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African Union
The African Union (abbreviated AU in English, and UA in its other official languages) is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Among the objectives of the AU's leading institutions are:
The African Union is made up of both political and administrative bodies. The highest decision-making organ is the Assembly of the African Union, made up of all the heads of state or government of member states of the AU. The Assembly is chaired by Yayi Boni, president of Benin, elected at the 18thordinary meeting of the Assembly in January 2012. The AU also has a representative body, the Pan African Parliament, which consists of 265 members elected by the national parliaments of the AU member states. Its president is Idriss Ndele Moussa.
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Algeria
Coordinates: 28°N 2°E / 28°N 2°E / 28; 2
Algeria
i/ælˈdʒɪəriə/ (Arabic: الجزائر, al-Jazā'ir; Berber: ⴷⵣⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria (الجمهورية الجزائرية الديمقراطية الشعبية, al-Jumhūriyyah al-Jazāʾiriyyah ad-Dīmuqrāṭiyyah ash-Shaʿbiyyah), also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a large country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.
When referring to its land area, Algeria is the largest country in Africa, Maghreb and the Arab World. It is also the largest of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea; it is also the tenth-largest country in the world. The country is bordered in the northeast by Tunisia, in the east by Libya, in the west by Morocco, in the southwest by Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Mali, in the southeast by Niger, and in the north by the Mediterranean Sea. Its size is almost 2,400,000 square kilometres (926,645 sq mi) with an estimated population of 37.1 million as of 2012. Algeria is a member of the African Union, the Arab League, OPEC and the United Nations. The country is also a founding member of the Arab Maghreb Union.
wn.com/Algeria -
American Samoa
American Samoa (/əˈmɛrɨkən səˈmoʊ.ə/ (
listen); Samoan: Amerika Sāmoa, IPA: [aˈmɛɾika ˌsaːˈmoa]; also Amelika Sāmoa or Sāmoa Amelika) is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the Independent State of Samoa (formerly known as Western Samoa). The main (largest and most populous) island is Tutuila, with the Manuʻa Islands, Rose Atoll, and Swains Island also included in the territory.
American Samoa is part of the Samoan Islands chain, located west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 300 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau. To the west are the islands of the Wallis and Futuna group.
The 2010 census showed a total population of 55,519 people. The total land area is 76.1 square miles (197.1 km2), slightly more than Washington, D.C. American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States.
Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century. Jacob Roggeveen (1659–1729), a Dutchman, was the first known European to sight the Samoan islands in 1722. This visit was followed by the French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729–1811), who named them the Navigator Islands in 1768. Contact was limited before the 1830s which is when English missionaries and traders began arriving.
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Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola (Portuguese: República de Angola, pronounced: [ʁɨˈpublikɐ dɨ ɐ̃ˈɡɔla];Kikongo, Kimbundu, Umbundu: Repubilika ya Ngola), is a country in southern Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city. The exclave province of Cabinda has borders with the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Portuguese were present in some—mostly coastal—points of the territory of what is now Angola, from the 16th to the 19th century, interacting in diverse ways with the peoples that lived there. In the 19th century they slowly and hesitantly began to establish themselves in the interior. Angola as a Portuguese colony encompassing the present territory was not established before the end of the 19th century, and "effective occupation", as required by the Berlin Conference (1884) was achieved only by the 1920s. Independence was achieved in 1975, after a protracted liberation war. After independence, Angola was the scene of an intense civil war from 1975 to 2002. The country has vast mineral and petroleum reserves, and its economy has on average grown at a two-digit pace since the 1990s, especially since the end of the civil war. In spite of this, standards of living remain low for the majority of the population, and life expectancy and infant mortality rates in Angola are among the worst-ranked in the world. At the same time, a minority has reached comfortable life standards, and the dominant stratum has succeeded in accumulating considerable wealth, so that social inequality in Angola is one of the highest in the world.
wn.com/Angola -
Anguilla
Anguilla (
/æŋˈɡwɪlə/ ang-GWIL-ə) is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The territory consists of the main island of Anguilla itself, approximately 26 km (16 mi) long by 5 km (3.1 mi) wide at its widest point, together with a number of much smaller islands and cays with no permanent population. The island's capital is The Valley. The total land area of the territory is 91 km2 (35 sq mi), with a population of approximately 13,500 (2006 estimate).
Anguilla has become a popular tax haven, having no capital gains, estate, profit or other forms of direct taxation on either individuals or corporations.
Anguilla was first settled by Amerindian tribes who migrated from South America. The earliest Amerindian artifacts found on Anguilla have been dated to around 1300 BC, and remains of settlements date from 600 AD. The date of European discovery is uncertain: some sources claim that Columbus sighted the island in 1493, while others state that the island was first discovered by the French in 1564 or 1565. The name Anguilla derives from the word for "eel" in any of various Romance languages (modern Spanish: anguila; French: anguille; Italian: anguilla; Portuguese: enguia), probably chosen because of the island's eel-like shape.
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Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda (i/ænˈtiːɡə ænd bɑrˈbjuːdə/; Spanish for "ancient" and "bearded") is a twin-island nation lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two major inhabited islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands (including Great Bird, Green, Guinea, Long, Maiden and York Islands and further south, the island of Redonda). The permanent population number approximately 81,800 (at the 2011 Census) and the capital and largest port and city is St. John's, on Antigua.
Separated by a few nautical miles, Antigua and Barbuda are in the middle of the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles, roughly at 17 degrees north of the Equator. The country is nicknamed "Land of 365 Beaches" due to the many beaches surrounding the islands. Its governance, language, and culture have all been strongly influenced by the British Empire, of which the country was formerly a part.
Antigua was first settled by Archaic Age hunter-gatherer Amerindians, erroneously referred to as Siboney or Ciboney.Carbon-dating has established that the earliest settlements started around 3100 BC. They were succeeded by the Ceramic Age pre-Columbian Arawak-speaking Saladoid people who migrated from the lower Orinoco River.
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Australia
Australia ( /əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.
For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.
wn.com/Australia -
Azawad
Azawad (Tuareg: ⴰⵣⴰⵓⴷ, Azawd; Arabic: أزواد , Azawād; French: Azawad) is an unrecognised state in North Africa unilaterally declared by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in 2012 after a Tuareg rebellion drove the Malian Army from the territory. Azawad, as claimed by the MNLA, comprises the Malian regions of Timbuktu, Kidal, Gao, as well as a part of Mopti region, encompassing about 60 percent of Mali's claimed total land area. Azawad borders Burkina Faso to the south, Mauritania to the west and northwest, Algeria to the north and northeast, and Niger to the east and southeast, with undisputed Mali to its southwest. It straddles a portion of the Sahara and the Sahelian zone. Gao is its largest city and the temporary capital, while Timbuktu is the second largest city, and intended to be the permanent capital.
On 6 April 2012, in a statement posted to its website, the MNLA declared "irrevocably" the independence of Azawad from Mali. In Gao on the same day, Bilal Ag Acherif, the secretary-general of the movement, signed the Azawadi Declaration of Independence, which also declared the MNLA as the interim administrators of Azawad until a "national authority" is formed. The proclamation has yet to be recognised by a foreign entity, and even the MNLA's claim to have de facto control of the Azawad region is disputed. The Economic Community of West African States, which refused to recognise Azawad and called the declaration of its independence "null and void", has said it may send troops into the disputed region in support of the Malian claim. On 26 May, the MNLA and its former co-belligerent Ansar Dine announced a pact in which they would merge to form an Islamist state.
wn.com/Azawad -
Balaka District
Balaka is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Balaka. The district covers an area of 2,193 km.² and has a population of over 310,000. The district's population is increasing at a rate of 2.3% per annum. Major attractions in Balaka District include St. Louis Montfort Catholic Church, the Andiamo Vocational Complex [www.andiamotrust.org] and the Chifundo Artisans' Network [www.ChifundoArtisansNetwork.com]. There are four National Assembly constituencies in Balaka: Balaka-Central East, Balaka-North, Balaka-South and Balaka-South.
Coordinates: 15°00′S 35°00′E / 15°S 35°E / -15; 35
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Bangladesh
Coordinates: 23°N 90°E / 23°N 90°E / 23; 90
Bangladesh (i/ˈbɑːŋɡlədɛʃ/ or i/bæŋɡləˈdɛʃ/ (Anglicized pronunciation); Bengali: বাংলাদেশ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh (Bengali: গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ Gônoprojatontri Bangladesh) is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India and Burma and by the Bay of Bengal to the south. The capital (and largest city) is Dhaka, located in central Bangladesh. The official state language is Bengali. The name Bangladesh means "Land of Bengal" or "Country of Bengal" the in the Bengali language, from Bangla "Bengal" and desh holding a dual meaning of "land" and "country" as English "country," German land, French pays, etc.
The borders of present-day Bangladesh were established with the partition of Bengal during the reign and demise of the British India. Its map was chartered by Sir Cyril Radcliffe during the creation of Pakistan and India in 1947, when the region became East Pakistan, part of the newly formed nation of Pakistan. Due to political exclusion and economic exploitation by the politically dominant West Pakistan, popular agitation grew against West Pakistan and led to the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, after the Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence on 26 March 1971. With the intervention of the Indian Army, the war came to an end on 16 December 1971 with the surrender of the Pakistan Army at Ramna Race Course.
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Barbados
Coordinates: 13°10′N 59°33′W / 13.167°N 59.55°W / 13.167; -59.55
Barbados (i/bɑrˈbeɪdɒs/ or /bɑrˈbeɪdoʊs/) is a sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is 34 kilometres (21 mi) in length and up to 23 kilometres (14 mi) in width, covering an area of 431 square kilometres (166 sq mi). It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres (62 mi) east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about 168 kilometres (104 mi) east of the islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and 400 kilometres (250 mi) north-east of Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados is outside of the principal Atlantic hurricane belt.
Barbados was initially visited by the Spanish around the late 1400s to early 1500s and first appears on a Spanish map from 1511. The Spanish explorers may have plundered the island of whatever native peoples resided therein to become slaves. The Portuguese visited in 1536, but they too left it unclaimed, with their only remnants being an introduction of wild hogs for a good supply of meat whenever the island was visited. The first English ship, the Olive Blossom, arrived in Barbados in 1624. They took possession of it in the name of the British king James I. Two years later in 1627 the first permanent settlers arrived from England and it became an English and later British colony.
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Belize
Belizei/bəˈliːz/ (formerly British Honduras) is a country located on the north eastern coast of Central America and it is the only country in the area where English is the official language, although Kriol and Spanish are more commonly spoken. Belize is bordered to the north by Mexico, south and west by Guatemala, and to the east by the Caribbean Sea. Its mainland is about 290 kilometres (180 mi) long and 110 kilometres (68 mi) wide.
With 22,960 square kilometres (8,860 sq mi) of land and a population of only 333,200 inhabitants (2010 est.), Belize possesses the lowest population density in Central America. The country's population growth rate of 2.21% (2008 est.), however, is the highest in the region and one of the highest in the western hemisphere. Belize's abundance of terrestrial and marine species, and its diversity of ecosystems give it a key place within the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.
Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages and it is the only nation in the region with a British colonial heritage but as a part of the Western Caribbean Zone, it also shares a common heritage with the Caribbean portions of other Central American countries. In general, Belize is considered to be a Central American nation with strong ties to both the Caribbean and Latin America. Belize is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA).
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Benin
Benini/bɨˈniːn/ (formerly, Dahomey), officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, by Nigeria to the east and by Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. A majority of the population live on its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin. The capital of Benin is Porto-Novo, but the seat of government is in Cotonou, the country's largest city. Benin covers an area of approximately 110,000 square kilometers (42,000 sq mi), with a population of approximately 9.05 million. Benin is a tropical, sub-Saharan nation, highly dependent on agriculture, with substantial employment and income arising from subsistence farming.
The official language of Benin is French, however, indigenous languages such as Fon and Yoruba are commonly spoken. The largest religious group in Benin is Roman Catholicism, followed closely by Islam, Vodun and Protestantism. Benin is a member of the United Nations, the African Union, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone, La Francophonie, the Community of Sahel-Saharan States, the African Petroleum Producers Association and the Niger Basin Authority.
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Bermuda
Bermuda ( /bɜrˈmjuːdə/), officially the Bermudas or Somers Islands, is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about 1,030 kilometres (640 mi) to the west-northwest. It is about 1,373 kilometres (853 mi) south of Halifax, Nova Scotia and 1,770 kilometres (1,100 mi) northeast of Miami, Florida, USA. Its capital city is Hamilton.
Bermuda was discovered in 1505 by Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez, after whom the islands are named. Apparently uninhabited, he claimed them for the Spanish Empire. Although he paid two visits to the archipelago, Bermúdez was persuaded never to set foot on any of the islands by the dangerous reef surrounding them. Subsequent Spanish or other visitors are believed to have released the feral pigs that were abundant on the island when settlement began. In 1609, the Virginia Company, which had established Virginia and Jamestown on the American continent two years earlier, established a settlement on behalf of the English colonial empire. Initially, it was administered as an extension of Virginia by the Company until 1614, before its successor, the Somers Isles Company, took over until 1684. Bermuda then became a British colony following the 1707 unification of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the unified Kingdom of Great Britain. After Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949, Bermuda became the oldest (and, since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, the most populous) remaining British overseas territory. Its first capital, St George's, was established in 1612 and is the oldest continuously-inhabited English town in the Americas.
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Blantyre
Blantyre or Mandala is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, the second largest city with an estimated 728,285 inhabitants as of 2012[update]. It is sometimes referred to as the commercial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Lilongwe. It is the capital of the country's Southern Region as well as the Blantyre District.
The Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), the country's state broadcaster and the provider of Malawi's only television channel, has its headquarters in Blantyre. The Supreme Court is located here. The city houses the College of Medicine, the Malawi Polytechnic and the Kamuzu college of nursing, constituent colleges of the University of Malawi, along the Chipembere highway. Its rather unconventional location has meant that Blantyre is surrounded by Mount Soche, Ndirande mountain, Chiradzulu mountain and Michiru mountain which consolidates the Michiru Mountain Conservation Area.
Blantyre supports a small expatriate population of about 25,000, mainly from the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe, and South Africa.
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Blantyre District
Blantyre is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Blantyre, a commercial city where most Malawian industrial and business offices are. The district covers an area of 2,012 km² and has a population of 809,397. It was named after the village of Dr David Livingstone in Scotland, one of the first missionary explorers who came to Nyasaland, as Malawi was originally called before independence. It is also a main trading point besides the other large cities in Malawi.
There are twelve National Assembly constituencies in Blantyre: Blantyre - Bangwe,Blantyre - City East, Blantyre - Malaba, Blantyre - Rural East, Blantyre City West, Blantyre North East, Blantyre West, Blantyre-City South, Blantyre-City South East, Blantyre-Kabula, Blantyre-North and Blantyre-North. Since the 2009 election all of these constituencies have been held by members of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Coordinates: 15°30′S 35°00′E / 15.5°S 35°E / -15.5; 35
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Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana (Tswana: Lefatshe la Botswana), is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are properly referred to as "Batswana" (singular: Motswana), but many English-language sources use "Botswanan". Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966. It has held free and fair democratic elections since independence.
Botswana is flat, and up to 70% is covered by the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. Its border with Zambia to the north near Kazungula, Zambia is poorly defined but at most is a few hundred meters long.
A mid-sized country of just over two million people, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. Botswana was one of the poorest countries in Africa when it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966, with a GDP per capita of about US$70. Botswana has since transformed itself, becoming one of the fastest-growing economies in the world to a GDP (purchasing power parity) per capita of about $14,000. The country also has a strong tradition as a representative democracy.
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Brunei
Bruneii/bruːˈnaɪ/, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace (Malay: Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: نڬارا بروني دارالسلام), is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the state of Sarawak, Malaysia, and it is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang. It is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo, with the remainder of the island belonging to Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei's population was 401,890 in July 2011.
The official national history claims that Brunei can trace its beginnings to the 7th century, when it was a subject state of the Srivijayan empire under the name P'o-li. It later became a vassal state of Majapahit empire before converting to Islam in the 15th century. At the peak of its empire, the sultanate had control that extended over the coastal regions of modern-day Sarawak and Sabah, the Sulu archipelago, and the islands off the northwest tip of Borneo. The thalassocracy was visited by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and fought the Castille War in 1578 against Spain. Its empire began to decline with the forced ceding of Sarawak to James Brooke and the ceding of Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company. After the loss of Limbang, Brunei finally became a British protectorate in 1888, receiving a resident in 1906. In the years after the Japanese wartime occupation during World War II, it formalised a constitution and fought an armed rebellion. Brunei regained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984. Economic growth during the 1970s and 1990s, averaging 56% from 1999 to 2008, has transformed Brunei Darussalam into a newly industrialised country.
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Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso (
i/bərˌkiːnə ˈfɑːsoʊ/ bər-KEE-nə FAH-soh; French: [buʁkina faso]) – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest. The country's capital is Ouagadougou.
Its size is 274,200 square kilometres (105,900 sq mi) with an estimated population of more than 15,757,000. Formerly called the Republic of Upper Volta, it was renamed on 4 August 1984, by President Thomas Sankara, to mean "the land of upright people" in Mòoré and Dioula, the major native languages of the country. Figuratively, "Burkina" may be translated, "men of integrity", from the Mòoré language, and "Faso" means "fatherland" in Dioula. The inhabitants of Burkina Faso are known as Burkinabè (
/bərˈkiːnəbeɪ/ bər-KEE-nə-bay).
Burkina Faso was populated between 14,000 and 5000 BC by hunter-gatherers in the country's northwestern region. Farm settlements appeared between 3600 and 2600 BC. What is now central Burkina Faso was principally composed of Mossi kingdoms. These Mossi Kingdoms would become a French protectorate in 1896. After gaining independence from France in 1960, the country underwent many governmental changes until arriving at its current form, a semi-presidential republic. The president is Blaise Compaoré.
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Burundi
Burundi (pronounced /bəˈɹʊndɨ/), officially the Republic of Burundi (Kirundi: Republika y'u Burundi, [buˈɾundi]; French: République du Burundi, [byˈʁyndi]), is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura. Although the country is landlocked, much of the southwestern border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika.
The Twa, Tutsi, and Hutu peoples have occupied Burundi since the country's formation five centuries ago. Burundi was ruled as a kingdom by the Tutsi for over two hundred years. However, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Germany and Belgium occupied the region, and Burundi and Rwanda became a European colony known as Ruanda-Urundi.
Political unrest occurred throughout the region, in part, because of social differences between the Tutsi and Hutu, provoking civil war in Burundi throughout the middle twentieth century. Presently, Burundi is governed as a presidential representative democratic republic.
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Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon (French: République du Cameroun), is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of Bonny, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. The country is called "Africa in miniature" for its geological and cultural diversity. Natural features include beaches, deserts, mountains, rainforests, and savannas. The highest point is Mount Cameroon in the southwest, and the largest cities are Douala, Yaoundé, and Garoua. Cameroon is home to over 200 different linguistic groups. The country is well known for its native styles of music, particularly makossa and bikutsi, and for its successful national football team. French and English are the official languages.
Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad and the Baka hunter-gatherers in the southeastern rainforest. Portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area Rio dos Camarões ("River of Prawns"), the name from which Cameroon derives. Fulani soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate in the north in the 19th century, and various ethnic groups of the west and northwest established powerful chiefdoms and fondoms. Cameroon became a German colony in 1884.
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Canada
Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km2 (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
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Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (English /kəˈnɛəri ˈaɪləndz/; Spanish: Islas Canarias [ˈizlas kaˈnaɾjas, ˈihlah kaˈnaɾjas]), also known as the Canaries (Spanish: Canarias), is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union. The islands include (from largest to smallest): Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro, La Graciosa, Alegranza, Isla de Lobos, Montaña Clara, Roque del Este and Roque del Oeste. The Canary Islands are legally recognized as a nationality of Spain. Geographically it is a part of the African Continent.[citation needed]
The archipelago's beaches, climate and important natural attractions, especially Teide National Park and Mount Teide (the third tallest volcano in the world measured from its base on the ocean floor), make it a major tourist destination, with over 12 million visitors per year, especially Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. The islands have a subtropical climate, with long warm summers and moderately warm winters. Due to their location above the temperature inversion layer, these islands are ideal for astronomical observation. For this reason, two professional observatories, Teide Observatory on the island of Tenerife and Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, have been built on the islands.
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Cape Verde
Cape Verdei/ˌkeɪp ˈvɜrd/ (Portuguese: Cabo Verde, pronounced: [ˈkabu ˈveɾdɨ]), officially the Republic of Cape Verde, is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa. The islands, covering a combined area of slightly over 4,000 square kilometres (1,500 sq mi), are of volcanic origin and while three of them (Sal, Boa Vista and Maio) are fairly flat, sandy and dry, the remaining ones are generally rockier and have more vegetation. However, because of the infrequent occurrence of rainfall the overall landscape is not particularly green.
The name of the country stems from the nearby Cap Vert, on the Senegalese coast, which in its turn was originally named "Cabo Verde" when it was sighted by Portuguese explorers in 1444, a few years before the islands were discovered (verde is Portuguese for "green").
The previously uninhabited islands were discovered and colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th Century, and became important in the Atlantic slave trade for their location. The islands' prosperity often attracted privateers and pirates, including Sir Francis Drake, a corsair (privateer) under the authority of the British crown, who twice sacked the (then) capital Ribeira Grande, in the 1580s. The islands were also visited by Charles Darwin's expedition in 1832. The decline in the slave trade in the 19th century resulted in an economic crisis for the islands. With few natural resources, and without strong sustainable investment from the Portuguese, the citizens grew increasingly discontent with the colonial masters, who nevertheless refused to provide the local authorities with more autonomy. This discontent festered and culminated in 1975, when a movement originally led by Amílcar Cabral who was assassinated on 20 January 1973 then passed onto his half-brother Luís Cabral, achieved independence for the archipelago.
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Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands ( /ˈkeɪmən/ or /keɪˈmæn/) is a British Overseas Territory located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica. The Cayman Islands are considered to be part of the geographic Western Caribbean Zone as well as the Greater Antilles. The territory is a major world offshore financial centre.
The Cayman Islands were first logged as sighted by Christopher Columbus on 10 May 1503 during his fourth and final voyage to the New World. He named the islands Las Tortugas after the large number of sea turtles observed there. The first recorded English visitor to the islands was Sir Francis Drake in 1586. He subsequently named the islands "Cayman" after caiman, a Neo-Taino word for "alligator".
The Cayman Islands remained largely uninhabited until the 17th century. While there is no archaeological evidence for an indigenous people on the islands, a variety of settlers from various backgrounds made their home on the islands, including pirates, refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, shipwrecked sailors, and deserters from Oliver Cromwell's army in Jamaica.
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Ceuta
Ceuta (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈθeuta]) is an 18.5-square-kilometre (7.1 sq mi) autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of North Africa surrounded by Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. After Spain returned Ifni to Morocco in 1969, Ceuta and Melilla remained the sole Spanish enclave territories within mainland Africa. Ceuta was deemed a part of Cadiz province prior to 14 March 1995, when the city's Statute of Autonomy was passed.
Ceuta (like Melilla) was a free port before Spain joined the European Union. As of 2011, it has a population of 78,674. Its population consists of Christians, Muslims (chiefly Moroccan Arabic speakers), and small minorities of Jews and Hindus. Spanish is the official language.
Morocco had previously called for negotiations on the future of Ceuta, Melilla and a number of Mediterranean islands and enclaves that border it. The majority of the city's population are ethnic Spanish who are opposed to the idea of being ruled by Morocco. A poll conducted by Instituto Opina found that 87.9% of people from mainland Spain consider the two cities to be Spanish.
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Chad
Chadi/ˈtʃæd/ (French: Tchad, Arabic: تشاد Tšād), officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west. Due to its distance from the sea and its largely desert climate, the country is sometimes referred to as the "Dead Heart of Africa".
Chad is divided into multiple regions: a desert zone in the north, an arid Sahelian belt in the centre and a more fertile Sudanese savanna zone in the south. Lake Chad, after which the country is named, is the largest wetland in Chad and the second largest in Africa. Chad's highest peak is the Emi Koussi in the Sahara, and N'Djamena, (formerly Fort-Lamy), the capital, is the largest city. Chad is home to over 200 different ethnic and linguistic groups. Arabic and French are the official languages. Islam and Christianity are the most widely practiced religions.
Beginning in the 7th millennium BC, human populations moved into the Chadian basin in great numbers. By the end of the 1st millennium BC, a series of states and empires rose and fell in Chad's Sahelian strip, each focused on controlling the trans-Saharan trade routes that passed through the region. France conquered the territory by 1920 and incorporated it as part of French Equatorial Africa.
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Chikwawa District
Chikwawa is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Chikwawa. The district covers an area of 4,755 km.² and has a population of 356,682.
Chikwawa contains six National Assembly constituencies: Chikwawa - Nkombez; Chikwawa East, Chikwawa-Central, Chikwawa-North, Chikwawa-South and Chikwawa-West. Since the 2009 general election all of these constituencies have been represented by politicians from the Democratic Progressive Party.
The district lies in a malaria endemic area in Africa and has recently been the target of efforts by a local Rotary Club to cover the entire district with insecticide-treated bednets.
Coordinates: 16°10′S 34°45′E / 16.167°S 34.75°E / -16.167; 34.75
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Chiradzulu District
Chiradzulu is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Chiradzulu. The district covers an area of 767 km.² and has a population of 236,050.
Chiradzulu contains five National Assembly constituencies: Chiradzulo-West, Chiradzulu - East, Chiradzulu-Central, Chiradzulu-North and Chiradzulu-South. Since the 2009 general election all of these constituencies have been represented by politicians from the Democratic Progressive Party.
Coordinates: 15°42′S 35°10′E / 15.7°S 35.167°E / -15.7; 35.167
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Chitipa District
Chitipa District is the northernmost district in the Northern Region of Malawi. The capital is Chitipa (formerly known as Fort Hill). The district covers an area of 4,288 km.², and has a population of 126,799. Chitipa borders fellow districts Karonga and Rumphi, as well as neighboring countries Tanzania and Zambia. The district is divided into five main areas known as Misuku to the east, Kameme to the north, Bulambia right at the centre while Wenya and Nthalire areas are situated to the south.
There are five National Assembly constituencies in Chitipa: Chitipa Central, Chitipa East, Chitipa North, Chitipa South and Chitipa Wenya. Since the 2009 election all of these constituencies have been held by members of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Coordinates: 9°45′S 33°15′E / 9.75°S 33.25°E / -9.75; 33.25
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Christmas Island
Coordinates: 10°29′S 105°38′E / 10.483°S 105.633°E / -10.483; 105.633 The Territory of Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It is 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, 360 km (220 mi) south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, 975 km (606 mi) ENE of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and 2,748 km (1,708 mi) west of the Territorian city of Darwin.
Christmas Island has a population of 1,403 residents who live in a number of "settlement areas" on the northern tip of the island: Flying Fish Cove (also known as Kampong), Silver City, Poon Saan, and Drumsite.
The island’s geographic isolation and history of minimal human disturbance has led to a high level of endemism among its flora and fauna, which is of significant interest to scientists and naturalists. 63% of its 135 square kilometres (52 sq mi) is an Australian national park. There exist large areas of primary monsoonal forest.
Phosphate, deposited originally as dead marine organisms (not guano as often thought), has been mined on the island for many years.
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Comoros
The Comorosi/ˈkɒməroʊz/ (Arabic: جزر القمر, Ǧuzur al-Qumur/Qamar), officially the Union of the Comoros (Comorian: Udzima wa Komori, French: Union des Comores, Arabic: الاتحاد القمري al-Ittiḥād al-Qumurī/Qamarī) is a sovereign, archipelago island nation in the Indian Ocean, located off the eastern coast of Africa, on the northern end of the Mozambique Channel, between northeastern Mozambique and northwestern Madagascar. Other countries near to the Comoros are Tanzania to the northwest and the Seychelles to the northeast. The capital is Moroni on Grande Comore.
At 1,862 km2 (719 sq mi) (excluding Mayotte), the Comoros is the third-smallest African nation by area. The population (excluding Mayotte) is estimated at 798,000. Its name derives from the Arabic word قمر qamar ("moon"). The archipelago is notable for its diverse culture and history, as a nation formed at the crossroads of many civilizations. It is the southernmost member state of the Arab League. Though in the contested island of Mayotte the sole official language is French, the "Union of the Comoros" has three official languages: Comorian, Arabic, and French.
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Cook Islands
The Cook Islands (i/ˈkʊk ˈaɪləndz/; Cook Islands Māori: Kūki 'Āirani) is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand. The 15 small islands have a total land area of 240 square kilometres (92.7 sq mi), but the Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers 1,800,000 square kilometres (690,000 sq mi) of ocean.
The main population centres are on the island of Rarotonga (14,153 in 2006), where there is an international airport. There is a much larger population of Cook Islanders in New Zealand, particularly the North Island. In the 2006 census, 58,008 self-identified as being of ethnic Cook Island Māori descent.
With about 100,000 visitors travelling to the islands in the 2010-11 financial year,tourism is the country's main industry, and the leading element of the economy, far ahead of offshore banking, pearls, and marine and fruit exports.
Defence and foreign affairs are the responsibility of New Zealand, in consultation with the Cook Islands. In recent times, the Cook Islands have adopted an increasingly independent foreign policy. Although Cook Islanders are citizens of New Zealand, they have the status of Cook Islands nationals, which is not given to other New Zealand citizens.
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Coral Sea Islands
The Coral Sea Islands Territory includes a group of small and mostly uninhabited tropical islands and reefs in the Coral Sea, northeast of Queensland, Australia. The only inhabited island is Willis Island. The territory covers 780,000 km2, extending east and south from the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef, and including Heralds Beacon Island, Osprey Reef, the Willis Group, and fifteen other reef/island groups.
The Coral Sea Islands were first charted in 1803; in the 1870 and 1880s the islands were mined for guano but the absence of a permanent supply of fresh water prevented long-term habitation. The territory was created in 1969 by the Coral Sea Islands Act (before, the area was considered part of Queensland) and extended in 1997 to include Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs nearly 800 km further South, already in the Tasman Sea.
The two latter reefs are much closer to Lord Howe Island, New South Wales (about 150 km) than to the southernmost island of the rest of the territory, Cato Island. The islands, cays and reefs of the Great Barrier Reef are not part of the territory, belonging to Queensland instead. The outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef is the boundary between Queensland and the Coral Sea Islands Territory.
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Cyprus
Cyprusi/ˈsaɪprəs/ (Greek: Κύπρος, Kýpros, IPA: [ˈcipɾos]; Turkish: Kıbrıs, IPA: [ˈkɯbɾɯs]), officially the Republic of Cyprus (Greek: Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία, Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía, IPA: [cipɾiaˈci ðimokɾaˈtia]; Turkish: Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti, IPA: [ˈkɯbɾɯs dʒumhuɾijeˈti]), is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria, Lebanon, northwest of Israel and north of Egypt. Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and the Republic of Cyprus is a member state of the European Union.
The earliest known human activity on the island dates back to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia, which has been declared a World Heritage Site with an "enhanced protection" status in the event of armed conflict by UNESCO, along with the archaeological sites of Paphos and the Painted Churches of the Troodos Region. Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world.
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Dedza District
Dedza is a district in the Central Region of Malawi. It covers an area of 3,624 km.² to the south of the Malawi capital, Lilongwe, between Mozambique and Lake Malawi.
The western part of the district is on the Central African Plateau at an altitude of 1 200 to 1,600 m. Higher mountain ranges separate this from land alongside Lake Malawi in the Rift Valley at 500 m. The landscape is a mixture of grassland with granite outcrops, natural woodland and commercial pine plantations on the mountains and some bamboo forest nearer the lake. The wet season is November to April with almost no rainfall at other times. The higher altitudes have moderate temperatures and can be cold in June and July.
The main town is Dedza Township located on the M1 road 85km south of Lilongwe. The town has banks, post office, petrol stations, accommodation and a range of shops. There are smaller market towns with a post office, police station, shops and market—Lobi, Linthipe, Mayani, Mtakataka. Most of the people live in rural villages as subsistence farmers.
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Djibouti
Djibouti (Arabic: جيبوتي Jībūtī, French: Djibouti, Somali: Jabuuti, Afar: Gabuuti), officially the Republic of Djibouti (Arabic: جمهورية جيبوتي Jumhūriyyat Jībūtī, French: République de Djibouti, Afar: Gabuutih Ummuuno, Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Jabuuti), is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east. Djibouti, which had a population of 818,159 at the 2009 census, is one of the least populous countries in Africa.Islam is the largest religion in the country, practiced by 94% of the population. The land was known as Obock and French Somaliland (Côte française des Somalis) in the 19th century; in 1967, it changed its name to Afars and Issas after new treaties with France. The territory was declared an independent nation in 1977 and changed its name to the "Republic of Djibouti" after its principal city. Djibouti joined the United Nations on September 20, 1977. While Djibouti is an independent sovereign state, it maintains deep French relations, and through various military and economic agreements with France, it receives continued security and economic assistance.
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Dominica
Dominica ( /ˌdɒmɪˈniːkə/ DOM-i-NEE-kə;French: Dominique; Kali‘na (Carib): Wai‘tu kubuli), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of 1,447 metres (4,747 ft). The Commonwealth of Dominica had a population of 71,293 at the 2011 Census. The capital is Roseau.
Dominica has been nicknamed the "Nature Isle of the Caribbean" for its unspoiled natural beauty. It is the youngest island in the Lesser Antilles, still being formed by geothermal-volcanic activity, as evidenced by the world's second-largest hot spring, Boiling Lake. The island features lush mountainous rainforests, home of many rare plant, animal, and bird species. There are xeric areas in some of the western coastal regions, but heavy rainfall can be expected inland. The Sisserou Parrot (also known as the Imperial Amazon), the island's national bird, is featured on the national flag. Dominica's economy is heavily dependent on tourism, agriculture and heavy taxation.
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Dowa District
Dowa is a district in the Central Region of Malawi. The capital is Dowa. The district covers an area of 3,041 km². and has a population of 411,387. The Chewas are the predominant ethnic group and Nyau dancing is one of the cultures left by the chewa ancestors, followed by Ngonis. These two groups are predominantly farming communities. Dowa district is an agricultural district which focuses on cotton, tobacco and groundnut farming, and the main food crops produced in the district are maize, sweet potatoes and pulses. The Yao ethnic groups are found mainly in the major trading centres.
Coordinates: 13°35′S 34°00′E / 13.583°S 34°E / -13.583; 34
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Egypt
Egypti/ˈiːdʒɪpt/ (Arabic: مصر, Miṣr, Egyptian Arabic: [mɑsˤɾ] ; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, Kīmi ; Sahidic Coptic: ⲕⲏⲙⲉ, Kēme), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: جمهوريّة مصر العربيّة (help·info), is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.
Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its over 81 million people live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.
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Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country located in Middle Africa. It has two parts: a Continental Region (Río Muni), including several small offshore islands including Corisco, Elobey Grande and Elobey Chico; and an insular region containing Annobón island and Bioko island (formerly Fernando Po) where the capital Malabo is situated.
Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the east is the mainland region. Equatorial Guinea is bordered by Cameroon on the north, Gabon on the south and east, and the Gulf of Guinea on the west, where the island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe is located between Bioko and Annobón. Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name is suggestive of its location near both the equator and the Gulf of Guinea. Besides the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the Mediterranean coast next to Morocco, it is the only territory in mainland Africa with Spanish as the official language.
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Eritrea
Eritrea ( /ˌɛrɨˈtreɪ.ə/ or /ˌɛrɨˈtriːə/;Ge'ez: ኤርትራ ʾErtrā, Arabic: إرتريا Iritrīyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea is the Italian form of the Greek name Ἐρυθραίᾱ (Erythraíā), meaning "red [land]". The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeast and east of the country has an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands are part of Eritrea. Eritrea's size is approximately 117,600 km2 (45,406 sq mi) with an estimated population of 6 million.
Together with northern Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and the Red Sea coast of Sudan, Eritrea is considered the most likely location of the land known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt (or "Ta Netjeru", meaning "God's Land"), whose first mention dates to the 25th century BC. The ancient Puntites were a nation of people that had close relations with Pharaonic Egypt during the times of Pharaoh Sahure and Queen Hatshepsut.
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Ethiopia
Ethiopia ( /ˌiːθiˈoʊpiə/) (Ge'ez: ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōṗṗyā), officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. With its capital at Addis Ababa, it is also the most populous landlocked nation in the world.
Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history, and the Ethiopian dynasty traces its roots to the 2nd century BC. Ethiopia is also one of the oldest sites of human existence known to scientists today, having yielded some of humanity's oldest traces. It may be the region from which Homo sapiens first set out for the Middle East and points beyond. Alongside Rome, Persia, China and India, the Ethiopian Aksum Empire was considered one of the great world powers of the 3rd century. During the Scramble for Africa, Ethiopia was the only African country beside Liberia that retained its sovereignty as a recognized independent country, and was one of only four African members of the League of Nations. After a brief period of Italian occupation, Ethiopia became a charter member of the United Nations. When other African nations received their independence following World War II, many of them adopted the colors of Ethiopia's flag, and Addis Ababa became the location of several international organizations focused on Africa.
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Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands (English pronunciation: /ˈfɒlklənd/ or English pronunciation: /ˈfɔːlklənd/; Spanish: Islas Malvinas) are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located more than 250 nautical miles (460 km; 290 mi) east of the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago comprises East Falkland, West Falkland, and 776 lesser islands. Stanley, the capital and only city, is on East Falkland. The islands are a self-governing British Overseas Territory, with the United Kingdom responsible for their defence and foreign affairs.
Controversy exists over the Falklands' original discovery and subsequent colonisation by Europeans. At various times there have been French, British, Spanish, and Argentine settlements. Britain re-established its rule in 1833, yet the islands continue to be claimed by Argentina. In 1982, following Argentina's invasion of the islands, the two-month-long undeclared Falklands War between both countries resulted in the withdrawal of all Argentine forces. Despite its defeat, Argentina still pursues its claim; however, UK policy supports the islanders' self-determination to remain British citizens.
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Fiji
Fijii/ˈfiːdʒiː/ (Fijian: Viti; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी), officially the Republic of Fiji (Fijian: Matanitu ko Viti; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी गणराज्यFijī Gaṇarājya), is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km; 1,300 mi) northeast of New Zealand's North Island. Its closest neighbours are Vanuatu to the west, France's New Caledonia to the southwest, New Zealand's Kermadec to the southeast, Tonga to the east, the Samoas, France's Wallis and Futuna to the northeast and Tuvalu to the north.
The majority of Fiji's islands were formed through volcanic activity started around 150 million years ago. Today, some geothermal activity still occurs on the islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni. Fiji has been inhabited since the second millennium BC. The country comprises an archipelago of more than 332 islands, of which 110 are permanently inhabited, and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of circa 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi). The two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, account for 87% of the population of almost 850,000. The former contains Suva, the capital and largest city. Most of Fijians live on Viti Levu's coasts, either in Suva or in smaller urban centres. Viti Levu's interior is sparsely inhabited due to its terrain.
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France
France (Englishi/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
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Gabon
Gabon ( /ɡəˈbɒn/; French pronunciation: [ɡabɔ̃]), officially the Gabonese Republic (French: République Gabonaise) is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west. It covers a land area of nearly 270,000 km² and has an estimated population of 1,500,000. Its capital and largest city is Libreville.
Since its independence from France on August 17, 1960, Gabon has been ruled by three presidents. In the early 1990s, Gabon introduced a multi-party system and a new democratic constitution that allowed for a more transparent electoral process and reformed many governmental institutions. Gabon is also a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2010-2011 term.
Low population density together with abundant natural resources and foreign private investment have helped make Gabon one of the most prosperous countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the highest HDI and the third highest GDP per capita (PPP) (after Equatorial Guinea and Botswana) in the region.
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Ghana
Ghanai/ˈɡɑːnə/ is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. The word Ghana means "Warrior King" and is derived from the ancient Ghana Empire.
Ghana was inhabited in pre-colonial times by a number of ancient predominantly Akan kingdoms, including the inland Ashanti Empire, the Akwamu, the Akyem, the Bonoman, the Denkyira, and the Fante among others. Non-Akan states created by the Ga also existed as did states by the Dagomba. Prior to contact with Europeans trade between the Akan and various African states flourished due to Akan's gold wealth. Trade with European states began after contact with the Portuguese in the 15th century, and the British established the Gold Coast Crown colony in 1874 over parts but not all of the country.
The Gold Coast achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1957, becoming the First sub-Saharan African nation to do so from European Colonialism. The name Ghana was chosen for the new nation to reflect the ancient Empire of Ghana, which once extended throughout much of west Africa.
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Gibraltar
Gibraltar ( /dʒɨˈbrɒltər/) is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. It has an area of 6.8 square kilometres (2.6 sq mi) and a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region. At its foot is the densely populated city area, home to almost 30,000 Gibraltarians and other nationalities.
An Anglo-Dutch force captured Gibraltar from Spain in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The territory was subsequently ceded to Britain "in perpetuity" under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It was an important base for the Royal Navy; today its economy is based largely on tourism, financial services, and shipping.
The sovereignty of Gibraltar is a major point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations as Spain asserts a claim to the territory. Gibraltarians rejected proposals for Spanish sovereignty in a 1967 referendum and again in 2002. Under the Gibraltar constitution of 2006, Gibraltar governs its own affairs, though some powers, such as defence and foreign relations, remain the responsibility of the UK Government.
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Grenada
Grenada (i/ɡrɨˈneɪdə/) is an island country and Commonwealth realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Grenada is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Grenada is also known as the "Island of Spice" because of the production of nutmeg and mace crops of which Grenada is one of the world's largest exporters. Its size is 344 square kilometres (133 sq mi), with an estimated population of 110,000. Its capital is St. George's. The national bird of Grenada is the critically endangered Grenada Dove.
Grenada was first sighted by Europeans in 1498 during the third voyage of Christopher Columbus to the new world. At the time the indigenous Island Caribs (Kalinago) who lived there called it Camahogne. The Spaniards did not permanently settle on Camahogne. The English failed in their attempt at settlement in 1609.
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Guam
Guam (i/ˈɡwɑːm/; Chamorro: Guåhån) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of sixteen Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United Nations. The island's capital is Hagåtña (formerly Agaña). Guam is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands.
The Chamorros, Guam's indigenous people, first populated the island approximately 4,000 years ago. The island has a long history of European colonialism. Discovered by Ferdinand Magellan during a Spanish expedition on March 6, 1521, the first colony was established in 1668 by Spain with the arrival of settlers including Padre San Vitores, a Catholic missionary. For more than two centuries Guam was an important stopover for the Spanish Manila Galleons that crossed the Pacific annually. The island was controlled by Spain until 1898, when it was surrendered to the United States during the Spanish-American War and later formally ceded as part of the Treaty of Paris.
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Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey ( /ˈɡɜrnzi/ GURN-zee; French: Bailliage de Guernesey, IPA: [bajaʒ də ɡɛʁnəzɛ]), is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.
The Bailiwick of Guernsey embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, and Lihou. Furthermore, the Bailiwick includes Alderney and Sark, which each has its own parliament.
Although its defence is the responsibility of the United Kingdom, the Bailiwick of Guernsey is not part of the UK; and while it participates in the Common Travel Area, it is not part of the European Union.
The Bailiwick of Guernsey is included (along with the Bailiwick of Jersey) in the grouping known as the Channel Islands.
The name of Guernsey, as well as that of neighbouring Jersey, is of Old Norse origin. The second element of Guernsey (-ey) is the Old Norse for "island". Guern similar to Spanish "Cuerno", French "Coi(r)n", Dutch "Hoorn", Frisian "Hoarn", Swedish "Hörn", Swiss "Gorn" means "Corner". - Corner Island.
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Guinea
Guineai/ˈɡɪni/, officially the Republic of Guinea (French: République de Guinée), is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea (Guinée française), it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea. Guinea has almost 246,000 square kilometres (94,981 sq mi) and a population of 10,057,975. It forms a crescent by curving from its western border on the Atlantic Ocean toward the east and the south. Its northern border is shared with Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and Mali, the southern one with Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire. The Niger River's source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea.
Guinea is geographically divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures. Conakry is the capital, largest city and economic centre. The other major cities in the country include Kankan, Nzérékoré, Kindia, Labe, Guéckédou, Mamou and Boke.
Guinea's 10 million people belong to twenty-four ethnic groups. The largest and most prominent groups are the Fula 40%, Mandingo 30%, and Susu 20%.
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Guyana
Coordinates: 5°00′N 58°45′W / 5°N 58.75°W / 5; -58.75
Guyana (i/ɡaɪˈænə/ gy-AN-ə), officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and (for over 200 years) the British. It is the only state of the Commonwealth of Nations on mainland South America, and the only one on that continent where English is an official language.It is one of the few Caribbean countries that is not an island. It is also a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which has its secretariat headquarters in Guyana's capital, Georgetown. Guyana achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 26 May 1966, and became a republic on 23 February 1970. In 2008 the country joined the Union of South American Nations as a founding member.
Historically, the region known as "Guiana" or "Guyana" comprised the large shield landmass north of the Amazon River and east of the Orinoco River known as the "Land of many waters". Historical Guyana is made up of three Dutch colonies: Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice. Modern Guyana is bordered to the east by Suriname, to the south and southwest by Brazil, to the west by Venezuela, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean.
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Hong Kong
Coordinates: 22°16′42″N 114°09′32″E / 22.27833°N 114.15889°E / 22.27833; 114.15889
Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港) is one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is known for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 (426 sq mi) and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.
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India
India (i/ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.
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Isle of Man
The Isle of Man ( /ˈmæn/; Manx: Ellan Vannin, pronounced [ˈɛlʲən ˈvanɪn]), otherwise known simply as Mann (Manx: Mannin, IPA: [ˈmanɪn]), is a self-governing Crown Dependency of the United Kingdom, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The island is not part of the United Kingdom, but its foreign relations and defence are the responsibility of the UK Government. Although the United Kingdom does not usually interfere in the island's domestic matters, its "good government" is ultimately the responsibility of the Crown (that is, in practice, the Government of the United Kingdom).
The island has been inhabited since before 6500 BC. Gaelic cultural influence began in the 5th century AD, and the Manx language, a branch of the Gaelic languages, gradually emerged. In the 9th century, the Norse began to settle there. A Norse-Gaelic culture arose and the island came under Norse control. In 1266, the island became part of Scotland as formalised by the Treaty of Perth. After a period of alternating rule by the kings of Scotland and England, the island came under the feudal overlordship of the English Crown in 1399. The lordship revested into the British Crown in 1764 but the island never became part of Great Britain or its successor the United Kingdom and retained its status as an internally self-governing Crown dependency.
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Italy
Italyi/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km2 (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.
Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.
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Jamaica
Coordinates: 18°10′57″N 77°19′18″W / 18.1823878°N 77.3217773°W / 18.1823878; -77.3217773
Jamaica (i/dʒəˈmeɪkə/), officially the Commonwealth of Jamaica, is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, 234 kilometres (145 mi) in length, up to 80 kilometres (50 mi) in width, and 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno name for the island was Xaymaca, meaning the "Land of Wood and Water" or the "Land of Springs".
Once a Spanish possession known as Santiago, it became an English colony in 1655 under the name "Jamaica". It achieved full independence from Britain on August 6, 1962. With 2.8 million people, it is the third most populous anglophone country in the Americas, after the United States and Canada. It remains a Commonwealth realm in concert with the Monarchy of Jamaica holding ultimate executive power, where Queen Elizabeth II is the current head of state and Queen of Jamaica.Kingston is the country's largest city and the capital.
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Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, French: Bailliage de Jersey ( /ˈdʒɜrzi/, French: [ʒɛʁzɛ]; Jèrriais: Jèrri), is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and other rocks and reefs.
Jersey is a self-governing parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy, with its own financial, legal and judicial systems.
The island of Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands. Although the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey are often referred to collectively as 'the Channel Islands', they are not a constitutional or political unit. Jersey has a separate relationship to the British Crown from the other Crown Dependencies of Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It is not part of the United Kingdom, and has an international identity separate from that of the UK but the United Kingdom is constitutionally responsible for the defence of Jersey. Jersey is not a part of the European Union but has a special relationship with it, being treated as part of the European Community for the purposes of free trade in goods.
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Karonga District
Karonga is a district in the Northern Region of Malawi. The district covers an area of 3,355 km.² and has a population of 194,572. It is a border district between Malawi and Tanzania mainly occupied by the Nkhonde tribe. Other tribes include Henga tribe (mainly occupying the southern part), Nyakyusa tribes (migrants from Tanzania) etc.
Karonga is the main border from Tanzania into Malawi, and the township is called Karonga Boma.
Over the last 5 years, there has been much development in the region due to the discovery of Uranium, and many of the previously-gravelled roads have been laid with tarmac.
There are many hotels and guesthouses in Karonga, along the shore of Lake Malawi, however swimming is not recommended as Bilharzia is rife in this area.
There are five National Assembly constituencies in Karonga: Karonga Central, Karonga North, Karonga North East, Karonga Nyungwe and Karonga South. Since the 2009 election Karonga Nyungwe is represented by an AFORD politician, and the other seats are held by members of the Democratic Progressive Party.
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Kasungu District
Kasungu is a district in the Central Region of Malawi. The capital is Kasungu. The district covers an area of 7,878 km², borders Zambia and has a population of 480,659.
In Kasungu District you can cross the border into Zambia and take the legendary "100 miles of rough road" to South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. If you survive the road, this is one of the great animal parks of southern Africa. Kasungu was the home to Malawi's first president, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda. The district has a number of traditional leaders, among them T/As kaomba, Kaluluma, Chulu, Santhe, Simlemba, Chisemphere, Chinsikwa, Chilowamatambe and Mwase.
Kasungu is also the home to the inventor William Kamkwamba.
Though the district was a stronghold of the Malawi Congress Party, the party fared badly in the 2009 general elections. The party lost all parliamentary seats in the district, some to independents and mostly to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
Coordinates: 13°00′S 33°25′E / 13°S 33.417°E / -13; 33.417
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Kenya
Kenya ( /ˈkɛnjə/ or /ˈkiːnjə/), officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator. With the Indian Ocean to its south-east, it is bordered by Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west, Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the north-east. Kenya has a land area of 580,000 km2 and a population of nearly 41 million, representing 42 different peoples and cultures. The country is named after Mount Kenya, a significant landmark and second among Africa's highest mountain peaks. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi.
Kenya has a warm and humid climate along its coastline on the Indian Ocean which changes to wildlife-rich savannah grasslands moving inland towards the capital Nairobi. Nairobi has a cool climate that gets colder approaching Mount Kenya, which has three permanently snow-capped peaks. The warm and humid tropical climate reappears further inland towards lake Victoria, before giving way to temperate forested and hilly areas in the western region. The North Eastern regions along the border with Somalia and Ethiopia are arid and semi-arid areas with near-desert landscapes. Lake Victoria, the world's second largest fresh-water lake (after Lake Superior in the US and Canada) and the world's largest tropical lake, is situated to the southwest and is shared with Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya is famous for its safaris and diverse world-famous wildlife reserves such as Tsavo National Park, the Maasai Mara, Nakuru National Park, and Aberdares National Park.
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Kiribati
Kiribati ([kɪribas] KIRR-i-bas or ˌkɪrəˈbɑdi;Gilbertese: [ˈkiɾibas]), officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population is just over 100,000 (2011), and the island nation is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, (1,351,000 square miles) straddling the equator, and bordering the International Date Line at its easternmost point.
The name Kiribati is the local pronunciation of "Gilberts", derived from the main island chain, the Gilbert Islands. The capital of South Tarawa consists of a number of islets connected through a series of causeways, located in the Tarawa archipelago. Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the IMF and the World Bank, and became a full member of the United Nations in 1999.
Kiribati was named in French by captains Krusenstern and Louis Isidore Duperrey "îles Gilbert", Gilbert Islands, after the British Captain Thomas Gilbert, who sighted the islands in 1788. The current name, Kiribati, is an adaptation of "Gilberts", from the former European name the "Gilbert Islands". Although the indigenous Gilbertese language name for the Gilbert Islands proper is Tungaru, the new state chose the name "Kiribati", the Gilbertese rendition of "Gilberts", as an equivalent of the former colony to acknowledge the inclusion of islands which were never considered part of the Gilberts chain.
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Lesotho
Lesotho (i/lɨˈsuːtuː/ li-SOO-too), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, completely surrounded by its only neighboring country, the Republic of South Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name Lesotho translates roughly into the land of the people who speak Sesotho. About 40% of the population live below the international poverty line of US $1.25 a day.
The earliest known inhabitants of the area were Khoisan hunter-gatherers. They were largely replaced by Wasja-speaking tribes during Bantu migrations. The Sotho-Tswana people colonized the general region of South Africa between the 3rd and 11th centuries.
The present Lesotho (then called Basutoland) emerged as a single polity under king Moshoeshoe I in 1822. Moshoeshoe, a son of Mokhachane, a minor chief of the Bakoteli lineage, formed his own clan and became a chief around 1804. Between 1821 and 1823, he and his followers settled at the Butha-Buthe Mountain, joining with former adversaries in resistance against the Lifaqane associated with the reign of Shaka Zulu from 1818 to 1828.[citation needed]
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Liberia
Liberiai/laɪˈbɪəriə/, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Ivory Coast on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open to a plateau of drier grasslands. The country possesses 40% of the remaining Upper Guinean rainforest. Liberia has a hot equatorial climate, with significant rainfall during the May to October rainy season and harsh harmattan winds the remainder of the year. Liberia covers an area of 111,369 km2 (43,000 sq mi) and is home to about 3.7 million people. English is the official language, while over 30 indigenous languages are spoken within the country.
Along with Ethiopia, Liberia is one of the two modern countries in Sub-Saharan Africa without roots in the European colonization of Africa. Beginning in 1820, the region was colonized by freed American slaves with the help of the American Colonization Society, a private organization that believed ex-slaves would have greater freedom and equality in Africa. Slaves freed from slave ships were also sent there instead of being repatriated to their countries of origin. In 1847, these colonists founded the Republic of Liberia, establishing a government modeled on that of the United States and naming the capital city Monrovia after James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States and a prominent supporter of the colonization. The colonists, known as Americo-Liberians, led the political and economic sectors of the country.
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Libya
Libya (Arabic: ليبيا Lībyā), Berber: ⵍⵉⴱⵢⴰ) is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west.
With an area of almost 1.8 million square kilometres (700,000 sq mi), Libya is the third largest country in Africa by area, and the 17th largest in the world. The largest city, Tripoli, is home to 1.7 million of Libya's 6.4 million people. The three traditional parts of the country are Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica.
In 2009 Libya had the highest HDI in Africa and the fourth highest GDP (PPP) per capita in Africa, behind Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world and the 17th-highest petroleum production.
As a result of the Libyan civil war, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, which had at that time been in existence for 34 years, collapsed and Libya entered a period of governance by a transitional administration called the National Transitional Council. The NTC has stated its intention to oversee the first phase of a transition to constitutional democracy, after which it claims it will dissolve in favor of a representative legislature.
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Likoma District
Likoma District is an exclave of Malawi situated within Mozambique consisting of two main islands, Likoma and Chizumulu in Lake Malawi (as known in Malawi but known in Tanzania as Lake Nyasa). It is a district in the Northern Region of Malawi. The capital is Likoma.
The district covers an area of 18 km² and has a population of 13,000.
There is a single National Assembly constituency representing the district. Since the 2009 election it has been held by O. A. Thundu of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Coordinates: 12°05′S 34°40′E / 12.083°S 34.667°E / -12.083; 34.667
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Lilongwe
Lilongwe, estimated population 781,538 as of 2012, is the capital and largest city of Malawi. It lies in the country's central region, on the Lilongwe River, near the border of Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, and on the main north-south highway of Malawi, the M1.
The city started life as a small village on the banks of the Lilongwe river, and became a British colonial administrative centre at the beginning of the 20th century. Due to its location on the main north-south route through the country and the road to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Lilongwe became the second largest city in Malawi after Blantyre. In 1975, the capital of the country was formally moved from Zomba to Lilongwe. Lilongwe has grown immensely since then and since 2008 has been the largest city in Malawi. All parliament members are required to spend time in the capital. Although Lilongwe is the political centre of Malawi, in some respects Blantyre remains the economic capital.
Many European and South African expatriates live in Lilongwe, and many NGOs (Care International, Plan International, Concern Worldwide, Population Services International, The UNC Project, World Camp, Baylor International AIDS Initiative, Baobab Health Trust, WaterAID), international aid organisations (Peace Corps, USAID, DFID,UNICEF, UNHCR, UNFAO, WFP), and international corporations, particularly tobacco-related firms, operate out of Lilongwe. As a result, most western visitors will find the city to be accommodating and friendly. Many coffee shops, cafes, bars, clubs, restaurants, and even a casino are located in Lilongwe. In Lilongwe, as opposed to rural Malawi, one can live, work, or vacation in a manner that most westerners would consider typical, if not luxurious.
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Lilongwe District
Lilongwe is a district in the Central Region of Malawi. The capital is Lilongwe.
The district covers an area of 6,159 km2 (2,378 sq mi) and has a population of 1,346,360. Lilongwe was officially declared a township in 1947. His Excellency the Life President Ngwazi Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda declared Lilongwe the capital city of Malawi on January 1, 1975 after a ten year building period during which many people were forcibly displaced to make way for the new government buildings. Prior to 1975, the capital was the much smaller southern city of Zomba. Lilongwe is located 1,050 meters (3,400') above sea level and has a temperature range between 65-75 degrees Fahrenheit (18-24 °C).
The airport, while still very small, is served by Air Kenya out of Nairobi, South African Airways, Zambian Air and Ethiopian Air and is quite adequate.
Coordinates: 14°00′S 33°35′E / 14°S 33.583°E / -14; 33.583
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Luangwa River
The Luangwa River is one of the major tributaries of the Zambezi River, and one of the four biggest rivers of Zambia. The river generally floods in the rainy season (December to March) and then falls considerably in the dry season. It is one of the biggest unaltered rivers in Southern Africa and the 20,000 square miles (around 50,000 square kilometers) that make up the surrounding valley are home to abundant wildlife.
Note: distances stated are approximate straight-line distances from source. The Luwangwa rises in the Lilonda and Mafinga Hills in north-east Zambia at an elevation of around 1500 m, near the border with Tanzania and Malawi, and flows in a southwesterly direction through a broad valley. About 150 km from its source it has dropped to an elevation of about 690 m and becomes a meandering river with a flood-plain several kilometres wide. Over the next 300 km the meanders increase, with many oxbow lakes and abandoned meanders. Near Mfuwe, the river's elevation has dropped to about 520 m, the flood plain is about 10 km wide and the valley reaches about 100 km wide, with a north-west escarpment (Muchinga Escarpment) about 700 m high, and a south-western escarpment about 450 m high. In the dry season some sections, especially in the upper reaches, dry out completely, leaving isolated pools.
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Machinga District
Machinga is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Machinga. The district covers an area of 3,771 km.² and has a population of 369,614.
Machinga contains seven National Assembly constituencies: Machinga - Central East, Machinga - North East, Machinga - South East, Machinga Likwenu, Machinga South, Machinga-Central and Machinga-East. Since the 2009 general election all of these constituencies have been represented by politicians from the United Democratic Front.
Coordinates: 14°55′S 35°40′E / 14.917°S 35.667°E / -14.917; 35.667
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Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar (older name Malagasy Republic, Malagasy: Repoblikan'i Madagasikara [republiˈkʲan madaɡasˈkʲarə̥], French: République de Madagascar) is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar (the fourth-largest island in the world), as well as numerous smaller peripheral islands. Following the prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, Madagascar split from India around 88 million years ago, allowing plants and animals on the island to evolve in complete isolation. Consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot in which over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The island's diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by human settlement.
Initial human settlement of Madagascar occurred from 350 BCE and 550 CE by Austronesian peoples arriving on outrigger canoes from Borneo who were later joined around 1000 CE by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel. Other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy ethnic group is often divided into eighteen or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands.
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Malawi
Malawi ( /məˈlɑːwi/; Chichewa [malaβi][need tone]), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Malawi is over 118,000 km2 (45,560 sq mi) with an estimated population of more than 13,900,000. Its capital is Lilongwe, which is also Malawi's largest city; the second largest is Blantyre and the third is Mzuzu. The name Malawi comes from the Maravi, an old name of the Nyanja people that inhabit the area. The country is also nicknamed "The Warm Heart of Africa".
The area of Africa now known as Malawi was colonized by migrating tribes of Bantu around the 10th century. In 1891 the area was colonized again, this time by the British. In 1953 Malawi, then known as Nyasaland, became part of the semi-independent Central African Federation (CAF). The Federation was dissolved in 1963 and in 1964, Nyasaland gained full independence and was renamed Malawi. Upon gaining independence it became a single-party state under the presidency of Hastings Banda, who remained president until 1994, when he was ousted from power. Joyce Banda (no relation) is the current president, raised to that position after president Bingu Mutharika died in 2012. She is the first female leader in Malawi. Malawi has a democratic, multi-party government. Malawi has a small military force that includes an army, a navy and an air wing. Malawi's foreign policy is pro-Western and includes positive diplomatic relations with most countries and participation in several international organizations.
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Malaysia
Malaysia (i/məˈleɪʒə/ mə-LAY-zhə or i/məˈleɪsiə/ mə-LAY-see-ə) is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometres (127,350 sq mi) separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. Land borders are shared with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei, and maritime borders exist with Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. In 2010 the population exceeded 27.5 million, with over 20 million living on the Peninsula.
Malaysia has its origins in the Malay Kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. The first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963, with si being added to give the new country the name Malaysia. However, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing an average 6.5% for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism.
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Maldives
Maldives (i/ˈmɒldaɪvz/ or /ˈmɒldiːvz/), (Dhivehi: ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, Dhivehi Raa'je), officially Republic of Maldives (Dhivehi: ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, Dhivehi Raa'jeyge Jumhooriyya), also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep Islands, between Minicoy Island and Chagos Archipelago. It stands in the Laccadive Sea, about 700 kilometres (430 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka and 400 kilometres (250 mi) south-west of India. During the colonial era, the Dutch referred to the country as "Maldivische Eilanden" in their documentation, while "Maldive Islands" is the anglicised version of the local name used by the British, which later came to be written "Maldives".
The archipelago is located on top of the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge, a vast submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean. Maldives also form a terrestrial ecoregion together with the Chagos and the Lakshadweep. The atolls of Maldives encompass a territory spread over roughly 90,000 square kilometres (35,000 sq mi), making it one of the world's most geographically dispersed countries. Its population of 328,536 (2012) inhabits 200 of its 1,192 islands. Maldives' capital and largest city Malé had a population of 103,693 in 2006. It is located at the southern edge of North Malé Atoll, in the Kaafu Atoll. It is also one of the Administrative divisions of the Maldives. Traditionally it was the King's Island where the ancient Maldive Royal dynasties were enthroned.
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Mali
Malii/ˈmɑːli/, officially the Republic of Mali (French: République du Mali, French pronunciation: [maˈli]), is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with a population of 14.5 million. Its capital is Bamako. Mali consists of eight regions and its borders on the north reach deep into the middle of the Sahara, while the country's southern part, where the majority of inhabitants live, features the Niger and Sénégal rivers. The country's economic structure centers around agriculture and fishing. Some of Mali's natural resources are gold, uranium, livestock, and salt. About half the population live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.
Present-day Mali was once part of three West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade: the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire (from which Mali is named), and the Songhai Empire. In the late 19th century, during the Scramble for Africa, France seized control of Mali making it a part of French Sudan. French Sudan (then known as the Sudanese Republic) joined with Senegal in 1959, achieving independence in 1960 as the Mali Federation. Shortly thereafter, following Senegal's withdrawal from the federation, the Sudanese Republic declared itself the independent Republic of Mali. After a long period of one-party rule, a 1991 coup led to the writing of a new constitution and the establishment of Mali as a democratic, multi-party state. On 22 March, 2012, a group of junior soldiers seized control of the country's presidential palace and declared the government dissolved and its constitution suspended. On 6 April, 2012, rebels from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) declared the secession of a new state, Azawad, from Mali.
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Mallavi
Mallavi is a town in the Mullaitivu District, Sri Lanka. It is located about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) from Mankulam & 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from Thunukkai. It has a population of about 5,000 and a crude education and heathcare system.
Coordinates: 9°08′N 80°17′E / 9.133°N 80.283°E / 9.133; 80.283
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Mallawi
Mallawi is a town in Egypt, located in the governorate of Minya.
Situated in a farm area, the town produces textiles and handicrafts.
The total area of the city is about 3 acres (12,000 m2). The southern limit is Allah Mansion (possibly a religious structure?), the northern limit is a television transmitter, the eastern border is the Nile, and the western boundary is Dirotiah Lake. The city contains many ancient Egyptian artifacts.
Coordinates: 27°44′N 30°50′E / 27.733°N 30.833°E / 27.733; 30.833
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Malta
Maltai/ˈmɒltə/, officially known as the Republic of Malta (Maltese: Repubblika ta' Malta), is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, 80 km (50 mi) south of Sicily, 284 km (176 mi) east of Tunisia and 333 km (207 mi) north of Libya, with Gibraltar 1,755 km (1,091 mi) to the west and Alexandria 1,508 km (937 mi) to the east. Malta covers just over 316 km2 (122 sq mi) in land area, making it one of the world's smallest states. It is also one of the most densely populated countries worldwide. The de facto capital city of Malta is Valletta; the largest town, Birkirkara. The main island comprises many towns, which together form one Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) with a population of 368,250 according to Eurostat. The country has two official languages, Maltese (constitutionally the national language) and English.
Throughout history, Malta's location has given it great strategic importance, and a succession of powers including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Habsburg Spain, Knights of St John, French and the British ruled the islands. Malta gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1964 and became a republic in 1974, whilst retaining membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004. Malta is also party to the Schengen Agreement and in 2008 it became part of the eurozone.
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Mangochi District
Mangochi is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Mangochi. The district covers an area of 6,273 km.² and has a population of 610,239.
Mangochi contains thirteen National Assembly constituencies. Since the 2009 general election these constituencies have been represented by politicians from a mix of political parties.
The Mangochi District is a real hub of commerce. It is a transit point, with roads leading to all areas of Malawi and Mozambique to the east. In fact, the border is not far once you cross the Shire River. To the north, the road bifurcates into the Salima or Monkey Bay roads. To the west, is the hilly region of Dedza. Travelling south, the road climbs up the Machinga escarpment to Zomba and from there the old capital Blantyre (named after David Livingstone's home town near Glasgow). It is fiercely hot in summer and ambient in winter. It is on the flood-plain for Lake Malawi (formerly Lake Nyassa). The lake is the third largest and most southerly in the Rift Valley lake system (the others being Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika), and is unofficially known as the Lake of Stars. The lake was named by David Livingston as he discovered it on September 18, 1859, for the effect of the reflection of the sun on the water's surface. It is also known as the Calendar Lake as it is approx 365 miles (587 km) long and 52 wide.
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Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands (Marshallese: Aolepān Aorōkin M̧ajeļ), is an island country located in the northern Pacific Ocean. Geographically, the country is part of the larger island group of Micronesia, with the population of around 68,000 people spread out over 34 low-lying coral atolls, comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets. The islands share maritime boundaries with the Federated States of Micronesia to the west, Wake Island to the north,Kiribati to the south-east, and Nauru to the south. The most populous atoll is Majuro, which also acts as the capital.
Micronesian colonists gradually settled the Marshall Islands during the 2nd millennium BC, with inter-island navigation made possible using traditional stick charts. Islands in the archipelago were first explored by Europeans in the 1520s, with Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar sighting an atoll in August 1526. Other expeditions by Spanish and English ships followed, with the islands' current name stemming from British explorer John Marshall. Recognised as part of the Spanish East Indies in 1874, the islands were sold to Germany in 1884, and became of German New Guinea in 1885. The Empire of Japan occupied the Marshall Islands in World War I, which were later joined with other former German territories in 1919 by the League of Nations to form the South Pacific Mandate. In World War II, the islands were conquered by the United States in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign. Along with other Pacific Islands, the Marshall Islands were then consolidated into the United-States-governed Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Self-government was achieved in 1979, and full sovereignty in 1986, under a Compact of Free Association with the United States.
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Mauritania
Mauritaniai/mɔrɪˈteɪniə/ (Arabic: موريتانيا Mūrītānyā; Berber: Muritanya / Agawej; Wolof: Gànnaar; Soninke: Murutaane; Pulaar: Moritani; French: Mauritanie), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in West Africa and in the Maghreb. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara (controlled by Morocco) in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest. It is named after the ancient Berber Kingdom of Mauretania, which later became a province of the Roman Empire, even though the modern Mauritania covers a territory far to the south of the old Berber kingdom that had no relation with it. The capital and largest city is Nouakchott, located on the Atlantic coast.
The government of Mauritania was overthrown on 6 August 2008, in a military coup d'état led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. On 16 April 2009, General Aziz resigned from the military to run for president in the 19 July elections, which he won. In Mauritania about 20% of the population live on less than US$1.25 per day.
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Mauritius
Coordinates: 20°12′S 57°30′E / 20.2°S 57.5°E / -20.2; 57.5
Mauritiusi/məˈrɪʃəs/ (Mauritian Creole: Moris; French: Maurice, pronounced: [mɔˈʁis]), officially the Republic of Mauritius (Mauritian Creole: Republik Moris; French: République de Maurice) is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 870 kilometres (540 mi) east of Madagascar. In addition to the island of Mauritius, the Republic includes the islands of Cargados Carajos, Rodrigues, Tromelin and the Agalega Islands. Mauritius Island is part of the Mascarene Islands, with the French island of Réunion 170 km (110 mi) to the southwest and the island of Rodrigues 570 km (350 mi) to the east. The area of Mauritius is 2040 km2; its capital city is Port Louis.
The United Kingdom took control of the islands in 1810, from France during the Napoleonic Wars, and Mauritius became independent from the UK in 1968. It is a parliamentary republic and is a member of the Southern African Development Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the African Union, La Francophonie and the Commonwealth of Nations.
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Mayotte
Mayotte (French: Mayotte, pronounced: [majɔt]; Shimaore: Maore, IPA: [maˈore]; Malagasy: Mahori) is an overseas department and region of France consisting of a main island, Grande-Terre (or Mahoré), a smaller island, Petite-Terre (or Pamanzi), and several islets around these two. The archipelago is located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean, namely between northwestern Madagascar and northeastern Mozambique. Mayotte's area is 374 square kilometres (144 sq mi), and with its estimated 194,000 people is very densely populated (520 /km2 or 1,300 /sq mi). Its biggest city and prefecture is Mamoudzou. The territory is geographically part of the Comoro Islands, but has been politically separate since a 1974 referendum in which it elected to remain under French rule. The territory is also known as Mahoré, the native name of its main island, especially by advocates of its inclusion in the Union of Comoros. In a 2009 referendum, the population overwhelmingly approved accession to status of department (95.2% voted in favour of departmental status). On March 31, 2011, Mayotte became an overseas department.
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Mchinji District
Mchinji is a district in the Central Region of Malawi. The capital is Mchinji. The district covers an area of 3,356 km.² and has a population of 324,941.
Coordinates: 13°45′S 33°05′E / 13.75°S 33.083°E / -13.75; 33.083
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Melilla
Melilla (Spanish pronunciation: [meˈliʎa]) is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave on the north coast of Morocco, with an area of 12.3 square kilometres (4.7 sq mi). Melilla, along with the Spanish exclave Ceuta, is one of the two Spanish territories located in mainland Africa. It was regarded as a part of Málaga province prior to 14 March 1995, when the city's Statute of Autonomy was passed.
Melilla (like Ceuta) was a free port before Spain joined the European Union. As of 2008 it has a population of 73,460. Its population consists of Christians, Muslims (chiefly Riffians), and small minorities of Jews. Both Spanish and Tarifit are widely spoken. Spanish is the only official language, while there have been calls to recognise Tamazight, a standardized version of all Berber languages official in Morocco, as well.
Morocco had previously called for negotiations on the future of Melilla, Ceuta and a number of Mediterranean islands which border it. The majority of the city's population are ethnic Spanish who are opposed to the idea of being a part of Morocco. A poll conducted by Instituto Opina found that 87.9% of people from mainland Spain consider the two cities to be Spanish.
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Monkey Bay
Monkey Bay or Lusumbwe is a town in Mangochi whichi is in the Mangochi District in the Southern Region of Malawi. The town is on the shore of Lake Malawi and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. The population of Monkey Bay is estimated to be 14,591 as of 2008. Monkey Bay is 206 kilometres (128 mi) from Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital city, and 253 kilometres (157 mi) from Blantyre. With a population of about 500,000, Lilongwe is Malawi’s largest city. Monkey Bay is a tourist resort and is often travelled through on the road to Cape Maclear.
Monkey Bay was ruled by the Muslim Yao chief and slave trader, Mponda, during the 1880s. In the late 19th century, the first Bishop of Likoma, Chauncy Maples, drowned near Monkey Bay in Lake Malawi. In the 1960s, there was a Fisheries Research Laboratory in Monkey Bay, funded by the then-Nyasaland colonial government.
