested to Warren that Thorneycroft be appointed commander on the kop. The first runner to Thorneycroft was shot dead before he could utter a word. Finally, a second runner brought the news, "You are a general."
Winston Churchill was a journalist stationed in South Africa and he had also been commissioned as a lieutenant in the South African Light Horse by General Buller after his well-publicised escape from Boer captivity. Churchill acted as a courier to and from Spion Kop and Buller's headquarters and made a statement about the scene: "Corpses lay here and there. Many of the wounds were of a horrible nature. The splinters and fragments of the shells had torn and mutilated them. The shallow trenches were choked with dead and wounded."
About 13:00, the situation proved too much for some men of the Lancashire Fusiliers who attempted to surrender. Thorneycroft personally intervened and shouted at the Boers who advanced to round up prisoners, "I'm the commandant here; take your men back to hell sir. I allow no surrenders." Luckily for Thorneycroft, the first of the British reinforcements arrived at this moment. A vicious point-blank firefight ensued but the British line had been saved. At 14:30, Thorneycroft sent Warren a plea for reinforcements and water. Meanwhile, Coke never reached the summit. He saw Thorneycroft's message for help but then did nothing to assure the lieutenant colonel of his nearby presence or support.
The Middlesex Regiment and the Imperial Light Infantry, under Colonel Augustus Hill, who was senior to Thorneycroft in the army list and who also believed he was overall commander on the kop, held the British right for two and a half hours until a second crisis occurred when they too began to give way. The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) arrived at this point, and drove the Boers back with a bayonet charge. The fighting on the British right now became a stalemate.
In the morning, Warren had asked for reinforcements from Lyttelton's division, even though he had eleven battalions of his own to draw upon. Without asking Buller, Lyttelton sent two battalions toward Spion Kop. One battalion, the King's Royal Rifle Corps, turned aside to attack Twin Peaks. After losing Lieutenant Colonel Riddell killed and 100 other casualties, the rifles cracked the thin Boer line and carried the double summit at 17:00.
Aftermath.
Shattered by the loss of Twin Peaks, General Schalk Willem Burger took his commando out of the battle line that night. On Spion Kop, the Boers who had fought bravely since morning abandoned their positions as darkness fell. They were about to retreat, when Botha appeared and persuaded them to stay. The Boers, however, did not reclaim their positions, and unknown to Thorneycroft, the battle was as good as won. But Thorneycroft's nerve was also shattered. After sixteen hours on the kop doing the job of a brigadier-general in total absence of instructions from Warren, he ordered an unauthorised withdrawal from Spion Kop after reporting that the soldiers had no water and ammunition was running short. His reasons for withdrawing were that without artillery support to counter the heavy Boer artillery fire, there was no possibility of defending the position and the extreme difficulty of digging trenches on the summit of Spion Kop left the British soldiers completely exposed. Churchill appeared on the scene for the second time. This time he brought the first orders from Warren since he elevated Thorneycroft to brigadier. Churchill said 1,400 men were on the way with two large naval guns. Thorneycroft told him, "better six good battalions safely down the hill than a bloody mop-up in the morning." He ordered the brigade to retreat.
At the same time, Buller sent Lyttelton strict orders to recall his troops from Twin Peaks.
When morning came, the Boer generals were astonished to see two burghers on the top of Spion Kop, waving their slouch-hats in triumph. The only British on the kop were the dead and the dying.
The British suffered 243 fatalities during the battle; many were buried in the trenches where they fell. Approximately 1,250 British were either wounded or captured. Mohandas Gandhi was a stretcher-bearer at the battle, in the Indian Ambulance Corps he had organised, and was decorated. The Boers suffered 335 casualties of which 68 were dead, including Commandant Prinsloo's commando casualties of 55 killed and wounded out of 88 men.
The British retreated back over the Tugela, but the Boers were too exhausted to pursue and follow up their success. Once across the river, Buller managed to rally his troops. Ladysmith would be relieved by the British four weeks later.
Reaction and legacy.
The battle was the background for Louwrens Penning's best known novel "De held van Spionkop" (1901, "The Hero of Spionkop"). Penning's story concerns the very real Commandant Louis Wessels, who leads the Boer commando to defeat the British at the battle.
Commentary.
Buller erred in appointing Warren an independent commander, despite his own doubts about his subordinate's capacity. On the evening of the battle, Warren only ordered up reinforcements in men and heavy guns at the late hour of 21:00. Medical assistance, water and ammunition were also tardy in arriving.
Still, perhaps it was not Warren's failure to remedy these deficiencies that proved his worst error. It was his failure to tell Thorneycroft of his plans to do so. Astonishing as it may seem, he had sent no direct instructions to Thorneycroft since the heliogram appointing him a general at midday. He had left it to Coke to reassure Thorneycroft, although (by another astonishing blunder) Warren had never actually told Coke that he had put Thorneycroft in charge. Then, to compound all these blunders, at 9:00 pm Warren had ordered Coke to return to the HQ for consultation, leaving Thorneycroft alone among the horrors on the summit.
Note about the name.
The common English name for the battle is "Spion Kop" throughout the Commonwealth and its historical literature, the official South African English and Afrikaans name for the battle is "Spioenkop": "spioen" means "spy" or "look-out", and "kop" means "hill" or "outcropping". Another variant that is sometimes found is the combination into "Spionkop".
The reason why the older spelling is used internationally is because the name "Spionkop" originates from Dutch; "spion" [spee-yawn], and not "spioen" [spee-yoon], is the Dutch word for "spy". Until the 1920s, Dutch was still the official "written" language of the Boers, which is why the older Dutch spelling persists outside South Africa. Within South Africa, the spelling was updated along with Afrikaans spelling reform and recognition of Afrikaans as a language in its own right.


Northern Elements Progressive Union

The Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) was the first political party in Northern Nigeria. Founded in Kano on 8 August 1950, it was the offshoot of a pre-existing political association called the Northern Elements Progressive Association. It became the main opposition party in Northern Nigeria after the region was granted self-governance in the 1950s. In the First Republic it maintained a steady alliance with Zikist National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) against the Northern People's Congress (NPC)-dominated Federal Government.
History.
In the late 1940s, the dawning of a constitutional conference (the Richards Constitution) spurred a crisis in the then Socio-Cultural Association of Northern Nigeria the NPC. The conservatives keen on protecting Northern traditions were reluctant to spearhead any transformation in the socio cultural dynamic of the region while the leftist led by Sa'adu Zungur championed a form of radical modernization they called Democratic Humanism. This in turn ignited a wave discontent within leftist circles in the North, on 8 August 1950, a conference of leftist individuals representing the Spikin Movement and pro-Zungeru modernists at a building in Yoruba road, Kano issued the Sawaba Declaration; a proclamation of a political front calling for a socialist revolution in Northern Nigeria, the Student wing of the party called Zahar Haqu had members such as Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila. This was to become the enduring manifesto of NEPU. An English translation by Aminu Kano of the original Hausa document published by the party in 1953 called on the 'Talakawa' or populace to launch a 'class struggle against the ruling class'.
After a protracted struggle within the party between Abba Maikwaru and Malam Aminu Kano (then a school teacher). A shift of support by the Spikin Movement in the Lafiya Convention of 1953 resulted in a victory for Aminu Kano from then on, Aminu Kano was to dominate the party infrastructure until 1964, when the same radicals that supported him turned against him and created a parallel structure called the Northern Elements Freedom Organisation.


Buyende District

Buyende District is a district in Eastern Uganda. It is named after Buyende, the 'chief town' in the district and the location of the district headquarters.
Location.
Buyende District is bordered by Amolatar District to the northwest, Kaberamaido District to the north, Serere District to the northeast, Kaliro District to the east, Luuka District to the southeast, Kamuli District to the south and Kayunga District to the west. The district headquarters at Buyende are located approximately , by road, north of Kamuli, the nearest large town. This location lies approximately , by road, north of Jinja, the largest city in the sub-region. The coordinates of the district are:01 11N, 33 10E.
Overview.
Buyende District was created by Act of Parliament and began functioning on 1 July 2010. Prior to that, it was part of Kamuli District. One of the reasons given for the creation of Buyende District, was the long distance that residents had to travel from the remote areas in the north of the district, to access services at Kamuli, then district headquarters. The new district is primarily rural, with poor road infrastructure. , there are no hospitals in Buyende District.
Buyende District is part of Busoga sub-region. The districts that constitute Busoga sub-region include the following:
The sub-region is coterminous with Busoga Kingdom, one of the constitutional monarchies in today's Uganda. According to the 2002 national census, the subregion was home to an estimated 2.5 million people at that time.
Population.
In 1991, the national population census estimated the district population at about 130,800. The 2002 Uganda national census estimated the population of Buyende District at about 191,300, with a population growth rate of 3.5% annually. In 2012, the population of Buyende District was estimated at approximately 265,100.


Hugh Otter-Barry

 Hugh Van Lynden Otter-Barry (7 March 1887 – 9 May 1971), was the son of Isabel Louisa née Wolryche-Whitmore (1847–1905) and Robert Melvil Barry Otter, later Otter-Barry (1845–1917), and great grandson of William Otter, Bishop of Chichester. He was Bishop of Mauritius from 1931–1959.
He was educated at Marlborough and Trinity College, Cambridge. Ordained in 1910 he was initially a Curate at St Luke's Church, Chelsea and then a missionary priest in Queensland. From 1919 until 1926 he was Vicar of Brill and then began a long period of service to Mauritius — firstly as its Archdeacon; and then from 1931 as its diocesan bishop. He was consecrated a bishop on St Barnabas' Day 1931 (11 June), by Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury, at St Paul's Cathedral. He returned to England in 1959 where he continued to serve the Church as an Assistant Bishop within the Diocese of Peterborough until his death.
A primary school in Mauritius, in the town of Curepipe, close to Farquhar Street, is named after Otter-Barry.