Monkey Bay is on the shore of Lake Malawi and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. It is at an elevation of 1,630 feet (500 m).
Monkey Bay is situated 4 miles (6.4 km) away from Chimpamba, 2 miles (3.2 km) away from Zambo, 1 mile (1.6 km) away from Msumbi and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) away from Mbalamanja.
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Montserrat
Coordinates: 16°45′N 62°12′W / 16.75°N 62.2°W / 16.75; -62.2
Montserrat ( /mɒntsəˈræt/) is an island that is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. This island measures approximately 16 km (9.9 mi) long and 11 km (6.8 mi) wide, giving 40 kilometres (25 mi) of coastline. Montserrat is nicknamed the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish ancestry of some of its inhabitants.
Montserrat's Georgian era historic capital city of Plymouth was destroyed and two-thirds of the island's population was forced to flee because of an eruption of the previously dormant Soufriere Hills volcano that began on July 18, 1995. The eruption continues today on a much reduced scale, the damage being confined to the area around Plymouth, including its docking facilities, and also the area around the former W. H. Bramble Airport on the eastern side of the island, the remnants of which were buried by flows from volcanic activity on February 11, 2010.
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Morocco
Morocco (Arabic: المغرب al-Maghrib ; Berber: ⵍⵎⴻⵖⵔⵉⴱ / ⴰⵎⴻⵔⵔⵓⴽElmeɣrib / Amerruk), officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of about 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², including the disputed region of the Western Sahara, seen by and mostly administered by Morocco as the Southern Provinces. Morocco is part of the Maghreb region, in addition to Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, and Libya, with which it shares cultural, historical and linguistic ties.
Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. The King of Morocco holds vast executive powers, including the power to dissolve the parliament. Executive power is exercised by the government but more importantly by the king himself. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament, the Assembly of Representatives and the Assembly of Councillors. The king can also issue decrees called dahirs which have the force of law. The latest Parliamentary elections were held in November 25, 2011, and were considered by some neutral observers to be mostly free and fair. Voter turnout in these elections was estimated to be 43% of registered voters, but only about 25% of Moroccan adult citizens actually voted. The rest either chose not to vote or they were not registered as voters. The political capital is Rabat, but the largest city is Casablanca; other main cities include Marrakesh, Tetouan, Tangier, Salé, Fes, Agadir, Meknes, Oujda, Kenitra, and Nador.
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Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique (Portuguese: Moçambique or República de Moçambique, pronounced: [ʁɛˈpublikɐ di musɐ̃ˈbiki]), is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest. The capital city is Maputo, formerly known as Lourenço Marques.
Between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from farther north and west. Swahili, and later also Arab, commercial ports existed along the coasts until the arrival of Europeans. The area was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498 and colonized by Portugal in 1505. Mozambique became independent in 1975, and became the People's Republic of Mozambique shortly thereafter. It was the scene of an intense civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992.
Mozambique is endowed with rich and extensive natural resources. The country's economy is based largely on agriculture, but with industry, mainly food and beverages, chemical manufacturing, aluminium and petroleum production, is growing fast. The country's tourism sector is also growing. South Africa is Mozambique's main trading partner and source of foreign direct investment. Portugal, Spain, and Belgium are also among the country's most important partners. Since 2001 Mozambique is one of the world's top ten for annual average GDP growth. However, Mozambique still has one of the lowest GDP per capita, one of the worst human development index and one of the highest inequality in the world, as well as having the world's lowest life expectancy.
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Mulanje District
Mulanje is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Mulanje. The district covers an area of 2,056 km.² and has a population of 428,322. It is also known for its tea growing industry and Mount Mulanje which is one of the highest peaks in Southern Africa.
There are nine National Assembly constituencies in Mulanje: Mulanje-Bale, Mulanje-Central, Mulanje-Limbuli, Mulanje-North, Mulanje-Pasani, Mulanje-South, Mulanje-South East, Mulanje-South West and Mulanje West. Since the 2009 election all of these constituencies have been held by members of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Coordinates: 16°00′S 35°35′E / 16°S 35.583°E / -16; 35.583
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Mwanza District
Mwanza is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Mwanza. The district covers an area of 2,259 km.² and has a population of 138,015.
Mwanza is a border town whose economy is based largely on transport. The agricultural economy for many years has depended upon citrus fruits (tangerine, lemon and grapefruit) as Mwanza is one of the few areas of the country where the climate is favourable for the growth of such crops. However, for over a decade production has been falling and the citrus industry has been in decline, despite efforts by the citrus growers association ZIPATSO.
Mwanza in 2003 was split into two districts, Neno and Mwanza, under the decentralisation program. Neno's population is 75,000.
There are two National Assembly constituencies in Mwanza: Mwanza Central and Mwanza West. Since the 2009 election both constituencies have been held by members of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Coordinates: 15°35′S 34°35′E / 15.583°S 34.583°E / -15.583; 34.583
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Mzimba District
Mzimba is a district in the Northern Region of Malawi. The capital is Mzimba. The district covers an area of 10,430 km.² and has a population of 610,944.
There are eleven National Assembly constituencies in Mzimba: Mzimba Central, Mzimba East, Mzimba Hora, Mzimba Luwelezi, Mzimba North, Mzimba North East, Mzimba Solora, Mzimba South, Mzimba South East, Mzimba South West and Mzimba West. Since the 2009 election all of these constituencies have been held by members of the Democratic Progressive Party.
The most common occupations are subsistence farming of maize and beans supplemented by cattle herding, in addition tobacco is grown as a cash crop. There are currently 98 active educational committees in Mzimba.
The district consists of people of Tumbuka origin and descendants of Ngonis from South Africa. However the main language spoken is chiTumbuka. The district headquarters is at Mzimba. However, the biggest town is Mzuzu, which is also the administrative headquarters of the Northern Region of Malawi.
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Mzuzu
Mzuzu (formerly called Kaningina) is the capital of Malawi's Northern Region and is the third largest city, by population, in Malawi. The City has 128,432 residents plus 20,000 commuters (Mzuzu University students) with about 1.7 million people living around the outskirts of the city. It is situated in Mzimba District, in the center of an agricultural region, and the area surrounding the city specializes in tea, rubber, and coffee cultivation. The Viphya Forest to the south of the city is the largest man-made forest in Africa.
The City was originally developed around the Commonwealth Development Corporation's Tung Oil Estate in 1947 and received city status in 1985.
The culture of the city reflects the northern Tumbuka culture. Tumbuka is widely spoken in Mzuzu. Popular foods include botolo fish.
It is home to Mzuzu Central Hospital, one of four such hospitals in the country. The pharmacuetical manfacturing company Kentam Products Limited is based in Mzuzu.
The commercial hub of the region has coffee, timber, fruit, milk and honey production. Manufacturing includes medication, cosmetics and timber. Through Mzuzu University, the City with its 128,432 residents plus 20,000 commuters has a highly skilled labour force. and along with its arable land, sufficient potable water and electricity. There is good capital mobility through new banking facilities. There are also small to medium sized businesses located there that provide telecommunication services, internet cafes, and multipurpose stores. National chains like Chipuku, Peoples Trading, and A.C opticals can be found. The city is the home base of national companies Mzuzu Coffee, Kentam Products Limited, and NorthernLife magazine. Mzuzu has two major markets, including Taifa Market that sells fruits, clothes, cellphones, shoes etc.. Mzuzu is a growing city in Malawi.
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Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia (Afrikaans: Republiek van Namibië, German: Republik Namibia (help·info)), is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), and the Commonwealth of Nations.
The dry lands of Namibia were inhabited since early times by Bushmen, Damara, and Namaqua, and since about the 14th century AD by immigrating Bantu who came with the Bantu expansion. It became a German Imperial protectorate in 1884 and remained a German colony until the end of World War I. In 1920, the League of Nations mandated the country to South Africa, which imposed its laws and, from 1948, its apartheid policy.
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Nauru
Coordinates: 0°31′38″S 166°56′12″E / 0.527288°S 166.936724°E / -0.527288; 166.936724
Nauru (Englishi/nɑːˈuːruː/ nah-OO-roo), officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, 300 kilometres (186 mi) to the east. Nauru is the world's smallest republic, covering just 21 square kilometres (8.1 sq mi). With just over 9,322 residents, it is the second least-populated country after Vatican City.
Settled by Micronesian and Polynesian people, Nauru was annexed and claimed as a colony by the German Empire in the late 19th century. After World War I, Nauru became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. During World War II, Nauru was occupied by Japanese troops, who were bypassed by the Allied advance across the Pacific. After the war ended, it entered into trusteeship again. Nauru gained its independence in 1968.
Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Nauru was a "rentier state". Nauru is a phosphate rock island, with rich deposits close to the surface, which allow for simple strip mining operations; moreover, it has some phosphate reserves which are presently (as of 2011) not economically viable for extraction. Nevertheless, this island was a major exporter of phosphate starting in 1907, when the Pacific Phosphate Company began mining there, through the formation of the British Phosphate Commission in 1919, and continuing after independence. This returned to Nauru full control of its minerals under the Nauru Phosphate Corporation, until the deposits ran out during the 1980s. For this reason, Nauru briefly boasted the highest per-capita income enjoyed by any sovereign state in the world during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
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Neno District
Neno is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The district has a population of approximately 80,000. District Mwanza in 2003 was split into two districts, Neno and Mwanza, under the decentralisation program.
There are two National Assembly constituencies in Neno: Neno North and Neno South. Since the 2009 election both constituencies have been held by members of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Coordinates: 16°10′S 35°10′E / 16.167°S 35.167°E / -16.167; 35.167
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New Zealand
New Zealand (Māori: Aotearoa) is an island country located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses ‒ that of the North and South Islands ‒ as well as numerous smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans.
During its long isolation, New Zealand developed a distinctive biodiversity of both animal and plant life. Most notable are the large number of unique bird species, many of which became extinct after the arrival of humans and introduced mammals. With a mild maritime climate, the land was mostly covered in forest. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions caused by the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates clashing beneath the earth's surface.
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Niger
Niger (French pronunciation: [niʒɛʁ], but occasionally pronounced as /niːˈʒɛər/ ori/ˈnaɪdʒər/), officially the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east. Niger covers a land area of almost 1,270,000 km2, making it the largest nation in West Africa, with over 80 percent of its land area covered by the Sahara desert. The country's predominantly Islamic population of just above 15,000,000 is mostly clustered in the far south and west of the nation. The capital city is Niamey, located in the far southwest corner of Niger.
Niger is a developing country, and consistently ranks as one of the lowest ranks of the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI), 186th of 187 countries in 2011. Much of the non-desert portions of the country are threatened by periodic drought and desertification. The economy is concentrated around subsistence and some export agriculture clustered in the more fertile south, and the export of raw materials, especially uranium ore. Niger remains handicapped by its landlocked position, desert terrain, poor education and poverty of its people, lack of infrastructure, poor health care, and environmental degradation.
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Nigeria
Nigeriai/naɪˈdʒɪəriə/, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. The three largest and most influential ethnic groups in Nigeria are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.
In terms of religion Nigeria is roughly split half and half between Muslims in the North and Christians in the South; a very small minority practice traditional religion. Since 2002 there have been a spate of clashes, particularly in the North of the country, between government forces and the Islamists Boko Haram, militant jihadists who seek to establish sharia law.
The people of Nigeria have an extensive history. Archaeological evidence shows that human habitation of the area dates back to at least 9000 BCE. The area around the Benue and Cross River is thought to be the original homeland of the Bantu migrants who spread across most of central and southern Africa in waves between the 1st millennium BC and the 2nd millennium.
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Niue
Niue ( /ˈnjuːeɪ/ NEW-ay; Niuean: Niuē) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean. It is commonly known as the "Rock of Polynesia", and inhabitants of the island call it "the Rock" for short. Niue is 2,400 kilometres (1,500 mi) northeast of New Zealand in a triangle between Tonga to the southwest, the Samoas to the northwest, and the Cook Islands to the southeast. The land area is 260 square kilometres (100 sq mi) with about 1,400 people who are predominantly Polynesian.
Though self-governing, Niue is in free association with New Zealand, and lacks full sovereignty. All Niueans are New Zealand citizens and Queen Elizabeth II is Niue's head of state in her capacity as Queen of New Zealand. Most diplomatic relations are conducted by New Zealand on Niue's behalf. 90-95% of Niuean people live in New Zealand, along with about 70% of the speakers of the Niuean language.[citation needed]
In 2003, Niue became the world's first "WiFi nation", in which free wireless Internet access is provided throughout the country by The Internet Users Society-Niue.
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Nkhata Bay District
Nkhata Bay is a district in the Northern Region of Malawi. The capital is Nkhata Bay. The district covers an area of 4,071 km.² and has a population of 164,761.
Nkhata Bay District houses the charity group Ripple Africa in Mwaya.
Coordinates: 11°30′S 34°00′E / 11.5°S 34°E / -11.5; 34
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Nkhotakota
Nkhotakota (formerly Kota Kota) (name derived from the Chichewa for "Corner Corner") is a town and one of the districts in the Central Region of Malawi. It is on the shore of Lake Malawi (formerly Lake Nyasa) and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. As of 2008, Nkhotakota had a population estimated at 33,150. The district had a population of 301.000.
Nkhotakota was originally a group of villages in the 19th century which later served as a market for Arabian slave traders.David Livingstone convinced Chief Jumbe to stop trading slaves under a tree in Nkhotakota in the 19th century, which is currently in existence under a mission. Later Malawi president Hastings Banda gave speeches under another tree in Nkhotakota during the 1960s, this one ironically known as the Livingstone Tree. This town was hit by the 2001 floods, and was the worst hit area of Malawi's Central region. Today, Nkhotakota is the largest traditional African town in Malawi and bears a strong Swahili-Arab influence.
Nkhotakota lies at an elevation of 1,548 feet (472 m) on the shore of Lake Malawi. It is located on a rocky ridge overlooking a natural harbor overlooking Nkhotakota Bay, formed by a sandbar. In addition, Nkhotakota is 200 kilometres (120 mi) from Lilongwe, Malawi's capital, and 378 kilometres (235 mi) from Blantyre, Malawi's largest city.
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Nkhotakota District
Nkhotakota is a district in the Central Region of Malawi. The capital is Nkhotakota. The district covers an area of 4,259 km.² and has a population of 229,460. The word Nkhotakota means "zig-zag" in Chichewa.It is located along the shores of lake Malawi.
Coordinates: 13°00′S 34°05′E / 13°S 34.083°E / -13; 34.083
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Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island (i/ˈnɔrfək ˈaɪlənd/; Norfuk: Norfuk Ailen) is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia, 1,412 kilometres (877 mi) directly east of mainland Evans Head, and about 600 kilometres (370 mi) from Lord Howe Island. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance. Together with two neighbouring islands, it forms one of Australia's external territories.
Originally colonised by East Polynesians, Norfolk Island was colonised by Britain as part of its settlement in Australia in 1788. It then served as a convict penal settlement until 1794, when it was abandoned until 1856, when permanent residence on the island for civilians began. In 1901, the island became a part of the Commonwealth of Australia which it has remained until this day.
The evergreen Norfolk Island pine is a symbol of the island and thus pictured on its flag (see illustration). Native to the island, the pine is a key export industry for Norfolk Island, being a popular ornamental tree on mainland Australia, where two related species grow, and also in Europe.
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Nsanje District
Nsanje is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Nsanje. The district covers an area of 1,942 square kilometres (750 sq mi) and has a population of 194,924.
Nsanje is the southern most district in Malawi and lies in the Lower Shire River Valley. It straddles the Shire River in the north (the river forms most of Nsanje’s eastern boundary) and is surrounded by Mozambique. Elevation is around 200 feet (61 m) ASL except for some hills in the south-western part of the district which reach near to 2,000 feet (610 m) ASL. Mwabvi Game Reserve lies in the north-western part of the district and can be accessed from Bangula or Sorgin (both along the M-1 road) Elephant Marsh lies partially in the northern part of the district and can be accessed for tours via the eastern bank road. Tours start from the village of James.
Temperatures get as hot as 52 °C (126 °F) in November and around 8 °C (46 °F) in June. Rainfall averages around 750 millimetres (30 in) yearly coming January through April.
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Ntcheu District
Ntcheu is a district in the Central Region of Malawi. It borders with the country of Mozambique. The district headquarters known as BOMA in local language is located in Village Headman Yeneya and the place is commonly called Mphate. The district covers an area of 3,424 km.² and has a population of 474,464 according to 2008 Malawi population Census. Out of that 226,567 are males and 247,897 are females. It lies half way between Malawi's majors cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe the capital city.
Ntcheu is the largest town or city in Ntcheu District.
Most of the occupants of Ntcheu District are of Ngoni origin, descendants of the Maseko of Swaziland's Amaswati people. They are thus connected to the Ngoni of mzimba district in the northern part of Malawi. The paramount Chief is Inkosi yamakosi Gomani and the traditional Authorities are Njolomole, Kalumbu, Kwataine, Ganya, Makwangwala, Chakhumbira, Mpando and Champiti.
Mama's restaurant is a popular destination for people in Ntcheu.
According to 2008 Malawi population census, people aged 18 and over distributed by Traditional Authority were as follows: Phambala 55,168; Mpando 50,528; Kwataine 41,338; Sub Chief (S/C) Champiti 15,790; Njolomole/Kalumbu 54,527; Chakhumbira 25,659; S/C Goodson Ganya 106,910; Masasa 24,691; and Mphate 14,680.
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Ntchisi District
Ntchisi is a district in the Central Region of Malawi. The capital is Ntchisi. The district covers an area of 1,655 km.² and has a population of 167,880.
Coordinates: 13°20′S 34°00′E / 13.333°S 34°E / -13.333; 34
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Pakistan
Pakistan (i/ˈpækɨstæn/ or i/pɑːkiˈstɑːn/; Urdu: پاکستان) (Urdu pronunciation: [paːkɪˈst̪aːn] (
listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستان), is a sovereign country in South Asia. It sits at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and it shares a marine border with Oman.
The territory of modern Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and has undergone invasions or settlements by Hindu, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Afghan and Sikh cultures. Thus the area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of India where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.
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Palau
Palau (i/pəˈlaʊ/, sometimes spelled Belau or Pelew), officially the Republic of Palau (Palauan: Beluu ęr a Belau), is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean. Geographically part of the larger island group of Micronesia, with the country's population of around 21,000 people spread out over 250 islands forming the western chain of the Caroline Islands. The islands share maritime boundaries with Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Federated States of Micronesia. The most populous island in the group is Koror, with the capital city, Ngerulmud, located on nearby Babeldaob.
The country were originally settled around 3000 years ago by migrants from the Philippines, with a Negrito population sustained until around 900 years ago. The islands were first visited by Europeans in the 18th century, and were made part of the Spanish East Indies in 1885. Following Spain's defeat in the Spanish–American War in 1898, the islands were sold to Imperial Germany in 1899 under the terms of the German–Spanish Treaty, where they were administered as part of German New Guinea. The Imperial Japanese Navy conquered Palau during World War I, and the islands were later made a part of the Japanese-ruled South Pacific Mandate by the League of Nations. During World War II, skirmishes, including the major Battle of Peleliu, were fought between American and Japanese troops as part of the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign. Along with other Pacific Islands, Palau was made a part of the United States-governed Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1947. Having voted against joining the newly-independent Federated States of Micronesia in 1979, the islands gained full sovereignty in 1994 under a Compact of Free Association with the United States.
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Pantelleria
Pantelleria (Sicilian: Pantiddirìa), the ancient Cossyra, is an Italian island in the Strait of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, 100 km (62.1 mi) southwest of Sicily and just 60 km (37.3 mi) east of the Tunisian coast. Administratively Pantelleria is a comune belonging to the Sicilian province of Trapani. With an area of 83 km2 (32 sq mi), it is the largest volcanic satellite island of Sicily.
The island of Pantelleria is located above a drowned continental rift in the Strait of Sicily and has been the locus of intensive volcano-tectonic activity. The 15-km-long (9.3 mi) island is the emergent summit of a largely submarine edifice. Two large Pleistocene calderas dominate the island, the older of the two formed about 114,000 years ago and the younger, Cinque Denti caldera formed about 45,000 years ago. The eruption that formed the Cinque Denti caldera produced the distinctive Green Tuff deposit that covers much of the island, and is found across the Mediterranean, as far away as the island of Lesbos in the Aegean.Holocene eruptions have constructed pumice cones, lava domes, and short, blocky lava flows. Post Green Tuff activity constructed the cone of Monte Gibele, part of which was subsequently uplifted to form Montagna Grande. Several vents are located on three sides of the uplifted Montagna Grande block on the southeast side of the island. A submarine eruption in 1891 from a vent off the northwest coast is the only confirmed historical activity.
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Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (PNG; Tok Pisin: Papua Niugini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands (the western portion of the island is a part of the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua). It is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, in a region defined since the early 19th century as Melanesia. The capital is Port Moresby.
Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse countries on Earth. According to recent data, 841 different languages are listed for the country, although 11 of these have no known living speakers. . (A detailed series of language maps of Papua New Guinea may be found at Ethnologue) There may be at least as many traditional societies,out of a population of about 6.2 million. It is also one of the most rural, as only 18% of its people live in urban centres. The country is one of the world's least explored, culturally and geographically, and many undiscovered species of plants and animals are thought to exist in the interior of Papua New Guinea.
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Phalombe District
Phalombe is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Phalombe. The district covers an area of 1,394 km.² and has a population of 231,990.
There are five National Assembly constituencies in Phalombe: Phalombe Central, Phalombe East, Phalombe North, Phalombe North East and Phalombe South. Since the 2009 election all of these constituencies have been held by members of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Coordinates: 15°40′S 35°40′E / 15.667°S 35.667°E / -15.667; 35.667
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Philippines
The Philippinesi/ˈfɪlɨpiːnz/ FI-lə-peenz (Filipino: Pilipinas [ˌpɪlɪˈpinɐs]), officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas) is a sovereign country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons but have also endowed the country with natural resources and made it one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorized broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila.
With an estimated population of about 98 million people, the Philippines is the 7th most populated Asian country and the 12th most populated country in the world. An additional 12.5 million Filipinos live overseas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants. They were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples who brought with them influences from Malay, Hindu, and Islamic societies. Trade introduced Chinese cultural influences which remain to this day.
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Pitcairn Islands
The Pitcairn Islands ( /ˈpɪtkɛərn/;Pitkern: Pitkern Ailen), officially named the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, form a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. The islands are a British Overseas Territory. The four islands—named Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno—are spread over several hundred miles of ocean and have a total land area of about 18 square miles (47 km2). Only Pitcairn, the second largest and measuring about 2 miles (3.2 km) across, is inhabited.
The islands are best known as home of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians (or Polynesians) who accompanied them, an event retold in numerous books and films. This history is still apparent in the surnames of many of the islanders. With only about 48 inhabitants (currently from four main families: Christian, Warren, Young, and Brown), Pitcairn is the least populous jurisdiction in the world. The United Nations Committee on Decolonisation includes the Pitcairn Islands on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
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Portugal
Portugali/ˈpɔrtʃʉɡəl/ (Portuguese: Portugal, IPA: [puɾtuˈɣaɫ]), officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa) is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula . Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are part of Portugal. The country is named after its second largest city, Porto, whose Latin name was Portus Cale.
The land within the borders of the current Portuguese Republic has been continuously settled since prehistoric times: occupied by Celts like the Gallaeci and the Lusitanians, integrated into the Roman Republic and later settled by Germanic peoples such as the Suebi, Swabians, Vandals and the Visigoths. In the 8th century most of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Moorish invaders professing Islam, which were later expelled by the Knights Templar under the Order of Christ. During the Christian Reconquista, Portugal established itself as an independent kingdom from León in 1139, claiming to be the oldest European nation state.
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Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (/ˌpɔrtə ˈriːkoʊ/ or /ˌpwɛərtə ˈriːkoʊ/), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, [esˈtaðo ˈlibɾe asoˈsjaðo ðe ˈpweɾto ˈriko]—literally, "Associated Free State of Puerto Rico"), is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
Puerto Rico (Spanish for "rich port") comprises an archipelago that includes the main island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller islands, the largest of which are Vieques, Culebra, and Mona. The main island of Puerto Rico is the smallest by land area of the Greater Antilles. However, it ranks third in population amongst that group of four islands, which also include Cuba, Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), and Jamaica. Due to its location, Puerto Rico enjoys a tropical climate and also experiences the Atlantic hurricane season.
Originally populated for centuries by indigenous aboriginal peoples known as Taínos, the island was claimed by Christopher Columbus for Spain during his second voyage to the Americas on November 19, 1493. Under Spanish rule, the island was colonized and the indigenous population was forced into slavery and nearly wiped out due to, among other things, European infectious diseases. The remaining population was emancipated by King Charles I in 1520. Spain possessed Puerto Rico for over 400 years, despite attempts at capture of the island by the French, Dutch, and British. The Spanish Crown, in an attempt to keep Puerto Rico from gaining its independence, revived the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815. The decree was printed in three languages — Spanish, English and French — and it fostered the immigration of hundreds of non-Spanish European families.
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Republic of Ireland
Ireland (/ˈaɪərlənd/ or /ˈɑrlənd/; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen)) is a sovereign state in Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. Its capital is Dublin. The population of the state was 4.59 million in 2011. It is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy, with an elected president serving as head of state. In the 1937 constitution, the name of the state is given as simply "Ireland". The Constitution of Ireland (Article 4) and the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 provides that the "Republic of Ireland" (Irish: Poblacht na hÉireann) is "the description of the state".
Ireland is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations. A developed country with the seventh highest Human Development Index, Ireland is also highly ranked for press freedom, economic freedom and democracy and political freedom.
The modern Irish state was established in 1922 as the Irish Free State, a dominion within the British Empire, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty which brought an end to the Irish War of Independence. The partition of Ireland had already been provided for in previous British legislation in 1921 in response to opposition to Irish Home Rule or independence by Unionists, who formed a majority in the north-eastern part of the country. Six of the nine counties in the northern province of Ulster were established under that legislation as Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, with which the Irish state shares its only land border. The state is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, St George's Channel to the south east, and the Irish Sea to the east.
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Ross Dependency
The Ross Dependency is a region of Antarctica defined by a sector originating at the South Pole, passing along longitudes 160° east to 150° west, and terminating at latitude 60° south. New Zealand's claim to the region was formalized in 1923, when the Governor-General of New Zealand was appointed as the Governor of the Ross Dependency by an Imperial Order in Council made in London, United Kingdom. Since the Antarctic Treaty came into force in 1961, Article 1 of which states "The treaty does not recognize, dispute, nor establish territorial sovereignty claims; no new claims shall be asserted while the treaty is in force", most countries do not recognise territorial claims in Antarctica.
The Dependency takes its name from Sir James Clark Ross, who discovered the Ross Sea, and includes part of Victoria Land, and most of the Ross Ice Shelf. Ross Island, Balleny Islands and the small Scott Island also form part of the Dependency, as does the ice-covered Roosevelt Island.
The scientific bases of Scott Base (New Zealand) and McMurdo Station (USA) are the only permanently occupied human habitations in the area, though Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station is partially within the territory and dependent on logistics operations based in New Zealand. The Dependency has a snow runway at Williams Field, and depending on conditions and time of year, two Ice Runways. This guarantees accessibility by wheeled and ski equipped aircraft year round.
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Rumphi District
Rumphi is a district in the Northern Region of Malawi. The capital is Rumphi. The district covers an area of 4,769 km.² and has a population of 128,360.
Rumphi has produced some well-known politicians like
Coordinates: 10°45′S 33°50′E / 10.75°S 33.833°E / -10.75; 33.833
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Rwanda
Rwanda /ruːˈɑːndə/ or /ruːˈændə/, officially the Republic of Rwanda (Kinyarwanda: Repubulika y'u Rwanda; French: République du Rwanda), is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.7 million (2012). Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. All of Rwanda is at high elevation, with a geography dominated by mountains in the west, savanna in the east, and numerous lakes throughout the country. The climate is temperate, with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons every year.
The population is young and predominantly rural, with a density among the highest in Africa. Rwandans form three groups: the Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. The Twa are a pygmy people who descend from Rwanda's earliest inhabitants, but scholars disagree on the origins of and differences between the Hutu and Tutsi; some believe that they are derived from former social castes, while others view them as being races or tribes. Christianity is the largest religion in the country, and the principal language is Kinyarwanda, which is spoken by most Rwandans. Rwanda has a presidential system of government. The President is Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Rwanda has low corruption compared with neighbouring countries, but human rights organisations allege suppression of opposition groups, intimidation, and restrictions on freedom of speech. The country has been governed by a strict administrative hierarchy since precolonial times; there are currently five provinces, which are delineated by borders drawn in 2006.
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Réunion
Réunion (French: La Réunion, IPA: [la 'ʁeynjɔ̃] ( listen); previously Île Bourbon) is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.
Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France. Like the other overseas departments, Réunion is also one of the 27 regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic with the same status as those situated on the European mainland.
Réunion is an outermost region of the European Union and, as an overseas department of France, is part of the Eurozone.
Before the arrival of the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century, there is little to Réunion's recorded history. Arab traders were familiar with it by the name Dina Morgabin,. The island possibly features on a map from 1153 AD by Al Sharif el-Edrisi. The island may also have been visited by Swahili or Malay sailors.
The first European discovery of the area was made around 1507 by Portuguese explorers, but the specifics are unclear. The uninhabited island may have been first sighted by the expedition led by Don Pedro Mascarenhas, who gave his name to the island group around Réunion, the Mascarenes. Réunion itself was dubbed Santa Apolonia after a favorite saint, which suggests that the date of the Portuguese discovery may have been February 9, her saint day. Diego Lopes de Sequeira is claimed to have landed on the island in 1509.
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Saba
Saba ( /ˈseɪbə/) is a Caribbean island and the smallest special municipality (officially public body) of the Netherlands. It consists largely of the potentially active volcano Mount Scenery (877 m), the highest point within both the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Netherlands proper.
Saba, including the islet of Green Island, became a special municipality within the country of the Netherlands after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on 10 October 2010.
The island has a land area of 13 km² (5 sq. miles). At the 2001 Netherlands Antilles census, the population was 1,824 inhabitants, which means a population density of 140 inhabitants per km². Its current major towns and settlements include The Bottom (the capital), Windwardside, Hell's Gate and St. Johns.
As the island is part of the Netherlands, Dutch is the official language. Despite the island's Dutch affiliation, English is the principal language spoken on the island and has been used in its school system since the 19th century. English can therefore be used in communications of and to the government although there is a local dialect. Since January 1, 2011, the U.S. dollar has been the official currency, replacing the Netherlands Antillian Guilder.
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Saint Helena
Saint Helena ( /ˌseɪnt həˈliːnə/ SAYNT-hə-LEE-nə), named after Saint Helena of Constantinople, is an island of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which also includes Ascension Island and the islands of Tristan da Cunha. Saint Helena measures about 16 by 8 kilometres (10 by 5 mi) and has a population of 4,255 (2008 census).
The island was uninhabited when discovered by the Portuguese in 1502. It is one of the most isolated islands in the world. For centuries, it was an important stopover for ships sailing to Europe from Asia and South Africa. The British also used the island as a place of exile, most notably for Napoleon I, Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo and more than 5,000 Boer prisoners. Saint Helena is Britain's second oldest remaining colony (now termed overseas territory), after Bermuda.
Most historical accounts state that the island was discovered on 21 May 1502 by the Galician navigator João da Nova sailing at the service of the Portuguese Crown, and that he named it "Santa Helena" after Helena of Constantinople. Another theory holds that the island found by De Nova was actually Tristan da Cunha 2,430 kilometres (1,510 mi) to its south, and that Saint Helena was discovered by some of the ships attached to the squadron of Estêvão da Gama expedition on 30 July 1503 (as reported in the account of clerk Thomé Lopes).
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Saint Lucia
Saint Luciai/seɪnt ˈluːʃə/ (French: Sainte-Lucie) is a sovereign island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 617 km2 (238.23 sq mi) and has a population of 174,000 (2010). Its capital is Castries. Two Nobel laureates, Arthur Lewis, an economist, and Derek Walcott, a poet and playwright, have come from the island. It is the nation with the second most such honorees per capita after the Faroe Islands.
One of the Windward Islands, it was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse by the French, the first European colonizers. They signed a treaty with the native Carib people in 1660. England took control of the island from 1663 to 1667; in ensuing years, it was at war with France 14 times and rule of the island changed frequently (it was seven times each ruled by the French and British). In 1814, the British took definitive control of the island. Because it switched so often between British and French control, Saint Lucia was also known as the "Helen of the West Indies".
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Salima District
Salima is a district in the Central Region of Malawi. The capital is Salima. The district covers an area of 2,196 km.² and has a population of 248,214. The beach at Senga Bay is the weekend retreat of many from the capital, Lilongwe, and has hosted the annual Lake of Stars festival since 2008, when it was moved from Chintheche in order to be less remote. There is a range of accommodation options in the area, though most are a few km off the main road.
Coordinates: 13°45′S 34°30′E / 13.75°S 34.5°E / -13.75; 34.5
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Samoa
Samoa (i/səˈmoʊ.ə/; Samoan: Sāmoa, IPA: [ˌsaːˈmoa]), officially the Independent State of Samoa (Samoan: Malo Sa'oloto Tuto'atasi o Sāmoa), formerly known as Western Samoa, is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in Polynesia, Savai'i. The capital city, Apia, and Faleolo International Airport are situated on the island of Upolu.
Samoa was admitted to the United Nations on 15 December 1976. The entire island group, inclusive of American Samoa, was called Navigators Islands by European explorers before the 20th century because of the Samoans' seafaring skills.
The oldest date so far from pre-historic remains in Samoa has been calculated by New Zealand scientists to a likely true age of circa 3,000 years ago from a Lapita site at Mulifanua during the 1970s.
The origins of the Samoans is closely linked to modern research about Polynesia in various scientific disciplines such as genetics, linguistics and anthropology. Scientific research is ongoing although a number of different theories exist; including one proposing that the Samoans originated from Austronesian predecessors during the terminal eastward Lapita expansion period from Southeast Asia and Melanesia between 2,500 and 1,500 BCE. The Samoan origins are currently being reassessed due to new scientific evidence and carbon dating findings from 2003 and onwards.
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Senegal
Senegali/ˌsɛnɨˈɡɔːl/ (French: le Sénégal), officially the Republic of Senegal (République du Sénégal, IPA: [ʁepyblik dy seneɡal]), is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north. Senegal is externally bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south; internally it almost completely surrounds The Gambia, namely on the north, east and south, exempting Gambia's short Atlantic Ocean coastline. Senegal covers a land area of almost 197,000 square kilometres (76,000 sq mi), and has an estimated population of about 13 million. The climate is tropical with two seasons: the dry season and the rainy season.
Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, is located at the westernmost tip of the country on the Cap-Vert peninsula. About 500 kilometres (300 mi) off the coast, in the Atlantic Ocean, lie the Cape Verde Islands. During the 17th and 18th centuries, numerous trading posts, belonging to various colonial empires, were established along the coast. The town of St. Louis became the capital of French West Africa (Afrique occidentale française, or AOF) before it was moved to Dakar in 1902. Dakar later became its capital in 1960 at the time of independence from France.
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Seychelles
Seychelles (i/seɪˈʃɛlz/ say-SHELZ; French: [sɛʃɛl]), officially the Republic of Seychelles (French: République des Seychelles; Creole: Repiblik Sesel), is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some 1,500 kilometres (932 mi) east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar.
Other nearby island countries and territories include Zanzibar to the west, Mauritius, Rodrigues, Agalega and Réunion to the south, Comoros and Mayotte to the southwest. Seychelles, with an estimated population of 86,525, has the smallest population of any African state. It also has the highest Human Development Index in Africa.
Scholars assume that Austronesian seafarers, and later Maldivian and Arab traders were the first to visit the uninhabited Seychelles. Remains of Maldivian mariner presence from the 12th century were found in Silhouette Island. The earliest recorded sighting by Europeans took place in 1502 by the Portuguese Admiral Vasco da Gama, who passed through the Amirantes and named them after himself (islands of the Admiral).
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Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone (i/siːˌɛrə liːˈoʊn/), officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the northeast, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. Sierra Leone is a constitutional representative democratic republic and covers a total area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi) Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with a diverse environment ranging from savannah to rainforests. As of 2011, Sierra Leone has an estimated population of 6 million[1] (2011 United Nations estimte). Freetown is the capital, largest city as well as its economic, commercial, educational, cultural and political centre. Bo is the country's second largest city and the second major economic and commercial centre.