Precolonial Mauritania

Precolonial Mauritania, lying next to the Atlantic coast at the western edge of the Sahara Desert, received and assimilated into its complex society many waves of Saharan migrants and conquerors.
Plinius wrote that the area north of the river Senegal was populated, during Augustus times, by the "Pharusii" and "Perorsi"
Berbers moved south to Mauritania beginning in the 3rd century, followed by Arabs in the 8th century, subjugating and assimilating Mauritania's original inhabitants.
Islamization took place only gradually, much later than in the Sahel, over the course of the 12th to the 17th centuries by the expansion of the Beni Hassan.
From the 15th century, there was also limited European trading activity, mostly in gum arabic.
The tensions between the tribal Berber groups which had established themselves before the arrival of Islam, and the Arabized and Muslim Beni Hassan came to a head in the Char Bouba war of 1644 to 1674.
The resulting victory of the Beni Hassan sealed the fate of Mauritania as an Arabized Muslim territory, the last part of Africa to be acquired into the Muslim World before the Muslim expansion was checked by the European Scramble for Africa in the 19th century.
There was French presence at the Senegal River from the 17th century, and by 1840, Senegal became a permanent French possession.
The colonisation of Mauritania was an expansion of the area of French control over Senegal, beginning in the form of punitive expeditions against the Maures. The colonial period of Mauritania lasted for a mere two generations, from 1904 to 1960.
The French authorities had difficulty in maintaining order in view of the numerous and complicated conflicts among the area's numerous factions and sub-factions. They attempted to abolish slavery in 1905, but with very limited success. Mauritanian independence was granted in 1960, following a 1958 referendum under the French Fifth Republic.
Characteristics.
What is now Mauritania was a dry savanna area during classical antiquity, where independent tribes like the Pharusii and the Perorsi (and the Nigritae near the Niger river) lived a semi-nomadic life facing the growing desertification of the Sahara.
Romans did explorations toward this area and probably reached, with Suetonius Paulinus, the area of Adrar. There are evidences (coins, fibulas) of Roman commerce in Akjoujt and Tamkartkart near Tichit
Some Berber tribes moved to Mauritania in the 3rd and 4th century, and after the 8th century some Arabs entered the region as conquerors.
From the 8th century through the 15th century, black kingdoms of the western Sudan, such as Ghana Empire, Mali Empire, and Songhai Empire, brought their political culture from the south.
The divisive tendencies of the various groups within Mauritanian society have always worked against the development of Mauritanian unity. Both the Sanhadja Confederation, at its height from the 8th century to the 10th century, and the Almoravid Empire, from the 11th century to the 12th century, were weakened by internecine warfare, and succumbed to further invasions from the Ghana Empire and the Almohad Empire, respectively.
The first external influence that tended to unify the country was Islam. The Islamization of Mauritania was a gradual process that spanned more than 500 years. Beginning slowly through contacts with Berber and Arab merchants engaged in the important caravan trades and rapidly advancing through the Almoravid conquests, Islamization did not take firm hold until the arrival of Yemeni Arabs in the 12th and 13th centuries and was not complete until several centuries later. Gradual Islamization was accompanied by a process of Arabization as well, during which the Berber masters of Mauritania lost power and became vassals of their Arab conquerors.
From the 15th century to the 19th century, European contact with Mauritania was dominated by the trade for gum arabic. Rivalries among European powers enabled the Arab-Berber population, the Maures (Moors), to maintain their independence and later to exact annual payments from France, whose sovereignty over the Sénégal River and the Mauritanian coast was recognized by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Although penetration beyond the coast and the Senegal River began in earnest under Louis Faidherbe, governor of Senegal in the mid-19th century, European conquest or "pacification" of the entire country did not begin until 1900.
France created the boundaries of contemporary Mauritania and administered it until the independence in the 1960s. Because extensive European contact began so late in the country's history, the traditional social structure carried over into modern times with little change.
French rule brought legal prohibitions against slavery, and an end to interclan warfare. During the colonial period, the population remained nomadic, but many sedentary peoples, whose ancestors had been expelled centuries earlier, began to trickle back into Mauritania. As the country gained independence in 1960, the capital city Nouakchott was founded at the site of a small colonial village, the Ksar, while 90% of the population was still nomadic.
Early history.
The prehistory of the west Saharan region is not fully characterised. There are some written accounts by medieval Arab traders and explorers who reached the important caravan trading centers and Sudanic kingdoms of eastern Mauritania, but the major sources of pre-European history are oral history, legends, and archaeological evidence. These sources indicate that during the millennia preceding the Christian Era, the Sahara was a more habitable region than it is today and supported a flourishing culture. In the area that is now Mauritania, the Bafour, a proto-Berber people, whose descendants may be the coastal Imraguen fishermen, were hunters, pastoralists, and fishermen. Valley cultivators, who may have been black ancestors of the riverine Toucouleur and Wolof peoples, lived alongside the Bafour. Dhar Tichitt is the oldest surviving archaeological settlements in West Africa and the oldest of all stone base settlements south of the Sahara. It was built by the Soninke people (or by the Serers) and is thought to be the precursor of the Ghana empire, thought to have been built by Wolof people or Wolof-related ancestors. It was being settled around 2000 BCE. Climatic changes, and perhaps overgrazing, led to a gradual desiccation of the Sahara and the southward movement of these peoples.
The Romans did some expeditions south of their Mauretania Tingitana, perhaps reaching the area north of the river Senegal populated by the Pharusii tribe.
In the 3rd and 4th centuries, this southward migration from the southern Atlas region was intensified by the arrival of Berber groups from the north who were searching for pasturage or fleeing political anarchy and war. The wide-ranging activities of these turbulent Berber warriors were made possible by the introduction of the camel to the Sahara in this period. This first wave of Berber invaders subjugated and made vassals of those Bafour who did not flee south. Other Berber groups followed in the 7th and 8th centuries, themselves fleeing in large numbers before the Arab conquerors of the Maghreb.
Arab invasions.
Beginning with the Arab conquest of the western Maghreb in the 8th century, Mauritania experienced a slow but constant infiltration of Arabs and Arab influence from the north. The growing Arab presence pressed the Berbers, who chose not to mix with other groups, to move farther south into Mauritania, forcing out the black inhabitants. By the 16th century, most blacks had been pushed to the Sénégal River. Those remaining in the north became slaves cultivating the oases.
After the decline of the Almoravid Empire, a long process of Arabization began in Mauritania, one that until then had been resisted successfully by the Berbers. Several groups of Yemeni Arabs who had been in the north of Africa turned south to Mauritania. Settling in northern Mauritania, they disrupted the caravan trade, causing routes to shift east, which in turn led to the gradual decline of Mauritania's trading towns. One particular Yemeni group, the Bani Hassan, continued to migrate southward until, by the end of the 17th century, they dominated the entire country. The last effort of the Berbers to shake off the Arab yoke was the Mauritanian Thirty Years' War (1644–74), or Sharr Bubba, led by Nasr ad-Din, a Lemtuna imam. This Sanhadja war of liberation was, however, unsuccessful; the Berbers were forced to abandon the sword and became vassals to the warrior Arab groups.
Thus, the contemporary social structure of Mauritania can be dated from 1674. The warrior groups or Arabs dominated the Berber groups, who turned to clericalism to regain a degree of ascendancy. At the bottom of the social structure were the slaves, subservient to both warriors and Islamic holy men. All of these groups, whose language was Hassaniya Arabic, became known as Maures. The bitter rivalries and resentments characteristic of their social structure were later fully exploited by the French.
Sanhadja Confederation.
One of the Berber groups arriving in Mauritania in the 8th century was the Lemtuna. By the 9th century, the Lemtuna had attained political dominance in the Adrar and Hodh regions. Together with two other important Berber groups, the Messufa and the Godala, they set up the Sanhadja Confederation. From their capital, Aoudaghast, the Lemtuna controlled this loose confederation and the western routes of the Saharan caravan trade that had begun to flourish after the introduction of the camel. At its height, from the eighth to the end of the 10th century, the Sanhadja Confederation was a decentralized polity based on two distinct groups: the nomadic and very independent Berber groups, who maintained their traditional religions, and the Muslim, urban Berber merchants, who conducted the caravan trade.
Although dominated by the Sanhadja merchants, the caravan trade had its northern terminus in the Maghribi commercial city of Sijilmasa and its southern terminus in Koumbi Saleh, capital of the Ghana Empire. Later, the southern trade route ended in Timbuktu, capital of the Mali Empire. Gold, ivory, and slaves were carried north in return for salt (ancient salt mines near Kediet Ijill in northern Mauritania are still being worked), copper, cloth, and other luxury goods.
Important towns developed along the trade routes. The easiest, though not the shortest, routes between Ghana and Sijilmasa were from Koumbi Saleh through Aoudaghast, Oualâta, Tîchît, and Ouadane. These towns along the route grew to be important commercial as well as political centers. The 11th-century Arab chronicler Al-Bakri describes Aoudaghast, with its population of 5,000 to 6,000, as a big town with a large mosque and several smaller ones, surrounded by large cultivated areas under irrigation. Oualâta was a major relay point on the gold and salt trade route, as well as a chief assembly point for pilgrims traveling to Mecca. Koumbi Saleh was a large cosmopolitan city comprising two distinct sections: the Muslim quarter, with its Arab-influenced architecture, and the black quarter of traditional thatch and mud architecture, where the non-Muslim king of Ghana resided. Another important Mauritanian trade city of the Sanhadja Confederation was Chinguetti, later an important religious center. Although Koumbi Saleh did not outlive the fall of the Ghana Empire, Aoudaghast and particularly Oualâta maintained their importance well into the 16th century, when trade began shifting to the European-controlled coasts.
Almoravids.
By the 11th century, Islam had spread throughout the west Sahara under the influence of Berber and Arab traders and occasional Arab migrants. Nevertheless, traditional religious practices thrived. The conquest of the entire west Saharan region by the Almoravids in the 11th century made possible a more orthodox Islamization of all the peoples of Mauritania.
The breakup of the Sanhadja Confederation in the early 11th century led to a period of unrest and warfare among the Sanhadja Berber groups of Mauritania. In about 1039, a chief of the Godala, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca bringing with him a Sanhadja theologian, Abdallah ibn Yassin, to teach a more orthodox Islam. Rejected by the Godala two years later, after the death of Ibn Ibrahim, Ibn Yassin and some of his Sanhadja followers retired to a secluded place where they built a fortified religious center, a ribat, which attracted many Sanhadja. In 1042 the al murabitun (men of the ribat), as Ibn Yassin's followers came to be called, launched a jihad, or holy war, against the nonbelievers and the heretics among the Sanhadja, beginning what later become known as the Almoravid movement. The initial aim of the Almoravids was to establish a political community in which the ethical and juridical principles of Islam would be strictly applied.
First, the Almoravids attacked and subdued the Godala, forcing them to acknowledge Islam. Then, rallying the other Berber groups of the west Sahara, the Almoravids succeeded in recreating the political unity of the Sanhadja Confederation and adding to it a religious unity and purpose. By 1054 the Almoravids had captured Sijilmasa in the Maghrib and had retaken Aoudaghast from Ghana.
With the death of Ibn Yassin in 1059, leadership of the movement in the south passed to Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar, amir of Adrar, and to Yusuf ibn Tashfin in the north. Under Ibn Tashfin, the Berbers captured Morocco and founded Marrakech as their capital in 1062. By 1082 all of the western Maghrib (to at least present-day Algiers) was under Almoravid domination. In 1086 the Andalusian emirates, under attack from the Spanish Christian king Alfonso and the Christian reconquest of Spain, called on Ibn Tashfin and his Berber warriors to cross the Strait of Gibraltar and come to their rescue. The Almoravids defeated the Spanish Christians and, by 1090, imposed Almoravid rule and the Maliki school of Islamic law in Muslim Spain.
In Mauritania, Abu Bakr led the Almoravids in a war against Ghana (1062–76), culminating in the capture in 1076 of Koumbi Saleh. This event marked the end of the dominance of the Ghana Empire. But after the death of Abu Bakr in 1087 and Ibn Tashfin in 1106, traditional rivalries among the Sanhadja and a new Muslim reformist conquest led by the Zenata Almohads (1133–63) destroyed the Almoravid Empire.
For a short time, the Mauritanian Sanhadja dynasty of the Almoravid Empire controlled a vast territory stretching from Spain to Senegal. The unity established between Morocco and Mauritania during the Almoravid period continued to have some political importance in the 1980s, as it formed part of the basis for Morocco's claims to Mauritania. But the greatest contribution of the Sanhadja and the Almoravids was the Islamization of the western Maghrib. This process would remain a dominant factor in the history of the area for the next several centuries.
Sudanic empires and kingdoms.
Although the Almoravids had substantial contacts with the Maghrib, influences from the black Sudanic kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai played an important role in Mauritania's history for about 700 years—from the 8th to the 15th century. Ghana, the first of the great West African Sudanic kingdoms, included in its territory all of southeastern Mauritania extending to Tagant. Ghana reached its apogee in the 9th and 10th centuries with the extension of its rule over the Sanhadja Berbers. This large and centralized kingdom controlled the southern terminus of the trans-Saharan trade in gold, ivory, and salt.
The capture of Koumbi Saleh in 1076 by the Almoravids marked the end of Ghana's hegemony, although the kingdom continued to exist for another 125 years. The Mandé, under the leadership of the legendary Sundiata, founded the second great Sudanic kingdom, Mali. By the end of the 13th century, the Mali Empire extended over that part of Mauritania previously controlled by Ghana, as well as over the remaining Sahelian regions and the Senegal River Valley. Sundiata and his successors took over Ghana's role in the Saharan trade and in the administration and collection of tribute from vast stretches of the Sudan and the Sahel.
The slow decline of the Mali Empire that started at the end of the 14th century came about through internal discord and revolts by the inhabitants of vassal states, including the Songhai of Gao. By the end of the 15th century, the Songhai Empire had replaced the Mali Empire and extended to Mauritania and the upper Senegal River Valley. At the end of the 16th century, a large Moroccan force defeated the Songhai, bringing to an end the seven centuries of domination of the western Sudan (and a large part of Mauritania) by strong, centralized black kingdoms.
Early European involvement.
Despite the Almoravid domination of Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries, there seems to be little evidence of contact during that time between Mauritania and Europe. The inhospitable coastline of Mauritania continued to deter voyagers until the Portuguese began their African explorations in the 15th century. The area of Mauritania was of little interest to either Arab or European conquerors; the existence of gold reserves in the interior was not yet known, and the important trade routes passed the territory well to the east, through Timbuktu. The Saadi dynasty conquered much of the Saharan interior but did not show interest in expanding their territory westward.
The Portuguese had established a trading fort at Arguin, southeast of Cap Blanc (present-day Ras Nouadhibou), in 1455.
The king of Portugal also maintained a commercial agent at Ouadane in the Adrar in an attempt to divert gold traveling north by caravan. Having only slight success in their quest for gold, the Portuguese quickly adapted to dealing in slaves. In the mid-15th century, as many as 1,000 slaves per year were exported from Arguin to Europe and to the Portuguese sugar plantations on the island of Sao Tomé in the Gulf of Guinea.
With the merger of the Portuguese and Spanish crowns in 1580, the Spaniards became the dominant influence along the coast. In 1638, however, they were replaced by the Dutch, who were the first to begin exploiting the gum arabic trade. Produced by the acacia trees of Trarza and Brakna and used in textile pattern printing, this gum arabic was considered superior to that previously obtained in Arabia.
By 1678 the French had driven out the Dutch and established a permanent settlement at Saint-Louis at the mouth of the Senegal River, where the French Compagnie du Sénégal had been trading for more than fifty years.
The Maures, with whom the Europeans were trading, considered the constant rivalries between European powers a sign of weakness, and they quickly learned the benefits of playing one power against the other. For example, they agreed simultaneously to give monopolies to the French and the Dutch. The Maures also took advantage of the Europeans whenever possible, so that when the French negotiated with the emir of Trarza to secure a monopoly on the gum arabic trade, the amir in exchange demanded a considerable number of gifts. Thus began the coutume, an annual payment expected by the Maures for doing business with a government or a company. By 1763 the British had expelled France from the West African coast, and France recovered control only when the Congress of Vienna in 1815 recognized French sovereignty over the coast of West Africa from Cap Blanc south to Senegal.