Sierra Leone is divided into four geographical regions: the Northern Province, Eastern Province, Southern Province and the Western Area; which are subdivided into fourteen districts. The districts have their own directly elected local government known as district council, headed by a council chairman. The country's six municipalities of Freetown, Bo, Kenema, Makeni, Koidu Town and the coastal town of Bonthe have their own directly elected city councils headed by mayors.
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Singapore
Singapore (i/ˈsɪŋəpɔər/ SI-ngə-pohr), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, 137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore Strait to its south. Singapore is highly urbanised but almost half of the country is covered by greenery. More land is being created for development through land reclamation.
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Sint Eustatius
Sint Eustatius, also known affectionately to the locals as Statia/ˈsteɪʃə/ or Statius, is a Caribbean island and a special municipality (officially public body) of the Netherlands.
It lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, southeast of the Virgin Islands and immediately to the northwest of Saint Kitts and Nevis and to the southeast of Saba, at 17°30′N 62°58′W / 17.5°N 62.967°W / 17.5; -62.967. The island is named after the legendary Christian martyr Saint Eustace. The regional capital is Oranjestad.
The island has an area of 21 km² (8.1 sq. miles). In the 2001 census, the population was recorded as 3,543 inhabitants, equating to a population density of 169 inhabitants per square kilometre. The official language is Dutch, however English is also recognised as an administrative language. A local English-based creole is also spoken informally. Travel to the island by air is through F.D. Roosevelt Airport.
Formerly part of the Netherlands Antilles, Sint Eustatius became a special municipality within the country of the Netherlands on 10 October 2010.
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Sint Maarten
Sint Maarten (Dutch pronunciation: [sɪnt ˈmaːrtə(n)]) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It encompasses the southern half of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, while the northern half of the island constitutes the French overseas collectivity of Saint-Martin. Its capital is Philipsburg.
Before 10 October 2010, Sint Maarten was known as the Island Territory of Sint Maarten (Dutch: Eilandgebied Sint Maarten), and was one of five island territories (Eilandgebieden) that constituted the Netherlands Antilles.
In 1493, during Christopher Columbus' second voyages to the West Indies, upon first sighting the island he named it Isla de San Martín after Saint Martin of Tours because it was 11 November, St. Martin Day. However, though he claimed it as a Spanish territory, Columbus never landed there, and Spain made the settlement of the island a low priority.
The French and Dutch, on the other hand, both coveted the island. While the French wanted to colonize the islands between Trinidad and Bermuda, the Dutch found San Martín a convenient halfway point between their colonies in New Amsterdam (present day New York) and Brazil. With few people inhabiting the island, the Dutch easily founded a settlement there in 1631, erecting Fort Amsterdam as protection from invaders. Jan Claeszen Van Campen became its first governor, and soon thereafter the Dutch East India Company began their salt mining operations. French and British settlements sprang up on the island as well. Taking note of these successful colonies and wanting to maintain their control of the salt trade, the Spanish now found St. Martin much more appealing. The Eighty Years' War which had been raging between Spain and the Netherlands provided further incentive to attack.
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Solomon Islands
Solomon Islandsi/ˈsɒləmən ˈaɪləndz/ is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of 28,400 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi). The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal. The nation of the Solomon Islands is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
The Solomon Islands are believed to have been inhabited by Melanesian people for many thousands of years. Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to arrive in Solomon Islands in 1568 and named them Islas Salomón. The United Kingdom established a protectorate over the Solomon Islands in 1893. In the Second World War there was fierce fighting between the Americans and the Japanese in the Solomon Islands campaign of 1942–45, including the Battle of Guadalcanal.
Self-government was achieved in 1976 and independence two years later. The Solomon Islands is a constitutional monarchy with the Queen of the Solomon Islands, at present Elizabeth II, as the head of state. Gordon Lilo Darcy is the eleventh and current Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands.
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Somalia
Somalia ( /soʊˈmɑːliə/ soh-MAH-lee-ə; Somali: Soomaaliya; Arabic: الصومال aṣ-Ṣūmāl), officially the Somali Republic (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, Arabic: جمهورية الصومال Jumhūriyyat aṣ-Ṣūmāl) and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory. The internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government controls only a small part of the country. Somalia has been characterized as a failed state and is one of the poorest and most violent states in the world.
Somalia lies in the easternmost part of Africa. It is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of Aden with Yemen to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Ethiopia to the west. It has the longest coastline on the continent, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Hot conditions prevail year-round, along with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall.
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Somaliland
Somaliland (Somali: Soomaaliland, Arabic: صوماللاند Ṣūmālilānd or أرض الصومال Arḍ aṣ-Ṣūmāl) is an unrecognised self-declared de facto sovereign state that is internationally recognised as an autonomous region of Somalia. The government of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to the British Somaliland protectorate, which was independent on June 26, 1960 as the State of Somaliland, before uniting with the Trust Territory of Somalia (the former Italian Somaliland) on July 1, 1960 to form the Somali Republic.
Somaliland is bordered by Ethiopia in the south and west, Djibouti in the northwest, the Gulf of Aden in the north, and the autonomous Puntland region of Somalia to the east.
In 1988, the Siad Barre regime committed massacres against the people of Somaliland, which were among the events that led to the Somali Civil War. The war left the economic and military infrastructure severely damaged. After the collapse of the central government in 1991, the local government, led by the Somali National Movement (SNM), declared independence from the rest of Somalia on May 18 of the same year.
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South Africa
Coordinates: 30°S 25°E / 30°S 25°E / -30; 25
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. It is divided into nine provinces and has 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline. To the north of the country lie the neighbouring territories of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an enclave surrounded by South African territory.
South Africa is multi-ethnic and has diverse cultures and languages. Eleven official languages are recognised in the constitution. Two of these languages are of European origin: South African English and Afrikaans, a language which originated mainly from Dutch that is spoken by the majority of white and Coloured South Africans. Though English is commonly used in public and commercial life, it is only the fifth most-spoken home language. All ethnic and language groups have political representation in the country's constitutional democracy comprising a parliamentary republic; unlike most parliamentary republics, the positions of head of state and head of government are merged in a parliament-dependent President.
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South Sudan
South Sudan (i/ˌsaʊθ suːˈdæn/ or /suːˈdɑːn/), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in the east-central African region of northeastern Africa. It is also part of the North Africa UN subregion. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city; the capital city is planned to be moved to the more centrally located Ramciel in the future. South Sudan is bordered by Ethiopia to the east, Kenya to the southeast, Uganda to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the southwest, the Central African Republic to the west, and Sudan to the north. South Sudan includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd formed by the White Nile, locally called the Bahr al Jabal.
The modern states of South Sudan and Sudan were part of Egypt under the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, later being governed as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium until Sudanese independence was achieved in 1956. Following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. A second Sudanese civil war soon developed and ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005. Later that year, southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed.
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Spain
Spain (i/ˈspeɪn/ SPAYN; Spanish: España, pronounced: [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.
Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 square kilometres (194,610 sq mi), it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.
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Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (i/ʃriː ˈlɑːŋkə/, /sriːˈlɑːŋkə/, or /sriːˈlæŋkə/;Sinhala: ශ්රී ලංකාව, Tamil: இலங்கை), is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia. Known until 1972 as Ceylon ( /sɨˈlɒn/, /seɪˈlɒn/, or /siːˈlɒn/), Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar, the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the Maldives.
As a result of its location in the path of major sea routes, Sri Lanka is a strategic naval link between West Asia and South East Asia. It was an important stop on the ancient Silk Road. Sri Lanka has also been a center of the Buddhist religion and culture from ancient times, being the nation where the Buddhist teachings were first written down as well as the oldest continually Buddhist country. Sri Lanka boasts a diverse range of cultures, languages and religions. The Sinhalese people form the majority of the population; Tamils, who are concentrated in the north and east of the island, form the largest ethnic minority. Other communities include Moors, Burghers, Kaffirs, Malays and the aboriginal Vedda people.
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Sudan
Sudan (i/suːˈdæn/ or /suːˈdɑːn/;Arabic: السودان, as-Sūdān), officially the Republic of the Sudan (Arabic: جمهورية السودان, Jumhūrīyat as-Sūdān), sometimes called North Sudan, is an Arab state in North Africa (sometimes also considered to be part of the Middle East). It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest. The population of Sudan is a combination of indigenous inhabitants of Nile Valley, and descendants of migrants from the Arabian Peninsula. Due to the process of Arabisation common throughout the rest of the Arab World, today Arab culture predominates in Sudan. The majority of the population of Sudan adheres to Islam. The Nile divides the country between east and west sides.
The people of Sudan have a long history extending from antiquity which is intertwined with the history of Egypt. Sudan suffered seventeen years of civil war during the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972) followed by ethnic, religious and economic conflicts between the Muslim Arab northern Sudanese and the mostly animist and Christian Nilotes of Southern Sudan. This led to the Second Sudanese Civil War in 1983. Because of continuing political and military struggles, Sudan was seized in a bloodless coup d'état by colonel Omar al-Bashir in 1989, who thereafter proclaimed himself President of Sudan. The civil war ended with the signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement which granted autonomy to what was then the southern region of the country. Following a referendum held in January 2011, South Sudan seceded on 9 July 2011 with the consent of Sudan's President al-Bashir.
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Swaziland
Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland (Umbuso weSwatini), and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique. The nation, as well as its people, are named after the 19th century king Mswati II.
Swaziland is a small country, no more than 200 kilometres (120 mi) north to south and 130 kilometres (81 mi) east to west. The western half is mountainous, descending to a lowveld region to the east. The eastern border with Mozambique and South Africa is dominated by the escarpment of the Lebombo Mountains. The climate is temperate in the west, but may reach 40 °C (104 °F) in summer in the lowveld. Rainfall occurs mainly in the summer and may reach 2 metres (6.6 ft) in the west.
The area that Swaziland now covers has been continuously inhabited since prehistory. Today, the population is primarily ethnic Swazis whose language is siSwati, though English is spoken as a second language. The Swazi people descend from the southern Bantu who migrated from Central Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Anglo-Boer War saw the United Kingdom make Swaziland a protectorate under its direct control. Swaziland gained independence in 1968. Swaziland is a member of the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, and the Commonwealth of Nations. The head of state is the king, who appoints the prime minister and a small number of representatives for both chambers of parliament. Elections are held every five years to determine the majority of the representatives. A new constitution was adopted in 2005.
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Tanzania
Coordinates: 6°18′25″S 34°51′14″E / 6.307°S 34.854°E / -6.307; 34.854 Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( /ˌtænzəˈniːə/ Swahili: Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern border lies on the Indian Ocean.
Tanzania is a state composed of 26 regions (mikoa), including those of the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar. The head of state is President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, elected in 2005. Since 1996, the official capital of Tanzania has been Dodoma, where Parliament and some government offices are located. Between independence and 1996, the main coastal city of Dar es Salaam served as the country's political capital. Today, Dar es Salaam remains the principal commercial city of Tanzania and the de facto seat of most government institutions. It is the major seaport for the country and its landlocked neighbours.
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The Bahamas
The Bahamasi/bəˈhɑːməz/, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is a country consisting of more than 3,000 islands, cays, and islets. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States (nearest to the state of Florida). Its land area is 13,939 km2 (5,382 sq mi), with a population of 353,658. Its capital is Nassau. Geographically, the Bahamas lie in the same island chain as Cuba, Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands; the designation of Bahamas refers normally to the Commonwealth and not the geographic chain.
Originally inhabited by the Lucayans, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taino people, the Bahamas were the site of Columbus' first landfall in the New World in 1492. Although the Spanish never colonized the Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans to slavery in Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 to 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera.
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The Gambia
The Republic of The Gambia, commonly referred to as The Gambia, or Gambiai/ˈɡæmbiə/, is a country in West Africa. Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean in the west.
The country is situated around the Gambia River, the nation's namesake, which flows through the country's centre and empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Its area is 11,295 km² with an estimated population of 1.7 million.
On 18 February 1965, Gambia gained independence from the United Kingdom and joined the Commonwealth of Nations. Banjul is Gambia's capital, but the largest cities are Serekunda and Brikama.
Gambia shares historical roots with many other West African nations in the slave trade, which was the key factor in the placing and keeping of a colony on the Gambia River, first by the Portuguese and later by the British. Since gaining independence in 1965, Gambia has enjoyed relative political stability, with the exception of a brief period of military rule in 1994.
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Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republici/ˈtoʊɡoʊ/, is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east, and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately 57,000 square kilometres (22,000 sq mi) with a population of approximately 6.7 million.
Togo is a tropical, sub-Saharan nation, highly dependent on agriculture, with a climate that provides good growing seasons. The official language is French, with many other languages spoken in Togo, particularly those of the Gbe family. The largest religious group in Togo are those with indigenous beliefs, and there are significant Christian and Muslim minorities. Togo is a member of the United Nations, African Union, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone, La Francophonie and Economic Community of West African States.
From the 11th to the 16th century, various tribes entered the region from all directions. From the 16th century to the 18th century, the coastal region was a major trading centre for Europeans in search of slaves, earning Togo and the surrounding region the name "The Slave Coast". In 1884, Germany declared Togoland a protectorate. After World War I, rule over Togo was transferred to France. Togo gained its independence from France in 1960.
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Tokelau
Tokelau ( /ˈtoʊkəlaʊ/) is a territory of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean that consists of three tropical coral atolls with a combined land area of 10 km2 and a population of approximately 1,400. The atolls lie north of the Samoan Islands, east of Tuvalu, south of the Phoenix Islands, southwest of the more distant Line Islands (both island groups belonging to Kiribati) and northwest of the Cook Islands.
The United Nations General Assembly designated Tokelau a Non-Self-Governing Territory. Until 1976 the official name was Tokelau Islands. Tokelau is sometimes referred to by the older, colonial name of The Union Islands.
The name Tokelau is a Polynesian word meaning "North Wind". The islands were named the Union Islands and Union Group by European explorers at an unknown time. Tokelau Islands was adopted as the name in 1946, and was contracted to Tokelau on 9 December 1976.
The change from Tokelau Islands to Tokelau marked a slight shift in emphasis, with consequences in regional diplomacy, in that the term Tokelau Islands clearly and substantially referred to a geographical expression, that is, a range of islands, whatever else it may connote. It is not necessarily controversial to refer by name to a range of islands, even though they may come under two or more political jurisdictions. Tokelau, on the other hand, can be taken to refer more immediately to some concept of nationhood, arguably infusing increased meaning to the draft 2006 independence constitution of Tokelau (which somewhat controversially claims Tokelauan inhabited Olohega (or Swains Island), currently part of American Samoa, as part of its national territory).[citation needed]
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Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga (Tongan: Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a sovereign state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) of ocean in the South Pacific. Fifty-two of the islands are inhabited.
The Kingdom stretches over a distance of about 800 kilometres (500 mi) in a north-south line located at about a third of the distance from New Zealand to Hawaii.
Tonga also became known as the Friendly Islands because of the friendly reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit there in 1773. He happened to arrive at the time of the ʻinasi festival, the yearly donation of the first fruits to the Tuʻi Tonga, the islands' paramount chief, and received an invitation to the festivities. According to the writer William Mariner, in reality the chiefs had wanted to kill Cook during the gathering, but could not agree on a plan.
Tonga is also the only island nation in the region to have avoided formal colonisation. In 2010, Tonga took a decisive step towards becoming a fully functioning constitutional monarchy after legislative reforms paved the way for its first ever fully representative elections which resulted in the election of Noble Sialeʻataongo Tuʻivakanō as its first democratically elected Prime Minister.
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Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago (i/ˌtrɪnɨdæd/ & /tɵˈbeɪɡoʊ/) officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. It shares maritime boundaries with other nations including Barbados to the northeast, Guyana to the southeast, and Venezuela to the south and west.
The country covers an area 5,128 square kilometres (1,980 sq mi) and consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous smaller landforms. Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the main islands, comprising about 94% of the total area and 96% of the total population of the country. The nation lies outside the hurricane belt.
The island of Trinidad was a Spanish colony from the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1498 to the capitulation of the Spanish Governor, Don José Maria Chacón, on the arrival of a British fleet of 18 warships on 18 February 1797. During the same period, the island of Tobago changed hands between Spanish, British, French, Dutch and Courlander colonizers. Trinidad and Tobago was ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens. The country obtained independence in 1962, becoming a republic in 1976. Unlike most of the English-speaking Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago's economy is primarily industrial, with an emphasis on petroleum and petrochemicals.
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Tunisia
Tunisia (USi/tuːˈniːʒə/ two-NEE-zhə or UK /tjuːˈnɪziə/ tew-NIZ-iə; Arabic: تونس Tūnis pronounced [ˈtuːnɪs]), officially the Republic of Tunisia (Arabic: الجمهورية التونسية al-Jumhūriyyah at-Tūnisiyyah), is the northernmost country in Africa. It is an Arab Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area is almost 165,000 square kilometres (64,000 sq mi), with an estimated population of just under 10.7 million. Its name is derived from the capital Tunis located in the northeast.
Tunisia is the smallest country in North Africa. The south of the country is composed of the Sahara desert, with much of the remainder consisting of particularly fertile soil and 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) of coastline.
Tunisia has relations with both the European Union—with whom it has an association agreement—and the Arab world. Tunisia is also a member of the Arab Maghreb Union, the Arab League, and the African Union. Tunisia has established close relations with France in particular, through economic cooperation, industrial modernization, and privatisation programs.
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Tuvalu
Tuvalu (i/tuːˈvɑːluː/ too-VAH-loo or /ˈtuːvəluː/ TOO-və-loo), formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls spread out from 6° to 10° south. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. Its population of 10,544 makes it the third-least populous sovereign state in the world, with only Vatican City and Nauru having fewer inhabitants. In terms of physical land size, at just 26 square kilometres (10 sq mi) Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world, larger only than the Vatican City at 0.44 km2 (0.17 sq mi), Monaco at 1.98 km2 (0.76 sq mi) and Nauru at 21 km2 (8.1 sq mi).
The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesian people. In 1568 Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña sailed through the islands and is understood to have sighted Nui during his expedition in search of Terra Australis. In 1819 the island of Funafuti was named Ellice's Island; the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay (1812–1876). The islands came under Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century, when the Ellice Islands were declared a British protectorate by Captain Gibson, R. N. of HMS Curaçao between 9th and 16 October 1892. The Ellice Islands were administered as British protectorate by a Resident Commissioner from 1892 to 1916 as part of the British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT), and later as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony from 1916 to 1974.
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Uganda
Coordinates: 1°17′N 32°23′E / 1.28°N 32.39°E / 1.28; 32.39
Uganda ( /juːˈɡændə/ yew-GAN-də or /juːˈɡɑːndə/ yew-GAHN-də), officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, which is also shared by Kenya and Tanzania.
Uganda takes its name from the Buganda kingdom, which encompasses a large portion of the south of the country including the capital Kampala.
The people of Uganda were hunter-gatherers until 1,700 to 2,300 years ago, when Bantu-speaking populations migrated to the southern parts of the country. Uganda gained independence from Britain on 9 October 1962.
The official languages are English and Swahili, although multiple other languages are spoken in the country.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
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Vanuatu
Vanuatu (Englishi/ˌvɑːnuːˈɑːtuː/ vah-noo-AH-too or /vænˈwɑːtuː/ van-WAH-too; Bislama IPA: [vanuaˈtu]), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (French: République de Vanuatu, Bislama: Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some 1,750 kilometres (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 500 kilometres (310 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.
Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. The first Europeans to visit the islands were the members of a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós who arrived in Espiritu Santo in 1605. In the 1880s France and the United Kingdom claimed parts of the country, and in 1906 they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides through a British–French Condominium. An independence movement arose in the 1970s, and the Republic of Vanuatu was created in 1980.
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Western Sahara
Coordinates: 25°N 13°W / 25°N 13°W / 25; -13
Western Sahara (USi/ˌwɛstərn səˈhærə/, UK /ˌwɛstən səˈhɑrə/; Arabic: الصحراء الغربية Aṣ-Ṣaḥrā’ al-Gharbīyah; Spanish: Sahara Occidental), is a disputed territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to 266,000 square kilometres (103,000 sq mi). It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at just over 500,000, many of whom live in El Aaiún (also called Laâyoune), the largest city in Western Sahara.
A colony of Spain since the late 19th century, the Western Sahara has been on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories since 1963. In 1965, the UN General Assembly adopted its first resolution on Western Sahara, asking Spain to decolonise the territory. One year later, a new resolution was passed by the General Assembly requesting that a referendum be held by Spain on self-determination. In 1975, Spain relinquished the administrative control of the territory to a joint administration by Morocco, which had formally claimed the territory since 1957, and Mauritania. A war erupted between those countries and the Sahrawi national liberation movement Polisario Front, which proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) (exiled government in Tindouf, Algeria). Mauritania withdrew in 1979 and Morocco eventually secured effective control of most of the territory, including all the major cities and natural resources.
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Yemen
The Republic of Yemen (Arabic: الجمهورية اليمنية al-Jumhūrīyah al-Yamanīyah), commonly known as Yemeni/ˈjɛmən/ (Arabic: اليَمَن al-Yaman), is a country located in Western Asia, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east. Yemen is considered one of the poorest countries in the Arab world. Its capital and largest city is Sana'a. Yemen's territory includes over 200 islands, the largest of which is Socotra, about 415 km (258 mi) to the south of mainland Yemen, off the coast of Somalia. It is the only state in the Arabian Peninsula to have a purely republican form of government. Approximately 53% of Yemenis are Sunnis, while 45% are Zaydi Shias.
One etymology derives Yemen from yamin, meaning "on the right side", as the south is on the right when facing the sunrise. Another derives Yemen from yumn, meaning "felicity", as the region is fertile. The Romans called it Arabia Felix (Happy Arabia) as opposed to Arabia Deserta (Deserted Arabia), which was their term for northern Arabia.
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Zambia
Zambia ( /ˈzæmbiə/), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of the country. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the northwest.
Originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region which comprises modern Zambia was colonised during the Bantu expansion of the thirteenth century. After visits by European explorers in the eighteenth century, Zambia became the British colony of Northern Rhodesia towards the end of the nineteenth century. For most of the colonial period, the country was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company.
On 24 October 1964, the country declared independence from the United Kingdom and then-prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the inaugural president. Kaunda's socialist United National Independence Party (UNIP) maintained power from the 1964 until 1991. From 1972 to 1991 Zambia was a single-party state with the UNIP as the sole-legal political party, with the goal of uniting the nation under the banner of 'One Zambia, One Nation'. Kaunda was succeeded by Frederick Chiluba of the social-democratic Movement for Multi-Party Democracy in 1991, during which the country saw a rise in social-economic growth and increased decentralisation of government.
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Zanzibar
Zanzibar ( /ˈzænzɨbɑr/; from Arabic: زنجبار Zanjibār, from Persian: زنگبار Zangibār "Coast of Blacks"; zangi [black-skinned] + bār [coast]) is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25–50 kilometres (16–31 mi) off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, informally referred to as Zanzibar), and Pemba. Other nearby island countries and territories include Comoros and Mayotte to the south, Mauritius and Réunion to the far southeast, and the Seychelles Islands about 1,500 km to the east. Arab and Portuguese traders visited the region in early times, and it was controlled by Omanis in the 18th and 19th centuries. Britain established a protectorate (1890) that became an independent sultanate in December 1963 and a republic after an uprising in January 1964. In April 1964 it joined Tanganyika to form a new republic that was renamed Tanzania in October 1964. The capital of Zanzibar, located on the island of Unguja, is Zanzibar City, and its historic centre, known as Stone Town, is a World Heritage Site.
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Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (/zɪmˈbɑːbweɪ/ zim-BAHB-way; officially the Republic of Zimbabwe) is a landlocked country of southern Africa. It shares a 125-mile (200-kilometre) border on the south with the Republic of South Africa and is bounded on the southwest and west by Botswana, on the north by Zambia, and on the northeast and east by Mozambique. The capital is Harare (formerly called Salisbury). Zimbabwe achieved majority rule and internationally recognised independence in April 1980 following a long period of colonial rule and a 15-year period of white-dominated minority rule, instituted after the minority regime’s so-called Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1965.
Zimbabwe has three official languages: English, Shona and Ndebele. Zimbabwe began as the British self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia, created from land held by the British South Africa Company. President Robert Mugabe is the head of State and Commander in Chief of the armed forces. Morgan Tsvangirai is the Prime Minister. Mugabe has been in power since the country's internationally recognised independence in 1980.
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Zomba District
Zomba District is one of twelve districts in the Southern Region of Malawi, surrounded by the Districts of Chiradzulu, Blantyre, Mulanje, Phalombe, Machinga, Balaka and the Republic of Mozambique to the east. The total land area is 2,580 km², representing three percent of the total land area of Malawi.
The District has a total population of 583,167 (2008) resulting in a population density of 230 persons per km², more than half (52.6%) of whom are 18 years or younger. The annual population growth rate over the last decade was two percent. The main ethnic groups are Mang'anja/Nyanja, Yao and Lomwe. Chinyanja is the native language spoken by most of the inhabitants, although other languages like Chiyao and Chilomwe are also spoken. The two dominant religions are Christianity (78%) and Islam (20%).
There are nine National Assembly constituencies in Zomba: Zomba Central, Zomba Chingale, Zomba Changalume, Zomba Chisi, Zomba Likangala, Zomba Lisanjala, Zomba Msondole, Zomba Ntonya and Zomba Thondwe. Since the 2009 election all of these constituencies have been held by members of the Democratic Progressive Party.
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Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.
Native ethnic groups of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan self-identify themselves as Asian. They are also recognized as Asian by Russians and Chinese.[citation needed]
This self-identification is based phenotypically, and on cultural differences from Russians, as these countries used to be parts of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and therefore have significant Russian populations. Another reason for such self-identification is patriotic: "the native people of the Center of Asia - are undoubtedly Asians".[citation needed]
In parts of anglophone Africa, especially East Africa and South Africa, and in parts of the Anglophone Caribbean, the term "Asian" is more commonly associated with people of South Asian origin, particularly Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans.
Notably, the Australian Census includes Central Asia, a region that is often considered to be part of the Greater Middle East. The Australian Census includes four regions of Asia in its official definition. Defined by the 2006–2011 Australian Census, three broad groups have the word Asian included in their name: Central and Southern Asian, South-East Asian and North-East Asian. Russians are classified as Southern and Eastern Europeans while Middle Easterners are classified as North African and Middle Easterners.
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Bakili Muluzi
Elson Bakili Muluzi (born March 17, 1943) is a Malawian politician. He was the President of Malawi from 1994 to 2004 and was Chairman of the United Democratic Front (UDF) until 2009.
Muluzi was the candidate of the opposition UDF in the May 1994 presidential election, the country's first multiparty election. He won the election with 47% of the vote, defeating Malawi's leader since independence, Hastings Kamuzu Banda. He was re-elected in June 1999, taking 52.4% of the vote and defeating challenger Gwanda Chakuamba who was the leader of the opposition movement. In 2002 he proposed an amendment to Malawi's constitution that would have allowed him to run for a third term, but this was abandoned due to the move being blocked by the National Assembly of Malawi Members of Parliament, courts, and demonstrations against him. After serving two terms, he therefore handed over power to his successor after the May 2004 election, in which UDF candidate Bingu wa Mutharika (who was handpicked and groomed by Muluzi) was elected to succeed Muluzi as President.
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Bingu wa Mutharika
Bingu wa Mutharika (born Brightson Webster Ryson Thom; 24 February 1934 – 5 April 2012) was a Malawian politician and economist who was President of Malawi from May 2004 until his death. He was also the president of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which has a majority in Malawi's parliament as a result of the 2009 general election. During his two terms in office he was noted for presiding over the African Union, as well as several domestic controversies. He died of a heart attack in Lilongwe on 5 April.
Bingu wa Mutharika was born Brightson Webster Ryson Thom on 24 February 1934 in Thyolo. Mutharika's parents, Ryson Thom Mutharika and Eleni Thom Mutharika, were both members of the Church of Scotland Mission which later became Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian. His father was a teacher for 37 years and his mother taught the women of the Mvano group.[citation needed]
Upon completing his primary education at Ulongwe Mission and Chingoli, Mulanje, Ntambanyama, Malamulo, in Thyolo and Henri Henderson Institute in Blantyre, Mutharika obtained a Grade A Cambridge Overseas School Leaving Certificate at Dedza Secondary School in 1956. In 1964, he was one of the 32 Malawians selected by Hastings Kamuzu Banda (President of Malawi 1961–1994) to travel to India on an Indira Gandhi scholarship for 'fast track' diplomas. The BBC reports that he went to India to "escape then President Hastings Banda's crackdown on political opponents". At some point during the 1960s, he also changed his name, to Bingu wa Mutharika. In India, Mutharika earned his Bachelor's degree in Economics. Subsequently, he attended the Delhi School of Economics graduating with a M.A. degree in Economics. He later obtained a PhD degree in Development Economics from Pacific Western University. Mutharika also completed short courses on Business Management, Financial Analysis, Trade Promotion, Political Leadership, regional Economic Co-operation and Human Relations.
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David Livingstone
David Livingstone (19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
Perhaps one of the most popular national heroes of the late 19th century in Victorian Britain, Livingstone had a mythic status, which operated on a number of interconnected levels: that of Protestant missionary martyr, that of working-class "rags to riches" inspirational story, that of scientific investigator and explorer, that of imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of commercial empire.
His fame as an explorer helped drive forward the obsession with discovering the sources of the River Nile that formed the culmination of the classic period of European geographical discovery and colonial penetration of the African continent. At the same time his missionary travels, "disappearance" and death in Africa, and subsequent glorification as posthumous national hero in 1874 led to the founding of several major central African Christian missionary initiatives carried forward in the era of the European "Scramble for Africa".
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David Rubadiri
James David Rubadiri (born 19 July 1930 in Liuli) is a Malawian diplomat, academic and poet. At independence in 1964, Rubadiri was appointed Malawi's first ambassador to the United States and the United Nations. On Tuesday August 18th, 1964, he presented his credentials to President Johnson at the White House and expressed the hope that his newly independent country would get more aid from the United States. Ambassador Rubadiri said that Malawi needed help to build its democratic institutions and noted that Malawi was already receiving US economic and technical help. David Rubadiri left the government in 1965 when he broke with President Hastings Banda.
Rubadiri attended King's College, Budo in Uganda from 1941-1950 then Makerere University from 1952-1956, where he graduated from with a bachelor's degree in English literature and History. He went on to the University of Bristol from 1956-1960, where he received a master of arts degree in English literature.
His only novel, No Bride Price was published. The novel criticized the Banda regime and was, along with Legson Kayira's The Looming Shadow, some of the first published work by Malawians.
wn.com/David_Rubadiri -
Felix Mnthali
Felix Mnthali (born 1933 in Southern Rhodesia) is a Malawian poet, novelist and playwright. Educated at what is now the National University of Lesotho, Mnthali has been published several times, including a book of poetry called When Sunset Comes to Sapitwa (1980) and a novel called My Dear Anniversary (1992). He was also included in the 1984 anthology called the Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry.
He is currently a professor at the University of Botswana.
wn.com/Felix_Mnthali -
Frank Chipasula
Dr. Frank M. Chipasula (born 16 October 1949, Zambia) is a Malawian writer, editor and university professor. Previously a professor of Black Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Howard University, Chipasula has also worked as the education attache at the Malawian embassy in Washington, D.C.. Chipasula went into exile as a result of the Hastings Banda government. His volume of poetry, Visions and Reflections (1972) was the first published prose by a Malawian writer.
Chiapsula earned his B.A. from the University of Malawi through the University of Zambia in exile. Chiapsula earned his M.A. from Yale University and his Ph.D. in English literature from Brown University in 1987.
wn.com/Frank_Chipasula -
Hastings Banda
Hastings Kamuzu Banda (15 February 1898 – 25 November 1997) was the leader of Malawi and its predecessor state, Nyasaland, from 1961 to 1994. After receiving much of his education overseas, Banda returned to his home country (then British Nyasaland) to speak against colonialism and advocate for independence. In 1963, he was formally appointed as Nyasaland’s Prime Minister, and led the country to independence as Malawi a year later. Two years later, he proclaimed Malawi a republic with himself as president. He consolidated power and later declared Malawi a one party state under the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). In 1970, the MCP made him the party’s President for Life. In 1971, he became President for Life of Malawi itself.
As a leader of the pro-Western bloc in Africa, he received support from the West during the Cold War. He generally supported women’s rights, improved the country’s infrastructure, and maintained a good educational system relative to other African countries. However, he presided over one of the most repressive regimes in Africa. He also faced scorn for maintaining full diplomatic relations with apartheid-era South Africa.
wn.com/Hastings_Banda -
Jack Mapanje
Jack Mapanje (born 1944) is a Malawian writer and poet. He was the former head of English at the University of Malawi, and is currently a senior lecturer in English at Newcastle University.
Born in Kadango, Mapanje earned his PhD from the University of London.
wn.com/Jack_Mapanje -
Joyce Banda
Joyce Hilda Banda née Mtila (born 12 April 1950) is a Malawian politician who has been the President of Malawi since 7 April 2012. An educator and grassroots women's' rights activist, she was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2009 and Vice-President of Malawi from May 2009 to April 2012. Banda took office as President following the sudden death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. She is Malawi's fourth president and its first female president. Prior to becoming president, she served as the country's first female vice-president.
She was also Member of Parliament and Minister for Gender, Children's Affairs and Community Services. Prior to an active career in politics she was the founder of the Joyce Banda Foundation, founder of the National Association of Business Women (NABW), Young Women Leaders Network and the Hunger Project. She was listed in Forbes Magazine 2011 as the third most powerful woman in Africa.
She is the founder and leader of the People's Party created in 2011, and prior to Bingu wa Mutharika's death was considered likely to contest the Presidency of Malawi in the 2014 general election.
wn.com/Joyce_Banda -
Kaire Mbuende
Kaire Mbuende (born 28 November 1953) is a Namibian politician and diplomat. Mbuenda has been the Namibian ambassador to the United Nations since his appointment in August 2006. An ethnic Herero, Mbuende has been a high-level member of the ruling SWAPO Party of Namibia since 1974, when he became the information officer in Lusaka, Zambia.
wn.com/Kaire_Mbuende -
Kgalema Motlanthe
Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe (pronounced [ˈkxɑ.lɪ.mɑ mʊ.ˈtɬʼɑ.n.tʰɛ]) (born 19 July 1949) is a South African politician who served as President of South Africa between 25 September 2008 and 9 May 2009, completing the second elected term of Thabo Mbeki.
Following the end of his presidency, Motlanthe was appointed as the Deputy President of South Africa by his successor, current South African president Jacob Zuma. Motlanthe is also concurrently serving as Deputy President of the African National Congress (ANC), a position he has held since 2007, likewise under Zuma who is also the current President of the ANC.
Motlanthe, who had maintained a low public profile, was elected to the presidency of South Africa by the South African National Assembly following the resignation of Mbeki, and was widely considered to be acting as a "caretaker president" on behalf of Zuma. Zuma succeeded Motlanthe on 9 May 2009 in a presidential election held by the South African National Assembly, following the 2009 general election which had been won by the ANC.
wn.com/Kgalema_Motlanthe -
Khumbo Kachali
Khumbo Hasting Kachali is a Malawian politician who has been Vice President of Malawi since April 2012, serving under President Joyce Banda. Kachali previously held a number of cabinet positions between 2004 and 2010.
Khumbo Kachali was born in 1966 and attended Phwezi Secondary School. He subsequently obtained a Diploma in Project Management from the University of Cambridge. He obtained his Master of Science Degree in Strategic Management in 2011 from the University of Derby. For his MSc thesis, he wrote a paper titled the Impact of Multiparty Politics on the socio-economic lives of people using his Mzimba constituency as a case study. Before entering politics, Kachali was Second Vice-President for the Malawi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Kachali was Treasurer General for the United Democratic Front (UDF) from 2002 to 2004. Kachali was elected to parliament in May 2004. In 2005 he was appointed as Second Vice-President of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). He was Minister of Industry, Science & Technology (2004-2006), Deputy Minister for Home Affairs & Internal Security (2006-2007) and Minister of Youth Development & Sports (2007-2008). From 2008 until 2009 he was Minister of Health. Kachali was appointed Minister of Transport and Public Infrastructure in the cabinet that became effective on 15 June 2009. He lost his ministerial position in the cabinet shake-up of 9 August 2010.
wn.com/Khumbo_Kachali -
Legson Kayira
Legson Didimu Kayira (born 10 May 1942 in Mpale) is a Malawian novelist. Kayira, an ethnic Tumbuka, received an education at Skagit Valley College, University of Washington and St Catharine's College, Cambridge. His early works focused on Malawi's rural life, while his later writings satired the Hastings Banda regime.
wn.com/Legson_Kayira -
Levy Mwanawasa
Levy Patrick Mwanawasa (September 3, 1948 – August 19, 2008) was the third President of Zambia. He ruled the country from January 2002 until his death in August 2008. He is credited for having initiated a campaign to rid the country of corruption. Prior to his election, Mwanawasa served as vice president from 1991 to 1994 whilst an elected Member of Parliament for Chifubu Constituency.
Mwanawasa was born in Mufulira, Northern Rhodesia, as the second of 10 children. He held a law degree from the University of Zambia. He worked in private law firms from 1974 until 1978 when he formed his own firm: Mwanawasa & Company. In 1985, Mwanawasa served as Solicitor General in the Zambian government but he went back to private practice in 1986.[citation needed]
In 1989, he led the legal defense team for Lt. Gen Christon Tembo, who was accused by the Kenneth Kaunda government of conspiracy to overthrow the government, which was judged as an act of treason worthy of the death penalty; Tembo won the case against the state, and Mwanawasa's fame among the anti-Kaunda opposition grew. After Frederick Chiluba was elected as President, he appointed Mwanawasa as Vice-President in December 1991. Mwanawasa left his firm in March 1992.
wn.com/Levy_Mwanawasa -
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists (a type of microorganism) of the genus Plasmodium. The protists act as parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases progressing to coma or death. The disease is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions in a broad band around the equator, including much of Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
Five species of Plasmodium can infect and be transmitted by humans. Severe disease is largely caused by P. falciparum while the disease caused by P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae is generally a milder form that is rarely fatal. The zoonotic species P. knowlesi, prevalent in Southeast Asia, causes malaria in macaques but can also cause severe infections in humans. Malaria is prevalent in tropical regions because of the significant amounts of rainfall, consistently high temperatures and high humidity, along with stagnant waters in which mosquito larvae readily mature, provide them with the environment they need for continuous breeding. Disease transmission can be reduced by preventing mosquito bites by distribution of mosquito nets and insect repellents, or with mosquito-control measures such as spraying insecticides and draining standing water.
wn.com/Malaria -
Ngoni people
The Ngoni people are an ethnic group living in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, in east-central Africa. The Ngoni trace their origins to the Zulu people of kwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The displacement of the Ngoni people in the great scattering following the Zulu wars had repercussions in social reorganization as far north as Malawi and Zambia.
The rise of the Zulu nation to dominance in southern Africa in the early nineteenth century (~1815–~1840) disrupted many traditional alliances. Around 1817, the Mthethwa alliance, which included the Zulu clan, came into conflict with the Ndwandwe alliance, which included the Nguni people from the kwaZulu-Natal. One of the military commanders of the Ndwandwe army, Zwangendaba Gumbi son of Nonyanda ka Sguda Jele according to the information given by the original Gumbi clan in Kwazulu Natal and not kaHlatshwayo as other researchers stated, (c1780–1848), was the head of the Jele or Gumbi clan, which itself formed part of the larger emaNcwangeni alliance in what is now north-east kwaZulu-Natal. In 1819, the Zulu army under Shaka defeated the Ndwandwe alliance at a battle on the Umhlatuze River, near Nkandla. The battle resulted in the diaspora of many indigenous groups in southern Africa.
wn.com/Ngoni_people -
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza (born 1955 in Harare) is a Malawian historian, literary critic, novelist, short-story writer and blogger at The Zeleza Post -. He was (2009) president of the African Studies Association. He has most recently been named as the next Dean of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University.
Zeleza was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia, now Harare, Zimbabwe, in May 1955, of Malawian parents. His parents returned to Malawi in 1956 before returning to Zimbabwe in 1972. Zeleza attended primary school (1961–1968) and secondary school (1968–1972) in the cities of Lilongwe and Blantyre in Malawi. He attended college at the University of Malawi (1972–1976) where he received his BA with Distinction, majoring in History and English. He served as a Staff Associate at the University of Malawi's Chancellor College from 1976–1977 before he proceeded to Britain for his graduate studies. He earned an MA in African History and International Relations at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies and the London School of Economics and Political Science (1977–1978), then a Ph.D. in economic history at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (1978–1982).
wn.com/Paul_Tiyambe_Zeleza -
Portuguese people
The Portuguese (Portuguese: os Portugueses) are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion.
Due to the large historical extent of the Portuguese Empire and the colonization of territories in Africa, Asia and the Americas, as well as historical and recent emigration, Portuguese communities can be found in many diverse regions around the globe, and a large Portuguese diaspora exists.
The Portuguese are a southwestern European population, with origins predominantly from Atlantic Europe, Western Europe and the Western Mediterranean.
The earliest modern humans inhabiting Portugal are believed to have been Paleolithic peoples that may have arrived in the Iberian Peninsula as early as 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. Current interpretation of Y-chromosome and mtDNA data suggests that modern-day Portuguese traces largely a significant amount of these lineages to the paleolithic peoples which began arriving to the European continent between the end of the last glaciation around 45,000 years ago.
wn.com/Portuguese_people -
Tomaz Salomão
Tomaz Salomão (born 16 October 1954), a Mozambican economist, is the Secretary General of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Salomão was appointed at the 2005 Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community in Gaborone, Botswana. He earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
Opponents of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe have criticized Salomão for his assessment of Zimbabwean elections as free and fair. Salomão said that SADC would pull out an EU summit to be held in Lisbon in December 2007 if Zimbabwe was on the agenda. "SADC will not go to Lisbon to discuss Zimbabwe because the summit is not about Zimbabwe, but about relations between the EU and Africa," he said.
wn.com/Tomaz_Salomão -
Tumbuka people
The Tumbuka are a Bantu ethnic group living in Northern Malawi, Eastern Zambia and Southern Tanzania. Their chief god is called Chiuta, who is all-powerful, omniscient and self-created, just like the God of the Abrahamic religions. The language of the Tumbuka is called chiTumbuka – the 'chi' in front of Tumbuka meaning 'the language of the' just like 'ki' in 'kiSwahili' or 'se' in 'seTswana'. A Tumbuka will call another vatumbuka, meaning one of the tribe of Tumbukas.
The World Almanac (1998) estimates approximately 2,000,000 Tumbuka speakers exist in the aforementioned three countries. Ethnologue estimates a total of 1,332,000 Tumbuka speakers, including 940,000 in Malawi and 392,000 in Zambia, with no Tumbuka presence listed for Tanzania.
Tumbuka is a Bantu language, similar to Swahili in structure and vocabulary.
wn.com/Tumbuka_people
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Documentary Series: Growing Up in Malawi: Episode 1: Malawi - a Country in Southern Africa
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:50
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
The first episode looks at the initiative set up by the Roger Federer Foundation in Malawi and introduces the main people who will feature in the documentary series. The day care center where the episode was filmed is in Mbwetu, on the outskirts of Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. Episode 2: youtu.be Episode 3: youtu.be More information about the documentary series: www.credit-suisse.com
http://wn.com/Documentary_Series_Growing_Up_in_Malawi_Episode_1_Malawi_a_Country_in_Southern_Africa
The first episode looks at the initiative set up by the Roger Federer Foundation in Malawi and introduces the main people who will feature in the documentary series. The day care center where the episode was filmed is in Mbwetu, on the outskirts of Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. Episode 2: youtu.be Episode 3: youtu.be More information about the documentary series: www.credit-suisse.com
Documentary Series: Growing Up in Malawi: Episode 3: The Day Care Center in Thundu Set to Open Soon
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:51
- Updated: 31 Jan 2013
Check out the third episode of "Growing Up in Malawi", a documentary series on the work of the Roger Federer Foundation in Malawi. The latest episode shows that construction of the day care center in Thundu has made good progress in recent months. But the news is not all good: There was a bad harvest in Mbwetu, and the problem of feeding the children in the center there continues. Episode 1: youtu.be Episode 2: youtu.be More about the documentary series: www.credit-suisse.com
http://wn.com/Documentary_Series_Growing_Up_in_Malawi_Episode_3_The_Day_Care_Center_in_Thundu_Set_to_Open_Soon
Check out the third episode of "Growing Up in Malawi", a documentary series on the work of the Roger Federer Foundation in Malawi. The latest episode shows that construction of the day care center in Thundu has made good progress in recent months. But the news is not all good: There was a bad harvest in Mbwetu, and the problem of feeding the children in the center there continues. Episode 1: youtu.be Episode 2: youtu.be More about the documentary series: www.credit-suisse.com
- published: 28 Aug 2012
- views: 54139
- author: creditsuissevideos
NTV investigates in Malawi marijuana farms
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:57
- Updated: 06 Feb 2013
John Allan Namu crosses the Tanzanian border into the hilly Northern part of the lakeside nation of Malawi. The NTV investigates assignment team scaled the remote and forested karunga hills where it was established that marijuana farms are thriving almost with the same serenity as the tea plantations.
http://wn.com/NTV_investigates_in_Malawi_marijuana_farms
John Allan Namu crosses the Tanzanian border into the hilly Northern part of the lakeside nation of Malawi. The NTV investigates assignment team scaled the remote and forested karunga hills where it was established that marijuana farms are thriving almost with the same serenity as the tea plantations.
- published: 10 Sep 2010
- views: 105933
- author: NTVKenya
Life in Malawi
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:11
- Updated: 28 Jan 2013
Spend some time with the amazing children and families of Jonasi, Malawi. Learn more about our Every Beat Matters campaign here: www.EveryBeatMatters.com Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter for updates www.facebook.com www.twitter.com
http://wn.com/Life_in_Malawi
Spend some time with the amazing children and families of Jonasi, Malawi. Learn more about our Every Beat Matters campaign here: www.EveryBeatMatters.com Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter for updates www.facebook.com www.twitter.com
- published: 11 Sep 2012
- views: 7360
- author: SavetheChildrenUSA
'Buy Malawian' says Sosten Gwengwe, PP Minister of Trade and Industry, January 31, 2013
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:29
- Updated: 01 Feb 2013
Malawi's PP Minister of Trade and Industry, Sosten Gwengwe at Tithokoze Lime Makers Cooperative January 31, 2013, "Buy Malawian"
http://wn.com/'Buy_Malawian'_says_Sosten_Gwengwe,_PP_Minister_of_Trade_and_Industry,_January_31,_2013
Malawi's PP Minister of Trade and Industry, Sosten Gwengwe at Tithokoze Lime Makers Cooperative January 31, 2013, "Buy Malawian"
- published: 01 Feb 2013
- views: 7
- author: Nkhani Digest
Malawi Vice President Khumbo Kachali ayendela anthu okhudzidwa ndi madzi, January 2013
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:04
- Updated: 04 Feb 2013
http://wn.com/Malawi_Vice_President_Khumbo_Kachali_ayendela_anthu_okhudzidwa_ndi_madzi,_January_2013
Bill Nighy Visits Malawi To See the Difference a Robin Hood Tax Could Make
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:24
- Updated: 03 Feb 2013
Ahead of World Aids Day 2012 Bill Nighy visited Malawi to find out how decisions made on the trading floors of the City of London and Wall Street have meant life and death for millions of the world's poorest people living with HIV. And how a Robin Hood Tax could help create an aids free generation.'
http://wn.com/Bill_Nighy_Visits_Malawi_To_See_the_Difference_a_Robin_Hood_Tax_Could_Make
Ahead of World Aids Day 2012 Bill Nighy visited Malawi to find out how decisions made on the trading floors of the City of London and Wall Street have meant life and death for millions of the world's poorest people living with HIV. And how a Robin Hood Tax could help create an aids free generation.'
- published: 30 Nov 2012
- views: 4239
- author: RobinHoodTax
Akwaria targów ZooBotanica 2011 - cz.3 (Malawi i Tanganika)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:27
- Updated: 04 Feb 2013
Polub mnie na FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com SUBSKRYBUJ kanał www.youtube.com Odwiedź stronę: definiteaquascape.tv Uwaga, w komentarzu wkradł mi się błąd - przy omawianiu M. lombardoi (11 - 11:26) żólty jest samiec, a niebieskie samice! :) ---------------------- Telewizja akwarystyczna DefiniteAquascapeTV prezentuje: Reportaż akwarystyczny z X targów ZooBotanica 2011 we Wrocławiu. Targi odbyły się w dniach 2-4 września 2011 w Hali IASE (kompleks Hali Stulecia). Wzięło w nich udział kilkudziesięciu wystawców z branży akwarystycznej, zarówno firm, jak i stowarzyszeń akwarystów. W trzeciej części reportażu prezentuję akwaria w których pokazywano afrykańskie pielęgnice z jezior Malawi i Tanganika.
http://wn.com/Akwaria_targów_ZooBotanica_2011_cz3_Malawi_i_Tanganika
Polub mnie na FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com SUBSKRYBUJ kanał www.youtube.com Odwiedź stronę: definiteaquascape.tv Uwaga, w komentarzu wkradł mi się błąd - przy omawianiu M. lombardoi (11 - 11:26) żólty jest samiec, a niebieskie samice! :) ---------------------- Telewizja akwarystyczna DefiniteAquascapeTV prezentuje: Reportaż akwarystyczny z X targów ZooBotanica 2011 we Wrocławiu. Targi odbyły się w dniach 2-4 września 2011 w Hali IASE (kompleks Hali Stulecia). Wzięło w nich udział kilkudziesięciu wystawców z branży akwarystycznej, zarówno firm, jak i stowarzyszeń akwarystów. W trzeciej części reportażu prezentuję akwaria w których pokazywano afrykańskie pielęgnice z jezior Malawi i Tanganika.
- published: 02 Nov 2011
- views: 42063
- author: DefiniteAquascapeTV
'I am Malawi' music video
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:45
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
This music video is part of 'I am Malawi' documentary. A film by Geert Veuskens and Pieter De Vos www.iammalawi.com Performed by Dominant 1 and Third Eye Directed, Produced, Shot and Edited by Geert Veuskens Co-directed and Shot by Pieter De Vos You can watch the documentary here: Part 1: youtu.be Part 2: youtu.be
http://wn.com/'I_am_Malawi'_music_video
This music video is part of 'I am Malawi' documentary. A film by Geert Veuskens and Pieter De Vos www.iammalawi.com Performed by Dominant 1 and Third Eye Directed, Produced, Shot and Edited by Geert Veuskens Co-directed and Shot by Pieter De Vos You can watch the documentary here: Part 1: youtu.be Part 2: youtu.be
- published: 13 Feb 2012
- views: 9406
- author: Geert Veuskens
How To: Malawi Cichlid/Peacock Tank
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:56
- Updated: 04 Feb 2013
This is just my two cents on setup, stocking, and maintenance on a malawi lake style cichlid tank. Feel free to comment/rate/sub!
http://wn.com/How_To_Malawi_Cichlid_Peacock_Tank
This is just my two cents on setup, stocking, and maintenance on a malawi lake style cichlid tank. Feel free to comment/rate/sub!
- published: 05 Apr 2011
- views: 69880
- author: Shane Church
Mbuna from Lake Malawi - Interesting Facts
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:07
- Updated: 05 Feb 2013
►SUBSCRIBE◄ - goo.gl ►Forum◄ - africancichlidhub.com ►Website◄ - africancichlidhub.com ►Facebook◄ - https ►Twitter ◄ - twitter.com In this video I will try and give you the viewer an in-depth and better understanding of Mbuna. Mbuna (pronounced mboo-na) is the common name for a large group of African Cichlids from Lake Malawi. This lake, the third largest in Africa and the eighth largest lake in the world is reportedly the habitat of more species of fish than any other body of freshwater on Earth, including more than 1000 species of Cichlids. Mbuna require hard water and PH levels between 7.2 to 7.8, being a warm water fish the Temperature should be kept between 78 - 82°F The name Mbuna means "rockfish" in the language of the Tonga people of Malawi.[1] As the name implies, Mbuna are the Cichilds that live among piles of rocks - There's also some Mbuna who spend more time in the shallow sandy . The diversity of species is truly amazing, with new species being discovered at a prolific rate. They have fascinating personalities that will keep you staring at your aquariums for hours. They're highly territorial and can be quite aggressive towards their counter parts, defending their patch of rock or breeding area. In the Lake they can be found in large groups of their own kind accompanied by dozens of other species. Mbuna can reach up to 7" for example Yellow Tail Acei can reach 7" but the smaller of the Mbuna (Known as Dwarf Mbuna) will max out at around 3.5-4" For ...
http://wn.com/Mbuna_from_Lake_Malawi_Interesting_Facts
►SUBSCRIBE◄ - goo.gl ►Forum◄ - africancichlidhub.com ►Website◄ - africancichlidhub.com ►Facebook◄ - https ►Twitter ◄ - twitter.com In this video I will try and give you the viewer an in-depth and better understanding of Mbuna. Mbuna (pronounced mboo-na) is the common name for a large group of African Cichlids from Lake Malawi. This lake, the third largest in Africa and the eighth largest lake in the world is reportedly the habitat of more species of fish than any other body of freshwater on Earth, including more than 1000 species of Cichlids. Mbuna require hard water and PH levels between 7.2 to 7.8, being a warm water fish the Temperature should be kept between 78 - 82°F The name Mbuna means "rockfish" in the language of the Tonga people of Malawi.[1] As the name implies, Mbuna are the Cichilds that live among piles of rocks - There's also some Mbuna who spend more time in the shallow sandy . The diversity of species is truly amazing, with new species being discovered at a prolific rate. They have fascinating personalities that will keep you staring at your aquariums for hours. They're highly territorial and can be quite aggressive towards their counter parts, defending their patch of rock or breeding area. In the Lake they can be found in large groups of their own kind accompanied by dozens of other species. Mbuna can reach up to 7" for example Yellow Tail Acei can reach 7" but the smaller of the Mbuna (Known as Dwarf Mbuna) will max out at around 3.5-4" For ...
- published: 18 Jan 2012
- views: 32981
- author: bolly12345
Tussle in Malawi Parliament - MP Anita Kalinde and Minister of Defense Aaron Sangala
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:15
- Updated: 25 Sep 2012
Tussle in Malawi Parliament - MP Anita Kalinde and Minister of Defense Aaron Sangala
http://wn.com/Tussle_in_Malawi_Parliament_MP_Anita_Kalinde_and_Minister_of_Defense_Aaron_Sangala
Tussle in Malawi Parliament - MP Anita Kalinde and Minister of Defense Aaron Sangala
- published: 29 Nov 2011
- views: 13321
- author: Nkhani Digest
Hillary Clinton dances during a trip to Malawi
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:06
- Updated: 24 Jan 2013
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dances with the chair of the Lumbadzi Milk Bulking Group in Malawi. For more CNN videos, check out our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com Or visit our site at www.cnn.com
http://wn.com/Hillary_Clinton_dances_during_a_trip_to_Malawi
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dances with the chair of the Lumbadzi Milk Bulking Group in Malawi. For more CNN videos, check out our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com Or visit our site at www.cnn.com
- published: 06 Aug 2012
- views: 27140
- author: CNN
Malawi Mouse Boys
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:37
- Updated: 27 Jan 2013
Produced by GRAMMY winning producer, Ian Brennan (Tinariwen). Released on IRL on Monday 28th May 2012.
http://wn.com/Malawi_Mouse_Boys
Produced by GRAMMY winning producer, Ian Brennan (Tinariwen). Released on IRL on Monday 28th May 2012.
- published: 08 Mar 2012
- views: 6634
- author: knodishall
My Malawi Experience 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:39
- Updated: 21 Sep 2012
Traveling to Malawi this summer with Auburn University's Study Abroad Program was a truly life changing experience that I will never forget. Mtendere Village in Malawi, The Warm Heart of Africa, will forever bring warm memories to my heart.
http://wn.com/My_Malawi_Experience_2012
Traveling to Malawi this summer with Auburn University's Study Abroad Program was a truly life changing experience that I will never forget. Mtendere Village in Malawi, The Warm Heart of Africa, will forever bring warm memories to my heart.
- published: 30 Jul 2012
- views: 258
- author: 82leo1401
Ghana 2:0 Malawi 2013 Africa Cup Qualifier Part 1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 59:55
- Updated: 05 Feb 2013
Ghana vrs Malawi in 2013 Africa Cup Qualifier at the Accra Sports Stadium in Accra.
http://wn.com/Ghana_20_Malawi_2013_Africa_Cup_Qualifier_Part_1
Ghana vrs Malawi in 2013 Africa Cup Qualifier at the Accra Sports Stadium in Accra.
- published: 08 Sep 2012
- views: 41568
- author: Ghana Broadcasting
Ghana 2:0 Malawi 2013 Africa Cup Qualifier Part 2
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 49:05
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
http://wn.com/Ghana_20_Malawi_2013_Africa_Cup_Qualifier_Part_2
Malawi, Natural Beauty. (Maskal)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:03
- Updated: 29 Jan 2013
Malawi is most natural Beautiful Country in the Central Africa, it is well known by the name of warm Heart of Africa, and it's indeed warm heart of Africa and people in Malawi are friendly, they do respect foreigner more than the local. Visit Malawi if you want to be impressed of hospitality!! The song is by Maskal one of best musician!!
http://wn.com/Malawi,_Natural_Beauty_Maskal
Malawi is most natural Beautiful Country in the Central Africa, it is well known by the name of warm Heart of Africa, and it's indeed warm heart of Africa and people in Malawi are friendly, they do respect foreigner more than the local. Visit Malawi if you want to be impressed of hospitality!! The song is by Maskal one of best musician!!
- published: 04 Sep 2012
- views: 727
- author: lainala
Malawi Gospel Music -Thocco Katimba
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 22:44
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
This Video Music it's from Thocco Katimba Album titled Werenga Madalitso ako (Count your blessings) He is one of best gospel singer from Malawi. Enjoy the video and be blessed.
http://wn.com/Malawi_Gospel_Music_-Thocco_Katimba
This Video Music it's from Thocco Katimba Album titled Werenga Madalitso ako (Count your blessings) He is one of best gospel singer from Malawi. Enjoy the video and be blessed.
- published: 23 Jun 2012
- views: 19645
- author: lainala
![ICE PRINCE IN MALAWI [FULL DOCUMENTARY]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130207023026im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/CpseJJ-frJk/default.jpg "ICE PRINCE IN MALAWI [FULL DOCUMENTARY]")
ICE PRINCE IN MALAWI [FULL DOCUMENTARY]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:15
- Updated: 01 Feb 2013
COMMENT, LIKE & SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL!!!! Follow Ice Prince and J-Milla as they shut down MALAWI in true #CBN [ChocBoiNation] fashion! From the concert to the club, watch closely to find out how much love Malawi has got for Ice Prince...especially the ladies! Follow Ice Prince on Twitter now: www.twitter.com Follow J-Milla on Twitter now: www.twitter.com Follow James Mävrik on Twitter now: www.twitter.com
http://wn.com/ICE_PRINCE_IN_MALAWI_FULL_DOCUMENTARY_
COMMENT, LIKE & SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL!!!! Follow Ice Prince and J-Milla as they shut down MALAWI in true #CBN [ChocBoiNation] fashion! From the concert to the club, watch closely to find out how much love Malawi has got for Ice Prince...especially the ladies! Follow Ice Prince on Twitter now: www.twitter.com Follow J-Milla on Twitter now: www.twitter.com Follow James Mävrik on Twitter now: www.twitter.com
- published: 05 Jun 2012
- views: 15745
- author: ICEPRINCETV
Malawi Gospel Music- Mixed Abulm
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 17:14
- Updated: 02 Feb 2013
This music is from mixed album of Malawi gospel music choirs . Enjoy it and be blessed Don't stay away from mother land Malawi, home is the best. Be blessed from where you are while listening to these gospel music.
http://wn.com/Malawi_Gospel_Music_Mixed_Abulm
This music is from mixed album of Malawi gospel music choirs . Enjoy it and be blessed Don't stay away from mother land Malawi, home is the best. Be blessed from where you are while listening to these gospel music.
- published: 24 Jun 2012
- views: 6399
- author: lainala
HUM | Music for Malawi
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:21
- Updated: 06 Feb 2013
facebook.com HUM Official Launch | Music for Malawi Sunday, February 10 at 8:30pm 407 Industrial Ave Tickets - $10 at the door All proceeds going towards the Mulanje Mission Hospital in Malawi With performances by Gardenburst, That's What She Said, Wes Jang and Dan Heffner. Facebook: facebook.com Website: humcanada.com Video Credit Alex W. www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/HUM_|_Music_for_Malawi
facebook.com HUM Official Launch | Music for Malawi Sunday, February 10 at 8:30pm 407 Industrial Ave Tickets - $10 at the door All proceeds going towards the Mulanje Mission Hospital in Malawi With performances by Gardenburst, That's What She Said, Wes Jang and Dan Heffner. Facebook: facebook.com Website: humcanada.com Video Credit Alex W. www.youtube.com
- published: 28 Jan 2013
- views: 197
- author: humcanada
Deep Roots Malawi - Official Movie
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 55:12
- Updated: 16 Jan 2013
...takes you into the heart of a cultural revolution; where vibrant ancient traditions are inspiring hip-hop artists and chart topping bands.
http://wn.com/Deep_Roots_Malawi_Official_Movie
...takes you into the heart of a cultural revolution; where vibrant ancient traditions are inspiring hip-hop artists and chart topping bands.
- published: 06 Jul 2012
- views: 2490
- author: amunaamuna
photo: US Army / Chief Warrant Officer 4 Daniel McClinton
06 Feb 2013
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. "The art of war is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin." Sun Tzu, "The Art of War," 4th Century BCE. During confirmation hearings for the next U.S. Defense Secretary, it was appalling to observe several senators haggling with Chuck Hagel over whether the surge during the disastrous U.S.-Iraqi preemptive war and military occupation was a success or not ... The U.S....(size: 6.2Kb)
photo: AP / Jerome Delay
06 Feb 2013
GAO, Mali. French-led forces have killed hundreds of Islamists in fighting to reclaim northern Mali and with the rebels' last bastion secured, France said Tuesday it will begin withdrawing its troops from March ... The defence ministry said the Islamists died in French air strikes on vehicles transporting fighters and equipment, and in "direct combat in Konna and Gao", key central and northern towns ... "The combat isn't over ... - AFP. ....(size: 4.8Kb)
photo: WN / Arturo Ubaub
06 Feb 2013
A powerful 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck near the Solomon Islands on Wednesday, triggering a small tsunami and prompting alerts across the South Pacific that were later cancelled. By News Wires (text). ... Damage reports were limited, and there were no reports of casualties. The quake struck 340 km (211 miles) east of Kira Kira in the Solomons, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said ... Hot spot ... (REUTERS). Date created ... ....(size: 8.1Kb)
photo: AP / Rebecca Blackwell
06 Feb 2013
Nigeria and Ghana may meet in the Africa Cup of Nations final – but only if they can beat teams bidding for a first victory. Ghana fans, here at the Cup of Nations quarter-final against Cape Verde, hope their side can win the tournament for the first time since 1982. Photograph. Ian Walton/Getty Images. As the dust settles after the quarter-finals, the landscape looks strangely unfamiliar ... "But the thing they tend to get is respect ... ....(size: 8.2Kb)
photo: AP / Vahid Salemi
05 Feb 2013
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has arrived in Cairo, marking the first visit to Egypt by an Iranian president since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Ahmadinejad flew into the capital, Cairo, to attend a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC), which begins on Wednesday. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi kissed the Iranian leader as he got off the plane on Tuesday ... "My wish is bigger than this ... Iran does not recognise Israel ... ....(size: 17.9Kb)
Bloomberg
07 Feb 2013
Zambia’s central bank plans to sell more dollars to bolster the second worst-performing currency in Africa and curb inflation, officials said. The kwacha, which has slumped 9.6 percent against the dollar in the past six months, needs to be at a “more realistic” level, Governor Michael Gondwe said in an interview at his office in the capital, Lusaka, on Feb ... The kwacha’s slide is the worst after Malawi’s currency in the past six months....(size: 4.3Kb)
The Wrap
07 Feb 2013
Print this page Tweet. If Chucky Cheese is one of the worst things that can happen to an adult, a voice coach is one of the worst things that can happen to a journalist. Working with a camera and cookie cutter, they take aspiring anchors and commentators and reshape them into characters not found in nature ... (kids in need of desks) project has provided over 40,000 desks for kids in Malawi who had never seen a desk in their lifetime....(size: 3.3Kb)
The New York Times
06 Feb 2013
Banda, Joyce, Malawi, Pregnancy and Childbirth, Rwanda, Senegal, Women and Girls. Malawi is a country of rolling hills and marshy flatlands, where 85 percent of the population live in the countryside, most subsisting on less than $2 per person per day, typically from corn and tobacco farming ... In the U.S., 1 in 2,400 women are at risk of dying while giving birth over the course of their lives; in Malawi, it is 1 out of 36....(size: 18.5Kb)
The Independent
06 Feb 2013
As she prepares to open the doors to a new eye clinic she built in Malawi with her charitable foundation Amor, Ms De Vasconcelos also criticised wealthy foreigners for “throwing money” at Africa rather than getting involved on the ground and working directly with the systems in place there ... Eunice Kazembe, the Education Minister, said, “The schools Raising Malawi claims to have constructed were already in existence....(size: 3.1Kb)
All Africa
06 Feb 2013
The New York Times
06 Feb 2013
What would Senator Obama have made of the “targeted killing” memo that NBC News published on Monday? In a December 2007 interview with Charlie Savage—then of The Boston Globe, now of The New York Times—Mr ... Detain no, kill yes ... Q ... A ... A ... Q. No ... Malawi's Leader Makes Safe Childbirth Her Mission. The drive to make childbirth safer in Malawi involves a delicate balance between respect for tradition and stressing the importance of medical science....(size: 6.9Kb)
noodls
06 Feb 2013
(Source. Taylor University) Spring Spiritual Renewal Begins. Chris Williamson is Featured Speaker. Published. Feb 06, 2013. Pastor Chris Williamson. Spring Spiritual Renewal Week at Taylor University began this morning with Pastor Chris Williamson of Franklin, Tenn ... Williamson holds a B.A ... Williamson has ministered abroad in Darfur, the United Kingdom, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Jerusalem ... (noodl....(size: 2.2Kb)
The New York Times
06 Feb 2013
Tags. ... Become As Little Children ... children ... Philosophy For All ... Also. ... Stone Links ... The drive to make childbirth safer in Malawi involves a delicate balance between respect for tradition and stressing the importance of medical science ... Malawi’s Leader Makes Safe Childbirth Her Mission ... The drive to make childbirth safer in Malawi involves a delicate balance between respect for tradition and stressing the importance of medical science ... ....(size: 12.8Kb)
noodls
06 Feb 2013
(Source. University of Ottawa) ... The university also has a longstanding commitment to the community, reinforced by the Centre for Global and Community Engagement, which provides students and employees with volunteering opportunities to help those in need in countries such as Bolivia, Guatemala, Malawi, Nepal, Senegal and Vietnam. "We are thrilled to be recognized once again with this tremendous honour ... INFORMATION.. Néomie Duval....(size: 2.9Kb)
Star Tribune
06 Feb 2013
Columnist . Travel Troubleshooter. Phone.. Email. chris@elliott.org. Christopher Elliott is ombudsman at National Geographic Traveler magazine. Recent content from Christopher Elliott. Travel Troubleshooter. No refund for cruise. Q. We booked a cruise to Alaska on Norwegian Cruise Line last summer ... Updated ... Q ... Updated ... Q A few months ago I purchased tickets to Lilongwe, Malawi, for church missionary work through a full-service travel agency.... ....(size: 11.2Kb)
The New York Times
06 Feb 2013
Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded. Tags. ... Cotton Kingdom (Text) ... The drive to make childbirth safer in Malawi involves a delicate balance between respect for tradition and stressing the importance of medical science ... LEE ... Malawi’s Leader Makes Safe Childbirth Her Mission ... The drive to make childbirth safer in Malawi involves a delicate balance between respect for tradition and stressing the importance of medical science ... ....(size: 15.5Kb)
The New York Times
06 Feb 2013
Tags. ... ... More From The Stone. Read previous contributions to this series ... LEE ... LEE ... The drive to make childbirth safer in Malawi involves a delicate balance between respect for tradition and stressing the importance of medical science ... Malawi’s Leader Makes Safe Childbirth Her Mission ... The drive to make childbirth safer in Malawi involves a delicate balance between respect for tradition and stressing the importance of medical science....(size: 16.5Kb)
Yahoo Daily News
06 Feb 2013
A Trip to Africa in the Spring will Make the Perfect Gift for Your Sweetheart. Ft ... For fares as low as $620* one way (restrictions apply), travelers can fly on SAA’s non-stop flights from New York JFK to Johannesburg, $637* to Cape Town and $642* to Durban. And, for an additional $199* or less each way (restrictions apply), fly to Harare, Zimbabwe; Lilongwe, Malawi; Lusaka, Zambia; Maputo, Mozambique; or Luanda, Angola ... apply) ... Each Way*....(size: 4.8Kb)
| Republic of Malawi
Chalo cha Malawi, Dziko la Malaŵi
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| Motto: Unity and Freedom[1] | ||||||
| Anthem: Mulungu dalitsa Malaŵi (Chichewa) "Oh God Bless Our Land of Malawi"[2] |
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.svg) |
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| Capital (and largest city) |
Lilongwe 13°57′S 33°42′E / 13.95°S 33.7°E / -13.95; 33.7 |
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| Official language(s) | English Chichewa[3] |
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| Ethnic groups (2008) | Chewa 32.6% Lomwe 17.6% Yao 13.5% Ngoni 11.5% Tumbuka 8.8% Nyanja 5.8% Sena 3.6% Tonga 2.1% Ngonde 1% other 3.5% |
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| Demonym | Malawian | |||||
| Government | Unitary presidential republic | |||||
| - | President | Joyce Banda | ||||
| - | Vice President | Khumbo Kachali | ||||
| Legislature | National Assembly | |||||
| Independence | ||||||
| - | from the United Kingdom | July 6, 1964 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 118,484 km2 (99th) 45,747 sq mi |
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| - | Water (%) | 20.6% | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2010 estimate | 14,901,000 [4] (64th) | ||||
| - | 1998 census | 9,933,868[5] | ||||
| - | Density | 128.8/km2 (86th) 333.6/sq mi |
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| GDP (PPP) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $13.901 billion[6] | ||||
| - | Per capita | $860[6] | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $5.673 billion[6] | ||||
| - | Per capita | $351[6] | ||||
| Gini (2008) | 38 | |||||
| HDI (2008) |  0.493[7] (low) (160th) |
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| Currency | Kwacha (D) (MWK (£1.00= 265 kwachas)) |
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| Time zone | CAT (UTC+2) | |||||
| - | Summer (DST) | not observed (UTC+2) | ||||
| Drives on the | left | |||||
| ISO 3166 code | MW | |||||
| Internet TLD | .mw[3] | |||||
| Calling code | +265[3] | |||||
| 1 Population estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected. 2Information is drawn from the CIA Factbook unless otherwise noted. |
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Malawi ( /məˈlɑːwi/; Chichewa [malaβi][need tone]), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Malawi is over 118,000 km2 (45,560 sq mi) with an estimated population of more than 13,900,000. Its capital is Lilongwe, which is also Malawi's largest city; the second largest is Blantyre and the third is Mzuzu. The name Malawi comes from the Maravi, an old name of the Nyanja people that inhabit the area. The country is also nicknamed "The Warm Heart of Africa".[8]
The area of Africa now known as Malawi was colonized by migrating tribes of Bantu around the 10th century. In 1891 the area was colonized again, this time by the British. In 1953 Malawi, then known as Nyasaland, became part of the semi-independent Central African Federation (CAF). The Federation was dissolved in 1963 and in 1964, Nyasaland gained full independence and was renamed Malawi. Upon gaining independence it became a single-party state under the presidency of Hastings Banda, who remained president until 1994, when he was ousted from power. Joyce Banda (no relation) is the current president, raised to that position after president Bingu Mutharika died in 2012. She is the first female leader in Malawi.[9] Malawi has a democratic, multi-party government. Malawi has a small military force that includes an army, a navy and an air wing. Malawi's foreign policy is pro-Western and includes positive diplomatic relations with most countries and participation in several international organizations.
Malawi is among the world's least-developed countries. The economy is heavily based in agriculture, with a largely rural population. The Malawian government depends heavily on outside aid to meet development needs, although this need (and the aid offered) has decreased since 2000. The Malawian government faces challenges in building and expanding the economy, improving education, health care, environmental protection, and becoming financially independent. Malawi has several programs developed since 2005 that focus on these issues, and the country's outlook appears to be improving, with improvements in economic growth, education and healthcare seen in 2007 and 2008.