Desmond de Silva (barrister)

Sir George Desmond Lorenz de Silva, (13 December 1939 – 2 June 2018) was a British lawyer known for having been the United Nations Chief War Crimes Prosecutor in Sierra Leone.
Background.
Desmond de Silva was of Sri Lankan, English, and Scottish descent, and comes from a family of lawyers. He was the son of Fredrick de Silva MBE, formerly Ceylon's ambassador to France and Switzerland; the grandson of The Honourable George E. de Silva; and the second cousin of Lasantha Wickrematunge.
Education.
A graduate of Dulwich College Preparatory School and Trinity College, Kandy, Sri Lanka, de Silva was a senior associate member of St Antony's College, Oxford. He was a Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple.
Career.
De Silva was called to the Bar in the Middle Temple in London in 1964, and appointed Queen's Counsel in 1984. He was one of the most high-profile criminal Queen's Counsel in England. He was a member of the Criminal Bar Association and the International Association of Prosecutors. In 2002, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed him Deputy Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, at the level of an Assistant Secretary-General. Annan later promoted him to the post of Chief Prosecutor at the higher level of Under Secretary-General in 2005. He brought about the arrest of Charles Taylor, former President of Liberia, who was convicted of war crimes at the Hague in 2011.
In 2003, de Silva was sent as envoy by the United Nations Development Programme to Belgrade to persuade Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and his government to surrender indicted war criminals.
De Silva's legal expertise included war crimes, crimes against humanity, espionage, treason, drugs, terrorism, human rights, white-collar fraud and sports law. His clients included John Terry, Lee Bowyer, Buzz Aldrin, Harry Redknapp, Ron Atkinson, Hans Segers, Lawrence Dallaglio, Graham Rix and Jamie Osborne. De Silva was a member of the Governing Council of the Manorial Society. In October 2011, with the approval of Prime Minister David Cameron, de Silva was appointed to head a Review into collusion by the security services and other agencies of the state into the 1989 murder of the high-profile Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane. The report was published on 12 December 2012, and acknowledged "a willful and abject failure by successive Governments"; however, Finucane's family called the de Silva report a "sham." In 2019 the Supreme Court ruled that the official investigation into the Finucane murder was ineffective and failed to meet the required human rights standards.
On 23 July 2010 he was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate Israel's interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla in international waters that led to 9 deaths.
In 2014 he was Chairman of an Inquiry into torture and executions of detainees in Syria. The Report produced went before the Geneva 11 Peace Talks into the civil war in Syria.
On 10 January 2016 a Senior Army Commander complained about a "witch hunt" against British soldiers who were Iraq War veterans by pursuing frivolous legal claims. De Silva agreed with the Army Chief by saying, "Up to now nobody has got these ambulance-chasing lawyers by the scruff of the neck."
Personal life and death.
He married Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia on 5 December 1987. She was the daughter of Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia and Princess Margarita of Baden, a granddaughter of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and the great-great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria. They divorced on 6 May 2010. They have one daughter, Victoria Marie Esmé Margarita de Silva, who is herself in the line of succession to the British throne. He had one sister, Helga de Silva, whose son Detmar Blow was married to the late Isabella Blow.
De Silva died on 2 June 2018 after a stroke following elective heart surgery in November 2017.
Honours.
Sir Desmond was knighted in the 2007 New Year Honours, and was also a Knight of the Most Venerable Order of Saint John and a Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Francis I. He was sworn in as a Member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in October 2011. On 22 August 2016, Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia awarded him with the Grand Cross of the Order of the White Eagle.


Zibhebhu kaMaphitha

Zibhebhu kaMaphitha Zulu (1841–1904) (also called Usibepu/Ziphewu) was a Zulu chief. After the defeat of the Zulu Kingdom by the British, he attempted to create his own independent kingdom. From 1883 to 1884, he fought the Zulu king Cetshwayo, inflicting a series of defeats on him.
Life.
Zibhebhu was a son of Maphita, son of Sojiyisa, son Jama, son of Ndaba. He belonged to Mandlakazi Royal Homestead. Zibhebhu was "inKosi" (chief) of the Mandlakazi.
Zibhebhu was made chieftain of one of the thirteen chiefdoms resulting from the First Partition of Zululand after the Anglo-Zulu War, The chiefdom was in northern Zululand, a hotbed of uSuthu, and the British General Wolseley thought that Zibhebhu's rule there would help suppress them.
In 1882, after pleas from Cetshwayo, the British Foreign Office relented and restored eight of the central "chiefdoms" to Cetshwayo's superintending control; however, in this Second Partition of Zululand Zibhebhu's chiefdom in the north was expanded to include more uSuthu lands and Zibhebhu remained independent of Cetshwayo.
In March 1883, Zibhebu undertook to secure the kraals in his new territory, which were held by the local uSuthu. Despite some resistance, there were all successfully seized. The USuthu in the south took exception to this, and Makhoba kaMaphitha marched north with some 5,000 warriors to retake the kraals. The defending Mandlakazi, 1,500 warriors assisted by five or six Boers under Johannes Wilhelm Colenbrander, set an ambush in Msebe Valley near Nongoma. This confrontation became known as the Battle of Msebe, and over 1,000 of the uSuthu were killed, with estimates running as high as 4,000. The Mandlakazi suffered minor casualties, with only ten dead.
Both Zibhebhu and Dinuzulu befriended Boer mercenaries to help them in their claims. On the 22 July 1883, led by a small troop of mounted white mercenaries, Zibhebhu made a sudden descent upon Cetshwayo's oNdini kraal (near Ulundi) which was being rebuilt. The uSuthu there were surprised, some attempted a defence but were soon routed, and Zibhebhu's forces destroyed the king's kraal as well as the surrounding uSuthu kraals. Cetshwayo's senior military staff including general Ntshingwayo Khoza were chased down and killed as they fled after losing the battle. Though wounded, Cetshwayo managed to escape to the White Mfolozi river and then took refuge with Sigananda in the Nkandla forest. After repeated pleas from the Resident Commissioner, Sir Melmoth Osborn, the king moved to Eshowe, where he died a few months later, possibly by poisoning.
Zibhebhu vied for the royal succession with another of Cetshwayo's sons, Dinuzulu. On Cetshwayo's death, Dinuzulu was left to fight for the succession, and with the help of General Louis Botha and Dinuzulu's Volunteers defeated Zibhebhu and his army at the Battle of Ghost Mountain (also known as the Battle of Tshaneni).
Zibhebhu and Eckersley, a white trader, escaped by climbing the Lubombo mountain. In September 1884 Zibhebhu guided the remnant of the Mandlakazi, about 6,000 people, into the "Reserve Territory"; an area set aside by the British for Zulu not loyal to the Zulu royal house.


Kezia of Buganda

Princess Kezia Rukidi of Toro (1906–1998), later The Queen of Toro, wife of King George Rukidi III of Toro (1904–1965). As "Batebe" (Queen-Sister), she served as the king’s chief advisor from 1965–1998.
She was the mother of Princess Elizabeth of Toro. She later became known as the Queen-Mother "Kezia Byanjeru Rukidi Abwooli".


Kisula Ngoy

Dr. Urbain Kisula Ngoy (1940-2018) has served as governor of Katanga province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, since May 26, 2004.


Kimera of Buganda

Kimera Walusimbi was Kabaka of the Kingdom of Buganda between 1374 and 1404. He was the third king of Buganda.
Claim to the throne.
Kimera was the only son of Prince Kalemeera, the son of Kabaka Chwa I Nabakka. It has been pointed out by different books and writers showing Kimera as the Only son of Prince Kalemera. This is not true. Kimera was a twin and his twin brother was Kato Kibi Kaganda, who became a King himself. He conquered his own Kingdom in Kiziba, current day Tanzania. They could not rule Buganda together, thus he went to Sesse, came back to Buganda and went south. Their mother was Lady Wannyana, the supposed chief wife of King Winyi I of Bunyoro.
Influence on Buganda Culture.
Kimera made the journey to Buganda accompanied by his mother and the family of Katumba (Nkima clan), his adoptive father. On reaching Buganda, Katumba was appointed "Mugema", hereditary head of the Nkima (monkey) clan. The Mugema plays a significant role in Buganda culture, notably performing the investiture of the new Kabaka until the reign of Mutebi I.
From Bunyoro, he brought with him the royal drum Kibonabona, which is beaten by the new Kabaka during coronation. During this ceremony, the Kabaka is presented with a bracelet of beads, and there's a proclamation "You are Kimera."
Kimera's mother chose not to live with her son in the capital, and a residence was built for her called "Lusaka", which became the official title of the Queen Mother's residence.
The final years.
Kabaka Kimera was killed in a hunting accident around 1404. He was clubbed on the head by his grandson Kabaka Ttembo Kiridde, who succeeded him. Some accounts narrate the event as a deliberate act, but the most convincing accounts say it was an accident. He was initially buried at the site of his death. In 1869, his remains were exhumed and re-buried at Lunnyo, near the city of Entebbe, close to where the present Uganda State House is located. Other credible accounts give his burial place as Bumera Busiro.
Quotes.
"Kimera, the third Kabaka, was the true founder of our dynasty."<br>
"The real significance of the Kimera migration is that it introduced a new dynasty."


Ramasindrazana

Ramasindrazana was a Malagasy princess and an aunt of Ranavalona III.
Biography.
Princess Ramasindrazana was a member of the Malagasy royal family. She was an aunt of Princess Rasendranoro and Ranavalona III, the last queen of Madagascar.
After the monarchy was abolished by French colonial rule in 1897, Ramasindrazana went into exile with other members of the royal family. Accompanied by Princess Rasendranoro and Princess Razafinandriamanitra, she joined Queen Ranavalona in Toamasina. From there they took a ship to Réunion and took up residence in the Hotel de l'Europe in Saint-Denis. After living in the hotel for a month, the royal family moved into a house near the government offices. While in Saint-Denis, she accompanied the queen during visits and public appearances, including visiting a new church under construction and meeting with the Governor of Réunion. Ramasindrazana lived there as part of the queen's household for almost two years until they were moved by the French government and brought to Marsielles. After living in France for two months, she accompanied the queen during a transfer to French Algeria. She moved into a villa in Algiers with the queen as part of the royal household.
When the queen died in 1917, Ramasindrazana left Algeria and moved to Alpes-Maritimes in France, where she lived until her death.