Malawi has a low life expectancy and high infant mortality. There is a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, which is a drain on the labor force and government expenditures. There is a diverse population of native peoples, Asians and Europeans, with several languages spoken and an array of religious beliefs. Although there was tribal conflict in the past, by 2008 it had diminished considerably and the concept of a Malawian nationality had begun to form. Malawi has a culture combining native and colonial aspects, including sports, art, dance and music.
Contents |
History[link]
Main article: History of Malawi
The area of Africa now known as Malawi had a very small population of hunter gatherers before waves of Bantu-speaking peoples began emigrating from the north around the 10th century. Although most of the Bantu peoples continued south, some remained permanently and founded tribes based on common ancestry.[10] By 1500 AD, the tribes had established a kingdom that reached from north of what is now Nkhotakota to the Zambezi River and from Lake Malawi to the Luangwa River in what is now Zambia.[11]
Soon after 1600, with the area mostly united under one native ruler, native tribesmen began encountering, trading with and making alliances with Portuguese traders and members of the military. By 1700, however, the empire had broken up into areas controlled by many individual tribes, which was noted by the Portuguese in their information gathering.[12] The Swahili-Arab slave trade reached its height about 150 years ago, when approximately 20,000 slaves were considered to be carried yearly from Nkhotakota to Kilwa where they were sold.[13]
David Livingstone reached Lake Malawi (then Lake Nyasa) in 1859,[14] when Malawi was originally known as Nyasaland under the rule of the British.[15] In a prime example of what is sometimes called the "Thin White Line" of colonial authority in Africa, the colonial government of Nyasaland was formed in 1891. The administrators were given a budget of £10,000 per year, which was enough to employ ten European civilians, two military officers, seventy Punjab Sikhs, and eighty-five Zanzibar porters. These few employees were then expected to administer and police a territory of around 94,000 square kilometers with between one and two million people.[16]
In 1944, the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) was formed by the Africans of Nyasaland to promote local interests to the British government.[17] In 1953, Britain linked Nyasaland with Northern and Southern Rhodesia in what was known as the Central African Federation (CAF),[15] for mainly political reasons.[18] Even though the Federation was semi-independent the linking provoked opposition from African nationalists, and the NAC gained popular support. An influential opponent of the CAF was Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, a European-trained doctor working in Ghana who was persuaded to return to Nyasaland in 1958 to assist the nationalist cause. Banda was elected president of the NAC and worked to mobilize nationalist sentiment before being jailed by colonial authorities in 1959. He was released in 1960 and asked to help draft a new constitution for Nyasaland, with a clause granting Africans the majority in the colony's Legislative Counsel.[10]
In 1961, Banda's Malawi Congress Party (MCP) gained the majority in the Legislative Council elections and Banda became Prime Minister in 1963. The Federation was dissolved in 1963, and on 6 July 1964, Nyasaland became independent from British rule and renamed itself Malawi. Under a new constitution, Malawi became a single-party state under MCP rule in 1966, and in 1970 Banda declared himself president-for-life. For almost 30 years, Banda ruled firmly, suppressing opposition to his party and ensuring that he had no personal opposition.[19]
Despite his political severity, however, Malawi's economy while Banda was president was often cited as an example of how a poor, landlocked, heavily populated, mineral-poor country could achieve progress in both agriculture and industrial development.[20] While in office, and using his control of the country, Banda constructed a business empire that eventually produced one-third of the country's GDP and employed 10% of the wage-earning workforce.[21]
Under pressure for increased political freedom, Banda agreed to a referendum in 1993, where the populace voted for a multi-party democracy. In late 1993 a presidential council was formed, the life presidency was abolished and a new constitution was put into place, effectively ending the MCP's rule.[19] In 1994 the first multi-party elections were held in Malawi, and Bakili Muluzi became president. Muluzi remained president until 2004, when Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika was elected. Although the political environment is described as "challenging", as of 2009, the multi-party system still exists in Malawi.[22] Multiparty parliamentary and presidential elections were held for the fourth time in Malawi in May 2009, and President Mutharika was successfully re-elected, despite charges of election fraud from his rival.[23]
President Mutharika was seen by some as increasingly autocratic and dismissive of human rights,[24] and in July 2011 protests over high costs of living, devolving foreign relations, poor governance and a lack of foreign exchange reserves erupted.[25] The protests left 18 people dead and at least 44 others suffering from gun shot wounds.[26] In April 2012, Mutharika died of a heart attack; the presidential title was taken over by former Vice President Joyce Banda.[27]
Politics[link]
Malawi is a democratic, multi-party government, currently under the leadership of Joyce Banda.[19] The current constitution was put into place on May 18, 1995. The branches of the government consist of executive, legislative and judicial. The executive includes a president who is both chief of state and head of government, first and second vice presidents and a cabinet. The president is elected every five years, and the vice president is elected with the president. A second vice president may be appointed by the president if he so chooses, although they must be from a different party. The members of the cabinet are appointed by the president and can be from either inside or outside of the legislature.[11]
The legislative branch consists of a unicameral National Assembly of 193 members who are elected every five years, and although the Malawian constitution provides for a Senate of 80 seats, one does not exist in practice. If created, the Senate would provide representation for traditional leaders and a variety of geographic districts, as well as special interest groups including the disabled, youth and women. The independent judicial branch is based upon the English model and consists of a constitutional court, a High Court, a Supreme Court of Appeal and subordinate Magistrate Courts. There are currently nine political parties, with the Democratic Progressive Party acting as the ruling party and the Malawi Congress Party and the United Democratic Front acting as the main opposition parties in the National Assembly. Suffrage is universal at 18 years of age, and the central government budget for 2009/2010 is $1.7 billion.[11]
Malawi is composed of three regions (the Northern, Central and Southern regions),[5] which are divided into 28 districts,[28] and further into approximately 250 traditional authorities and 110 administrative wards.[5] Local government is administered by central government-appointed regional administrators and district commissioners. For the first time in the multi-party era, local elections took place on November 21, 2000, with the UDF party winning 70% of the available seats. There was scheduled to be a second round of constitutionally mandated local elections in May 2005, but these were canceled by the government.[11]
In February 2005, President Mutharika split with the United Democratic Front and began his own party, the Democratic Progressive Party, which has attracted reform-minded officials from other parties and is winning elections across the country as of 2006. As of 2008, President Mutharika has implemented reforms to address the country's major corruption problem, with at least five senior UDF party members facing criminal charges.[29] In 2008, Malawi was ranked 11th of all countries in sub-Saharan Africa in the 2008 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, an index that measures several variables to provide a comprehensive view of the governance of African countries.[30]
The military of Malawi consists of an army, a navy and an air wing, all considered to form different sections of the Malawian Army. Between the three forces there are approximately 5,500 military personnel, 1,500 paramilitary police and ten aircraft, none of which are combat aircraft. The navy division is based out of Monkey Bay on Lake Malawi.[31]
Administrative divisions[link]
Main articles: Regions of Malawi and Districts of Malawi
Malawi is divided into 28 districts within three regions:
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Foreign relations[link]
Main article: Foreign relations of Malawi
Former President Banda established a pro-Western foreign policy that continued into early 2011. It included good diplomatic relationships with many Western countries. The transition from a one-party state to a multi-party democracy strengthened Malawian ties with the United States. Significant numbers of students from Malawi travel to the US for schooling, and the US has active branches of the Peace Corps, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Agency for International Development in Malawi. Malawi maintained close relations with South Africa throughout the Apartheid era, which strained Malawi's relationships with other African countries. Following the collapse of apartheid in 1994, diplomatic relationships were made and maintained into 2011 between Malawi and all other African countries. In 2010, however, Malawi's relationship with Mozambique became strained, partially due to disputes over the use of the Zambezi River and an inter-country electrical grid.[11] In 2007, Malawi established diplomatic ties with China, and Chinese investment in the country has continued to increase since then, despite concerns regarding treatment of workers by Chinese companies and competition of Chinese business with local companies.[32] In 2011, relations between Malawi and the United Kingdom was damaged when a document was released in which the British ambassador to Malawi criticized President Mutharika. Mutharika expelled the ambassador from Malawi, and in July 2011, the UK announced that it was suspending all budgetary aid because of Mutharika's lack of response to criticisms of his government and economic mismanagement.[33] On July 26, 2011, the United States followed suit, freezing a US$350 million grant, citing concerns regarding the government's suppression and intimidation of demonstrators and civic groups, as well as restriction of the press and police violence.[34]
Malawi has been seen as a haven for refugees from other African countries, including Mozambique and Rwanda, since 1985. These influxes of refugees have placed a strain on the Malawian economy but have also drawn significant inflows of aid from other countries. Donors to Malawi include the United States, Canada, Germany, Iceland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Ireland and the UK, as well as international institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, the African Development Bank and UN organizations.
Malawi is a member of several international organizations including the UN and some of its child agencies, the IMF, the World Bank, the African Union and the World Health Organization. Malawi tends to view economic and political stability in southern Africa as a necessity, and advocates peaceful solutions through negotiation. The country was the first in southern Africa to receive peacekeeping training under the African Crisis Response Initiative.[11]
Human rights[link]
As of 2010, international observers noted issues in several human rights areas. Excessive force was seen to be used by police forces, security forces were able to act with impunity, mob violence was occasionally seen, and prison conditions continued to be harsh and sometimes life threatening. However, the government was seen to make some effort to prosecute security forces who used excessive force. Other legal issues included limits on free speech and freedom of the press, lengthy pretrial detentions, and arbitrary arrests and detentions. Societal issues found included violence against women, human trafficking and child labor. Corruption within the government is seen as a major issue, despite the Malawi Anti-Corruption Bureau's (ACB) attempts to reduce it. The ACB appears to be successful at finding and prosecuting low level corruption, but higher level officials appear to be able to act with impunity. Corruption within security forces is also an issue.[35]
As of 2010, homosexuality was illegal in Malawi, and in one recent case, a couple perceived as homosexual faced extensive jail time when convicted.[36] The convicted pair, sentenced to the maximum of 14 years of hard labor each, were pardoned two weeks later following the intervention of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.[37] In May 2012,President Joyce Banda pledged to repeal laws criminalising homosexuality.[38]
Geography[link]
Main article: Geography of Malawi
See also: List of cities in Malawi
Malawi is a landlocked country in southeastern Africa, bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast and Mozambique to the south, southwest and southeast. It lies between latitudes 9° and 18°S, and longitudes 32° and 36°E.
The Great Rift Valley runs through the country from north to south, and to the east of the valley lies Lake Malawi (also called Lake Nyasa), making up over three-quarters of Malawi's eastern boundary.[10] Lake Malawi is sometimes called the Calendar Lake as it is about 365 miles (587 km) long and 52 miles (84 km) wide.[39] The Shire River flows from the south end of the lake and joins the Zambezi River 250 miles (400 km) farther south in Mozambique. The surface of Lake Malawi is located at 1,500 feet (457 m) above sea level, with a maximum depth of 2,300 feet (701 m), which means the lake bottom is over 700 feet (213 m) below sea level at some points.
In the mountainous sections of Malawi surrounding the Rift Valley, plateaus rise generally 3,000 to 4,000 feet (914 to 1,219 m) above sea level, although some rise as high as 8,000 feet (2,438 m) in the north. To the south of Lake Malawi lie the Shire Highlands, gently rolling land at approximately 3,000 feet (914 m) above sea level. In this area, the Zomba and Mlanje mountain peaks rise to respective heights of 7,000 feet (2,134 m) and 10,000 feet (3,048 m).[10]
Malawi's capital is Lilongwe, and its commercial center is Blantyre with a population of over 500,000 people.[10] Malawi has two sites listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Lake Malawi National Park was first listed in 1984 and the Chongoni Rock Art Area was listed in 2006.[40]
Malawi's climate is hot in the low-lying areas in the south of the country and temperate in the northern highlands. The altitude moderates what would be an otherwise equatorial climate. Between November and April the temperature is warm with equatorial rains and thunderstorms, with the storms reaching their peak severity in late March. After March, the rainfall rapidly diminishes and from May to September wet mists float from the highlands into the plateaus, with almost no rainfall during these months.[10]
Economy[link]
Main article: Economy of Malawi
See also: Malawian food crisis
_-_crafts_market.JPG)
Malawi is among the world's least-developed and most-densely populated countries. Around 85% of the population live in rural areas. The economy is based on agriculture, and more than one-third of GDP and 90% of export revenues come from this. In the past, the economy has been dependent on substantial economic aid from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other countries.[28]
In December 2000, the IMF stopped aid disbursements due to corruption concerns, and many individual donors followed suit, resulting in an almost 80% drop in Malawi's development budget.[29] However, in 2005, Malawi was the recipient of over US$575 million in aid. The Malawian government faces challenges in developing a market economy, improving environmental protection, dealing with the rapidly growing HIV/AIDS problem, improving the education system, and satisfying its foreign donors that it is working to become financially independent. Improved financial discipline had been seen since 2005 under the leadership of President Mutharika and Financial Minister Gondwe. This discipline has since evaporated as shown by the purchase in 2009 of a private presidential jet followed almost immediately by a nationwide fuel shortage which was officially blamed on logistical problems, but was more likely due to the hard currency shortage caused by the jet purchase.[41][42][43] The overall cost to the economy (and healthcare system) is unknown.
In addition, some setbacks have been experienced, and Malawi has lost some of its ability to pay for imports due to a general shortage of foreign exchange, as investment fell 23% in 2009. There are many investment barriers in Malawi, which the government has failed to address, including high service costs and poor infrastructure for power, water, and telecommunications. As of 2009, it was estimated that Malawi had a GDP (purchasing power parity) of $12.81 billion, with a per capita GDP of $900, and inflation estimated at around 8.5% in 2009.[28]
Agriculture accounts for 35% of GDP, industry for 19% and services for the remaining 46%.[22] Malawi has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world,[29] although economic growth was estimated at 9.7% in 2008 and strong growth is predicted by the International Monetary Fund for 2009.[44] The poverty rate in Malawi is decreasing through the work of the government and supporting organizations, with people living under the poverty line decreasing from 54% in 1990 to 40% in 2006, and the percentage of "ultra-poor" decreasing from 24% in 1990 to 15% in 2007.[45]
Malawi was ranked the 119th safest investment destination in the world in the March 2011 Euromoney Country Risk rankings.[46]
Agriculture and industry[link]
Main article: Agriculture in Malawi
The main agricultural products of Malawi include tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, tea, corn, potatoes, sorghum, cattle and goats. The main industries are tobacco, tea and sugar processing, sawmill products, cement and consumer goods. The industrial production growth rate is estimated at 10% (2009). The country makes no significant use of natural gas. As of 2008, Malawi does not import or export any electricity, but does import all its petroleum, with no production in country.[28] Beginning in 2006, the country began mixing unleaded petrol with 10% ethanol, produced in-country at two plants, to reduce dependence on imported fuel. In 2008, Malawi began testing cars that ran solely on ethanol, and initial results are promising, and the country is continuing to increase its use of ethanol.[47]
As of 2009, Malawi exports an estimated US$945 million in goods per year. The country's heavy reliance on tobacco places a heavy burden on the economy as world prices decline and the international community increases pressure to limit tobacco production. Malawi's dependence on tobacco is growing, with the product jumping from 53% to 70% of export revenues between 2007 and 2008. The country also relies heavily on tea, sugar and coffee, with these three plus tobacco making up more than 90% of Malawi's export revenue.[28][29] Because of a rise in costs and a decline in sales prices, Malawi is encouraging farmers away from tobacco towards more profitable crops, including spices such as paprika. India hemp is another possible alternative, but arguments have been made that it will bring more crime to the country through its resemblance to varieties of cannabis used as a recreational drug and the difficulty in distinguishing between the two types.[48] This concern is especially important because the cultivation of Malawian cannabis, known as Malawi Gold, as a drug has increased significantly.[49] Malawi is known for growing "the best and finest" cannabis in the world for recreational drug use, according to a recent World Bank report, and cultivation and sales of the crop may contribute to corruption within the police force.[50]
Other exported goods are cotton, peanuts, wood products and apparel. The main destination locations for the country's exports are South Africa, Germany, Egypt, Zimbabwe, the United States, Russia and the Netherlands. Malawi currently imports an estimated US$1.625 billion in goods per year, with the main commodities being food, petroleum products, consumer goods and transportation equipment. The main countries that Malawi imports from are South Africa, India, Zambia, Tanzania, the US and China.[28]
In 2006, in response to disastrously low agricultural harvests, Malawi began a program of fertilizer subsidies that were designed to re-energize the land and boost crop production. It has been reported that this program, championed by the country's president, is radically improving Malawi's agriculture, and causing Malawi to become a net exporter of food to nearby countries.[51]
Infrastructure[link]
As of 2009, Malawi has 32 airports, 6 with paved runways and 26 with unpaved runways. The country has 495 miles (797 km) of railways, all narrow-gauge, and 9,601 miles (15,451 km) of roadways, 4,322 miles (6,956 km) paved and 5,279 miles (8,496 km) unpaved. Malawi also has 435 miles (700 km) of waterways on Lake Malawi and along the Shire River.[28]
As of 2010, there were 3.038 million cell phones, up from 1.781 million in 2008. As of 2008, there were 236,000 land line telephones in Malawi. There were 716, 400 Internet users in 2010 (up from 316,100 Internet users as of 2008), and 1092 Internet hosts as of 2010. As of 2001 there were 14 radio stations and 1 TV station.[28] In the past, Malawi's telecommunications system has been named as some of the poorest in Africa, but conditions are improving, with 130,000 land line telephones being connected between 2000 and 2007. Telephones are much more accessible in urban areas, with less than a quarter of land lines being in rural areas.[52]
Demographics[link]
Main article: Demographics of Malawi
File:Population of Malawi in Millions.png
Population of Malawi from 1960 to 2010 (in Millions)
Malawi has a population of over 15 million, with a growth rate of 2.75%, according to 2009 estimates.[28] The population is forecast to grow to over 45 million people by 2050, nearly tripling the estimated 16 million in 2010.[53]
Malawi's population is made up of the Chewa, Nyanja, Tumbuka, Yao, Lomwe, Sena, Tonga, Ngoni and Ngonde native ethnic groups, as well as populations of Asians and Europeans. Major languages include English, an official language, Chichewa spoken by over 57% of the population, Chinyanja (12.8%), Chiyao (10.1%) and Chitumbuka (9.5%).[28]
Other native languages are Malawian Lomwe, spoken by around 250,000 in the southeast of the country; Kokola, spoken by around 200,000 people also in the southeast; Lambya, spoken by around 45,000 in the northwestern tip; Ndali, spoken by around 70,000; Nyakyusa-Ngonde, spoken by around 300,000 in northern Malawi; Malawian Sena, spoken by around 270,000 in southern Malawi; and Tonga, spoken by around 170,000 in the north.[54]
Religion[link]
According to 2007 estimates, approximately 80% of the population is Christian, with the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian making up the largest Christian groups. There are also smaller numbers of Anglicans, Baptists, evangelicals and Seventh-day Adventists. Around 13% of the population is Muslim, with most of the Muslim population being Sunni, of either the Qadriya or Sukkutu groups. Other religious groups within the country include Jews, Rastafarians, Hindus and Baha'is. Atheists make up around 4% of the population, although this number may include people who practice traditional African religions.[55]
Health[link]
Main article: Healthcare in Malawi
Malawi has central hospitals, regional and private facilities. The public sector offers free health services and medicines, while non-government organizations offers services and medicines for fees. Private doctors offer fee-based services and medicines. Health insurance schemes have been established since 2000.[56] The country has a pharmaceutical manufacturing industry consisting of four privately owned pharmaceutical companies. Malawi's healthcare goal is for "promoting health, preventing, reducing and curing disease, and reducing the occurrence of premature death in the population".[57]
Infant mortality rates are high, and life expectancy at birth is 50.03 years. There is a high adult prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS, with an estimated 930,000 adults (or 11.9% of the population) living with the disease in 2007. There are approximately 68,000 deaths a year from HIV/AIDS (2007).[28] Approximately 250 new people are infected each day, and at least 70% of Malawi's hospital beds are occupied by HIV/AIDS patients. The high rate of infection has resulted in an estimated 5.8% of the farm labor force dying of the disease. The government spends over $120,000 each year on funerals for civil servants who die of the disease.[29] In 2006, international superstar Madonna started Raising Malawi, a foundation that helps AIDS orphans in Malawi, and also financed a documentary about the hardships experienced by Malawian orphans, called I Am Because We Are.[58] Raising Malawi also works with the Millennium Villages Project to improve education, health care, infrastructure and agriculture in Malawi.[59]
There is a very high degree of risk for major infectious diseases, including bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, malaria, plague, schistosomiasis and rabies.[28] Malawi has been making progress on decreasing child mortality and reducing the incidences of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; however, the country has been "[performing] dismally" on reducing maternal mortality and promoting gender equality.[45]
Education[link]
Main article: Education in Malawi
In Malawi, primary education is not compulsory, but the Constitution requires that all people be entitled to at least five years of primary education. In 1994, free primary education for all children was established by the government, which increased attendance rates. Dropout rates are higher for girls than boys,[60] attributed to security problems during the long travel to school, as girls face a higher prevalence of gender-based violence. However, attendance rates for all children are improving, with enrollment rates for primary schools increased from 58% in 1992 to 75% in 2007, while the number of students who begin in grade one and complete grade five has increased from 64% in 1992 to 86% in 2006. Youth literacy has also increased, moving from 68% in 2000 to 82% in 2007. This increase is primarily attributed to improved learning materials in schools, better infrastructure and feeding programs that have been implemented throughout the school system.[45]
Culture[link]
See also: Music of Malawi
The name "Malawi" comes from the Maravi, a Bantu people who immigrated from the southern Congo around 1400 AD. Upon reaching northern Lake Malawi, the group divided, with one group moving south down the west bank of the lake to become the group known as the Chewa, while the other group, the ancestors of today's Nyanja, moved along the east side of the lake to the southern section of Malawi. Ethnic conflict and continuing migration prevented the formation of a society that was uniquely and cohesively Malawian until the dawn of the 20th century. Over the past century, ethnic distinctions have diminished to the point where there is no significant inter-ethnic friction, although regional divisions still occur. The concept of a Malawian nationality has begun to form around a predominantly rural people who are generally conservative and traditionally nonviolent.[11]
From 1964–2010, the Flag of Malawi was made up of three equal horizontal stripes of black, red and green with a red rising sun superimposed in the center of the black stripe. The black stripe represented the African people, the red represented the blood of martyrs for African freedom, green represented Malawi's ever-green nature and the rising sun represented the dawn of freedom and hope for Africa.[1] In 2010, the flag was changed, removing the red rising sun and adding a full white sun in the center as a symbol of Malawi's economic progress.[61]
A strong part of Malawi's culture are its dances, and the National Dance Troupe (formerly the Kwacha Cultural Troupe) was formed in November 1987 by the government.[40] Traditional music and dances can be seen at initiation rites, rituals, marriage ceremonies and celebrations. Soccer is the most common sport in Malawi, introduced there during British colonial rule. Basketball is also growing in popularity.[62]
The indigenous ethnic groups of Malawi have a rich tradition of basketry and mask carving, and some of these goods are used in traditional ceremonies still performed by native peoples. Wood carving and oil painting are also popular in more urban centers, with many of the items produced being sold to tourists. There are several internationally recognized literary figures from Malawi, including poet Jack Mapanje, history and fiction writer Paul Zeleza and authors Legson Kayira, Felix Mnthali, Frank Chipasula and David Rubadiri.[62]
See also[link]
 |
Book: Malawi |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
Notes[link]
- ^ a b Berry, Bruce (February 6, 2005). "Malawi". Flags of the World Website. Flags of the World. http://www.fotw.us/flags/mw.html. Retrieved 2010-09-22.
- ^ "Malawi National Anthem Lyrics". National Anthem Lyrics. Lyrics on Demand. http://www.lyricsondemand.com/miscellaneouslyrics/nationalanthemslyrics/malawinationalanthemlyrics.html. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
- ^ a b c "Country profile: Malawi". BBC News Online. BBC. March 13, 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1068913.stm. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
- ^ http://esa.un.org/UNPP UN estimate for year 2010
- ^ a b c Benson, Todd. "Chapter 1: An Introduction" (PDF). Malawi: An Atlas of Social Statistics. National Statistical Office, Government of Malawi. p. 2. http://www.ifpri.org/publication/malawi. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
- ^ a b c d "Malawi". International Monetary Fund. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2012/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?pr.x=74&pr.y=16&sy=2009&ey=2012&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=676&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC%2CLP&grp=0&a=. Retrieved 2012-04-19.
- ^ "2008 Statistical Update: Malawi". United Nations Development Programme. http://hdrstats.undp.org/2008/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_MWI.html. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
- ^ "Malawi, The Warm Heart of Africa". Network of Organizations for Vulnerable & Orphan Children. http://www.novocmalawi.org/index.php/about/malawi-the-warm-heart-of-africa/. Retrieved 2011-01-26.
- ^ "Joyce Banda". http://dawn.com/2012/05/18/malawi-president-urges-repeal-of-gay-ban/. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
- ^ a b c d e f Cutter, Africa 2006, p. 142
- ^ a b c d e f g "Background Note: Malawi". Bureau of African Affairs. U.S. Department of State. January 11, 2011. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/7231.htm. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
- ^ Davidson, Africa in History, pp. 164–165
- ^ "Malawi Slave Routes and Dr. David Livingstone Trail". UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
- ^ Turner, The Statesman's Yearbook, p.821
- ^ a b Murphy, Central Africa, p. xxvii
- ^ Reader, Africa, p. 579
- ^ Murphy, Central Africa, p. 28
- ^ Murphy, Central Africa, p. li
- ^ a b c Cutter, Africa 2006, p. 143
- ^ Meredith, The Fate of Africa, p. 285
- ^ Meredith, The Fate of Africa, p. 380
- ^ a b "Country Brief – Malawi". The World Bank. September 2008. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/MALAWIEXTN/0,,menuPK:355882~pagePK:141132~piPK:141107~theSitePK:355870,00.html. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
- ^ "Malawi president wins re-election". BBC News. May 22, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8062740.stm. Retrieved 2009-08-06.
- ^ Sevenzo, Farai (2011-05-03). "African viewpoint: Is Malawi reverting to dictatorship?". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13266263. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
- ^ "Malawi riots erupt in Lilongwe and Mzuzu". BBC. 2011-07-20. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14217148. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
- ^ Jomo, Frank and Latham, Brian (2011-07-22). "U.S. Condemns Crackdown on Protests in Malawi That Left 18 Dead". Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-22/u-s-condemns-crackdown-on-protests-in-malawi-that-left-18-people-dead.html. Retrieved 2012-04-06.
- ^ "Malawi president dies, leaves nation in political suspense". The Telegraph. April 6, 2012. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/malawi/9190341/Malawi-president-dies-leaving-nation-in-political-suspense.html. Retrieved 2012-04-06.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Malawi". The World Factbook. CIA. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mi.html. Retrieved 2010-02-06.
- ^ a b c d e Dickovick, Africa 2008, p. 278
- ^ "2008 Ibrahim Index of African Governance". Mo Ibrahim Foundation. 2008-10-06. http://www.moibrahimfoundation.org/en/media/get/20091002_061008-index-global-press-release.pdf. Retrieved 2010-09-23.
- ^ Turner, The Statesman's Yearbook, p. 822
- ^ Ngozo, Claire (May 7, 2011). "China puts its mark on Malawi". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/may/07/china-puts-mark-malawi-presence. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
- ^ Nsehe, Mfonobong (2011-07-17). "U.K. Stops Budgetary Aid To Malawi". Forbes. http://blogs.forbes.com/mfonobongnsehe/2011/07/17/u-k-stops-budgetary-aid-to-malawi/. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
- ^ Dugger, Celia W. (2011-07-26). "U.S. Freezes Grant to Malawi Over Handling of Protests". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/world/africa/27malawi.html. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
- ^ "2010 Human Rights Report: Malawi". US Department of State. 2011-04-08. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/af/154356.htm. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
- ^ Tenthani, Rafael (2010-05-18). "Gay couple convicted in Malawi faces 14-year term". Associated Press. Aegis. http://www.aegis.org/default.asp?req=http://www.aegis.org/news/ap/2010/AP100509.html. Retrieved 2010-09-22.
- ^ "Malawi pardons jailed gay couple". Irish Times. 2010-05-29. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0529/breaking26.html. Retrieved 2010-05-29.
- ^ David Smith and Godfrey Mapondera (2012-05-18). "Malawi president vows to legalise homosexuality". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/18/malawi-president-vows-legalise-homosexuality. Retrieved 2012-05-18.
- ^ Douglas, John (Summer 1998). "Malawi: The Lake of Stars". Travel Africa (4). http://www.travelafricamag.com/content/view/231/56/. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
- ^ a b Turner, The Statesman's Yearbook, p. 824
- ^ "Britain reduces aid to Malawi over presidential jet". Reuters. 2010-03-10. http://af.reuters.com/article/malawiNews/idAFLDE62921I20100310?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0.
- ^ "Malawi: Fuel shortage deepens". Africa News. 2009-11-11. http://www.africanews.com/site/Malawi_Fuel_shortage_deepens/list_messages/27986.
- ^ "Forex shortage crimps Malawi ministers’ foreign trips". Nyasa Times. 2009-11-19. http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/forex-shortage-crimps-malawi-ministers-foreign-trips.html.
- ^ Banda, Mabvuto (2009-04-01). "Malawi economy grew by around 9.7 pct in 2008: IMF". Reuters Africa. http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE53008220090401. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
- ^ a b c "Malawi releases the 2008 MDGs Report". United Nations Development Programme Malawi. 2008-12-23. http://www.undp.org.mw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74:malawi-releases-the-2008-mdgs-report&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
- ^ "Euromoney Country Risk". Euromoney Country Risk. Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. http://www.euromoneycountryrisk.com/. Retrieved 2011-08-15.
- ^ Chimwala, Marcel (2008-10-10). "Malawi's ethanol-fuel tests show promise". Engineering News. http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/malawis-ethanolfuel-tests-show-promise-2008-10-10. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
- ^ Tenthani, Raphael (April 24, 2000). "Legal Hemp for Malawi?". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/708649.stm. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
- ^ "Marijuana Cultivation Increases in Malawi". New York Times. December 17, 1998. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/17/world/marijuana-cultivation-increases-in-malawi.html. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
- ^ Mpaka, Charles (December 11, 2011). "Malawi’s Chamba valued at K1. 4 billion". Sunday Times. Blantyre Newspapers, Ltd. http://www.bnltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2877:malawis-chamba-valued-at-k1-4-billion&catid=42:national&Itemid=401. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
- ^ Dugger, Celia W. (December 2, 2007). "Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/africa/02malawi.html. Retrieved 2008-08-05.
- ^ "Malawi". NICI in Africa. Economic Commission for Africa. http://www.uneca.org/aisi/NICI/country_profiles/malawi/malab.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-06.
- ^ Forecast provided by International Futures
- ^ "Languages of Malawi". Ethnologue. SIL International. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Malawi. Retrieved 2008-11-21.
- ^ "Malawi". International Religious Freedom Report 2007. U.S. Department of State. 2007-09-14. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90107.htm. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- ^ McCabe, Ariane (December 2009). "Private Sector Pharmaceutical Supply and Distribution Chains: Ghana, Mali and Malawi". Health Systems Outcome Publication. World Bank. http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2010/02/19/000333037_20100219005458/Rendered/PDF/531070WP0Pharm10Box345597B01PUBLIC1.pdf. Retrieved 2012-04-02.
- ^ Malawi Investment Promotion Agency, 2008, p. 20 - Investment Guide
- ^ Luscombe, Belinda (August 6, 2006). "Madonna Finds a Cause". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1223372,00.html. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
- ^ Hutton, Punch (July 2007). "Raising Malawi". Vanity Fair. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/07/madonna200707. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
- ^ "Malawi". Bureau of International Labor Affairs, US Dept. of Labor. http://www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2001/Malawi.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
- ^ "Govt imports samples of proposed new Malawi flag". Nyasa Times. March 2, 2010. http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/govt-import-samples-of-proposed-new-malawi-flag.html. Retrieved 2010-08-07. [dead link]
- ^ a b Gall, Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life, pp. 101–102
References[link]
- Cutter, Charles H. (2006). Africa 2006 (41st ed.). Harpers Ferry, WV: Stryker-Post Publications. ISBN 1-887985-72-7.
- Davidson, Basil (1991). Africa in History: Themes and Outlines (Revised and Expanded ed.). New York, NY: Collier Books, MacMillan Publishing Company. ISBN 0-02-042791-3.
- Dickovick, J. Tyler (2008). Africa 2008 (43rd ed.). Harpers Ferry, WV: Stryker-Post Publications. ISBN 978-1-887985-90-1.
- Gall, Timothy L. (ed.) (1998). Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life. Volume 1 – Africa. Cleveland, OH: Eastword Publications Development Inc.. ISBN 0-7876-0553-0.
- Meredith, Martin (2005). The Fate of Africa – From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair: A History of 50 Years of Independence. New York, NY: Public Affairs. ISBN 1-58648-246-7.
- Murphy, Philip (editor) (2005). Central Africa: Closer Association 1945–1958. London, UK: The Stationary Office. ISBN 0-11-290586-2.
- Reader, John (1999). Africa: A Biography of the Continent (First Vintage Books ed.). New York, NY: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-73869-X.
- Turner, Barry (ed.) (2008). The Statesman's Yearbook 2009: The Politics, Cultures and Economies of the World. Macmillan Publishers Ltd.. ISBN 1-4039-9278-9.
External links[link]
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- Government of the Republic of Malawi Official website
- Malawi Democrat Newspaper Lilongwe based
- Chief of State and Cabinet Members
- Malawi entry at The World Factbook
- Malawi from UCB Libraries GovPubs
- Malawi at the Open Directory Project
- Wikimedia Atlas of Malawi
- Nation Malawi daily Blantyre-based newspaper
- Nyasa Times Online based in United Kingdom and Blantyre
- The Daily Times daily Blantyre-based newspaper
- Malawi travel guide from Wikitravel
- Human Development Report 2007/2008
- Maravi Post
- Global Lives Project video recording of 24 hours of daily life of Edith Kaphuka in Ngwale Village, Malawi
- Key Development Forecasts for Malawi from International Futures
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malawi
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Rt. Hon. Khumbo Kachali MP | |
|---|---|
| Vice President of Malawi | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 13 April 2012 |
|
| President | Joyce Banda |
| Preceded by | Joyce Banda |
| Minister of Transport | |
| In office 15 June 2009 – 10 August 2010 |
|
| President | Bingu wa Mutharika |
| Preceded by | Henry Mussa |
| Succeeded by | Sidik Mia |
| Member of Parliament
Mzimba South West |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 19 May 2004 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | Malawi |
| Political party | United Democratic Front (Before 2004) Democratic Progressive Party (2004–2010) |
| Residence | Mudi House |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge University of Derby |
| Profession | Politician |
Khumbo Hasting Kachali is a Malawian politician who has been Vice President of Malawi since April 2012, serving under President Joyce Banda. Kachali previously held a number of cabinet positions between 2004 and 2010.
Early life and education[link]
Khumbo Kachali was born in 1966 and attended Phwezi Secondary School. He subsequently obtained a Diploma in Project Management from the University of Cambridge. He obtained his Master of Science Degree in Strategic Management in 2011 from the University of Derby. For his MSc thesis, he wrote a paper titled the Impact of Multiparty Politics on the socio-economic lives of people using his Mzimba constituency as a case study. Before entering politics, Kachali was Second Vice-President for the Malawi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.[1]
Political career[link]
Kachali was Treasurer General for the United Democratic Front (UDF) from 2002 to 2004. Kachali was elected to parliament in May 2004. In 2005 he was appointed as Second Vice-President of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).[1] He was Minister of Industry, Science & Technology (2004-2006), Deputy Minister for Home Affairs & Internal Security (2006-2007) and Minister of Youth Development & Sports (2007-2008).[2] From 2008 until 2009 he was Minister of Health. Kachali was appointed Minister of Transport and Public Infrastructure in the cabinet that became effective on 15 June 2009.[3] He lost his ministerial position in the cabinet shake-up of 9 August 2010.[4]
References[link]
- ^ a b "Cabinet Profiles - June 2010: Honorable Goodall Edward Gondwe, MP". Best of Malawi. http://www.bestofmalawi.com/news/174/ARTICLE/1929/2010-06-09.html. Retrieved 2011-03-05.
- ^ "Khumbo Kachali". AfDevInfo. http://www.afdevinfo.com/htmlreports/peo/peo_5893.html. Retrieved 2011-03-05.
- ^ "Malawi’s 43 member cabinet list as unveiled by President Mutharika". Nyasa Times. 17 June 2009. http://www.nyasatimes.com/politics/43-member-full-cabinet-list-as-unveiled-by-bingu.html. Retrieved 2011-03-03.