Arthur Bleksley

Arthur Edward Herbert Bleksley (1908, Matatiele – 1984) was a South African Professor of Applied Mathematics and an astronomer. Bleksley's early research involved the astrophysics and astronomy of variable stars. He encouraged science awareness in South Africa by publishing articles about science, by being on a popular radio show, and through his presentations at the Johannesburg Planetarium.
Education and career.
Bleksley was born in the Eastern Cape and attended the Outeniqua High School in George. After matriculation he studied at Stellenbosch University and graduated "cum laude" in 1927 and went on to obtain his M.Sc. in 1929, winning the Van der Horst Prize. In 1930 he joined the Solar Research Station run by the National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institution at Brukkaros, the caldera of an extinct volcano in South West Africa (Namibia). American researcher William H. Hoover and his colleague Frederick Atwood Greeley, ran an observatory on the mountain from 1926 to December 1931, collecting solar radiation data so as to find a correlation with the earth's weather. To this end detailed observations were made of the Solar Constant. High-altitude observatories were set up at various locations - Mount Montezuma in Chile, initially at Mount Harqua Hala in Arizona (later moved to Table Mountain in California) and lastly Mount Brukkaros, a site selected by Charles Greeley Abbot, and later moved to Mount St. Katherine on the Sinai peninsula. The Brukkaros observatory consisted of a 10m deep tunnel in the flank of the mountain. A solar telescope or coelostat at the mouth of the tunnel passed sunlight to a spectrograph, an Ångström compensation pyrheliometer and a bolometer further in.
In 1932 Bleksley was appointed as Junior Lecturer in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Witwatersrand, eventually becoming head of the department. Whilst there he worked on and completed his doctoral thesis "A Statistical and Analytical Study of the Phenomenon of Long-period Stellar Variability". Bleksley developed a mathematical model of radially pulsating stars, and the observations for the Cepheid variable stars and long-period variable stars compared favourably with his model's predictions. During this period he took sabbatical leave and studied under Sir Arthur Eddington at Cambridge, Professor Hans Ludendorff of the Astrophysical Observatory at Potsdam and Ejnar Hertzsprung at Leiden. He was President of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa in 1948/49 and one of about 100 people who attended the founding of the SA Institute of Physics on 7 July 1955.
Personal life.
Bleksley showed great interest in parapsychology and in 1969 attended a conference at Saint-Paul de Vence in France. The conference dealt with creativity and its possible links to parapsychology. Other participants included Kenneth Burke, Eugenio Gaddini, the Italian psychoanalyst, Jerre Mangione, the Italian-American author, Emilio Servadio, the Italian-Indian psychoanalyst and parapsychologist and W. Grey Walter, the neurophysiologist and robotician.
He was talented musically and performed as church organist while still a scholar. His gift of being able to articulate difficult concepts in the fields of astronomy and applied mathematics, made him a popular tutor and inspired thousands of students who sat through his exceptionally lucid lectures. His sense of humour, quick mind and broad range of interests, made him a valued member of the team of "Three Wise Men" on the Springbok Radio quiz show, "Test the Team", from 1957 into the 1980s, the other two being Grant Loudon and Eric Rosenthal.


Mamman Nasir

Nasir Mamman GCON (2 July 1929 – 13 April 2019), titled Galadiman Katsina from 1992 to 2019, was a Nigerian jurist and nobleman who served as President of the Courts of Appeal from 1978 to 1992.
Biography.
Mamman was born in 1929 in Katsina. He graduated in 1947 from Kaduna College (later Barewa College) and read Latin at the University College of Ibadan.
He was instructed in the law and called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1956. Mamman, Mohammed Bello, and Justice Buba Ardo went on to become the first northerners educated in the common law to be in-government since the fall of the Sokoto Caliphate.
On his return, he was made Crown Counsel in 1956 and proceeded on for the next two decades to hold several positions in the Government of Northern Nigeria in which he dealt with most of the legal matters. He joined the cabinet of Sir Ahmadu Bello as Minister of Justice in 1961, an office he held until the 1966 coup d'etat. He subsequently left the government in horror of Sardauna's assassination to practice law in-private. He reluctantly agreed to return in 1967 on noticing a dearth of experts of the law as Attorney General of North Central State Government.
He was made Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1975. He retired from the bench at the age of 49, and self-effacingly became President of the Courts of Appeal until his ennoblement on May 9, 1992 as the Galadima of Katsina and District Head of Malumfashi.
Mamman died in Katsina on April 13, 2019 after a brief illness.


List of emperors of Ethiopia

This article lists the Emperors of Ethiopia, from the founding of the Zagwe dynasty in the 9th/10th century until 1974, when the last Emperor from the Solomonic dynasty was deposed.
Kings of Aksum and Dʿmt are listed separately due to numerous gaps and large flexibility in chronology.
Names in "italics" indicate rulers who were usurpers or not widely recognized.


List of colonial governors of Ubangi-Shari

List of the Colonial Heads of Upper Oubangui and the region becoming the Central African Republic.
For continuation after independence, "see:" Heads of State of the Central African Republic (and Central African Empire)


Crocodile Society

The Crocodile Society was a West African secret society that practised cannibalism. The Crocodile Society existed in Liberia and Sierra Leone.


Citizen Initiative for Development

The Citizen Initiative for Development () was a political party in Morocco.
History and profile.
The party was founded in 2002.
In the parliamentary election, held on 7 September 2007, the party did win 1 out of 325 seats. It was dissolved and merged into the Authenticity and Modernity Party in 2008.


Emmanuel Anquetil

Emmanuel Anquetil (1885-1946) was a Mauritian trade unionist, and the second leader of the Mauritius Labour Party.
Early life.
Emmanuel (Jean Baptiste Caromi) Anquetil was born on 18 August 1885 at the Bassin Estate, Plaine Wilhems, to Jean Volmy and Marie Angela Anquetil. Emmanuel left Mauritius as a 16 yr old ship's apprentice, spending 11 years working on coasters in the Australian seas.
Emmanuel left Australia for England in 1912 arriving in Liverpool docks in 1913. After being unable to enlist in the Royal Navy, he would spend the World War I years as a Petty Officer in the Merchant Navy, in Admiralty Transport on Atlantic convoys carrying goods and passengers between England and America.
After the war, Emmanuel worked mainly on coastal ships from Liverpool, picking up minerals from local mines on the west coast of Wales. Post-war continued to be difficult times for the working classes including seamen in Great Britain - 'through the 1920s Britain's economy was already struggling to pay for the effects of World War I’. Work continued to be hard and low-paid, with workmen at loggerheads with factory and mine owners culminating in strikes and lock-outs such as the Miners Strike of 1926. The Trades Union Congress called a General Strike in 1926 in support of the mine workers which lasted 9 days from 3 – 12 May. Seamen like Emmanuel, docking into Port Talbot, were not immune to these hardships, signing up to each voyage and becoming aware of the activities of workmen and trade unionists in ports and industrial towns like Aberafan, across Great Britain.
Emmanuel met Sinah Lane, the daughter of a local miner and herself a Labour Party activist, at a local socialist rally. They married in 1922 and had a son David John. Both Emmanuel and Sinah were active in the Independent Labour Party working towards the successful election of the local Member of Parliament. Emmanuel and Sinah attended meetings and rallies by trade unionists and Labour Party members such as James Griffiths, Aneurin Bevan, Willie Cove and Ramsay MacDonald Aberavon Member of Parliament the 1st Labour Party Prime Minister in 1924. Emmanuel was known locally for his passionate speeches at meetings and rallies in Welsh. The tough times continued with high unemployment and low wages as a result of the worldwide Great Depression from 1929 until the start of World War II. Particularly hardest hit by economic problems were the industrial and mining areas in the north of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Unemployment reached 70% in some areas at the start of the 1930s (with more than 3 million out of work nationally) and many families depended entirely on payments from local government known as the dole’. Ramsay MacDonald won the parliamentary seat of Aberafan from the Liberal Party in 1922 and the Labour Party has held it ever since.
Labour Party.
When he returned to Mauritius, he helped to found the Labour Party with Dr. Maurice Curé, and fought for the rights of labourers and workers. He saw much injustice and was of opinion that "the workers on the sugar estates were better off when they were slaves". Following the Uba riots of 1937 Anquetil was deported to Rodrigues by the British colonial government for organising strikes in defence of dockers' rights in 1938. He spent much time touring the island campaigning for a more liberal form of government, and took part in debates on the revision of the constitution.
Death.
His long tours around the island affected his health, and he died in 1946 of pneumonia before the new constitution came into being. He was succeeded by Guy Rozemont as leader of the Labour Party.


Alexander Findlay (British Army officer)

Alexander Findlay, KH (c. 1784 – 9 May 1851) was a British Army officer and colonial governor.
Military service.
Findlay served in a Highland regiment during the Napoleonic Wars as a private soldier. He transferred to the 2nd West India Regiment following the war, becoming a Lieutenant in 1816, a Captain in 1821, and a Major in 1826. Findlay first arrived in Africa in 1819, and was appointed to succeed Alexander Grant as Commandant of St Mary's Island in August 1826, as the latter retired due to poor health. In 1826, Findlay appointed an advisory board of commerce. Among the appointees was Charles Grant, a British merchant who was the cousin of Alexander.
Findlay returned to England in March 1829 as a Lieutenant Colonel, but returned in December that year as the first Lieutenant Governor of the Gambia. However, he was quickly promoted to Lieutenant Governor of Sierra Leone and so left the Gambia in April 1830. He served in Sierra Leone until April 1833, when he was recalled following his controversial imprisonment of Hamilton Edmund MacCormac. He later served as Fort Major of Fort George, Scotland. In 1838, Findlay wrote to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, applying for the vacant role of Lieutenant Governor in the Gambia, but the application was rejected.


Transitional Government of National Unity (Namibia)

The Transitional Government of National Unity (TGNU), also commonly called the "Interim Government", was the interim government of South-West Africa (Namibia) from June 1985 to February 1989.
Background.
Following the 1975–1977 Turnhalle Constitutional Conference, the first multiracial elections were held in the occupied territory in 1978, and a National Assembly as well as a Council of Ministers was constituted. Dirk Mudge became chairman of the ministerial council. Already in 1972 the United Nations had decreed SWAPO to be the "sole legitimate representative" of Namibia's people, but SWAPO was not invited to the Turnhalle conference and boycotted the subsequent elections. The United Nations Security Council consequently declared the election null and void, and the interim government illegitimate.
Following interference by the [[South Africa]]n Administrator-General the Council of Ministers resigned, and on 18 January 1983 South Africa accepted the dissolution of both the legislative and the executive body without elections being scheduled, and again assumed full administrative authority over South West Africa.
The subsequent void was filled by South African administrators. [[Willie van Niekerk]] was appointed administrator-general for South West Africa and [[Jan F Greebe]] became chief executive officer. A Judicial Commission was appointed. Urged by [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 532]] to speed up the process of releasing the territory into independence, a State Council was established in May 1983. In September this Council was obsoleted by the establishment of the [[Multi-Party Conference]] (MPC) which consisted of 19 parties but again excluded SWAPO. The MPC issued the "Windhoek Declaration of Basic Principles" in 1984 and the "Bill of Fundamental Rights and Objectives", wherein the establishment of a Transitional Government of National Unity is requested from the South African administration, in 1985.
Setup.
On 17 June 1985, the Transitional Government of National Unity was installed by the South African Administrator-General. Its legislative and executive actions were subject to South African approval, with newly appointed administrator-general [[Louis Pienaar]] having the [[veto]] right on all legislation to be passed. The TGNU was perceived as a client government of South Africa that sought moderate reform but was unable to secure recognition by the United Nations.
The body was dominated by the [[Democratic Turnhalle Alliance]] (DTA), then an alliance of ethnically based, unelected political parties. The interim government consisted of a 62-seat National Assembly and an 8-seat Council of Ministers. The seats were allocated such that the DTA had 22, and five smaller parties got 8 seats each: [[Labour Party (Namibia)|Labour Party]] (LP), the [[National Party of South West Africa]] (NP), the [[Rehoboth Free Democratic Party]], the [[South West Africa National Union]] (SWANU), and the [[SWAPO Democrats]] (SWAPO-D). The position of the DTA was, however, not as strong as in the previous government after the [[1978 South West African legislative election|1978 elections]] where it occupied 41 out of the 50 seats. This time, the five smaller parties could easily outvote the DTA.
On 1 March 1989 TNGU was suspended along the terms of [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 435]] for it to give way to an independent government, determined by the [[1989 Namibian parliamentary election|November 1989 parliamentary elections]]. SWAPO won the elections but fell short of a two-thirds majority which would have enabled it to write the constitution on its own.
Cabinet.
TGNU was chaired on a three-month [[wikt:round robin|round robin]] basis by its cabinet members.
References.
Literature.
[[Category:Government of Namibia]]
[[Category:History of Namibia]]
[[Category:Lists of political office-holders in Namibia]]
[[Category:1985 establishments in South West Africa]]
[[Category:1989 disestablishments in South West Africa]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1985]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1989]]


Conus santaluziensis

Conus santaluziensis is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Conidae, the cone snails, cone shells or cones.
These snails are predatory and venomous. They are capable of "stinging" humans.
Distribution.
This marine species occurs off Santa Luzia Island, Cape Verde.


List of years in Mauritania

This is a list of years in Mauritania.


Hout Bay Museum

Hout Bay Museum is a province-aided museum at 4 Andrews Road in Hout Bay near Cape Town, South Africa. Opened on 5 April 1979, the museum has displays on the history of the Hout Bay valley and its people, focusing on forestry, mining, and the fishing industry up to modern times. The museum also organises weekly guided nature walks into the surrounding mountains. The first curator at Hout Bay Museum was Pam Wormser.
History.
Jimmy Steele, a retired official of the Museum's Section, Department of Nature Conservation, had nurtured for many years the dream of founding a museum in Hout Bay. In 1975, a Cultural Arts Festival was held in the Bay. Apart from exhibitions by local craftsmen, musical and drama presentations, exhibitions on the history of Hout Bay were held - the Strandlopers, early Hout Bay residents, and the shipwrecks along our coast. This festival proved that Hout Bay had a fascinating history and it was important that a permanent home be found where all this information and artifacts belonging to our past could be preserved for the future.
Jimmy Steele was Chairman of the Festival Committee and at the Report Back Meeting at the end of the festival, it was proposed that he go ahead with negotiations to found a museum. With the backing of the Ratepayers Association he approached the Divisional Council of the Cape for the financial assistance and leased part of Kronendal School for the nominal fee of R1 per annum. The following chronology of dates and events portray the development of the museum.
11 July 1977. A grant of R8 500 per annum was finally agreed upon.
In 1978, A report on how to renovate and develop the building suitable as a museum was drawn up by Mr E Hayden, Chief Technician for Museums. The Hout Bay/Llandudno Round Table undertook to alter and repair the building, which had originally been built as a house for the Headmaster of Kronendal School.
August 1978. Pam Wormser was appointed as first curator of the museum, and a special committee was appointed consisting of Jimmy Steele as Chairman; Dr R Borchers and Mrs E. Bisschop as members of the committee.
1 September 1978. The first meeting was held. The initial task was to aim for Provincial recognition, then a board of trustees of six members would be appointed two to represent CPA, two the Divisional Council and two the subscribers to the museum.
25 October 1978. A lecture by Townley Johnson on the Strandlopers launched the appeal to start this Society.
The museum's application for membership to the South African Museums Association was approved.
At the end of 1978 the museum had a furnished office, showcases and a host of artefacts and memorabilia from the farms, wrecks of the immediate area fishing paraphernalia. The early days of the museum were spent in furnishing the museum. Mr & Mrs Fuller Gee, qualified landscape architects, designed the layout of the garden, but work on the garden only commenced in 1979 after the formal opening of the Museum on 5 April.
In November 1979 Provincial recognition was granted and the Museum was declared a Local History Museum. The Museum continues to play an important role in education, hosting schools from all over the Peninsula. It holds exhibits, and stores and protects a wealth of information, records and photographs of local interest.
Denis Goldberg House of Hope.
In 2015, veteran anti-apartheid activist Denis Goldberg and four others established the non-profit Denis Goldberg Legacy Foundation Trust, with the aim of establishing an arts, cultural and educational centre, to be known as the Denis Goldberg House of Hope. In an interview in the 2018 "UCT Alumni Magazine", Goldberg spoke of his passion for the project and belief in the role of art and culture in helping to bring about change, saying that South Africa was still a very divided society and that young people needed "to sing together, dance together, make poetry together".
Goldberg died on 29 April 2020, at which point it was stated that the Denis Goldberg House of Hope Arts and Culture Centre (or Denis Goldberg House of Hope Arts, Culture and Education Centre) would be situated at the Hout Bay Museum, and would house the Goldberg art collection, titled “Life is Wonderful”, and other memorabilia.


Barkly West Museum

The Barkly West Museum was established in 2000 in the old Toll House beside the Barkly Bridge which crosses the Vaal River at Barkly West in the Northern Cape, South Africa.
Establishment.
The museum was based on the collection mainly of minerals and archaeological finds gathered in the earlier twentieth century by Mining Commissioner Gideon Retief, which was once housed under imperfect conditions as the "Mining Commissioner's Museum" in the town. Following years of neglect, the toll house was restored and converted into a museum opened in Heritage Month, 2000.
Displays.
The displays comprise exhibition cabinets on local geology, archaeology and history and panels created by Kimberley's McGregor Museum, on precolonial history, the alluvial diamond diggings and the origins and social history of the town. The displays touch on mid-twentieth-century forced removals in Barkly West that were a consequence of the Group Areas Act under Apartheid.
A section of the display is about the Canteen Kopje skull, a cast of which is exhibited. A stone tablet bearing the names of noteworthy visitors to the nearby Canteen Kopje site and the Mining Commissioner's Museum in the 1940s includes the signature of the Abbé Henri Breuil.
Photographs showing the Barkly Bridge and Vaal River in flood overlook the river and bridge.
The museum has undergone a revamp in 2009-2010.
The 125th anniversary of the opening of the "Vaal River Bridge, West Barkly" - as it was originally named - was celebrated here on June 26, 2010, with readings from the Diamond Fields Advertiser, William Guybon Atherstone, Emil Holub, Sol Plaatje and Dan Jacobson.


Turkana Boy

Turkana Boy, also called Nariokotome Boy, is the name given to fossil KNM-WT 15000, a nearly complete skeleton of a "Homo ergaster" (alternatively referred to as African "Homo erectus") youth who lived at c. 1.5 to 1.6 million years ago. This specimen is the most complete early human skeleton ever found.
It was discovered in 1984 by Kamoya Kimeu on the bank of the Nariokotome River near Lake Turkana in Kenya.
Estimates of the individual's age at death range from 7 to 11 years old.
Adolescence and maturity.
Although the specimen is largely considered male due to the shape of the pelvis, the sex is ultimately indeterminate due to its prepubescent age. Estimates of the age at death depend on whether the maturity stage of the teeth or skeleton is used, and whether that maturity is compared to that of modern humans or to chimpanzees. A key factor is that, while modern humans have a marked adolescent growth spurt, chimpanzees do not. While initial research assumed a modern human type of growth, more recent evidence from other fossils suggests this was less present in early "Homo". This affects the estimation of both the age and the likely stature of the specimen as a fully grown adult.
Alan Walker and Richard Leakey in 1993 estimated the boy to have been about 11–12 years old based on known rates of bone maturity.
Walker and Leakey (1993) said that dental dating often gives a younger age than a person's actual age.
Christopher Dean (M. C. Dean) of University College London, in a "Nova" special, estimated that the Turkana Boy was 8 years old at death.
Morphology.
The specimen comprises 108 bones, making it the most complete early human skeleton discovered. The skeleton is about tall. In adulthood, Turkana Boy might have reached tall and massed . The pelvis is narrower than in "Homo sapiens", which is most likely for more efficient upright walking. This further indicates a fully terrestrial bipedalism, which is unlike older hominin species that show a combined feature of bipedalism and tree climbing. The Boy was relatively tall, which increased his body surface area that would enhance heat dissipation and prevent heat stress under the hot sun.
The overall KNM-WT 15000 skeleton still had features (such as a low sloping forehead, strong brow ridges, and the absence of a chin) not seen in "H. sapiens". However, there are significant defining characters, such as bigger brain size (880 cc). The arms and legs are slightly longer indicating effective bipedality. The nose is projecting like those of humans rather than the open flat nose seen in other apes. Body hair may also have been thinner (most likely naked) and possibly with increased sweat glands to hasten cooling. The skin also was most probably much darker with abundant melanin, as it was necessary to cope with the direct tropical sun rays in the African savannah.
Vocal capabilities.
The fossil skeleton and other fossil evidence, such as Acheulean stone tools, prompt the majority of scientists to conclude that "Homo ergaster" and "Homo erectus" – unlike their more primitive ancestors – became efficient hunters. The social structure would probably have become more complex with a larger brain volume; the Broca's area of the brain allows speech and is noted by a slight slant on the cranium. Turkana Boy's thoracic vertebrae are narrower than in "Homo sapiens". This would have allowed him less motor control over the thoracic muscles that are used in modern humans to modify respiration to enable the sequencing upon single exhalations of complex vocalisations.
Disease.
It was suspected that Turkana Boy suffered from a congenital disorder, either of dwarfism or scoliosis. This was because the rib bones appeared asymmetrical to the spine and the reason was attributed to skeletal dysplasia. However, in 2013, a study showed that when the rib bones were carefully rearranged, they became symmetrical against the spine, and that an unusual structure of the vertebrae was characteristic of the early hominins. However, the fossil definitely showed lumbar disc herniation, an injury implicated with the specimen's death. The specimen also had a diseased mandible.