- ^ "MALAWI CABINET AS OF AUGUST 9, 2010". Government of Malawi. http://www.malawi.gov.mw/Cabinet_9_Aug_2010.pdf. Retrieved 2011-03-03.
| Persondata | |
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| Name | Kachali, Khumbo |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | |
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khumbo_Kachali
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
Not to be confused with Bill Nye.
| Bill Nighy | |
|---|---|
 Bill Nighy, 2007 |
|
| Born | (1949-12-12) 12 December 1949 (age 62) Caterham, Surrey, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1975–present |
| Partner | Diana Quick (1980–2008) |
| Children | Mary Nighy |
| Parents | Alfred Martin Nighy and Catherine Josephine Nighy (née Whittaker). |
| Relatives | Martin (brother), Anna (sister) |
| Signature | 150px |
William Francis "Bill" Nighy (pronounced NYE /ˈnaɪ/;[1] born 12 December 1949) is an English actor and comedian. He worked in theatre and television before his first cinema role in 1981, and made his name in television with The Men's Room in 1991, in which he played the womanizer Prof. Mark Carleton, whose extra-marital affairs kept him "vital".[2]
He became known around the world in 2003 for his critically acclaimed performance in Love Actually. Other notable roles in cinema include his portrayal of Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, as well as Viktor in the Underworld film series.
He is also known for his roles in the films Lawless Heart, I Capture the Castle, Shaun of the Dead, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Hot Fuzz, Valkyrie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, and Rango. His performances were also acclaimed in the State of Play series and in the TV movies The Girl in the Café, Gideon's Daughter and Page Eight, for which he earned Golden Globe nominations, winning one for Gideon's Daughter.
Contents |
Early life and education[link]
Nighy was born in Caterham, Surrey. His mother, Catherine Josephine Nighy (née Whittaker), was a psychiatric nurse who was born in Glasgow,[3] and his father, Alfred Martin Nighy, managed a car garage after working in the family chimney sweeping business.[4] Of part Irish descent, Nighy was raised Roman Catholic, serving as an altar boy.[5] He has two elder siblings, Martin and Anna. Nighy attended The John Fisher School, a Roman Catholic Grammar School in Purley, where he was a member of the school theatre group. He left the school with two O-levels and then took a job with the Croydon Advertiser as a messenger boy.[6] He went on to train at the Guildford School of Acting, known at the time as The Guildford School of Dance and Drama.[7]
Career[link]
After two seasons at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, Nighy made his London stage debut at the National Theatre in an epic staging of Ken Campbell and Chris Langham's Illuminatus!, which opened the new Cottesloe Theatre on 4 March 1977, and went on to appear in two David Hare premieres, also at the National. During the 1980s, he appeared in several television productions, among them Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil, alongside John Shea and Tony Randall.
He has starred in many radio and television dramas, notably the BBC serial The Men's Room (1991). He claimed that the serial, an Ann Oakley novel adapted by Laura Lamson, was the job which launched his career.[8] More recently he has featured in the thriller State of Play (2003) and costume drama He Knew He Was Right (2004). He played Samwise Gamgee in the 1981 BBC Radio dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings (where he was credited as William Nighy), and appeared in the 1980s BBC Radio versions of Yes Minister episodes. He starred alongside Stephen Moore and Lesley Sharp in the acclaimed short radio drama Kerton's Story first aired in 1996. He had a starring role in the 2002 return of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, portraying crooked politician Jeffrey Grainger. He has also made a guest appearance in the BBC Radio 4 series Baldi.
Two of Nighy's most acclaimed stage performances were in National Theatre productions. Taking the role of Bernard Nightingale, an unscrupulous university don, in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia (1993), he engaged in witty exchanges with Felicity Kendal, playing the role of Hannah Jarvis, an author; and he played a consultant psychiatrist in Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange (2000), for which he won an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor, and which transferred to the West End at the Duchess Theatre the following year.
Nighy received some recognition by American audiences for his acclaimed portrayal of overaged rock star Ray Simms in the 1998 film Still Crazy. In 1999 he gained further prominence in the UK with the starring role in "The Photographer", an episode of the award-winning BBC-TV mockumentary comedy series People Like Us, playing Will Rushmore, a middle aged man who has abandoned his career and family in the deluded belief that he can achieve success as a commercial photographer.
In 2003, Nighy played the role of the Vampire Elder Viktor in the American production Underworld and returned in the same role for the sequel Underworld: Evolution in 2006 and again in the prequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycans in 2009. In February 2004, he was awarded the BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as shameless, washed-up rocker Billy Mack in Love Actually (a role foreshadowed by his Still Crazy character) and followed this up at the BAFTA Television Awards in April with the Best Actor award for State of Play. He also appeared in the comedy Shaun of the Dead.
In early 2004, The Sunday Times reported that Nighy was on the shortlist for role of the Ninth Doctor in the 2005 revival of the BBC television series Doctor Who.[9] Christopher Eccleston ultimately filled the role.
In 2005, he appeared as Slartibartfast in the film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He also appeared in the one-off BBC One comedy-drama The Girl in the Café. In February 2006, he appeared in scriptwriter Stephen Poliakoff's one-off drama, Gideon's Daughter. Nighy played the lead character, Gideon, a successful events organiser who begins to lose touch with the world around him. This performance won him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Mini-series or TV Movie in January 2007. Also in 2006, Nighy made his Broadway debut at the Music Box Theatre alongside Julianne Moore in The Vertical Hour, directed by Sam Mendes.
In 2006, Nighy featured in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, where he played the principal villain, Davy Jones, although his face was entirely obscured by computer-generated makeup and he voiced the character with a Scots accent. He reprised the role in the 2007 sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, in which his real face was briefly revealed in one scene. He also provided the narration for the Animal Planet series Meerkat Manor. Recently, he played the role of Richard Hart in Notes on a Scandal, for which he was nominated for a London Film Critics Circle award. Nighy also appeared as General Friedrich Olbricht, one of the principal conspirators, in the 2008 film Valkyrie. He had played an SS officer in the 1985 Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil. Nighy has starred in the film Wild Target.[10]
In July 2009, he announced that he would play Rufus Scrimgeour in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.[11] Nighy had already worked with director David Yates three times, and with the majority of the Harry Potter cast in previous movies. He has said of his role as Rufus Scrimgeour that it meant he was no longer the only English actor not to be in Harry Potter.[11]
Nighy voiced Grandsanta in the 2011 CGI animated movie Arthur Christmas.[12] In 2012, he starred in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Wrath of the Titans, and will appear in Jack the Giant Killer and the remake of Total Recall.[13]
Personal life[link]
Nighy had a 27-year-relationship with English actress Diana Quick, with whom he has a daughter, actress Mary Nighy. The couple "amicably separated" in 2008.[14]
He is a supporter of Crystal Palace and is the Patron of the CPFRIS (Crystal Palace F.C. Fast Results & Information Service) Disabled Children's Club, and of the Ann Craft Trust.[15] He is also one of the Honorary Patrons of the London children's charity Scene & Heard.[16] He suffers from Dupuytren's contracture, a condition which causes the ring and little finger of each hand to be permanently bent inwards towards the palm.[7]
Nighy is also a patron for The Milton Rooms, a new Arts centre in Malton, North Yorkshire, along with Imelda Staunton, Jools Holland and Kathy Burke.[17]
Filmography[link]
Films[link]
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Eye of the Needle | Squadron Leader Blenkinsop | |
| 1983 | Curse of the Pink Panther | ENT Doctor | |
| 1984 | The Little Drummer Girl | Al | |
| 1985 | Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil | Helmut Hoffmann | |
| Thirteen at Dinner | Ronald Marsh | ||
| 1989 | The Phantom of the Opera: The Motion Picture | Martin Barton | |
| 1994 | Being Human | Julian | |
| 1997 | FairyTale: A True Story | Edward Gardner | |
| 1998 | Still Crazy | Ray Simms | First lead role Peter Sellers Award for Comedy Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical |
| 1999 | Guest House Paradiso | Mr. Johnson | |
| 2001 | Blow Dry | Raymond "Ray" Robertson | |
| Lawless Heart | Dan | LAFCA Award for Best Supporting Actor (also for AKA, Love Actually, and I Capture the Castle) Nominated—BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a British Independent Film |
|
| Lucky Break | Roger "Rog" Chamberlain | ||
| 2002 | AKA | Uncle Louis Gryffoyn | LAFCA Award for Best Supporting Actor (also for Lawless Heart, Love Actually, and I Capture the Castle) |
| 2003 | Ready When You Are, Mr McGill | Phil Parish | |
| Love Actually | Billy Mack | ALFS Award for Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role LAFCA Award for Best Supporting Actor (also for Lawless Heart, AKA, and I Capture the Castle) Peter Sellers Award for Comedy Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical |
|
| I Capture the Castle | James Mortmain | LAFCA Award for Best Supporting Actor (also for Lawless Heart, AKA, and Love Actually) | |
| Underworld | Viktor | ||
| 2004 | Shaun of the Dead | Phillip | |
| Enduring Love | Robin | ||
| 2005 | The Magic Roundabout | Dylan | Voice only (United Kingdom version) |
| The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Slartibartfast | ||
| The Constant Gardener | Sir Bernard Pellegrin | Nominated—BIFA Award for Best Supporting Actor/Actress | |
| 2006 | Underworld: Evolution | Viktor | |
| Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | Davy Jones | Teen Choice Award – Choice Sleazebag Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Villain Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor |
|
| Stormbreaker | Alan Blunt | ||
| Flushed Away | Whitey | ||
| Notes on a Scandal | Richard Hart | Nominated—ALFS Award for Best Supporting Actor | |
| 2007 | Hot Fuzz | Ch. Insp. Kenneth | |
| Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | Davy Jones | Teen Choice Award for Best Villain | |
| 2008 | Valkyrie | Friedrich Olbricht | Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| 2009 | Underworld: Rise of the Lycans | Viktor | |
| The Boat That Rocked | Quentin | ||
| G-Force | Leonard Saber | ||
| Astro Boy | Professor Simon Elefun/Robotsky | Voice only | |
| Statuesque | Mr. Jellaby | Short film | |
| Glorious 39 | Sir Alexander | ||
| 2010 | Wild Target | Victor Maynard | |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 | Rufus Scrimgeour | ||
| 2011 | Rango | Rattlesnake Jake | Voice only |
| Chalet Girl | Richard | ||
| Arthur Christmas | Grandsanta | Voice only Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production[18] |
|
| 2012 | The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel | Douglas | |
| Underworld: Awakening | Viktor | (archive footage from the previous three films) | |
| Wrath of the Titans | Hephaestus | ||
| Jack the Giant Killer | Fallon (Big Head) | post-production | |
| Total Recall | Kuato | post-production |
Television[link]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Agony | Vincent Flash | Season 2 |
| 1982 | Minder "Looking for Micky" | Oates | |
| 1985 | The Last Place on Earth | ||
| 1991 | Bergerac "All for Love" | ||
| 1994 | Wycliffe "The Four Jacks" | David Cleeve | |
| 1995 | Llety Piod | ||
| 1998 | Kiss Me Kate | Cameron | |
| 2000 | Longitude | Lord Sandwich | |
| 2002 | Auf Wiedersehen, Pet | Jeffrey Grainger | Season 3 |
| The Inspector Lynley Mysteries "Well Schooled in Murder" | |||
| 2003 | State of Play | Cameron Foster | British Academy Television Award for Best Actor Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Actor Nominated—RTS Television Award for Best Actor – Male |
| The Lost Prince | Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham | Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film | |
| 2004 | He Knew He Was Right | Colonel Osborne | |
| 2005 | The Girl in the Café | Lawrence | Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television |
| Gideon's Daughter | Gideon Warner | Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television Satellite Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film |
|
| 2010 | Doctor Who | Dr. Black | Uncredited episode "Vincent and the Doctor" |
| 2011 | Page Eight | Johnny Worricker | Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film[19] Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film |
Video game[link]
| Year | Serie | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | G-Force | Leonard Saber |
Selected performances[link]
Theatre[link]
- The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore by Tennessee Williams – Watermill Theatre, Newbury
- Landscape and Silence, by Harold Pinter – Gateway Theatre, Chester
- Entertaining Mr Sloane by Joe Orton – Gateway Theatre, Chester
- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, by Tom Stoppard – Arts Theatre, Cambridge
- The Immoralist, from the novel by André Gide – Hampstead Theatre
- Speak Now, by Olwen Wymark – Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh (1971)
- Freedom of the City, by Brian Friel – Everyman Theatre, Liverpool
- Under New Management, by Chris Bond – Everyman Theatre, Liverpool
- Occupy! – Liverpool Everyman Theatre (1976)
- Illuminatus!, Ken Campbell/Chris Langham – NT Cottesloe (The theatre's first production, 1977)[20]
- Comings and Goings, by Mike Stott – Hampstead Theatre Club (1978)
- The Warp, by Neil Oram/ Ken Campbell – ICA (1979)
- Illuminations, by Arthur Rimbaud – Lyric Hammersmith (1980)
- A Map of the World, by David Hare – NT Lyttelton (1983)
- Pravda, by David Hare/ Howard Brenton – NT Olivier (1985)
- King Lear, by William Shakespeare – NT Olivier (1986)
- Mean Tears, by Peter Gill – NT Cottesloe (1987)
- Betrayal, by Harold Pinter – Almeida Theatre, London (1991)
- Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard – NT Lyttelton (1993)
- The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov/ad. Pam Gems – NT Olivier (1994)
- Skylight, by David Hare – NT production at Vaudeville Theatre, London (1995)/ UK tour (1997)
- A Kind of Alaska, by Harold Pinter – Donmar Warehouse (1998)
- Blue/Orange, by Joe Penhall – NT Cottesloe (2000), Duchess Theatre (2001)
- The Vertical Hour, by David Hare, Broadway production at the Music Box Theater, NY (2006)
- Valkyrie, by Christopher McQuarrie (2008)
Radio[link]
| Date | Title | Role | Author | Director | Station |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01981-03-088 March 1981 – 01981-08-3030 August 1981 | The Lord of the Rings | Sam Gamgee | J.R.R. Tolkien dramatised by Brian Sibley and Michael Bakewell | Jane Morgan and Penny Leicester | BBC Radio 4 |
| 01983-10-1818 October 1983 – 01983-11-1515 November 1983 | Yes, Minister | Frank Weisel | Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn adapted for radio by Pete Atkin | Pete Atkin | BBC Radio 4 |
| 01994-04-3030 April 1994 | Ancient Enemies | Elizabeth North | BBC Radio 4 | ||
| 01999-08-2121 August 1999 | So Much Blood | Charles Paris | Simon Brett dramatised by Bert Coules | Gaynor Macfarlane | BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play |
| 02002-01-066 January 2002 | Blue/Orange | Joe Penhall | BBC Radio 4 | ||
| 02003-03-2121 March 2003 | Baldi: The Book Case | O'Connor | Simon Brett | Mark Lambert | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 02003-04-1919 April 2003 | Turtle Diary | William | Russell Hoban | Gaynor Macfarlane | BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play |
| 02004-09-2525 September 2004 | A Series of Murders | Charles Paris | Simon Brett dramatised by Jeremy Front | BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play | |
| 02004-12-2929 December 2004 | All Fingers and Thumbs | Tom | Alan Stafford | Dirk Maggs | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 02006-08-3030 August 2006 – 02006-09-2020 September 2006 | A Charles Paris Mystery: Sicken and So Die[21] | Charles Paris | Simon Brett dramatised by Jeremy Front | Sally Avens | BBC Radio 4 |
| 02007-10-1919 October 2007 – 02007-11-099 November 2007 | A Charles Paris Mystery: Murder Unprompted[22] | Charles Paris | Simon Brett dramatised by Jeremy Front | Sally Avens | BBC Radio 4 |
| 02008-07-1717 July 2008 | I Wish to Apologise for My Part in the Apocalypse[23] | Keith | Duncan Macmillan | Sam Hoyle | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 02008-12-1010 December 2008 – 02008-12-3131 December 2008 | A Charles Paris Mystery: Dead Side of the Mic[24] | Charles Paris | Simon Brett dramatised by Jeremy Front | Sally Avens | BBC Radio 4 |
| 02009-12-2626 December 2009 | Educating Rita[25] | Frank | Willy Russell | Kirsty Williams | BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play |
| 02010-01-022 January 2010 | Private Lives[26] | Elyot | Noël Coward | Sally Avens | BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play |
| 02010-01-2929 January 2010 – 02010-02-1919 February 2010 | A Charles Paris Mystery: Cast in Order of Disappearance[27] | Charles Paris | Simon Brett dramatised by Jeremy Front | Sally Avens | BBC Radio 4 |
| 02010-11-2222 November 2010 – 02010-12-1313 December 2010 | A Charles Paris Mystery: Murder in the Title[28] | Charles Paris | Simon Brett dramatised by Jeremy Front | Sally Avens | BBC Radio 4 |
| 02011-04-2020 April 2011 | The Bat Man[29] | Christopher | Amelia Bullmore | Mary Peate | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
References[link]
- ^ Bill Nighy – Nighy Accepts Surname Mispronunciation. contactmusic.com. 30 June 2006. Retrieved 10 February 2010.
- ^ The Men's Room, The Internet Movie Database, accessed 23 November 2009.
- ^ Shaitly, Shahesta (4 July 2010). "Bill Nighy: five things I know about style". The Observer (UK). http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/04/shahesta-shaitly-five-things-know-style-bill-nighy. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
- ^ Bill Nighy: the thinking woman's bagel The Independent, 19 February 2006; Family Detective The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ Wills, Dominic. "Bill Nighy – Biography". TalkTalk. http://www.talktalk.co.uk/entertainment/film/biography/artist/bill-nighy/biography/169. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- ^ Blackhall, Sue (1 February 2010). Bill Nighy The Unauthorised Biography. John Blake Publishing. ISBN 1-84454-867-8.
- ^ a b Bill Nighy, Hello magazine, undated, accessed 23 November 2009.
- ^ Schiff, Amanda (2 December 2008). "Laura Lamson Obituary". The Guardian. UK. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/dec/02/obituary-laura-lamson. Retrieved 3 December 2008.
- ^ BBC – Doctor Who (David Tennant and Billie Piper)- News[dead link]
- ^ "Bill Nighy Is A Wild Target | Empire". Empire. http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=23257. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ a b "Bill Nighy to star in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". BBC. 6 July 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_8130000/newsid_8137100/8137104.stm. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
- ^ "James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, and Ashley Jensen join the cast of "Arthur Christmas"". http://www.cartoonbrew.com/biz/james-mcavoy-hugh-laurie-jim-broadbent-bill-nighy-imelda-staunton-and-ashley-jensen-join-the-cast-of-%E2%80%9Carthur-christmas%E2%80%9D.html. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ^ "Bill Nighy". http://www.ramascreen.com/tag/bill-nighy.
- ^ Roberts, Laura. It's not Love Actually after all as star Nighy splits with partner of 27 years, Daily Mail, 25 August 2008.
- ^ Crystal Palace F.C. Disabled Childrens Club accessed 2 Jun 2007; Ann Craft Trust homepage
- ^ "Scene & Heard – Who We Are". sceneandheard.org. 2010. http://sceneandheard.org/about_whoweare.html. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
- ^ "The Milton Rooms homepage". Themiltonrooms.com. http://www.themiltonrooms.com/. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "The Annie Awards". The Annie Awards. http://annieawards.org/consideration.html. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "The 69th Annual Golden Globe Award Nominations". imdb.com. 15 December 2011. http://www.imdb.com/oscars/nominations/golden-globes. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
- ^ National Theatre archive cast and production listing.
- ^ "BBC – A Charles Paris Mystery – ''Sicken and So Die''". BBC. 3 March 2008. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0076zw4. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "BBC – A Charles Paris Mystery – ''Murder Unprompted''". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0081lqq. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "BBC – Afternoon Play – ''I Wish to Apologise for My Part in the Apocalypse''". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cj8db. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "BBC – A Charles Paris Mystery – ''Dead Side of the Mic''". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ft5bd. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "BBC – Saturday Play – ''Educating Rita''". BBC. 26 December 2009. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pdkqx. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "BBC – Saturday Play – ''Private Lives''". BBC. 2 January 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00phzvx. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "BBC – A Charles Paris Mystery – ''Cast in Order of Disappearance''". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00q43nx. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "BBC – A Charles Paris Mystery – ''Murder in the Title''". BBC. 22 November 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w190h. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ^ "BBC – Afternoon Play – ''The Bat Man''". BBC. 20 April 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010dq74. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
External links[link]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bill Nighy |
- Bill Nighy at the Internet Movie Database
- Bill Nighy: A Life in Pictures Interview at BAFTA
- Bill Nighy at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
- Silk Sound Books
|
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Nighy, Bill |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | English actor and comedian |
| Date of birth | 12 December 1949 |
| Place of birth | Caterham, Surrey, England |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Nighy
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
For other uses, see Robin Hood (disambiguation).
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor",[1] assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men".[2] Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes.[3] The origin of the legend is claimed by some to have stemmed from actual outlaws, or from ballads or tales of outlaws.[4]
Robin Hood became a popular folk figure in the medieval period continuing through to modern literature, films and television. In the earliest sources, Robin Hood is a yeoman, but he was often later portrayed as an aristocrat wrongfully dispossessed of his lands and made into an outlaw by an unscrupulous sheriff.[5]
Contents |
History[link]
In popular culture, Robin Hood and his band of "merry men" are usually portrayed as living in Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire, where much of the action in the early ballads takes place.[6] So does the very first recorded Robin Hood rhyme, four lines from the early 15th century, beginning: "Robyn hode in scherewode stod."[7] However, the overall picture from the surviving early ballads and other early references[7] suggest that Robin Hood may have been based in the Barnsdale area of what is now South Yorkshire (which borders Nottinghamshire).
Other traditions point to a variety of locations as Robin's "true" home both inside Yorkshire and elsewhere, with the abundance of places named for Robin causing further confusion.[8][9] A tradition dating back at least to the end of the 16th century gives his birthplace as Loxley, Sheffield in South Yorkshire, while the site of Robin Hood's Well in Skellow, South Yorkshire, has been associated with Robin Hood since at least 1422. Records show a man named Robin Hood lived in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in the 13th and 14th centuries.[10] His grave has been claimed to be at Kirklees Priory near Mirfield in West Yorkshire, as implied by the 18th-century version of Robin Hood's Death, and there is a headstone there of dubious authenticity.[11]
The first clear reference to "rhymes of Robin Hood" is from the late 14th-century poem Piers Plowman, but the earliest surviving copies of the narrative ballads that tell his story date to the 15th century, or the first decade of the 16th century. In these early accounts, Robin Hood's partisanship of the lower classes, his Marianism and associated special regard for women, his outstanding skill as an archer, his anti-clericalism, and his particular animosity towards the Sheriff of Nottingham are already clear.[12] Little John, Much the Miller's Son and Will Scarlet (as Will "Scarlok" or "Scathelocke") all appear, although not yet Maid Marian or Friar Tuck. It is not certain what should be made of these latter two absences as it is known that Friar Tuck, for one, has been part of the legend since at least the later 15th century.[13]
In popular culture, Robin Hood is typically seen as a contemporary and supporter of the late 12th-century king Richard the Lionheart, Robin being driven to outlawry during the misrule of Richard's brother John while Richard was away at the Third Crusade. This view first gained currency in the 16th century.[14] It is not supported by the earliest ballads. The early compilation, A Gest of Robyn Hode, names the king as "Edward", and while it does show Robin Hood as accepting the King's pardon he later repudiates it and returns to the greenwood.
The oldest surviving ballad, Robin Hood and the Monk, gives even less support to the picture of Robin Hood as a partisan of the true king. The setting of the early ballads is usually attributed by scholars to either the 13th century or the 14th, although it is recognised they are not necessarily historically consistent.[15]
The early ballads are also quite clear on Robin Hood's social status: he is a yeoman. While the precise meaning of this term changed over time, including free retainers of an aristocrat and small landholders, it always referred to commoners. The essence of it in the present context was "neither a knight nor a peasant or 'husbonde' but something in between".[16] We know that artisans (such as millers) were among those regarded as "yeomen" in the 14th century.[17] From the 16th century on, there were attempts to elevate Robin Hood to the nobility and in two extremely influential plays Anthony Munday presented him at the very end of the 16th century as the Earl of Huntingdon, as he is still commonly presented in modern times.[18]
As well as ballads, the legend was also transmitted by "Robin Hood games" or plays that were an important part of the late medieval and early modern May Day festivities. The first record of a Robin Hood game was in 1426 in Exeter, but the reference does not indicate how old or widespread this custom was at the time. The Robin Hood games are known to have flourished in the later 15th and 16th centuries.[19] It is commonly stated as fact that Maid Marian and a jolly friar (at least partly identifiable with Friar Tuck) entered the legend through the May Games.[20]
The early ballads link Robin Hood to identifiable real places and many are convinced that he was a real person, more or less accurately portrayed. A number of theories as to the identity of "the real Robin Hood" have their supporters. Some of these theories posit that "Robin Hood" or "Robert Hood" or the like was his actual name; others suggest that this may have been merely a nickname disguising a medieval bandit perhaps known to history under another name.[21] One historian claims Robin Hood was a pseudonym by which the ancient Lords of Wellow, Nottinghamshire, were once known.[22] It is interesting that the village has such a strong connection with maypole celebrations, considering Robin Hood's links with the same thing.
At the same time it is possible that Robin Hood has always been a fictional character; the folklorist Francis James Child declared "Robin Hood is absolutely a creation of the ballad-muse" and this view has been neither proven or disproven.[23] Another view is that Robin Hood's origins must be sought in folklore or mythology;[24] Despite the frequent Christian references in the early ballads, Robin Hood has been claimed for the pagan witch-cult supposed by Margaret Murray to have existed in medieval Europe.[25]
Early references[link]
The oldest references to Robin Hood are not historical records, or even ballads recounting his exploits, but hints and allusions found in various works. From 1228 onwards, the names 'Robinhood', 'Robehod' or 'Robbehod' occur in the rolls of several English Justices. The majority of these references date from the late 13th century. Between 1261 and 1300, there are at least eight references to 'Rabunhod' in various regions across England, from Berkshire in the south to York in the north.[26]
In a petition presented to Parliament in 1439, the name is used to describe an itinerant felon. The petition cites one Piers Venables of Aston, Derbyshire, "who having no liflode, ne sufficeante of goodes, gadered and assembled unto him many misdoers, beynge of his clothynge, and, in manere of insurrection, wente into the wodes in that countrie, like as it hadde be Robyn Hude and his meyne."[27] The name was still used to describe sedition and treachery in 1605, when Guy Fawkes and his associates were branded "Robin Hoods" by Robert Cecil.
The first allusion to a literary tradition of Robin Hood tales occurs in William Langland's Piers Plowman (c. 1362–c. 1386) in which Sloth, the lazy priest, confesses: "I kan [know] not parfitly [perfectly] my Paternoster as the preest it singeth,/ But I kan rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf Erl of Chestre."[28]
The first mention of a quasi-historical Robin Hood is given in Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Chronicle, written in about 1420. The following lines occur with little contextualisation under the year 1283:
- Lytil Jhon and Robyne Hude
- Wayth-men ware commendyd gude
- In Yngil-wode and Barnysdale
- Thai oysyd all this tyme thare trawale.
The next notice is a statement in the Scotichronicon, composed by John of Fordun between 1377 and 1384, and revised by Walter Bower in about 1440. Among Bower's many interpolations is a passage that directly refers to Robin. It is inserted after Fordun's account of the defeat of Simon de Montfort and the punishment of his adherents. Robin is represented as a fighter for de Montfort's cause.[29] This was in fact true of the historical outlaw of Sherwood Forest Roger Godberd, whose points of similarity to the Robin Hood of the ballads have often been noted.[30][31]
Bower writes:
- Then [c. 1266] arose the famous murderer, Robert Hood, as well as Little John, together with their accomplices from among the disinherited, whom the foolish populace are so inordinately fond of celebrating both in tragedies and comedies, and about whom they are delighted to hear the jesters and minstrels sing above all other ballads.
The word translated here as "murderer" is the Latin siccarius, from the Latin for "knife". Bower goes on to tell a story about Robin Hood in which he refuses to flee from his enemies while hearing Mass in the greenwood, and then gains a surprise victory over them, apparently as a reward for his piety.[32]
Another reference, discovered by Julian Luxford in 2009, appears in the margin of the "Polychronicon" in the Eton College library. Written around the year 1460 by a monk in Latin, it says:
- Around this time, according to popular opinion, a certain outlaw named Robin Hood, with his accomplices, infested Sherwood and other law-abiding areas of England with continuous robberies.[33]
William Shakespeare makes reference to Robin Hood in his late 16th-century play The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of his earliest. In it, the character Valentine is banished from Milan and driven out through the forest where he is approached by outlaws who, upon meeting him, desire him as their leader. They comment, "By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar, This fellow were a king for our wild faction!"[34] Robin Hood is also mentioned in As You Like It. When asked about the exiled Duke Senior, the character of Charles says that he is "already in the forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England."
References to Robin as Earl of Huntington[link]
Another reference is provided by Thomas Gale, Dean of York (c. 1635–1702),[35] but this comes nearly four hundred years after the events it describes:
- [Robin Hood's] death is stated by Ritson to have taken place on the 18th of November, 1247, about the 87th year of his age; but according to the following inscription found among the papers of the Dean of York...the death occurred a month later. In this inscription, which bears evidence of high antiquity, Robin Hood is described as Earl of Huntington - his claim to which title has been as hotly contested as any disputed peerage upon record.
-
- Hear undernead dis laitl stean
- Lais Robert Earl of Huntingun
- Near arcir der as hie sa geud
- An pipl kauld im Robin Heud
- Sic utlaws as hi an is men
- Vil England nivr si agen.
- Obiit 24 Kal Dekembris 1247
This inscription also appears on a grave in the grounds of Kirklees Priory near Kirklees Hall (see below).
Robert is largely fictional by this time. The Gale note is inaccurate. The medieval texts do not refer to him directly, but mediate their allusions through a body of accounts and reports: for Langland, Robin exists principally in "rimes", for Bower, "comedies and tragedies", while for Wyntoun he is "commendyd gude". Even in a legal context, where one would expect to find verifiable references to Robert, he is primarily a symbol, a generalised outlaw-figure rather than an individual. Consequently, in the medieval period itself, Robin Hood already belongs more to literature than to history. In fact, in an anonymous song called Woman of c. 1412, he is treated in precisely this manner - as a joke, a figure that the audience will instantly recognise as imaginary:
- He that made this songe full good,
- Came of the northe and the sothern blode,
- And somewhat kyne to Robert Hoad.[36][37]
Sources[link]
There is at present little scholarly support for the view that tales of Robin Hood have stemmed from mythology or folklore, from fairies or other mythological origins, any such associations being regarded as later development.[38] The mythological theory does go back to at least to 1584, when Reginald Scot identified Robin Hood with the Germanic goblin "Hudgin" or Hodekin and associated him with Robin Goodfellow.[39] Maurice Keen[40] provides a brief summary and useful critique of the once-popular view that Robin Hood had mythological origins, while (unlike some)[41] refraining from utterly and finally dismissing it.[42] While Robin Hood and his men often show great skill in archery, swordplay and disguise, they are no more exaggerated than those characters in other ballads, such as Kinmont Willie, which were based on historical events.[43]
Robin Hood's role in the traditional May Day games could suggest pagan connections, but that role has not been traced earlier than the early 15th century. However, it is uncontroversial that a Robin and Marion figured in 13th-century French "pastourelles" (of which Jeu de Robin et Marion c. 1280 is a literary version) and presided over the French May festivities, "this Robin and Marion tended to preside, in the intervals of the attempted seduction of the latter by a series of knights, over a variety of rustic pastimes."[44]
In the Jeu de Robin and Marion, Robin and his companions have to rescue Marion from the clutches of a "lustful knight".[45] Dobson and Taylor in their survey of the legend, in which they reject the mythological theory, nevertheless regard it as "highly probable" that this French Robin's name and functions travelled to the English May Games where they fused with the Robin Hood legend.[44]
The origin of the legend is claimed by some to have stemmed from actual outlaws, or from tales of outlaws, such as Hereward the Wake, Eustace the Monk, Fulk FitzWarin[4] and William Wallace.[46] Hereward appears in a ballad much like Robin Hood and the Potter, and as the Hereward ballad is older, it appears to be the source. The ballad Adam Bell, Clym of the Cloughe and Wyllyam of Cloudeslee runs parallel to Robin Hood and the Monk, but it is not clear whether either one is the source for the other, or whether they merely show that such tales were told of outlaws.[47]
Some early Robin Hood stories appear to be unique, such as the story wherein Robin gives a knight, generally called Richard at the Lee, money to pay off his mortgage to an abbot, but this may merely indicate that no parallels have survived.[48]
There are a number of theories that attempt to identify a historical Robin Hood. A difficulty with any such historical search is that "Robert" was in medieval England a very common given name, and "Robin" (or Robyn), especially in the 13th century, was its very common diminutive.[49] The surname "Hood" (or Hude or Hode etc.), referring ultimately to the head-covering, was also fairly common. Unsurprisingly, therefore, there are a number of people called "Robert Hood" or "Robin Hood" to be found in medieval records. Some of them are on record for having fallen afoul of the law, but this is not necessarily significant to the legend.[50]
The early ballads give a number of possible historical clues: notably, the Gest names the reigning king as "Edward", but the ballads cannot be assumed to be reliable in such details.[51] For whatever it may be worth, however, King Edward I took the throne in 1272, and an Edward remained on the throne until the death of Edward III in 1377.
On the other hand, what appears to be the first known example of "Robin Hood" as stock name for an outlaw dates to 1262 in Berkshire, where the surname "Robehod" was applied to a man apparently because he had been outlawed.[52] This could suggest two main possibilities: either that an early form of the Robin Hood legend was already well established in the mid 13th century; or alternatively that the name "Robin Hood" preceded the outlaw hero that we know; so that the "Robin Hood" of legend was so called because that was seen as an appropriate name for an outlaw.
It has long been suggested, notably by John Maddicott, that "Robin Hood" was a stock alias used by thieves.[53] The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica remarks that 'hood' was a common dialectical form of 'wood'; and that the outlaw's name has been given as "Robin Wood".[24] There are indeed a number of references to Robin Hood as Robin Wood, or Whood, or Whod, from the 16th and 17th centuries. The earliest recorded example, in connection with May games in Somerset, dates from 1518.[54]
One well-known theory of origin was proposed by Joseph Hunter in 1852. Hunter identified the outlaw with a "Robyn Hode" recorded as employed by Edward II in 1323 during the king's progress through Lancashire. This Robyn Hode was identified with (one or more people called) Robert Hood living in Wakefield before and after that time. Comparing the available records with especially the Gest and also other ballads, Hunter developed a fairly detailed theory according to which Robin Hood was an adherent of the rebel Earl of Lancaster, defeated at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322.
According to this theory, Robin Hood was pardoned and employed by the king in 1323. (The Gest does relate that Robin Hood was pardoned by "King Edward" and taken into his service.) The theory supplies Robin Hood with a wife, Matilda, thought to be the origin of Maid Marian, and Hunter also conjectured that the author of the Gest may have been the religious poet Richard Rolle (1290–1349), who lived in the village of Hampole in Barnsdale.[55]
This theory has long been recognised to have serious problems, one of the most serious being that "Robin Hood" and similar names were already used as nicknames for outlaws in the 13th century. Another is that there is no direct evidence that Hunter's Hood had ever been an outlaw or any kind of criminal or rebel at all; the theory is built on conjecture and coincidence of detail.[56] Finally, recent research has shown that Hunter's Robyn Hood had been employed by the king at an earlier stage, thus casting doubt on this Robyn Hood's supposed earlier career as outlaw and rebel.[57]
Another theory identifies him with the historical outlaw Roger Godberd, who was a die-hard supporter of Simon de Montfort, which would place Robin Hood around the 1260s.[21] There are certainly parallels between Godberd's career and that of Robin Hood as he appears in the Gest. John Maddicott has called Godberd "that prototype Robin Hood".[58] Some problems with this theory are that there is no evidence that Godberd was ever known as Robin Hood and no sign in the early Robin Hood ballads of the specific concerns of de Montfort's revolt.[56]
Another well-known theory, first proposed by the historian L. V. D. Owen in 1936 and more recently floated by J.C. Holt and others, is that the original Robin Hood might be identified with an outlawed Robert Hood, or Hod, or Hobbehod, all apparently the same man, referred to in nine successive Yorkshire Pipe Rolls between 1226 and 1234.[59][60] There is no evidence however that this Robert Hood, although an outlaw, was also a bandit.[61]
Ballads and tales[link]
The earliest surviving text of a Robin Hood ballad is "Robin Hood and the Monk".[62] This is preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48. It was written shortly after 1450.[63] It contains many of the elements still associated with the legend, from the Nottingham setting to the bitter enmity between Robin and the local sheriff.
The first printed version is A Gest of Robyn Hode (c. 1475), a collection of separate stories which attempts to unite the episodes into a single continuous narrative.[64] After this comes "Robin Hood and the Potter",[65] contained in a manuscript of c. 1503. "The Potter" is markedly different in tone from "The Monk": whereas the earlier tale is "a thriller"[26] the latter is more comic, its plot involving trickery and cunning rather than straightforward force. The difference between the two texts recalls Bower's claim that Robin-tales may be both 'comedies and tragedies'.
Other early texts are dramatic pieces such as the fragmentary Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham[66] (c. 1472). These are particularly noteworthy as they show Robin's integration into May Day rituals towards the end of the Middle Ages; Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham, among other points of interest, contains the earliest reference to Friar Tuck.
The plots of neither "the Monk" nor "the Potter" are included in the Gest; and neither is the plot of "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" which is probably at least as old as those two ballads although preserved in a more recent copy. Each of these three ballads survived in a single copy, so it is unclear how much of the medieval legend has survived, and what has survived may not be typical of the medieval legend. It has been argued that the fact that the surviving ballads were preserved in written form in itself makes it unlikely they were typical; in particular stories with an interest for the gentry were by this view more likely to be preserved.[67] The story of Robin's aid to the "poor knight" that takes up much of the Gest may be an example.
The character of Robin in these first texts is rougher edged than in his later incarnations. In "Robin Hood and the Monk", for example, he is shown as quick tempered and violent, assaulting Little John for defeating him in an archery contest; in the same ballad Much the Miller's Son casually kills a "little page" in the course of rescuing Robin Hood from prison.[6] No extant ballad actually shows Robin Hood "giving to the poor", although in a "A Gest of Robyn Hode" Robin does make a large loan to an unfortunate knight which he does not in the end require to be repaid;[68] and later in the same ballad Robin Hood states his intention of giving money to the next traveller to come down the road if he happens to be poor.
- Of my good he shall haue some,
- Yf he be a por man.[69]
As it happens the next traveller is not poor, but it seems in context that Robin Hood is stating a general policy. From the beginning Robin Hood is on the side of the poor; the Gest quotes Robin Hood as instructing his men that when they rob:
- loke ye do no husbonde harme
- That tilleth with his ploughe.
- No more ye shall no gode yeman
- That walketh by gren-wode shawe;
- Ne no knyght ne no squyer
- That wol be a gode felawe.[70]
And in its final lines the Gest sums up:
- he was a good outlawe,
- And dyde pore men moch god.
Within Robin Hood's band medieval forms of courtesy rather than modern ideals of equality are generally in evidence. In the early ballads Robin's men usually kneel before him in strict obedience: in A Gest of Robyn Hode the king even observes that "His men are more at his byddynge/Then my men be at myn." Their social status, as yeomen, is shown by their weapons; they use swords rather than quarterstaffs. The only character to use a quarterstaff in the early ballads is the potter, and Robin Hood does not take to a staff until the 18th century Robin Hood and Little John.[71]
The political and social assumptions underlying the early Robin Hood ballads have long been controversial. It has been influentially argued by J. C. Holt that the Robin Hood legend was cultivated in the households of the gentry, and that it would be mistaken to see in him a figure of peasant revolt. He is not a peasant but a yeoman, and his tales make no mention of the complaints of the peasants, such as oppressive taxes.[72] He appears not so much as a revolt against societal standards as an embodiment of them, being generous, pious, and courteous, opposed to stingy, worldly, and churlish foes.[73] Other scholars have by contrast stressed the subversive aspects of the legend, and see in the medieval Robin Hood ballads a plebeian literature hostile to the feudal order.[74]
Although the term "Merry Men" belongs to a later period, the ballads do name several of Robin's companions.[75] These include Will Scarlet (or Scathlock), Much the Miller's Son, and Little John - who was called "little" as a joke, as he was quite the opposite.[76] Even though the band is regularly described as being over a hundred men, usually only three or four are specified. Some appear only once or twice in a ballad: Will Stutely in Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly and Robin Hood and Little John; David of Doncaster in Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow; Gilbert with the White Hand in A Gest of Robyn Hode; and Arthur a Bland in Robin Hood and the Tanner.[76]
Printed versions of the Robin Hood ballads, generally based on the Gest, appear in the early 16th century, shortly after the introduction of printing in England. Later that century Robin is promoted to the level of nobleman: he is styled Earl of Huntingdon, Robert of Locksley, or Robert Fitz Ooth. In the early ballads, by contrast, he was a member of the yeoman classes, which included common freeholders possessing a small landed estate.[77]
By the early 15th century at the latest, Robin Hood had become associated with May Day celebrations, with revellers dressing as Robin or as members of his band for the festivities. This was not common throughout England, but in some regions the custom lasted until Elizabethan times, and during the reign of Henry VIII, was briefly popular at court.[78] Robin was often allocated the role of a May King, presiding over games and processions, but plays were also performed with the characters in the roles,[79] sometimes performed at church ales, a means by which churches raised funds.[80]
A complaint of 1492, brought to the Star Chamber, accuses men of acting riotously by coming to a fair as Robin Hood and his men; the accused defended themselves on the grounds that the practice was a long-standing custom to raise money for churches, and they had not acted riotously but peaceably.[81]
It is from the association with the May Games that Robin's romantic attachment to Maid Marian (or Marion) apparently stems. The naming of Marian may have come from the French pastoral play of c. 1280, the Jeu de Robin et Marion, although this play is distinct from the English legends.[78] Both Robin and Marian were certainly associated with May Day festivities in England (as was Friar Tuck), but these may have been originally two distinct types of performance - Alexander Barclay in his Ship of Fools, writing in c. 1500, refers to "some merry fytte of Maid Marian or else of Robin Hood" - but the characters were brought together.[75] Marian did not immediately gain the unquestioned role; in Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor, and Marriage, his sweetheart is 'Clorinda the Queen of the Shepherdesses'.[82] Clorinda survives in some later stories as an alias of Marian.[76]
In the 16th century, Robin Hood is given a specific historical setting. Up until this point there was little interest in exactly when Robin's adventures took place. The original ballads refer at various points to "King Edward", without stipulating whether this is Edward I, Edward II, or Edward III.[83] Hood may thus have been active at any point between 1272 and 1377. However, during the 16th century the stories become fixed to the 1190s, the period in which King Richard was absent from his throne, fighting in the crusades.[84] This date is first proposed by John Mair in his Historia Majoris Britanniæ (1521), and gains popular acceptance by the end of the century.
Giving Robin an aristocratic title and female love interest, and placing him in the historical context of the true king's absence, all represent moves to domesticate his legend and reconcile it to ruling powers. In this, his legend is similar to that of King Arthur, which morphed from a dangerous male-centred story to a more comfortable, chivalrous romance under the troubadours serving Eleanor of Aquitaine. From the 16th century on, the legend of Robin Hood is often used to promote the hereditary ruling class, romance, and religious piety. The "criminal" element is retained to provide dramatic colour, rather than as a real challenge to convention.[85]
In 1598, Anthony Munday wrote a pair of plays on the Robin Hood legend, The Downfall and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington (published 1601). The 17th century introduced the minstrel Alan-a-Dale. He first appeared in a 17th century broadside ballad, and unlike many of the characters thus associated, managed to adhere to the legend.[82] This is also the era in which the character of Robin became fixed as stealing from the rich to give to the poor.[86]
In the 18th century, the stories began to develop a slightly more farcical vein. From this period there are a number of ballads in which Robin is severely "drubbed" by a succession of professionals including a tanner, a tinker and a ranger.[84] In fact, the only character who does not get the better of Hood is the luckless Sheriff. Yet even in these ballads Robin is more than a mere simpleton: on the contrary, he often acts with great shrewdness. The tinker, setting out to capture Robin, only manages to fight with him after he has been cheated out of his money and the arrest warrant he is carrying. In Robin Hood's Golden Prize, Robin disguises himself as a friar and cheats two priests out of their cash. Even when Robin is defeated, he usually tricks his foe into letting him sound his horn, summoning the Merry Men to his aid. When his enemies do not fall for this ruse, he persuades them to drink with him instead.
The continued popularity of the Robin Hood tales is attested by a number of literary references. In As You Like It, the exiled duke and his men "live like the old Robin Hood of England", while Ben Jonson produced the (incomplete) masque The Sad Shepherd, or a Tale of Robin Hood[87] as a satire on Puritanism. Somewhat later, the Romantic poet John Keats composed Robin Hood. To A Friend[88] and Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote a play The Foresters, or Robin Hood and Maid Marian,[89] which was presented with incidental music by Sir Arthur Sullivan in 1892. Later still, T. H. White featured Robin and his band in The Sword in the Stone - anachronistically, since the novel's chief theme is the childhood of King Arthur.[90]
The Victorian era[91] generated its own distinct versions of Robin Hood. The traditional tales were often adapted for children, most notably in Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, which influenced accounts of Robin Hood through the 20th century.[1] These versions firmly stamp Robin as a staunch philanthropist, a man who takes from the rich to give to the poor. Nevertheless, the adventures are still more local than national in scope: while King Richard's participation in the Crusades is mentioned in passing, Robin takes no stand against Prince John, and plays no part in raising the ransom to free Richard. These developments are part of the 20th century Robin Hood myth.
The idea of Robin Hood as a high-minded Saxon fighting Norman lords also originates in the 19th century. The most notable contributions to this idea of Robin are Jacques Nicolas Augustin Thierry's Histoire de la Conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normands (1825) and Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1819). In this last work in particular, the modern Robin Hood - "King of Outlaws and prince of good fellows!" as Richard the Lionheart calls him - makes his debut.[92]
The 20th century grafted still further details on to the original legends. The 1938 film, The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, portrayed Robin as a hero on a national scale, leading the oppressed Saxons in revolt against their Norman overlords while Richard the Lionheart fought in the Crusades; this movie established itself so definitively that many studios resorted to movies about his son (invented for that purpose) rather than compete with the image of this one.[93]
In the 1973 animated Disney film, Robin Hood, the title character is portrayed as an anthropomorphic fox voiced by Brian Bedford. Years before Robin Hood had even entered production, Disney had considered doing a project on Reynard the Fox. However, due to concerns that Reynard was unsuitable as a hero, animator Ken Anderson lifted many elements from Reynard into Robin Hood, thus making the titular character a fox.[citation needed]
The 1976 British-American film Robin and Marian, starring Sean Connery as Robin Hood and Audrey Hepburn as Maid Marian, portrays the figures in later years after Robin has returned from service with Richard the Lionheart in a foreign crusade and Marian has gone into seclusion in a nunnery. This is the first in popular culture to portray King Richard as less than perfect.
Since the 1980s, it has become commonplace to include a Saracen among the Merry Men, a trend which began with the character Nasir in the Robin of Sherwood television series. Later versions of the story have followed suit: the 1991 movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and 2006 BBC TV series Robin Hood each contain equivalents of Nasir, in the figures of Azeem and Djaq respectively.[93] The latest movie version released in spring of 2010 is simply entitled Robin Hood and is directed by Ridley Scott, with Robin played by Russell Crowe. The Saracen character was dropped from this version.
The Robin Hood legend has thus been subject to numerous shifts and mutations throughout its history. Robin himself has evolved from a yeoman bandit to a national hero of epic proportions, who not only supports the poor by taking from the rich, but heroically defends the throne of England itself from unworthy and venal claimants.
Connections to existing locations[link]
In modern versions of the legend, Robin Hood is said to have taken up residence in the verdant Sherwood Forest in the county of Nottinghamshire. For this reason the people of present-day Nottinghamshire have a special affinity with Robin Hood, often claiming him as the symbol of their county. For example, major road signs entering the shire depict Robin Hood with his bow and arrow, welcoming people to 'Robin Hood County'. BBC Radio Nottingham also uses the phrase 'Robin Hood County' on its regular programmes. The Robin Hood Way runs through Nottinghamshire and the county is home to literally thousands of other places, roads, inns and objects bearing Robin's name.[citation needed]
Specific sites linked to Robin Hood include the Major Oak tree, claimed to have been used by him as a hideout,[94] Robin Hood's Well, located near Newstead Abbey (within the boundaries of Sherwood Forest), and the Church of St. Mary in the village of Edwinstowe, where Robin and Maid Marian are historically thought to have wed.[95] To reinforce this belief, the University of Nottingham in 2010 has begun the Nottingham Caves Survey with the goal "to increase the tourist potential of these sites". The project "will use a 3D laser scanner to produce a three dimensional record of more than 450 sandstone caves around Nottingham".[96]
However, the Nottingham setting is a matter of some contention. While the Sheriff of Nottingham and the town itself appear in early ballads, and Sherwood is specifically mentioned in the early ballad Robin Hood and the Monk, certain of the original ballads (even those with Nottingham references) locate Robin on occasion in Barnsdale (the area between Pontefract and Doncaster), approximately fifty miles north of Nottingham, in the county of Yorkshire; furthermore, it has been suggested that the ballads placed in this area are far more geographically specific and accurate.[97] This is reinforced for some by the alleged similarity of Locksley to the area of Loxley, South Yorkshire, in Sheffield, where in nearby Tideswell, which was the "Kings Larder" in the Royal Forest of the Peak, a record of the appearance of a "Robert de Lockesly" in court is found, dated 1245. As "Robert" and its diminutives were amongst the most common of names at the time, and also since it was usual for men to adopt the name of their hometown ("De Lockesly" means simply, "Of [or from] Lockesly"), the record could just as easily be referring to any man from the area named Robert. Although it cannot be proven whether or not this is the man himself, it is further believed by some that Robin had a brother called Thomas - an assertion with no documentary evidence whatsoever to support it in any of the stories, tales or ballads. If the Robert mentioned above was indeed Robin Hood, and if he did have a brother named Thomas, then consideration of the following reference may lend this theory a modicum of credence:
- 24) No. 389, f0- 78. Ascension Day, 29 H. III., Nic Meverill, with John Kantia, on the one part, and Henry de Leke. Henry released to Nicholas and John 5 m. rent, which he received from Nicolas and John and Robert de Lockesly for his life from the lands of Gellery, in consideration of receiving from each of them 2M (2 marks). only, the said Henry to live at table with one of them and to receive 2M. annually from the other. T., Sampson de Leke, Magister Peter Meverill, Roger de Lockesly, John de Leke, Robert fil Umfred, Rico de Newland, Richard Meverill. (25) No. 402, p. 80 b. Thomas de Lockesly bound himself that he would not sell his lands at Leke, which Nicolas Meveril had rendered to him, under a penalty of L40 (40 pounds).
A pound was 240 silver pence, and a mark was 160 silver pence (i.e., 13 shillings and fourpence).
It is again, however, equally likely that Nicolas, John, Robert and Thomas were simply members of a family which came from the area.
In Barnsdale Forest, Yorkshire, there is a well known as Robin Hood's Well (by the side of the Great North Road), a Little John's Well (near Hampole) and a Robin Hood's stream (in Highfields Wood at Woodlands). There is something of a modern movement amongst Yorkshire residents to attempt to claim the legend of Robin Hood, to the extent that South Yorkshire's new airport, on the site of the redeveloped RAF Finningley airbase near Doncaster, although ironically in the historic county of Nottinghamshire, has been given the name Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield.
In the city centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, at 71 Vicar Lane, is a retail clothing store operated by Hugo Boss. This was the previous location of a pub/music venue known as The Duchess of York which was previously known as the Robin Hood. During an interior refurbishment, wallpaper was removed to reveal a wall mural depicting Robin Hood and his Merry Men in the small snug of the pub. The Landlord at the time, Robin Dover, was photographed standing next to the mural which was published in The Yorkshire Evening Post.
There have been further claims made that he is from Swannington in Leicestershire[98] or Loxley, Warwickshire.
This debate is hardly surprising of course, given the considerable value that the Robin Hood legend has for local tourism. The Sheriff of Nottingham also had jurisdiction in Derbyshire that was known as the "Shire of the Deer", and this is where the Royal Forest of the Peak is found, which roughly corresponds to today's Peak District National Park. The Royal Forest included Bakewell, Tideswell, Castleton, Ladybower and the Derwent Valley near Loxley. The Sheriff of Nottingham possessed property near Loxley, amongst other places both far and wide including Hazlebadge Hall, Peveril Castle and Haddon Hall. Mercia, to which Nottingham belonged, came to within three miles of Sheffield City Centre. But before the Law of the Normans was the Law of the Danes, The Danelaw had a similar boundary to that of Mercia but had a population of Free Peasantry which were known to have resisted the Norman occupation. Many outlaws could have been created by the refusal to recognise Norman Forest Law.[99] The supposed grave of Little John can be found in Hathersage, also in the Peak District.
Robin Hood himself was once thought to have been buried in the grounds of Kirklees Priory between Brighouse and Mirfield in West Yorkshire, although for the reasons given above this theory has now largely been abandoned. There is an elaborate grave there with the inscription referred to above. The story said that the Prioress was a relative of Robin's. Robin was ill and staying at the Priory where the Prioress was supposedly caring for him. However, she betrayed him, his health worsened, and he eventually died there.
Before he died, he told Little John (or possibly another of his Merry Men) where to bury him. He shot an arrow from the Priory window, and where the arrow landed was to be the site of his grave. The grave with the inscription is within sight of the ruins of the Kirklees Priory, behind the Three Nuns pub in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. The grave can be visited on occasional organised walks, organised by Calderdale Council Tourist Information office.
Further indications of the legend's connection with West Yorkshire (and particularly Calderdale) are noted in the fact that there are pubs called the Robin Hood in both nearby Brighouse and at Cragg Vale; higher up in the Pennines beyond Halifax, where Robin Hood Rocks can also be found. Robin Hood Hill is near Outwood, West Yorkshire, not far from Lofthouse. There is a village in West Yorkshire called Robin Hood, on the A61 between Leeds and Wakefield and close to Rothwell and Lofthouse. Considering these references to Robin Hood, it is not surprising that the people of both South and West Yorkshire lay some claim to Robin Hood, who, if he existed, could easily have roamed between Nottingham, Lincoln, Doncaster and right into West Yorkshire.
A British Army Territorial (reserves) battalion formed in Nottingham in 1859 was known as The Robin Hood Battalion through various reorganisations until the "Robin Hood" name finally disappeared in 1992. With the 1881 Childers reforms that linked regular and reserve units into regimental families, the Robin Hood Battalion became part of The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment).
A Neolithic causewayed enclosure on Salisbury Plain has acquired the name Robin Hood's Ball, although had Robin Hood existed it is doubtful that he would have travelled so far south.
List of traditional ballads[link]
File:Since Robin Hood by Weelkes.png
Elizabethan song of Robin Hood
Ballads are the oldest existing form of the Robin Hood legends, although none of them are recorded at the time of the first allusions to him, and many are much later. They share many common features, often opening with praise of the greenwood and relying heavily on disguise as a plot device, but include a wide variation in tone and plot.[100] The ballads below are sorted into three groups, very roughly according to date of first known free-standing copy. Ballads whose first recorded version appears (usually incomplete) in the Percy Folio may appear in later versions[101] and may be much older than the mid 17th century when the Folio was compiled. Any ballad may be older than the oldest copy which happens to survive, or descended from a lost older ballad. For example, the plot of Robin Hood's Death, found in the Percy Folio, is summarised in the 15th-century A Gest of Robyn Hode, and it also appears in an 18th-century version.[102]
Early ballads (i.e., surviving in 15th- or early 16th-century copies)[link]
Ballads appearing in 17th-century Percy Folio[link]
NB. The first two ballads listed here (the "Death" and "Gisborne"), although preserved in 17th century copies, are generally agreed to preserve the substance of late medieval ballads. The third (the "Curtal Friar") and the fourth (the "Butcher"), also probably have late medieval origins.[103]
- Robin Hood's Death
- Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne
- Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar
- Robin Hood and the Butcher
- Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly
- Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires
- The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield
- Robin Hood and Queen Katherine
Other ballads[link]
- A True Tale of Robin Hood
- Robin Hood and the Bishop
- Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford
- Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow
- Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon
- Robin Hood and the Ranger
- Robin Hood and the Scotchman
- Robin Hood and the Tanner
- Robin Hood and the Tinker
- Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight
- Robin Hood Newly Revived
- Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor, and Marriage
- Robin Hood's Chase
- Robin Hood's Delight
- Robin Hood's Golden Prize
- Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham
- The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood
- The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood
- The Noble Fisherman
Some ballads, such as Erlinton, feature Robin Hood in some variants, where the folk hero appears to be added to a ballad pre-existing him and in which he does not fit very well.[104] He was added to one variant of Rose Red and the White Lily, apparently on no more connection than that one hero of the other variants is named "Brown Robin."[105] Francis James Child indeed retitled Child ballad 102; though it was titled The Birth of Robin Hood, its clear lack of connection with the Robin Hood cycle (and connection with other, unrelated ballads) led him to title it Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter in his collection.[106]
Popular culture[link]
Main articles: Robin Hood in popular culture and List of films and television series featuring Robin Hood
Main characters of the folklore[link]
- Robin Hood (a.k.a., Robin Longstride, Robin of Loxley or Locksley)
- The band of "Merry Men"
- Maid Marian
- King Richard the Lionheart
- Prince John
- Sir Guy of Gisbourne
- The Sheriff of Nottingham
See also[link]
- Tadas Blinda
- Eustace Folville
- Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd
- Juraj Jánošík
- Iancu Jianu
- Rummu Jüri
- Ustym Karmaliuk
- Ned Kelly
- Kayamkulam Kochunni
- Nezumi Kozō
- Chucho el Roto
- Schinderhannes
- Robin Hood tax
- Kobus van der Schlossen
- Trysting Tree
- Verysdale
- William de Wendenal
- Redistribution of wealth
References[link]
- ^ a b "Robin Hood: Development of a Popular Hero." From The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
- ^ "Merry-man" has referred to the follower of an outlaw since at least the late 14th century. See Online Etymology Dictionary
- ^ The Child Ballads 117 "A Gest of Robyn Hode" (c 1450) "Whan they were clothed in Lincoln Green "
- ^ a b Holt, p. 62.
- ^ Knight, Robin Hood: a mythic biography pp.142-143
- ^ a b Robin Hood and the Monk. Records also show that he lived in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in the 13th and 14th centuries. From Child's edition of the ballad, online at Sacred Texts, 119A: Robin Hood and the Monk Stanza 16:
- Then Robyn goes to Notyngham,
- Hym selfe mornyng allone,
- And Litull John to mery Scherwode,
- The pathes he knew ilkone.
- ^ a b Dobson & Taylor, p. 18: "On balance therefore these 15th-century references to the Robin Hood legend seem to suggest that during the later Middle Ages the outlaw hero was more closely related to Barnsdale than Sherwood."
- ^ "Robin Hood – Evidence for Yorkshire". Icons.org.uk. 24 October 2007. http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/robin-hood/features/rival-claims.
- ^ "Robin Hood – On the move?". BBC.co.uk. 24 October 2007. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/features/2004/01/robin_hood_county.shtml.
- ^ "In the footsteps of Robin Hood". Channel4.com. 24 October 2007. http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/n-s/robin02.html.
- ^ Knight, Stephen (2003). Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography. Ithica, New York: Cornell University Press. pp. 84–88. ISBN 978-0-8014-3885-1. http://books.google.com/?id=dPtpkU1WSbcC&pg=PR11&dq=Holt+%22robin+hood%22.
- ^ A Gest of Robin Hood stanzas 10–15, stanza 292 (archery) 117A: The Gest of Robyn Hode. Retrieved 15 April 2008.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, p. 203. Friar Tuck is mentioned in the play fragment Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham dated to c. 1475.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, pp. 5, 16.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, pp. 14–16.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, p. 34.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, pp. 34–35.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, pp. 33, 44, 220–223.
- ^ Singmam, 1998, Robin Hood; The Shaping of the Legend p. 62.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, p. 41. "It was here [the May Games] that he encountered and assimilated into his own legend the jolly friar and Maid Marian, almost invariably among the performers in the 16th century morris dance." Dobson and Taylor have suggested that theories on the origin of Friar Tuck often founder on a failure to recognise that "he was the product of the fusion between two very different friars", a "bellicose outlaw", and the May Games figure.
- ^ a b See BBC website, accessed 19 August 2008 on the Godberd theory. The real Robin Hood.
- ^ Molyneux-Smith, Tony. 1998. Robin Hood and the Lords of Wellow. Nottingham: Nottingham County Council Leisure Services Department
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, p. ix
- ^ a b A number of such theories are mentioned at 1911 Britannica article on "Robin Hood" at LoveToKnow Robin Hood.
- ^ Robert Graves English and Scottish Ballads. London: William Heinemann, 1957; New York: Macmillan, 1957. See, in particular, Graves' notes to his reconstruction of Robin Hood's Death.
- ^ a b Holt
- ^ Rot. Parl. v. 16.
- ^ "V.396 in Schmidt's ed". Hti.umich.edu. http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cme;cc=cme;view=text;idno=PPlLan;rgn=div1;node=PPlLan%3A6. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, p. 5
- ^ J. R. Maddicott, "Sir Edward the First and the Lessons of Baronial Reform" in Coss and Loyd ed, Thirteenth century England:1 Proceedings of the Newcastle Upon Tyne Conference 1985, Boydell and Brewer, p. 2
- ^ Maurice Hugh Keen The Outlaws of Medieval England, 1987, Routledge
- ^ Passage quoted and commented on in Stephen Knights, Robin Hood; A Mythic Biography, Cornell University Press, 2003, p. 5
- ^ Luxford, Julian M. (2009). "An English chronicle entry on Robin Hood". Journal of Medieval History 35 (1): 70–76. DOI:10.1016/j.jmedhist.2009.01.002.
- ^ Act IV, Scene 1, line 36–7
- ^ The Annotated Edition of the English Poets - Early ballads (London, 1856, p. 70)
- ^ Wright, p. 104
- ^ Women from The Wright's Chaste Wife, by Adam of Cobsam at Project Gutenberg
- ^ Holt, p. 55.
- ^ Reginald Scot "Discourse upon divels and spirits" Chapter 21, quoted in Charles P. G. Scott "The Devil and His Imps: An Etymological Investigation" page 129 Transactions of the American Philological Association (1869-1896) Vol. 26, (1895), pp. 79-146 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press jstor.org
- ^ The Outlaws of Medieval England Appendix 1, 1987, Routledge, ISBN 0-7102-1203-8.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, p. 63, also quoting Francis Child to the same effect
- ^ More recently A. J. Pollard has also so refrained and stressed the symbolical significance of the "perpetual springtime" of the ballads. 2004, Imagining Robin Hood: The Late-Medieval Stories in Historical Context, Routledge ISBN 0-415-22308-3.
- ^ Holt, p. 57.
- ^ a b Dobson & Taylor, p. 42.
- ^ Maurice Keen The Outlaws of Medieval England Appendix 1, 1987, Routledge, ISBN 0-7102-1203-8.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, p. 33.
- ^ Holt, p. 73.
- ^ Holt, pp. 74–75.
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of Christian Names, EG Withycombe, 1950.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, introduction pages 11–12.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, introduction page 13, criticising Joseph Hunter's "quite remarkable belief in the historical accuracy of the Gest."
- ^ D. Crook English Historical Review XCIX (1984) pp. 530–34; discussed in Dobson & Taylor, pp. xxi–xxii.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, pp. xxi–xxii.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, p. 12, 39n, and chapter on place-names.
- ^ Joseph Hunter, The Great Hero of the Ancient Minstrelsy of England: Robin Hood, his period, real character etc, Investigated and perhaps Ascertained, JR Smith, 1852. Quoted in the Gentlemans Magazine "The Discovery of the Veritable Robin Hood" 1854 p. 160f. Online at Google digitized books.
- ^ a b Dobson & Taylor, introduction.
- ^ Holt, pp. 75–76, summarised in Dobson & Taylor, p. xvii.
- ^ J. R. Maddicott, "Edward the First and the Lessons of Baronial Reform" in Coss and Loyd ed, Thirteenth century England:1 Proceedings of the Newcastle Upon Tyne Conference 1985, Boydell and Brewer, p. 2.
- ^ Crook, David "The Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood: The Genesis of the Legend?" In Peter R. Coss, S. D. Lloyd, ed Thirteenth Century England University of Newcastle — 1999.
- ^ E372/70, rot. 1d, 12 lines from bottom.
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, p. xvii.
- ^ "Robin Hood and the Monk". Lib.rochester.edu. http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/monk.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
- ^ Introduction accompanying Knight and Ohlgren's 1997 ed.
- ^ Ohlgren, Thomas, Robin Hood: The Early Poems, 1465–1560, (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2007), From Script to Print: Robin Hood and the Early Printers, pp. 97–134
- ^ "Robin Hood and the Potter". Lib.rochester.edu. http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/potter.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
- ^ "Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham". Lib.rochester.edu. http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/sheri.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
- ^ Singman, Jeffrey L. Robin Hood: The Shaping of the Legend Published 1998, Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 51 ISBN 0-313-30101-8
- ^ Holt, p. 11
- ^ Child Ballads 117A:210, ie A Gest of Robyn Hode stanza 210
- ^ 117A: The Gest of Robyn Hode stanzas 13–14 A Gest of Robyn Hode
- ^ Holt, p. 36
- ^ Holt, pp. 37–38
- ^ Holt, p. 10
- ^ Singman, Jeffrey L Robin Hood: The Shaping of the Legend, 1998, Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 46, and first chapter as a whole. ISBN 0-313-30101-8
- ^ a b Jeffrey Richards, Swordsmen of the Screen: From Douglas Fairbanks to Michael York, p. 190, Routledge & Kegan Paul, Lond, Henly and Boston, 1988
- ^ a b c Allen W. Wright, "A Beginner's Guide to Robin Hood"
- ^ Holt, p. 159
- ^ a b Hutton, 1997, pp. 270–1
- ^ Hutton, 1996, p. 32
- ^ Hutton, 1996, p. 31
- ^ Holt, pp. 148–9
- ^ a b Holt, p. 165
- ^ Holt, p. 37
- ^ a b Holt, p. 170
- ^ The Times (London), July 11, 1999
- ^ Holt, p. 184
- ^ "Johnson's "The Sad Shepherd"". Lib.rochester.edu. http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/rh/jonsonss.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
- ^ "Keats' "Robin Hood. To a friend"". Lib.rochester.edu. http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/rh/keats.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
- ^ "Tennyson's "The Foresters"". Lib.rochester.edu. http://www.lib.rochester.edu/CAMELOT/rh/forest.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
- ^ W.R. Irwin, The Game of the Impossible, p. 151, University of Illinois Press, Urbana Chicago London, 1976
- ^ Egan, Pierce the Younger (1846). Robin Hood and Little John or The Merry Men of Sherwood Forest. Pub. George Peirce. London.
- ^ Allen W. Wright, "Wolfshead through the Ages Revolutions and Romanticism"
- ^ a b Allen W. Wright, "Wolfshead through the Ages Films and Fantasy"
- ^ Nottinghamshire County Council. "Major Oak". http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/home/leisure/countryparks/sherwoodforestcp/majoroak.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-21.
- ^ Edwinstowe Parish Council. "Edwinstowe". http://www.edwinstowe.co.uk/robin_hood/index.htm. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ^ "Laser to scan Robin Hood's prison under Nottingham city". BBC News. 2010-04-20. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8630000/8630926.stm. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
- ^ Holt, p. 83
- ^ "Big It Up Bulletin-May issue". .le.ac.uk. 2007-04-29. http://www2.le.ac.uk/ebulletin/news/2000-2009/2007/05/nparticle.2007-05-22.0457154226/?searchterm=bloor. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
- ^ "According to Ancient Custom: Research on the possible Origins and Purpose of Thynghowe Sherwood Forest". Issuu.com. 2012-03-09. http://issuu.com/piro.co.uk/docs/according_to_ancient_custom_-_thynghowe?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
- ^ Holt, pp. 34–35
- ^ Dobson and Taylor, Appendix 1
- ^ Dobson and Taylor, p. 133
- ^ Dobson & Taylor, see introduction to each individual ballad.
- ^ Child, v. 1, p. 178
- ^ Child, v. 2, p. 416
- ^ Child, v. 2, p. 412
Bibliography[link]
- Baldwin, David (2010). Robin Hood: The English Outlaw Unmasked. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84868-378-5.
- Barry, Edward (1832). Sur les vicissitudes et les transformations du cycle populaire de Robin Hood. Rignoux.
- Blamires, David (1998). Robin Hood: A Hero for All Times. J. Rylands Univ. Lib. of Manchester. ISBN 0-86373-136-8.
- Child, Francis James (1997). The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. 1–5. Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-43150-5.
- Coghlan, Ronan (2003). The Robin Hood Companion. Xiphos Books. ISBN 0-9544936-0-5.
- Deitweiler, Laurie, Coleman, Diane (2004). Robin Hood Comprehension Guide. Veritas Pr Inc. ISBN 1-930710-77-1.
- Dixon-Kennedy, Mike (2006). The Robin Hood Handbook. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-3977-X.
- Dobson, R. B.; Taylor, John (1977). The Rymes of Robin Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-1661-3.
- Doel, Fran, Doel, Geoff (2000). Robin Hood: Outlaw and Greenwood Myth. Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7524-1479-8.
- Green, Barbara (2001). Secrets of the Grave. Palmyra Press. ISBN 0-9540164-0-8.
- Hahn, Thomas (2000). Robin Hood in Popular Culture: Violence, Transgression and Justice. D.S. Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-564-6.
- Harris, P. V. (1978). Truth About Robin Hood. Linney. ISBN 0-900525-16-9.
- Hilton, R.H., The Origins of Robin Hood, Past and Present, No. 14. (Nov., 1958), pp. 30–44. Available online at JSTOR.
- Holt, J. C. (1982). Robin Hood. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27541-6.
- Hutton, Ronald (1997). The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-288045-4.
- Hutton, Ronald (1996). The Rise and Fall of Merry England: The Ritual Year 1400–1700. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-285327-9.
- Knight, Stephen Thomas (1994). Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw. Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-19486-X.
- Knight, Stephen Thomas (2003). Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-3885-3.
- Phillips, Helen (2005). Robin Hood: Medieval and Post-medieval. Four Courts Press. ISBN 1-85182-931-8.
- Pollard, A. J. (2004). Imagining Robin Hood: The Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context. Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd. ISBN 0-415-22308-3.
- Potter, Lewis (1998). Playing Robin Hood: The Legend as Performance in Five Centuries. University of Delaware Press. ISBN 0-87413-663-6.
- Pringle, Patrick (1991). Stand and Deliver: Highway Men from Robin Hood to Dick Turpin. Dorset Press. ISBN 0-88029-698-4.
- Ritson, Joseph (1832). Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, Now Extant Relative to That Celebrated English Outlaw: To Which are Prefixed Historical Anecdotes of His Life. William Pickering. ISBN 1-4212-6209-6.
- Rutherford-Moore, Richard (1999). The Legend of Robin Hood. Capall Bann Publishing. ISBN 1-86163-069-7.
- Rutherford-Moore, Richard (2002). Robin Hood: On the Outlaw Trail. Capall Bann Publishing. ISBN 1-86163-177-4.
- Vahimagi, Tise (1994). British Television: An Illustrated Guide. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-818336-4.
- Wright, Thomas (1847). Songs and Carols, now first imprinted. Percy Society.
External links[link]
|
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robin Hood |
- Robin Hood on In Our Time at the BBC. (listen now)
- Robin Hood the Facts and the Fiction, has a lot of information on Robin Hood, ballads, medieval records, place names, analysis on the legend etc.
- BBC History: Robin Hood and his Historical Context
- Home of the World Wide Robin Hood Society in Sherwood, Nottingham, England
- Archaeology and History of Medieval Sherwood Forest
- Robin Hood, Friend of Liberty - Ludwig von Mises Institute
- Robin Hood: Bold Outlaw of Barnsdale and Sherwood, contains ballads, information on the development of the legend, and interviews with scholars and authors.
- Ben Turner's Robin Hood site one of the first on the web
- The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester — Houses a large collection of Robin Hood text and art
- "Robin Hood - the greatest of English myths" on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time featuring Stephen Knight, Thomas Hahn and Dr Juliette Wood
- Robin Hood - from Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg and Google Books (scanned books original editions color illustrated)
- Nottingham Caves Survey
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Robin Hood". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. - "Robin Hood". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.
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Anita Kalinde is the MP for Thyolo North in Malawi.[1]
References[link]
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