Andrianjafy

King Andrianjafy (1770–1787) also known as Andrianjafinandriamanitra and Andrianjafinjanahary, was the king of Imerina Avaradrano, the northern part of the central highlands of Madagascar with its capital at Ambohimanga. His father Andriambelomasina bequeathed him the rule of Avaradrano while designating his nephew Ramboasalama to follow Andrianjafy in the order of succession. Andrianjafy did not accept this decree, instead preferring that his own son succeed him, and sought retribution against citizens of Avaradrano who acknowledged the latent authority of his nephew.
In order to prevent Ramboasalama from rising to power, Andrianjafy devised a series of failed plans to kill his nephew. The king's ineffectiveness as a ruler and despotic behavior contributed to declining popularity among the people of Avaradrano. Popular support for Ramboasalama produced a coup d'état in which he replaced Andrianjafy as King Andrianampoinimerina. Andrianjafy fled to Ilafy, where he rallied an army and tried unsuccessfully to recapture the throne. He was put to death in 1787 by followers of Andrianampoinimerina.
Early life.
Andrianjafy was a son of King Andriambelomasina of Imerina Avaradrano and his first wife, Rasoherimananitany. When he was born, an astrologer made an unfavorable prediction, declaring, "This child will not possess what Andrianjakanavalomandimby and Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana left - he will fritter it away." As a young man he married Ranavalondrajaka of Ilafy, with whom he had two sons, Ralaitokana and Ratsiantahana, and one daughter, Ratsimiantanasoa.
Before his death, King Andriambelomasina assigned his sons to govern four fiefs within the territory, giving the largest and easternmost territory of Avaradrano to Andrianjafy. At the same time he designated his sister's son Ramboasalama to follow Andrianjafy in the order of succession, stating "Ramboasalama will succeed Andrianjafy, because today I give the right to rule to Andrianjafy, but tomorrow and at the end it will belong to Ramboasalama."
Reign.
In 1770 Andrianjafy succeeded upon the death of his father, who was one of many victims of a major famine in Imerina. Oral histories recount that Andrianjafy felt his authority was threatened by his nephew Ramboasalama, who frequently made promises to the populace regarding his future reign. Andrianjafy's jealousy prompted him to put to death citizens of his territory who engaged his nephew in such promises. Andrianjafy occasionally displayed his power in despotic fashion, such as by engaging the armies of a Sakalava prince to attack Hiaramy and Faliary, two communities already under his control, and massacring the inhabitants without provocation.
Andrianjafy failed to consistently apply the law in his realm, particularly in regard to the punishment of criminals. The resulting increase in impunity and decline in security in Avaradrano contributed to declining popular support of his rule. The king's public image was further tarnished by his increasingly hostile behavior toward Ramboasalama, in disregard of the wishes of Andrianjafy's father, Andriambelomasina. Oral history describes him as prone to anger and violence, which he did not hesitate to inflict against women and children. He is also said to have frequently seized the property and valuables of his people for his own use without justification or compensation.
Dethronement.
Initially, Andrianjafy may have been willing to accept his father's declared order of succession. This most likely changed when Ranavalondrazaka, Andrianjafy's wife, unexpectedly gave birth to a son. She persuaded Andrianjafy to disregard his father's decree and name their own son Ralaitokana as successor in place of Ramboasalama. Andrianjafy agreed to this proposal and devised a series of ruses to kill his nephew and clear the path to the throne for his son. In one instance, Andrianjafy invited his nephew to listen to music from a nearby cliff, intending to push him over the edge; Andriantsimitovizainitrimo, Andrianjafy's brother, warned his nephew of the plot, and Ramboasalama declined the invitation on the pretext of illness. In another instance, Andrianjafy claimed to be ill and sent for Ramboasalama with the intention of murdering him once they were alone together, but once again Andrianjafy's brother warned his nephew of the danger. The king then planned to have Ramboasalama murdered during a planned excursion through a nearby swamp, but Ramboasalama was warned and stayed behind.
Andrianjafy became bolder and decided to send a group of assassins to Ramboasalama's residence in Ambohimanga; confident of his plan, he showed the funeral goods he had prepared for Ramboasalama to his brother, and then departed his stronghold at Ambohimanga for a circumcision ceremony to be held at Ilafy. Andriantsimitovizainitrimo promptly sent a messenger to his nephew instructing him to flee. Rather than leave Ambohimanga, Ramboasalama followed the advice of an elder who instructed him to sacrifice a ram to invoke ancestral protection. The elder then gathered the twelve most respected men of Ambohimanga and thirty soldiers, and rallied them to enforce the decree of Andriambelomasina by overthrowing Andrianjafy and swearing allegiance to Ramboasalama, who took the throne name Andrianampoinimerina. The support of the Tsimahafotsy, inhabitants of Ambohimanga, ensured the defense of the city against efforts by Andrianjafy to reclaim his capital and his authority. Enraged, Andrianjafy took revenge against his brother Andriantsimitovizainitrimo, whom he murdered by pulling him from his bed, which was raised in the traditional style over fifteen feet above the ground.
Andrianjafy rallied the people of his home village of Ilafy to fight against those of Ambohimanga. Both sides were armed with spears and firearms. An initial battle at Marintampona saw the Ilafy army defeated. Both sides regrouped for a second confrontation at Amboniloha, which took place at night and did not end in a definitive win for either side. In the morning, Andrianjafy moved his army north of Anosy and the two sides clashed again in a battle that lasted two days. The Ilafy army lost the skirmish and retreated to their village. After losing these battles, the residents of Ilafy decided to submit to Andrianampoinimerina. To rid themselves of Andrianjafy, the people encouraged him to travel to Antananarivo and Alasora to seek allies in the defense of their town. Once he had departed, the villagers barred the town gates and announced their desire to enforce the decree of Andriambelomasina. Seeking support to recapture the throne, Andrianjafy traveled to Antananarivo, Ambohipeto, Alasora and Anosizato, but each time he was rebuffed.
Death.
Having failed to rally an army to retake Ambohimanga, in 1787 Andrianjafy was approached by messengers who claimed they regretted their betrayal and wished to reinstate him as king. The messengers carried him on a royal palanquin to their village in the north, using a circuitous route that disoriented him. He realized too late that the porters had taken him deep into Andrianampoinimerina's territory; they bound him with rope and brought him to his nephew. Andrianampoinimerina was prepared to let his uncle go free after submitting, but the people of Ambohimanga desired vengeance for the violence and injustices the fallen king had inflicted upon them and their families. Andrianampoinimerina took a walk to distract himself while his followers carried Andrianjafy to a nearby location where he was put to death.
Oral history provides different accounts of Andrianjafy's death. He is said to have died either by strangling or by being placed head-first in a vat of rice. His place of death has been given as a valley east of Ambohimanga called Antsahafady, or at the sacred stone of Ambatolava in Ambohimanga village. His body was wrapped in a red "lambamena" shroud. Different traditions give his place of entombment as Ambohimanatrika in Ilafy, or Isoraka in Antananarivo.
His daughter, who first married King Andrianamboatsimarofy of Imerinatsimo, remarried upon her first husband's death in 1796 with King Andrianampoinimerina.


Olukere

Olukere of Ikere (Olukere of Ìkere-Èkìtì) is the self claimed ruler of Ikere Ekiti, This Nigerian town is one of the most important towns in Ekiti-State, The olukere dynasty go back to hundreds of years. Due to the fact that the oral tradition was recently transcribed. There are many stories that contradict each other. Nevertheless, there is a common figure among them which all traced back to Benin Kingdom.
Many monarchs has been crowned as olukere, but no official list since they were not listed during funeral or installation ceremonies.
The present Olukere is His Royal Highness Oba Obasoyin Ayodele Ganiyu, the Okomolese II, which major stories points him the 30th, Olukere of Ikere. While the Olukere claims to be the ruler of Ikere, the government and the town recognize the Ogoga as the traditional King of Ikere.


Olu Ginuwa II

Olu Ginuwa II was a Nigerian traditional title holder and paramount leader of the Itsekiri who was Olu of Warri from 1936 to 1949. He was the 17th Olu of Warri Kingdom with the title Ogiame Ginuwa II. He was born Emiko Ikengbuwa. He succeeded his grandfather Olu Akengbuwa as Olu of Warri after an interregnum that lasted 88 years when Warri's political leadership was dominated by merchant princes.


Sabratha

Sabratha, Sabratah or Siburata (), in the Zawiya District of Libya, was the westernmost of the ancient "three cities" of Roman Tripolis, alongside Oea and Leptis Magna. From 2001 to 2007 it was the capital of the former Sabratha wa Sorman District. It lies on the Mediterranean coast about west of modern Tripoli. The extant archaeological site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.
Ancient Sabratha.
Sabratha's port was established, perhaps about 500BCE, as the Phoenician trading-post of Tsabratan (, , or , ). This seems to have been a Berber name, suggesting a preëxisting native settlement. The port served as a Phoenician outlet for the products of the African hinterland.
Greeks called it also Abrotonon (). After the demise of Phoenicia, Sabratha fell under the sphere of influence of Carthage.
Following the Punic Wars, Sabratha became part of the short-lived Numidian kingdom of Massinissa before this was annexed to the Roman Republic as the province of Africa Nova in the 1st century BC. It was subsequently romanized and rebuilt in the 2nd and 3rd centuriesCE. The Emperor Septimius Severus was born nearby in Leptis Magna, and Sabratha reached its monumental peak during the rule of the Severans, when it nearly doubled in size. The city was badly damaged by earthquakes during the 4th century, particularly the quake of 365. It fell under control of the Vandal kingdom in the 5th century, with large parts of the city being abandoned. It enjoyed a small revival under Byzantine rule, when multiple churches and a defensive wall (although only enclosing a small portion of the city) were erected. The town was site of a bishopric. Within a hundred years of the Muslim invasion of the Maghreb, trade had shifted to other ports and Sabratha dwindled to a village.
Archaeological site.
Sabratha has been the place of several excavation campaigns from 1921 onwards, mainly by Italian archaeologists. It was also excavated by a British team directed by Kathleen Kenyon and John Ward-Perkins between 1948 and 1951. Besides its that retains its three-storey architectural backdrop, Sabratha has temples dedicated to Liber Pater, Serapis and Isis. There is a Christian basilica of the time of Justinian and also remnants of some of the mosaic floors that enriched elite dwellings of Roman North Africa (for example, at the Villa Sileen, near Khoms). However, these are most clearly preserved in the colored patterns of the seaward (or Forum) baths, directly overlooking the shore, and in the black and white floors of the theater baths.
There is an adjacent museum containing some treasures from Sabratha, but others can be seen in the national museum in Tripoli.
In 1943, during the Second World War, archaeologist Max Mallowan, husband of novelist Agatha Christie, was based at Sabratha as an assistant to the Senior Civil Affairs Officer of the Western Province of Tripolitania. His main task was to oversee the allocation of grain rations, but it was, in the words of Christie's biographer, a "glorious attachment", during which Mallowan lived in an Italian villa with a patio overlooking the sea and dined on fresh tunny fish and olives.
Erosion and weathering damage [ April 2016 report ].
According to an April, 2016 report, due to soft soil composition and the nature of the coast of Sabratha, which is mostly made up of soft rock and sand, the Ruins of Sabratha are undergoing dangerous periods of coastal erosion. The public baths, olive press building and 'harbor' can be observed as being most damaged as the buildings have crumbled due to storms and unsettled seas. As the most common building material in Sabratah, calcarenite, is highly susceptible to physical, chemical and biological weathering (particularly marine spray), the long-term conservation of the monuments is endangered. Rising sea levels can also compromise the integrity of the site.
This erosion of the coast of Ancient Sabratha can be seen yearly with significant differences in beach layout and recent crumbled buildings. Breakwaters set in the vicinity of the harbor and olive press are inadequate and too small to efficiently protect the Ancient City of Sabratha.
Modern Sabratha.
The city is home to Sabratha University. Wefaq Sabratha is the football club, playing at Sabratha Stadium.
Climate.
Sabratha has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification "BSh").


Kankara kidnapping

During the evening of 11 December 2020, over 300 pupils were kidnapped from a boys' secondary boarding school on the outskirts of Kankara, Katsina State, northern Nigeria. A gang of gunmen on motorcycles attacked the Government Science Secondary School, where more than 800 pupils reside, for over an hour.
On 12 December, the armed forces said they found the gang's hideout in a forest and exchanged gunfire with them.
On 13 December, an unidentified Beechcraft Super King Air 350i ISR aircraft was seen patrolling the eastern Kano region in search of the missing pupils. The Super King Air 350i ISR aircraft took off from Niamey and patrolled the Kano airspace for over 10 hours. The yet to be identified special mission aircraft was tracked using open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools, even though it blocked its Mode S tracking to conceal its identity.
On 14 December, Katsina's governor Aminu Bello Masari said the kidnappers had contacted them and negotiations were ongoing for the release of the students. An audio message was released on 15 December, purporting to be from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, claiming that the group kidnapped the students. However, no proof was provided by the man in the audio. A video released later with the group's emblem purported to show it with some of the kidnapped boys.
Information minister Lai Mohammed denied Boko Haram's hand and said the kidnapping was done by bandits. Officials from Katsina and Zamfara states later said that the abductions were carried out by criminal gangs, consisting mostly of former Fulani herders who wanted to take revenge against others through the kidnapping. Northwest Nigeria has previously witnessed clashes between mostly Fulani herders and the mostly Hausa farmers. They told "Reuters" that they established contact with the kidnappers through their clan, a cattle breeders' association and reformed gang members. The gang members accused vigilante groups of killing herders and taking their cows.
On 17 December, Masari said that 344 of the victims had been freed from where they were being held in a wood in neighbouring Zamfara State.


Olu Esigie

Olu Esigie was an Itsekiri traditional ruler. He succeeded his father Ogiame, Olu Ojoluwa after his demise. He was crowned Ogiame Esigie, the 5th Olu of Warri Kingdom at Ode-Itsekiri, the ancestral home of the Itsekiri. He ascended the throne of his father in 1570 and reigned until 1597, when he passed on. He was succeeded by his son, Olu Atorongboye (Olu Sebastian).


Gaston Thierry

Gaston Thierry (born 17 July 1866 in Munich, † 16 September 1904 near Mubi) was a German officer and civil servant in Togo and Cameroon.
Life.
Thierry was the son of a tradesman. After attending the Gymnasium, he joined the Infantry Regiment No. 88 in 1886. In the same year, he became "Portepee-Fähnrich" (ensign with sword-knot) and in 1887 "Sekondeleutnant" (second lieutenant). In 1891 he retired from the army and became a member of the First "See-Bataillon". In 1894, after the suppression of the mutiny of the police force, he was temporarily ordered to Cameroon. In 1894 he was promoted to first lieutenant. He resigned on 12 September 1895 from the Marine Infantry and entered into the Grenadier Regiment of King Frederick William II (1st Silesian) No. 10.
In June 1896 he was made "à la suite" of the regiment and ordered to serve at the Foreign Office. Thierry was first used in Togo, where he served as station director of Sansanné-Mango and district manager in Yendi, and was involved in the occupation of the north. In 1902 he was transferred to Cameroon, stationed first in Victoria and after his promotion to captain (12 September 1902) in 1903 was appointed station director of Yaoundé. In 1903 he accompanied Governor Jesko von Puttkamer on his trip to Chad and on this occasion was appointed first Resident of on 20 September 1903.
Thierry was killed in a battle against the Kirdi people of Cameroon in September 1904, and was buried in Garoua.
A species of West African lizard, "Chalcides thierryi", is named in his honor.


Kiambu Mafia

The Kiambu Mafia is a pejorative term referring to a small group of the Kikuyu people primarily from the then Kiambu District of Kenya (now Kiambu and a portion of Thika District) who benefited financially and politically from Kenya African National Union (KANU) and Kenyatta taking power at independence.
These individuals earned wealth primarily in parcels of land "awarded" or “sold” to them by the government. For many years they were the predominant indigenous group in the Kenyan economy, controlling tea and coffee plantations, and retaining heavy influence over the tertiary sector as it developed.
Due to the influence the Kiambu mafia had, they could acquire lands from peasants in Central Province in exchange with bigger parcels of land in Rift Valley Province.
The plutocratic style adopted by the government of the day allowed them easy access to essential resources. Many of these individuals were well educated, having attended universities inside and outside Kenya. However it must be appreciated that there are individuals associated with the Kiambu Mafia not from the Kiambu district.
When Kenyatta's health started to deteriorate, the Kiambu Mafia was concerned about their continuing influence and so they decided to plan the succession in the event Kenyatta died by trying to amend the constitution so that the Vice president would not automatically hold power till the election is held.
Charles Mugane Njonjo, who was one of the mafia, but differed with them due to his apparent interests in the presidency which the group members were not prepared to support, came out strongly opposing the succession talks by saying it was in fact treason to even imagine the death of a sitting president. Political analysts and historians are of the opinion that Njonjo considered Moi a weak politician and was of the view that it would be easier to take the presidency from him rather than any of the Kiambu mafia.
When Moi came into power in 1978, he abolished all the "tribal" movements but his main aim was the GEMA, many of whose members were part of the Kiambu mafia as he was not comfortable with the huge wealth and power its members controlled.


Princess Sifrash Bizu

Princess "(Leult)" Sifrash Bizu (commonly referred to as Princess Sifrash) is a daughter of Emperor-in-exile Amha Selassie of Ethiopia by Empress Medferiashwork Abebe, his second wife. She is a granddaughter of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.
Princess Sifrash Bizu married "Ato" Fasil Araya, Secretary General of the Awasa Chamber of Commerce. They had two daughters: