title: Fula people

text: Agricultural expansions led to a division among the Fulani, where individuals were classified as belonging either to the group of expansionist nomadic agriculturalists or the group of Fulani who found it more comfortable to abandon traditional nomadic ways and settle in towns or the Fulɓe Wuro. Fulani towns were a direct result of nomadic heritage and were often founded by individuals who had simply chosen to settle in a given area instead of continuing on their way.


title: Fula people

text: This cultural interaction most probably occurred in Senegal, where the closely linguistically related Toucouleur, Serer and Wolof people predominate, ultimately leading to the ethnogenesis of the Fulani culture, language and people before subsequent expansion throughout much of West Africa. Another version is that they were originally a Berber speaking people who crossed Senegal to pasture their cattle on the Ferlo Desert south of the Senegal River. Finding themselves cut off from their kinsmen by the other communities now occupying the fertile Senegal valley, they gradually adopted the language of their new neighbours. As their herds increased, small groups found themselves forced to move eastward and further southwards and so initiated a series of migrations throughout West Africa, which endures to the present day.


title: Fula people

text: Evidence of Fulani migration as a whole, from the Western to Eastern Sudan is very fragmentary. Delafosse, one of the earliest enquirers into Fulani history and customs, principally relying on oral tradition, estimated that Fulani migrants left Fuuta-Tooro, and Macina, towards the east, between the eleventh and the fourteenth centuries. By the 15th century, there was a steady flow of Fulɓe immigrants into Hausaland and, later on, Bornu. Their presence in Baghirmi was later recorded when Fulani fought as allies, to Dokkenge or Birni Besif, when he founded Massenya (a Chadian town), early in the 16th century.


title: Fula people

text: By the end of the 18th century, Fulani settlements were dotted all over the Benue River valley and its tributaries. They spread eastwards towards Garoua and Rey Bouba, and southwards towards the Faro River, to the foot of the Mambilla Plateau, which they would later ascend in subsequent years. The heaviest concentrations of their settlements were at Gurin, Chamba territory, Cheboa, Turua and Bundang. These so-called "Benue-Fulani" reduced the frequency with which they moved from place to place. The number of years they stayed at one spot depended on two factors: the reaction of the earlier settlers of that locality to their presence, and how satisfactory the conditions were, i.e., availability of pastures for their cattle.


title: Fula people

text: Fula people, with Arabic and North African roots, adopted Islam early. According to David Levison, adopting Islam made the Fulani feel a "cultural and religious superiority to surrounding peoples, and that adoption became a major ethnic boundary marker" between them and other African ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa. Settled and nomadic Fulani became political and warring entities, armed with horses and equipment of war from the north. The wars were not merely between Fula people and other ethnic groups, but also internecine between the pastoral and sedentary Fulani, where sometimes they worked in cohesion, and other times the Muslim Fulani leaders attacked the nomadic Fulani as infidels.


title: Fula people

text: The Songhai Empire rulers had converted to Sunni Islam in the 11th-century and were a major trading partner of the Middle East and North Africa. The Fulani warriors, in the 15th century, challenged this West African trading state near the Niger River, but were repulsed. In 1493, Askia Muhammad I led the Fulani people from western Sudan, and over time gained control of much that was previously Songhai empire, removing Sonni Baru who had attempted to protect the interests of pastoralists. Askia Muhammad won a control over the caravan trade routes in West Africa, but was overthrown by his own son, Askia Musa, in a coup in 1528.


title: Fula people

text: The Fulani, after being the first group of people in West Africa to convert to Islam, became active in supporting Islamic theology and ideology from centres such as Timbuktu. The Fula people who later became known as the Toroobe worked with Berber and Arabian Islamic clerics, charting out the spread of Islam in West Africa. The Fula people led many jihads, or holy wars, some of which were major. These war efforts helped spread Islam in West Africa, as well as helped them dominate much of the Sahel region of West Africa during the medieval and pre-colonial era, establishing them not only as a religious group but also as a political and economic force.


title: Fula people

text: Futa Toro was established in the 1500s, by Denianke dynasty built out of Fulani and Mandinka forces; the importance of Fula people to this rule led to this era known as Empire of Great Fulo. The Fulani raided and violently disrupted the trade routes that accounted for the economic prosperity of older African kingdoms, and thus began their rise. Futa Bundu, sometimes called Bondu and located in Senegal and Faleme rivers confluence, became a centre for the rise of West Africa-wide Fula empire and influence in 17th century. From the 18th century onwards, the frequency of Jihads increased such as those led by Ibrahim Sori and Karamoko Ali in 1725, the Fulani became a hegemonic force and were politically dominant in many areas. The region was engulfed in theocratic wars, with many Islamic lineages seeking political power and control. The Moroccans invaded the western Sahel adding to an anarchical situation. Food production plummeted, and during this periods famine plagued the region, negatively affecting the political situation and increasing the trigger for militant control of the economic activity.


title: Fula people

text: Over time, the Fulɓe empire split among the later descendants and developed into many emirates. The main nuclei of Fulɓe power were the polities in the Senegal River Valley, the Fuuta Jallon mountains, in Guinea, the Inland Delta of the Niger in Mali (Maasina), the north of Nigeria and the Adamawa Plateau in Cameroon. In between these big centres there were numerous small polities dominated by the Fulɓe in the central Gourma of present-day Mali and the north and west of Burkina Faso (Jelgoji, Boboola, Dori, Liptako), northern Benin (Borgu), the Sene-Gambia, northern Senegal (Bundu), and the southern and western parts of present-day Niger (Dallol Bosso, Birni N'konni). Fulani herdsmen or Fulani pastoralists are nomadic or semi-nomadic Fulani people whose primary occupation is raising livestock.[1] The Fulani herdsmen are largely located in the Sahel and semi-arid parts of West Africa, but due to relatively recent changes in climate patterns, many herdsmen have moved further south into the savannah and tropical forest belt of West Africa. The herdsmen are found in countries such as Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, and Cameroon. In Senegal, they inhabit northeastern Ferlo and the southeastern part of the country. In many of these countries the Fula often constitute a minority group. Mainly in the Middle Belt of Nigeria, as opposed to the north which is dominated by Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen terrorist attacks caused 847 deaths last year across five Nigerian states, according to the latest report from the Global Terrorism Index. They have also been known to stage attacks in the Central African Republic.￼


title: Fula people

text: The Emirate / Imamate of Timbo in the Fuuta Jallon was the first of the Fulɓe emirates in West Africa. It developed from a revolt by Islamic Fulɓe against their oppression by the pagan Pulli (فُلِی or 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞥆𞤭, non-Islamic Fulɓe), and the Jallonke (the original Mande inhabitants of the Fuuta-Jallon), during the first half of the 18th century. The first ruler took the title of "Almaami" and resided in Timbo, near the modern-day town of Mamou. The town became the political capital of the newly formed Imamate, with the religious capital was located in Fugumba. The Council of Elders of the Futa Jallon state were also based in Fugumba, acting as a brake on the Almami's powers.


title: Fula people

text: The newly formed imamate was mostly located mainly in present-day Guinea, but also spanned parts of modern-day Guinea Bissau, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. This emirate was, in fact, a federal state of nine provinces: Timbo, Fugumbaa, Ɓuuriya, Koyin, Kollaaɗe, Keebaali, Labe, Fode-Hajji, and Timbi. After the Muslim Fulɓe victory, other ethnic groups who had resisted the jihad were deprived of their rights to land except for a small piece for their subsistence and were reduced to servitude. The nomad Pulli Fulɓe lost all freedom of movement, and thus, began to settle en-masse. The Jalonke lost their noble status and became slaves ("maccuɓe").


title: Fula people

text: Later, due to strife between two branches of the Seediayanke royal lineage, (the Soriya and the Alphaya), a system for the rotation of office between these branches was set up. This led to an almost permanent state of civil strife since none of the parties was inclined to respect the system, which considerably weakened the power of the political centre.


title: Fula people

text: The Maasina Emirate also called "Diina" ("𞤈𞤭𞥄𞤲𞤢", "religion" in Fulfulde, with Arabic origins), was established by the Fulbe jihad led by Sheeku Aamadu in 1818. The origins of the Maasina Emirate in the Inner Delta of the Niger are also found in rebellion, this time against the Bambara / Bamana Kingdom of Segou, a political power that controlled the region from outside. This jihad was inspired by events in northern Nigeria where an important scholar of the time, Usman Dan Fodio, established an Islamic empire with Sokoto as its capital.


title: Fula people

text: For some time, groups of Fulbe had been dominant in parts of the delta, thereby creating a complex hierarchy dating back through several waves of conquest. However, due to internecine warfare, they were never able to organize a countervailing force against the Bamana Kingdom. In 1818, an Islamic cleric named Aamadu Hammadi Buubu united the Fulbe under the banner of Islam and fought a victorious battle against the Bamana and their allies. He subsequently established his rule in the Inland Delta and the adjacent dry lands east and west of the delta.


title: Fula people

text: This state appears to have had tight control over its core area, as evidenced by the fact that its political and economic organization is still manifested today in the organization of agricultural production in the Inland Delta. Despite its power and omnipresence, the hegemony of the emirate was constantly threatened. During the reign of Aamadu Aamadu, the grandson of Sheeku Aamadu, internal contradictions weakened the emirate until it became easy prey for the forces of the Futanke, which subsequently overthrew the Maasina Emirate, in 1862.


title: Fula people

text: Many regard the Futanke or Toucouleur conquest of western Sudan and central Mali as a reform movement. The character of the Futanke Emirate was somewhat different, although its founding was related to the conquest of the Maasina Emirate and the Bamana Kingdoms of Segou and Kaarta in the aftermath of a movement for reform. Threatened by French colonial forces while at the same time being supplied with firearms by them, the Futanke staged a jihad to fight paganism and the competing Islamic brotherhood of the Tijannya.


title: Fula people

text: Its founder, El Hadj Umar Tall an Islamic reformer originating from the Fuuta Tooro on the banks of the Senegal River, died fighting against rebels shortly after his forces defeated the Maasina Emirate. After El Hadj Umar's death, the emirate was divided into three states, each ruled by one of his sons. These three states had their capitals respectively in the towns of Nioro, Segou and Bandiagara. A most important distinction was between noblemen (free people) and the non-free (Rimmaibe or Maccube).


title: Fula people

text: The noblemen consisted of the ruling class of political overlords and Islamic clerics, as well as the pastoral Fulbe populations, who helped them come to power. Together, they formed a group of vassals to the political elite and were considered noblemen, although, in reality, their political influence was minimal. The conquered populations were reduced to servitude or slavery and more slaves were captured to provide enough labour for the functioning of the economy. Also, there were groups of bards, courtiers and artisans who occupied lower political and social positions.


title: Fula people

text: The Sokoto Caliphate was by far the largest and most successful legacy of Fulani power in Western Africa. It was the largest, as well as the most well-organized, of the Fulani Jihad states. Throughout the 19th century, Sokoto was one of the largest and most powerful empires in West Africa until 1903, when defeated by European colonial forces. The Sokoto Caliphate included several emirates, the largest of which was Adamawa, although the Kano Emirate was the most populated. Others included, but are not limited to: Gombe Emirate, Gwandu Emirate, Bauchi Emirate, Katsina Emirate, Zazzau Emirate, Hadejia Emirate, and Muri Emirate.


title: Fula people

text: While establishing their hegemony, the Fulbe defined a strict social hierarchy and imposed limitations on economic and trading activities, the purpose of which was to ensure a constant flow of tax revenue and commodities to the state apparatus and the standing army, especially for the cavalry. The freedom for pastoralists to move around was curtailed to ensure the smooth functioning of other production activities, such as cereal cultivation and, in the case of Maasina, of fishing activities.


title: Fula people

text: There appears to be considerable resistance to the forced acceptance of Islam by these emirates. For example, many nomadic Fulbe, predominantly Wodaabe fled northern Nigeria when their liberty was curtailed and they were forced to convert to Islam following the jihads instigated by Usman Dan Fodio from Sokoto. Conversion to Islam meant not only changing one's religion but also submitting to rules dealing with every aspect of social, political and cultural life, intrusions with which many nomadic Fulbe were not comfortable.


title: Fula people

text: Abdullahi dan Fodio, brother of Shehu dan Fodio stated that Torankawa (Turubbi/Torobe) are part Fulani, and part Arabs, they are Arabs through Uqba ibn Nafi who was an Arab Muslim of the Umayyad branch of the Quraysh, and hence, a member of the family of the Prophet, Uqba ibn Nafi allegedly married a Fulani woman called Bajjumangbu through which the Torodbe family of Usman dan Fodio descended. Caliph Muhammed Bello writing in his book Infaq al-Mansur claimed descent from Prophet Muhammad through his paternal grandmother's lineage called Hawwa(mother of Usman dan Fodio), Alhaji Muhammadu Junaidu, Wazirin Sokoto restated the claims of Shaykh Abdullahi bin Fodio in respect of the Danfodio family been part Arabs and part Fulani, while Ahmadu Bello in his autobiography written after independence replicated Caliph's Muhammadu Bello claim of descent from the Arabs through Usman Danfodio's mother, taking the historical account the family of Shehu dan Fodio are partly Arabs and partly Fulani who culturally assimilated with the Hausas and can be described as Hausa-Fulani Arabs.


title: Fula people

text: The Fulani, migrant Arabs and Hausa people have taken some influences from each other's cultures. Upon the success recorded in the 1804 Fulani War of Usman dan Fodio, who is claimed to be partly Arab and partly Fulani, many Arabs and Fulɓe subsequently joined the ruling classes of the Northern Nigerian Emirate. They dress and speak like their Hausa neighbours and live in the same form (see Hausa–Fulani and Hausa-Fulani Arabs). The Fulɓe who didn't settle during this period and their descendants, however, still keep an obvious distinct identity from that of the Hausa and other surrounding groups of the region. This Hausa–Fulani interaction is uncommon outside the eastern subregion of West Africa.


title: Fula people

text: The Toucouleur people in the central Senegal River valley are closely related to the Fula people. During the medieval era, they paid a tribute to the Fula. Large numbers of other Fula-speakers live scattered in the region and have a lower status. They are descendants of Fula-owned slaves. Now legally emancipated, in some regions they still pay tribute to Fula elites, and they are often denied chances for upward social mobility.


title: Fula people

text: In Mali, Burkina Faso and Senegal for instance, those within the Fulɓe cultural sphere, but who are not ethnically Fula, are referred to as "yimɓe pulaaku" ("𞤴𞤭𞤥𞤩𞤫 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤢𞥄𞤳𞤵", "people of the Fula culture"). As such, Fulani culture includes people who may or may not be ethnic Fulani. Although slavery is now illegal, memories of the past relationship between Fulɓbe and Rimayɓe are still very much alive in both groups. Paul Riesman, an American ethnographer who resided among the "Jelgooji Fulɓbe" of Burkina Faso in the 1980s, states that the Fulɓe are tall, slim, and light-skinned; they have thin straight noses, and their hair tends to be long and curly. In contrast, the Rimayɓe are stocky, tending towards corpulence, dark-skinned with flat 'squashed' noses, and short kinky hair.


title: Fula people

text: The first Fulani people who were forcibly expatriated to America during the Atlantic slave trade came from several parts of West and Central Africa. Many Fulani slaves came from places such as Guinea, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Cameroon. Most of the slaves who came from Senegal belonged to Fula and Mandinga peoples. Some of the most common names found on the Registry of Liberated Africans were Fulani in origin. Many of the captors and perpetrators of raids providing sources for the European slave merchants were also Fulani.


title: Fula people

text: Fula society features the caste divisions typical of the West African region. The fairly rigid caste system of the Fula people has medieval roots, was well established by the 15th-century, and it has survived into modern age. The four major castes, states Martin Kich, in their order of status are "nobility, traders, tradesmen (such as blacksmith) and descendants of slaves". According to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Fulani people have held on to "a strict caste system".


title: Fula people

text: There are the Fulani proper, also referred to as the Fulɓe, including the Pullo (also called the Rimɓe (singular)) and the Dimo, meaning "noble". There is the artisan caste, including blacksmiths, potters, griots, genealogists, woodworkers, and dressmakers. They belong to castes but are "free people". Then there are those castes of captive, slave or serf ancestry: the Maccuɗo, Rimmayɓe, Dimaajo, and less often Ɓaleeɓe, the Fulani equivalent of the Tuareg Ikelan known as Bouzou (Buzu)/Bella in the Hausa and Songhay languages respectively. The Fulani rulers and merchants were, like many other ruling ethnic groups of Africa, also involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, sourcing the enslaved people through raids and from captives they took by waging war. Many Fulani were enslaved and raided by ethnic groups who adhere to Traditional African religions.


title: Fula people

text: The Fulani castes are endogamous in nature, meaning individuals marry only within their caste. This caste system, however, wasn't as elaborate in places like northern Nigeria, Eastern Niger or Cameroon. According to some estimates, by the late 19th century, slaves constituted about 50% of the population of the Fulɓe-ruled Adamawa Emirate, where they were referred to as "jeyaɓe" (singular "jeyado"). Though very high, these figures are representative of many other emirates of the Sokoto Caliphate, of which Adamawa formed a part. The castes-based social stratification among the Fula people was widespread and seen across the Sahel, such as Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, and others.


title: Fula people

text: The Fulani are traditionally a nomadic, pastoralist trading people. They herd cattle, goats and sheep across the vast dry hinterlands of their domain, keeping somewhat separate from the local agricultural populations. They are the largest nomadic ethnic group in the world and inhabit several territories over an area larger in size than the continental United States. The pastoral lifestyle of the herders' tribe makes it complicated for a non-member to date or marry a Fulani woman.


title: Fula people

text: The Fulani follow a code of behaviour known as "pulaaku", which consists of the qualities of patience, self-control, discipline, prudence, modesty, respect for others (including foes), wisdom, forethought, personal responsibility, hospitality, courage, and hard work. Among the nomadic Fulani, women in their spare time make handicrafts including engraved gourds, weavings, knitting, beautifully made covers for calabashes known as mbeedu, and baskets. The Fulani men are less involved in the production of crafts such as pottery, iron-working, and dyeing, unlike males from neighbouring ethnic groups around them.


title: Fula people

text: In virtually every area of West Africa, where the nomadic Fulɓe reside, there has been an increasing trend of conflicts between farmers (sedentary) and grazier (pastoral nomadic). There have been numerous such cases on the Jos Plateau, the Western High Plateau, the Central/Middle Belt regions of Nigeria, Northern Burkina Faso, and Southern Chad. The rearing of cattle is a principal activity in four of Cameroon's ten administrative regions as well as three other provinces with herding on a lesser scale, throughout the North and Central regions of Nigeria, as well as the entire Sahel and Sudan region.


title: Fula people

text: For decades there have been intermittent skirmishes between the Woɗaaɓe "Bororo" (graziers) and sedentary farmers such as the Jukun, Tiv, Chamba, Bamileke, Wurkum, Bachama, Jenjo, Mbula, Berom, Mumuye, Kare Kare, and sometimes even the Hausa. Such conflicts usually begin when cattle have strayed into farmlands and destroyed crops. Thousands of Fulani have been forced to migrate from their traditional homelands in the Sahel, to areas further south, because of increasing encroachment of Saharan desertification. Nigeria alone loses of cattle rangeland and cropland every year to desertification, posing serious threats to the livelihoods of about 20 million people.


title: Fula people

text: Recurrent droughts have meant that a lot of traditional herding families have been forced to give up their nomadic way of life, losing a sense of their identity in the process. Increasing urbanization has also meant that a lot of traditional Fulani grazing lands have been taken for developmental purposes, or forcefully converted into farmlands. These actions often result in violent attacks and reprisal counterattacks being exchanged between the Fulani, who feel their way of life and survival are being threatened, and other populations who often feel aggrieved from loss of farm produce even if the lands they farm on were initially barren and uncultivated.


title: Fula people

text: Fulani in Nigeria have often requested for the development of exclusive grazing reserves, to curb conflicts. All the leading presidential aspirants of previous elections seeking Fulɓe votes have made several of such failed promises in their campaigns. Discussions among government officials, traditional rulers, and Fulani leaders on the welfare of the pastoralists have always centred on requests and pledges for protecting grazing spaces and cattle passages. The growing pressure from Ardo'en (the Fulani community leaders) for the salvation of what is left of the customary grazing land has caused some state governments with large populations of herders (such as Gombe, Bauchi, Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau, and Kaduna) to include in their development plans the reactivation and preservation of grazing reserves. Quick to grasp the desperation of cattle-keepers for land, the administrators have instituted a Grazing Reserve Committee to find a lasting solution to the rapid depletion of grazing land resources in Nigeria.


title: Fula people

text: The Fulani believe that the expansion of the grazing reserves will boost livestock population, lessen the difficulty of herding, reduce seasonal migration, and enhance the interaction among farmers, pastoralists, and rural dwellers. Despite these expectations, grazing reserves are not within the reach of about three-quarters of the nomadic Fulani in Nigeria, who number in the millions, and about sixty per cent of migrant pastoralists who use the existing grazing reserves keep to the same reserves every year. The number and the distribution of the grazing reserves in Nigeria range from insufficient to severely insufficient for Fulani livestock. In countries like Nigeria, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso where meat supplies are entirely dependent on the Fulani, such conflicts lead to scarcity and hikes in animal protein prices. In recent times, the Nigerian senate and other lawmakers have been bitterly divided in attempts to pass bills on grazing lands and migration "corridors" for Fulani herdsmen. This was mainly due to Southern and Central Nigerian lawmakers opposing the proposal, and Northern Lawmakers being in support. Fulani are involved in Communal conflicts in Nigeria and Mali.


title: Fula people

text: The language of the Fulani is "Pulaar" 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤢𞥄𞤪, which is also the language of the Toucouleurs. All Senegalese and Mauritanians who speak the language natively are known as the "Halpulaar" (𞤖𞤢𞤤𞤨𞤵𞤤𞤢𞥄𞤪) or "Haalpulaar'en" (𞤖𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤵𞤤𞤢𞥄𞤪𞥇𞤫𞤲), which means "speakers of Pulaar" ("hal" is the root of the Pulaar verb "haalugol" 𞤖𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤵𞤺𞤮𞤤, meaning "to speak"). In some areas, e.g. in northern Cameroon, Fulfulde is a local lingua franca.


title: Fula people

text: There are three writing systems used to write this language: an Arabic derived one called Ajami, a Latin derived system with 6 sets, and a native phonetic-faithful system called Adlam recently invented in 1989; the third one is the most increasingly popular not only learnt by hundreds of thousands of people among the diaspora worldwide but has also apps and computer programs created to assist in the script's adoption.


title: Fula people

text: Central to the Fulani people's lifestyle is a code of behavior known as "pulaaku" (Fulfulde: 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤢𞥄𞤳𞤵) or "laawol Fulɓe" (𞤂𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮𞤤 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤩𞤫) literally meaning the "Fulani pathways" which are passed on by each generation as high moral values of the Fulbe, which enable them to maintain their identity across boundaries and changes of lifestyle. Essentially viewed as what makes a person Fulani, or "Fulaniness", "pulaaku" includes:


title: Fula people

text: There are no particular outfits for all Fulani sub-groups; dressing and clothing accessories such as ornaments mostly depend on the particular region. The traditional dress of the Fulbe Wodaabe consists of long colourful flowing robes, modestly embroidered or otherwise decorated. In the Futa Jallon highlands of central Guinea, it is common to see men wearing a distinctive hat with colorful embroidery. In Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger, men wear a hat that tapers off at three angular tips, known as a "noppiire". Both men and women wear a characteristic white or black cotton fabric gown, adorned with intricate blue, red and green thread embroidery work, with styles differing according to region and sex.


title: Fula people

text: It is not uncommon to see the women decorate their hair with bead hair accessories as well as cowrie shells. Fula women often use henna for hand, arm and feet decorations. Their long hair is put into five long braids that either hang or are sometimes looped on the sides. It is common for women and girls to have silver coins and amber attached to their braids. Some of these coins are very old and have been passed down in the family. The women often wear many bracelets on their wrists. The women can also be seen wearing a colorful cloth ("modjaare") around, the waist, head or over one shoulder.


title: Fula people

text: Like the men, the women have markings on their faces around their eyes and mouths that they were given as children. The Western Fulbe in countries like Mali, Senegal and Mauritania use indigo inks around the mouth, resulting in a blackening around the lips and gums.


title: Fula people

text: Fulani men are often seen wearing solid-colored shirt and pants which go down to their lower calves, made from locally grown cotton, a long cloth wrapped around their faces, and a conical hat made from straw and leather on their turbans, and carrying their walking sticks across their shoulders with their arms resting on top of it. Often the men have markings on either side of their faces and/or on their foreheads. They received these markings as children. Fula ethics are strictly governed by the notion of "pulaaku". Women wear long robes with flowery shawls. They decorate themselves with necklaces, earrings, nose rings and anklets.


title: Fula people

text: Fula are primarily known to be pastoralists, but are also traders in some areas. Most Fula in the countryside spend long times alone on foot, and can be seen frequently parading with their cattle throughout the west African hinterland, moving their herds in search of water and better pasture. They were, and still are, the only major migratory people group of West Africa, although the Tuareg people, another nomadic tribe of North African origin, live just immediately north of Fula territory, and sometimes live alongside the Fulani in countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. The Fulani, as a result of their constant wandering of the past, can be seen in every climatic zone and habitat of West Africa, from the deserts of the north, to the derived savannah and forests of the south.


title: Fula people

text: From the 16th to 20th centuries many Fulani communities settled in the highlands of the Jos Plateau, the Western High Plateau of Bamenda, and Adamawa Plateau of Nigeria and the Cameroons. These are the highest elevated places in West Africa, and their altitude can reach up to 8,700 feet above sea level. The highland plateaus have a more temperate climate conducive for cattle herding activities, which allowed Fulbe populations to settle there in waves of migrations from further west. Though most Fula now live in towns or villages, a large proportion of the population is still either fully nomadic, or semi-nomadic in nature.


title: Fula people

text: Wealth is counted by how large the herd of cattle is. Long ago Fulani tribes and clans used to fight over cattle and grazing rights. Being the most treasured animal that the Fulanis herd, the cows are very special. Many people say that a person cannot speak Fulfulde if he does not own a cow. The Fulani have a tradition of giving a "habbanaya" – a cow which is loaned to another until she calves. Once the calf is weaned it is retained and the cow is returned to its owner. This habbanaya is a highly prized animal. Upon receipt of this gift, there is a special ceremony in honor of the gift. The recipient buys special treats and invites his neighbors for this event in which the habbanaya is given a name. The habbanaya is never to be struck under any circumstance.


title: Fula people

text: Fulani nomads keep various species of cattle, but the zebu is the most common in the West African hinterland, due to its drought resistant traits. In the wetter areas of Fouta Djallon and Casamance, the dwarf N'Dama is more common, as they are highly resistant to trypanosomiasis and other conditions directly associated with high humidity. Subspecies of zebu include the White Fulani cattle, locally known as the Aku, Akuji, Bororoji, White Kano, Yakanaji or Bunaji, which are an important beef breed of cattle found throughout the area owned by both Fulani and Hausa people and beyond in the Sahel zone of Africa.


title: Fula people

text: The Red Fulani cattle, which are called the Jafun in Nigeria and Cameroon, and Fellata in Chad, as well as other names such as the M'Bororo, Red Bororo, or Bodaadi, another subspecies is the "Sokoto Gudali" and the "Adamawa Gudali" or simply "Gudali", which means "horned and short legged" in the Hausa language. The widely accepted theory for the origin of present-day zebu cattle in West Africa is that they came from the westward spread of the early zebu populations in East Africa through the Sudan. Other breeds of zebu are found mainly in the drier regions. Their body conformation resembles the zebu cattle of eastern Africa. The zebu did not appear in West Africa until about 1800. The increasing aridity of the climate and the deterioration of the environment in the Sahel appear to have favoured the introduction and spread of the zebu, as they are superior to longhorn and shorthorn cattle in withstanding drought conditions.


title: Fula people

text: The origins and classification of the Fulani remains controversial; one school of thought is of the opinion that the Fulani cattle are truly long-horned zebus that first arrived in Africa from Asia on the east coast; these are believed to have been introduced into West Africa by Arab invaders during the seventh century, roughly about the same time that the short-horned zebus arrived into East Africa. This theory is supported by the appearance of the skull as well as the thoracic hump of the Fulani cattle.


title: Fula people

text: Another school of thought contends that these cattle originated from the Horn of Africa, present-day Ethiopia and Somalia, and that interbreeding between the short-horned zebu (which arrived in the Horn around the first millennium BC) and the ancient Hamitic Longhorn and/or "B. taurus brachyceros" shorthorn (which had arrived much earlier) occurred in the Horn about 2000–1500 BCE. The subsequent successive introductions of the short-horned zebu are believed to have displaced most sanga cattle into southern Africa.


title: Fula people

text: During this period of constant movement of people and animals within Africa, some of these sanga cattle probably intermixed with the short-horned, thoracic-humped cattle to produce the thoracic-humped sanga. The latter may have migrated, most probably along with the spread of Islam, westerly to constitute what are today the lyre-horned cattle of West and Central Africa, including the Fulani cattle. Originally the White Fulani were indigenous to north Nigeria, southeast Niger and northeast Cameroon, owned by both Fulani and Hausa people. They then spread to southern Chad and western Sudan.


title: Fula people

text: Every year, in the Malian town of Diafarabé, Fulani men cross the Niger River with their cattle, in an annual cycle of transhumance. This annual festival is known in the local Fulfulde as the "Dewgal". Since the founding of the village in 1818, it has always been the most important Fulani festival. It takes place on a Saturday in November or December; the day is carefully chosen based on the state of pastures and the water levels in the river Niger. During the rainy season, the river swells, and the areas around the village are inundated in water, as the level of the river Niger rises, and turns Diafarabe into an island. The cattle are kept on the lush fields up north or south, but when the West African Monsoon subsides and the drier season returns, the water level drops and the cattle can return home again.


title: Fula people

text: The crossing is more than a search for pastures; it is also a competition to show craftsmanship as a herdsmen. The cattle are driven into the river, and each herder, with no help from others, loudly encourages the animals to move forward as he stands or swims between them, holding on to the horns of the bulls. The smaller animals don't have to swim, but are lifted into pirogues. When all the cattle are back, they are judged by a panel, which decides whose animals are the "fattest". That herder is awarded "best caretaker", and he is awarded by the community. The worst caretaker ends up with a shameful "prize" – a peanut.


title: Fula people

text: Besides being a competition of herdsmanship, it is also a social event; the herdsmen return after having been away for the most part of the year and they meet their family and friends again. It is a time for celebration. The women decorate their house with woven mats and paint the floor with white and black clay, braid their hair with very intricate patterns, and dress up for their husbands and loved ones. Impressed by the cultural significance attached to the annual event, UNESCO included it on its list of world cultural heritage events.


title: Fula people

text: The Fula have a rich musical culture and play a variety of traditional instruments including drums, "hoddu" (a plucked skin-covered lute similar to a banjo), and "riti" or "riiti" (a one-string bowed instrument similar to a violin), in addition to vocal music. The well-known Senegalese Fula musician Baaba Maal sings in Pulaar on his recordings. "Zaghareet" or ululation is a popular form of vocal music formed by rapidly moving the tongue sideways and making a sharp, high sound.


title: Fula people

text: Fulani music is as varied as its people. The numerous sub-groups all maintain unique repertoires of music and dance. Songs and dances reflect traditional life and are specifically designed for each individual occasion. Music is played at any occasion: when herding cattle, working in the fields, preparing food, or at the temple. Music is extremely important to the village life cycle, with field cultivation, harvest and winnowing of millet performed to the rhythm of the songs and drums.


title: Fula people

text: Fulani herders have a special affinity for the flute and violin "nianioru". The young Fulani shepherd like to whistle and sing softly as they wander the silent savannah with cattle and goats. The truly Fulani instruments are the one-string viola of the Fulani (nianioru), the flute, the two to five string lute "hoddu" or "molo", and the "buuba" and "bawdi" set of drums. But they are also influenced by the other instruments of the region such as the beautiful West African harp, the kora, and the balafon. Entertainment is the role of certain casts. The performance of music is the realm of specialized casts. The Griots or "Awlube" recite the history of the people, places and events of the community.


title: Fula people

text: can be the general term for both fresh milk and yoghurt known as in Fulfulde. It is central to Fulbe identity and revered as a drink or in one of its various processed forms, such as yoghurt and cheese. and are derived from milk fat, are used in light cooking and hair weaving. It is common to see Fulani women hawking milk products in characteristic beautifully decorated calabashes balanced on their heads. Other meals include a heavy porridge () made of flour from such grains as millet, sorghum, or corn which is eaten in combination with soup (, ) made from tomatoes, onions, spices, peppers, and other vegetables.


title: Fula people

text: Another popular meal eaten by almost all Fulani communities is made from fermenting milk into yoghurt and eaten with corn couscous known as or , either in the same bowl or separately, also a fluid or porridge called made of flour cereals such as millet, sorghum or corn and milk. The Wodaabe traditionally eat millet, milk and meat as staples. Millet is eaten in the morning, noon and night as a grease with a sauce or stew which usually contains tomatoes, peppers, bone, meat, onion, and other vegetables. On special occasions they eat meat such as goat or beef. A thick beverage similar to the Tuareg is made by pounding goat cheese, milk, dates and millet.


title: Fula people

text: Traditionally, nomadic Fula live in domed houses known as a "bukkaru" or "suudu hudo", literally "grass house". During the dry season, the characteristically hemisphere-shaped domed houses are supported by compact millet stalk pillars, and by reed mats held together and tied against wood poles, in the wet or rainy season. These mobile houses are very easy to set up, and dismantle, as typical of houses from nomadic societies. When it is time to move, the houses are easily disassembled and loaded onto donkeys, horses or camels for transport. With recent trends however, many Fula now live in mud or concrete block houses.


title: Fula people

text: Once they are set up, the room is divided into a sleeping compartment, and another compartment where calabashes and guards of all sizes are intricately arranged in a stack according to their sizes and functions. Spoons made from gourda are hung from the rooftop, with others meant for grain storage.


title: Fula people

text: The Fulani people are genetically an admixture of West and East African ancestries, specifically Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan components, but also displaying significant West-Eurasian admixture, associated with Afroasiatic groups from Northern Africa. Affinity was observed to the Chadic-speaking Hausa people. The Fulani are the most wide-spread pastoralist group in the Sahel/Savannah belt.


title: Fula people

text: The paternal lineages of the Fula/Fulɓe/Fulani tend to vary depending on geographic location. According to a study by Cruciani et al. (2002), around 90% of Fulani individuals from Burkina Faso carried haplotype 24, which corresponds with the E-M2 (E1b1a) that is common in West Africa. The remainder belonged to haplotype 42/haplogroup E-M132. Both of these clades are today most frequent among Niger–Congo-speaking populations, particularly those inhabiting Senegal. Similarly, 53% of the Fulani in northern Cameroon bore haplogroup E-M132, with the rest mainly carrying other African clades (12% haplogroup A and 6% haplogroup E1b1a). A significant minority carried the West Eurasian haplogroups T (18%) and R1 (12%), making up together around ~30% of the total haplogroup variation. Mulcare et al. (2004) observed a similar frequency of haplogroup R1 subclades in their Fulani samples from Cameroon (18%).


title: Fula people

text: A study by Hassan et al. (2008) on a Fulani subgroup in Sudan observed a significantly higher occurrence of the West-Eurasian haplogroup R1 (53.8%). The remainder belonged to E-M215 subclades, including 34.62% E-M78 and 27.2% E-V22. Bučková et al. (2013) analyzed various Fulani subgroups, and observed R1b among the Fulani Zinder grouping with a frequency of ~31%. This was in sharp contrast to most of the other Fulani pastoralist groups elsewhere, including those from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali and Chad, which instead had nearly exclusive West African paternal haplogroups.


title: Fula people

text: In contrast to their more heterogeneous paternal lineages, the Fulani have rather homogenous maternal lineages, with close affintity to other Niger-Congo populations. Only 8.1% of their mtDNA clades were associated with West Eurasian or Afro-Asiatic groups (J1b, U5, H, and V):


title: Fula people

text: According to Mark S. Miller, a study of four Fulani nomad populations (n = 186) in three countries in the Sahel (Chad, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso), the only group of nomadic Fulani that manifests some similarities with geographically related agricultural populations (from Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria) comes from Tcheboua in northern Cameroon.


title: Fula people

text: According to Tishkoff et al. (2009), the Fulani's genomic ancestry clusters near that of Chadic and Central Sudanic speaking populations. Based on this, the researchers suggest that the Fulani may have adopted a Niger-Congo language at some point in their history while intermarrying with local populations. Additionally, moderate levels of West Eurasian admixture associated with Afroasiatic groups was also observed among the Fulani samples, which the authors propose may have been introduced via the Iberian Peninsula and Northern Africa.


title: Fula people

text: Triska, Petr et al. (2017) showed that there is extensive admixture across the Sahel Belt, with the Fula carrying West African, East African as well as Mozabite/North African components. These results support the hypothesis of a North African origin and a Western to Central Africa past migration for Fulani.


title: Fula people

text: A full genome analysis was conducted by Vicente et al. in 2019, analyzing several Fulani subgroups from various regions. They found that the Fulani people are characterized by the admixture of local West African, East African, but also significant West-Eurasian admixture, mediated through historical North African groups. The West-Eurasian ancestry among Fulani was estimated to be between 20-30%, with a mean average of 21,4%. According to the authors, there were two admixture events, the first being about 2000 years ago, with the second being more recent at around 300 years ago. They found that: ""Our findings suggest that Eurasian admixture and the European LP allele was introduced into the Fulani through contact with a North African population/s. We furthermore confirm the link between the lactose digestion phenotype in the Fulani to the MCM6/LCT locus by reporting the first GWAS of the lactase persistence trait. e observed a T-13910 allele frequency of 48.0%, while the genome-wide European admixture fraction in the Fulani is 21.4% at K = 3. The notable European admixture fraction in the Fulani coupled with the high frequencies of the LP T-13910 allele suggests the possibility of adaptive gene flow into the Fulani gene pool"".


title: Fula people

text: Another study in 2019 by Fan et al., found that the Fulani show genetic affinity to Afroasiatic-speaking groups which are characterized by predominantly West-Eurasian ancestry, suggesting that the West-Eurasian ancestry among Fulani was contributed by Afroasiatic-speaking groups, or suggesting an ancestral homeland for the Fulani somewhere in North or Eastern Africa, and westwards expansion during the Neolithic period, possibly caused by the arrival and expansion of West-Eurasian pastoralists.


title: Netball

text: Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifically played in schools. Netball is most popularly played in Commonwealth nations.


title: Netball

text: A common misunderstanding of the sport's origins has resulted in the mistaken belief that netball was created to prevent women from playing basketball. However, the sport is the result of Clara Baer's misinterpretation of its rules. Baer had asked James Naismith, the Canadian inventor of basketball, to send her a copy of the rules, and Baer's errors resulted in what marked the beginning of the development of a separate sport.


title: Netball

text: Netball originated in England, UK, in the late 19th century. In the beginning it was described as 'women's basketball' but had emerged as a distinctly separate sport due to its different rules. It was not until the latter half of the 20th century that the name "netball" became the sport's commonly referred name. Netball differs greatly from its 'sister' sport of women's basketball because it bars dribbling, bouncing, and running while in possession of the ball. In addition, netball not only identifies the different positions of its players, but also defines where and in which areas of the court specific players are allowed to be when they compete. As a consequence, netball more heavily emphasizes accurate passing and positioning than basketball and physical player contact is more controlled.


title: Netball

text: Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960, international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball, later renamed World Netball, was formed. World Netball comprises more than 70 national teams organized into five global regions.


title: Netball

text: According to the sport's international governing body, World Netball, the sport is played by more than 20 million people in more than 80 countries. Major domestic leagues in the sport include the Netball Superleague in Great Britain, Suncorp Super Netball in Australia and the ANZ Premiership in New Zealand. Four major competitions take place internationally: the quadrennial World Netball Championships, the Commonwealth Games, and the yearly Quad Series and Fast5 Series.


title: Netball

text: In 1995, netball became an International Olympic Committee recognised sport federation, but it has not been played at the Olympics.


title: Netball

text: Games are played on a rectangular court with raised goal rings at each end. Each team attempts to score goals by passing a ball down the court and shooting it through its goal ring. Players are assigned specific positions, which define their roles within the team and restrict their movement to certain areas of the court. During general play, a player with the ball can hold on to it for only three seconds before shooting for a goal or passing to another player. The winning team is the one that scores the most goals. Netball games are 60 minutes long. Variations have been developed to increase the game's pace and appeal to a wider audience.


title: Netball

text: The objective of a game is to score more goals than the opposition. Goals are scored when a team member positioned in the attacking shooting circle shoots the ball through the goal ring. The goal rings are in diameter and sit atop -high goal posts that have no backboards. A -radius semi-circular "shooting circle" is an area at each end of the court. The goal posts are located within the shooting circle. Each team defends one shooting circle and attacks the other. The netball court is long, wide, and divided lengthwise into thirds. The ball is usually made of leather or rubber, measures in circumference (~ in diameter), and weighs . A normal game consists of four 15-minute quarters and can be played outdoors or in a covered stadium.


title: Netball

text: Each team is allowed seven players on the court. Each player is assigned a specific position, which limits their movement to a certain area of the court. A "bib" worn by each player contains a one- or two-letter abbreviation indicating this position. Only two positions are permitted in the attacking shooting circle, and can therefore shoot for a goal. Similarly, only two positions are permitted in the defensive shooting circle; they try to prevent the opposition from shooting goals. Other players are restricted to two-thirds of the court, with the exception of the centre, who may move anywhere on the court except for a shooting circle.


title: Netball

text: At the beginning of every quarter and after a goal has been scored, play starts with a player in the centre position passing the ball from the centre of the court. These "centre passes" alternate between the teams, regardless of which team scored the last goal. When the umpire blows the whistle to restart play, four players from each team can move into the centre third to receive the pass. The centre pass must be caught or touched in the centre third. The ball is then moved up and down the court through passing and must be touched by a player in each adjacent third of the court. Players can hold the ball for only three seconds at any time. It must be released before the foot they were standing on when they caught it touches the ground again. Contact between players is only permitted if it does not impede an opponent or the general play. When defending a pass or shot players must be at least away from the player with the ball. If illegal contact is made, the player who contacted cannot participate in play until the player taking the penalty has passed or shot the ball. If the ball is held in two hands and either dropped or a shot at goal is missed, the same player cannot be the first to touch it unless it first rebounds off the goal.


title: Netball

text: Netball's early development emerged from Clara Baer's misinterpretation of the early rules of James Naismith's new sport of basketball and eventually evolved into its own sport. Basketball was invented in 1891 by Naismith in the United States. The game was initially played indoors between two teams of nine players, using an association football that was thrown into closed-end peach baskets. Naismith's game spread quickly across the United States and variations of the rules soon emerged. At the same time, physical education instructor Senda Berenson developed modified rules for women in 1892. Berenson's rules eventually gave rise to women's basketball, and separate intercollegiate rules for basketball for men and women developed around the same time. However, though related to basketball's early formation period, netball emerged as an entirely separate sport.


title: Netball

text: Clara Baer was a sports teacher living in New Orleans when she wrote to Naismith asking for a copy of the rules for his game of basketball. Once she received them, they included a diagram of the court with lines across it which were meant to show the areas various players could best patrol. However, Baer misinterpreted the lines and believed they marked out restricted areas of play which players could not leave. Her mistake marks the beginning of netball. Baer's version for the rules of women’s basketball defined these areas as restricted zones, an error which then became ratified into the rules for women’s basketball in 1899 and proliferated.


title: Netball

text: Martina Bergman-Österberg introduced a version of basketball in 1893 to her female students at the Physical Training College in Hampstead, London. The rules of the game were modified at the college over several years: the game moved outdoors and was played on grass; the baskets were replaced by rings that had nets; and in 1897 and 1899, rules from women's basketball in the United States were incorporated. Österberg's new sport acquired the name "net ball". The first codified rules of netball were published in 1901 by the Ling Association, later the Physical Education Association of the United Kingdom. From England, netball spread to other countries in the British Empire. Variations of the rules and even names for the sport arose in different areas: "women's (outdoor) basketball" arrived in Australia around 1900 and in New Zealand from 1906, while "netball" was being played in Jamaican schools by 1909.


title: Netball

text: From the start, it was considered socially appropriate for women to play netball; netball's restricted movement appealed to contemporary notions of women's participation in sports, and the sport was distinct from potential rival male sports. Netball became a popular women's sport in countries where it was introduced and spread rapidly through school systems. School leagues and domestic competitions emerged during the first half of the 20th century, and in 1924 the first national governing body was established in New Zealand. International competition was initially hampered by a lack of funds and varying rules in different countries. Australia hosted New Zealand in the first international game of netball in Melbourne on 20 August 1938; Australia won 40–11. Efforts began in 1957 to standardise netball rules globally: by 1960 international playing rules had been standardised, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball, later the International Netball Federation (INF), was formed to administer the sport worldwide.


title: Netball

text: Representatives from England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the West Indies were part of a 1960 meeting in Sri Lanka that standardised the rules for the game. The game spread to other African countries in the 1970s. South Africa was prohibited from competing internationally from 1969 to 1994 due to apartheid. In the United States, Netball's popularity also increased during the 1970s, particularly in the New York area, and the United States of America Netball Association was created in 1992. The game also became popular in the Pacific Island nations of the Cook Islands, Fiji and Samoa during the 1970s. Netball Singapore was created in 1962, and the Malaysian Netball Association was created in 1978.


title: Netball

text: In Australia, the term "women's basketball" was used to refer to both netball and basketball. During the 1950s and 1960s, a movement arose to change the Australian name of the game from "women's basketball" to "netball" in order to avoid confusion between the two sports. The Australian Basketball Union offered to pay the costs involved to alter the name, but the netball organisation rejected the change. In 1970, the Council of the All Australia Netball Association officially changed the name to "netball" in Australia.


title: Netball

text: In 1963, the first international tournament was held in Eastbourne, England. Originally called the World Tournament, it later became known as the World Netball Championships. Following the first tournament, one of the organisers, Miss R. Harris, declared,


title: Netball

text: The World Netball Championships have been held every four years since then. The World Youth Netball Championships started in Canberra in 1988, and have been held roughly every four years since. In 1995, the International Olympic Committee recognized the International Federation of Netball Associations. Three years later netball debuted at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. Other international competitions also emerged in the late 20th century, including the Nations Cup and the Asian Netball Championship.


title: Netball

text: The sport was created for girls and women and remains most popular among this demographic, with women's netball at elite and national levels receiving outside funding. Though male netball teams exist in some areas, men's and mixed-sex teams are largely self-funded. Men's netball started to grow in Australia during the 1980s, with the first men's championship being held in 1985. Other countries with men's national teams include Canada, Fiji, Jamaica, Kenya, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.


title: Netball

text: In 2004, New Zealand and Fiji sent teams to compete in the Australian Mixed and Men's National Championships. By 2006, mixed netball teams in Australia had as many male participants as rugby union.


title: Netball

text: An all-transgender netball team from Indonesia competed at the 1994 Gay Games in New York City. The team had been the Indonesian national champions.


title: Netball

text: At the Gay Games VI in Sydney in 2000, netball and volleyball were the two sports with the highest rates of transgender athletes participating. There were eight teams of indigenous players, with seven identifying as transgender. They came from places like Palm Island in northern Queensland, Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea. Teams with transgender players were allowed to participate in several divisions including men's, mixed and transgender; they were not allowed to compete against women's teams.


title: Netball

text: Indoor netball is a variation of netball, played exclusively indoors, in which the playing court is often surrounded on each side and overhead by a net. The net prevents the ball from leaving the court, permitting faster play by reducing playing stoppages.


title: Netball

text: Different forms of indoor netball exist. In a seven-per-side version called "action netball", seven players per team play with rules similar to netball. However, a game is split into 15-minute halves with a three-minute break in between. This version is played in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and England.


title: Netball

text: A six-per-side version of the sport is also played in New Zealand. Two Centres per team can play in the whole court except the shooting circles; the remaining attacking and defending players are each restricted to one half of the court, including the shooting circles. The attacking and Centre players may shoot from outside the shooting circle for a two-point goal.


title: Netball

text: A five-per-side game is also common in indoor netball. Players can move throughout the court, with the exception of the shooting circles, which are restricted to certain attacking or defending players.


title: Netball

text: Fast5 (originally called Fastnet) is a variation on the rules of netball designed to make games faster and more television-friendly. The World Netball Series promotes it to raise the sport's profile and attract more spectators and greater sponsorship. The game is much shorter, with each quarter lasting only six minutes and only a two-minute break between quarters. The coaches can give instructions from the sideline during play, and unlimited substitutions are allowed. Like six-per-side indoor netball, attacking players may shoot two-point goals from outside the shooting circle. Each team can separately nominate one "power play" quarter, in which each goal scored by that team is worth double points and the centre pass is taken by the team that conceded the goal.


title: Netball

text: Netball has been adapted in several ways to meet children's needs. The rules for children are similar to those for adults, but various aspects of the game (such as the length of each quarter, goal height, and ball size) are modified.


title: Netball

text: Fun Net is a version of netball developed by Netball Australia for five- to seven-year-olds. It aims to improve basic netball skills using games and activities. The Fun Net program runs for 8–16 weeks. There are no winners or losers. The goal posts are high, and a smaller ball is used.


title: Netball

text: Netball Australia also runs a modified game called Netta aimed at 8- to 11-year-olds. The goal height and ball size are the same as for adults, but players rotate positions during the game, permitting each player to play each position. Netta was created to develop passing and catching skills. Its rules permit six seconds between catching and passing the ball, instead of the three seconds permitted in the adult game. Most players under 11 play this version at netball clubs.


title: Netball

text: A version called High Five Netball is promoted by the All England Netball Association. It is aimed at 9- to 11-year-old girls and includes only five positions. The players swap positions during the game. When a player is not on the court, she is expected to help the game in some other way, such as being the timekeeper or scorekeeper. High Five Netball has four six-minute quarters.


title: Netball

text: The recognised international governing body of netball is World Netball, based in Manchester, England. Founded in 1960, the organisation was initially called the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball. The INF is responsible for compiling world rankings for national teams, maintaining the rules for netball and organising several major international competitions.


title: Netball

text: As of July 2019, the INF has 53 full and 19 associate national members in five regions. Each region has an INF regional federation.


title: Netball

text: The INF is affiliated with the General Association of International Sports Federations, the International World Games Association and the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations. It is also a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code.


title: Netball

text: Netball was introduced to Canada in the early 1960s, a period when the organization of civic, municipal, and community recreational sports programs was a new emerging field. The first time organized Netball games are known to have taken place in Canada dates back to Montréal, Quebec, in 1962. Netball held its first international competition a year later in 1963, now called the "Netball World Cup", in Eastbourne, England. The Ontario Amateur Netball Association, now known as "Netball Ontario" (NBO), was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization on August 9, 1974. The first national Canadian netball championship was held in 1975 and is now known as the Netball Canada National Championships. Today, Netball in Canada is mainly played in Québec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.


title: Netball

text: In 1996, Canada hosted the third World Youth Netball Championships, which is now known as the Netball World Youth Cup.


title: Netball

text: Netball is a popular participant sport in countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. Non-Commonwealth entities with full IFNA membership include Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Argentina, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the United States, along with former Commonwealth members Zimbabwe, Ireland and Hong Kong. According to the IFNA, over 20 million people play netball in more than 80 countries. International tournaments are held among countries in each of the five IFNA regions, either annually or every four years. School leagues and national club competitions have been organised in England, Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica since the early twentieth century. Franchise-based netball leagues did not emerge until the late 1990s. These competitions sought to increase the profile of the sport in their respective countries. Despite widespread local interest, participation was largely amateur.


title: Netball

text: Netball was first included in the 1998 Commonwealth Games and has been included ever since; it is currently one of the "core" sports that must be contested at each edition of the Games.


title: Netball

text: The Confederation of African Netball Associations organises a major African tournament, which invites teams from Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, South Africa, Kenya, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and the Seychelles to take part. The tournament is hosted by a country within the region; senior and under 21 teams compete. The tournament has served as a qualifier for the World Championships. South Africa launched a new domestic competition in 2011 called Netball Grand Series. It features eight regional teams from South Africa and is aimed at increasing the amount of playing time for players. It runs for 17 weeks and replaces the National Netball League, which was played over only two weeks. According to Proteas captain Elsje Jordaan, it was hoped that the competition would create an opportunity for players to become professional.


title: Netball

text: The Americas Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA) hosts two tournaments each year: the Caribbean Netball Association (CNA) Under 16 Championship and the AFNA Senior Championship. The CNA championship involves two divisions of teams from the Caribbean islands. In 2010 five teams competed in two rounds of round robin matches in the Championship Division, while four teams competed in the Developmental Division. Jamaica, which has lost only once in the tournament, decided not to play the 2011 tournament. The AFNA Senior Championship includes Canada and the US along with the Caribbean nations. The tournament serves as a qualifier for the World Championship. Jamaica, with its high ranking, does not have to qualify; this leaves two spots to the other teams in the tournament.


title: Netball

text: The Asian Netball Championship is held every four years. The seventh Asian games were held in 2009 and featured Singapore, Thailand, Maldives, Taiwan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, India and Pakistan. There is also an Asian Youth Netball Championship for girls under 21 years of age, the seventh of which was held in 2010.


title: Netball

text: The major netball competition in Europe is the Netball Superleague, which features teams from England, Wales and Scotland. The league was created in 2005. Matches are broadcast on Sky Sports.


title: Netball

text: Netball has been featured at the Pacific Games, a multi-sport event with participation from 22 countries from around the South Pacific. The event is held every four years and has 12 required sports; the host country chooses the other four. Netball is not a required sport and has missed selection, particularly when former French or American territories host the games.


title: Netball

text: The ANZ Championship was a Trans-Tasman competition held between 2008 and 2016 that was broadcast on television in both New Zealand and Australia. It was contested among ten teams from Australia and New Zealand. It began in April 2008, succeeding Australia's Commonwealth Bank Trophy and New Zealand's National Bank Cup as the pre-eminent netball league in those countries. The competition was held annually between April and July, consisting of 69 matches played over 17 weeks. The ANZ Championship saw netball become a semi-professional sport in both countries, with increased media coverage and player salaries. The competition was replaced by new leagues in 2017, the Suncorp Super Netball (Australia) and ANZ Premiership (New Zealand).


title: Netball

text: There are four major international netball competitions; the Netball World Cup, Netball at the Commonwealth Games, Netball Quad Series and Fast5 Netball World Series. Netball is also played at large regional multi-sport events such as the Southeast Asian Games.


title: Netball

text: Netball's important competition is the World Netball Championships (also known as the Netball World Cup), held every four years. It was first held in 1963 at the Chelsea College of Physical Education at Eastbourne, England, with eleven nations competing. Since its inception the competition has been dominated primarily by the Australian and New Zealand teams, which hold ten and four titles, respectively. Trinidad and Tobago is the only other team to win a championship title. That title, won in 1979, was shared with New Zealand and Australia; all three teams finished with equal points at the end of the round robin, and there were no finals.


title: Netball

text: The Fast5 Series is a competition among the top six national netball teams, as ranked by the INF World Rankings. It is organised by the INF in conjunction with the national governing bodies of the six competing nations, UK Sport, and the host city's local council. The All England Netball Association covers air travel, accommodation, food and local travel expenses for all teams, while the respective netball governing bodies cover player allowances. It is held over three days, with each team playing each other once during the first two days in a round-robin format. The four highest-scoring teams advance to the semi-finals; the winners face each other in the Grand Final. The competition features modified fastnet rules and has been likened to Twenty20 cricket and rugby sevens. A new format featuring shorter matches with modified rules was designed to make the game more appealing to spectators and television audiences. The World Netball Series was held annually in England from 2009 to 2011.


title: Netball

text: Netball's governing federation gained Olympic recognition in 1995 after 20 years of lobbying. Although it has never been played at the Summer Olympics, politicians and administrators have been campaigning unsuccessfully to have it included. Its absence from the Olympics has been seen by the netball community as a hindrance in the global growth of the game by limiting access to media attention and funding sources. Some funding sources became available with recognition in 1995, including the International Olympic Committee, national Olympic committees, national sport organisations, and state and federal governments.


title: Netball

text: One study found that over 14 weeks of play about 5% of people develop an injury. The most common injury is of the ankle (usually lateral ligament ankle strain and less often an ankle fracture). Knee injuries were less common and included anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. The main cause of these injuries is believed to be due to incorrect landing. One study found not warming up as a risk factor. Hypermobility (having a range of motion beyond normal limits) has been associated with injuries in one small study. Higher grade players, in both senior and junior competitions, are more susceptible to injuries than lower grade players, due to the high intensity and rapid pace of the game.


title: Netball

text: In October 2005, Australian captain Liz Ellis tore her ACL in a match against New Zealand. This injury ruled her out of the chance to play at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth games. In October 2014, Casey Kopua ruptured the patellar tendon in her left knee, resulting in her missing up to six months of netball.


title: WHO Model List of Essential Medicines

text: The WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (aka Essential Medicines List or EML), published by the World Health Organization (WHO), contains the medications considered to be most effective and safe to meet the most important needs in a health system. The list is frequently used by countries to help develop their own local lists of essential medicines. , more than 155 countries have created national lists of essential medicines based on the World Health Organization's model list. This includes both developed and developing countries.


title: WHO Model List of Essential Medicines

text: The list is divided into core items and complementary items. The core items are deemed to be the most cost-effective options for key health problems and are usable with little additional health care resources. The complementary items either require additional infrastructure such as specially trained health care providers or diagnostic equipment or have a lower cost–benefit ratio. About 25% of items are in the complementary list. Some medications are listed as both core and complementary. While most medications on the list are available as generic products, being under patent does not preclude inclusion.


title: WHO Model List of Essential Medicines

text: The first list was published in 1977 and included 208 medications. The WHO updates the list every two years. There are 306 medications in the 14th list in 2005, 410 in the 19th list in 2015, 433 in the 20th list in 2017, 460 in the 21st list in 2019, and 479 in the 22nd list in 2021. Various national lists contain between 334 and 580 medications.


title: WHO Model List of Essential Medicines

text: A separate list for children up to 12 years of age, known as the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children (EMLc), was created in 2007 and is in its 8th edition. It was created to make sure that the needs of children were systematically considered such as availability of proper formulations. Everything in the children's list is also included in the main list. The list and notes are based on the 19th to 22nd edition of the main list. An α indicates a medicine is on the complementary list. Therapeutic alternatives with similar clinical performance are listed for some medicines and they may be considered for national essential medicines lists.


title: WHO Model List of Essential Medicines

text: Reserve antibiotics are last-resort antibiotics. The final version of the EML antibiotic book was supposed to be published in mid-2022, following the public consultation phase.


title: WHO Model List of Essential Medicines

text: An α indicates the medicine is on the complementary list for which specialized diagnostic or monitoring or training is needed. An item may also be listed as complementary on the basis of higher costs or a less attractive cost-benefit ratio.


title: Poltergeist

text: In ghostlore, a poltergeist ( or ; German for "rumbling ghost" or "noisy spirit") is a type of ghost or spirit that is responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed. Most claims or fictional descriptions of poltergeists show them as being capable of pinching, biting, hitting, and tripping people. They are also depicted as capable of the movement or levitation of objects such as furniture and cutlery, or noises such as knocking on doors. Foul smells are also associated with poltergeist occurrences, as well as spontaneous fires and different electrical issues such as flickering lights.


title: Poltergeist

text: They have traditionally been described as troublesome spirits who haunt a particular person instead of a specific location. Some variation of poltergeist folklore is found in many different cultures. Early claims of spirits that supposedly harass and torment their victims date back to the 1st century, but references to poltergeists became more common in the early 17th century.


title: Poltergeist

text: The word "poltergeist" comes from the German language words "poltern" ("to make sound" and "to rumble") and "Geist" ("ghost" and "spirit"), and the term itself translates as "noisy ghost", "rumble-ghost" or a "loud spirit". A synonym coined by René Sudre is "thorybism", from Greek "θορυβείν" ("to make noise or uproar; throw into confusion").


title: Poltergeist

text: Many claims have been made that poltergeist activity explains strange events (including those by modern self-styled ghost hunters), however their evidence has so far not stood up to scrutiny.


title: Poltergeist

text: Psychical researcher Frank Podmore proposed the 'naughty little girl' theory for poltergeist cases (many of which have seemed to centre on an adolescent, usually a girl). He found that the centre of the disturbance was often a child who was throwing objects around to fool or scare people for attention. Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell says that claimed poltergeist incidents typically originate from "an individual who is motivated to cause mischief". According to Nickell:


title: Poltergeist

text: In the typical poltergeist outbreak, small objects are hurled through the air by unseen forces, furniture is overturned, or other disturbances occur—usually just what could be accomplished by a juvenile trickster determined to plague credulous adults.


title: Poltergeist

text: Time and again in other "poltergeist" outbreaks, witnesses have reported an object leaping from its resting place supposedly on its own, when it is likely that the perpetrator had secretly obtained the object sometime earlier and waited for an opportunity to fling it, even from outside the room—thus supposedly proving he or she was innocent.


title: Poltergeist

text: According to research in anomalistic psychology, claims of poltergeist activity can be explained by psychological factors such as illusion, memory lapses, and wishful thinking. A study (Lange and Houran, 1998) wrote that poltergeist experiences are delusions "resulting from the affective and cognitive dynamics of percipients' interpretation of ambiguous stimuli". Psychologist Donovan Rawcliffe has written that almost all poltergeist cases that have been investigated turned out to be based on trickery, whilst the rest are attributable to psychological factors such as hallucinations.


title: Poltergeist

text: Attempts have also been made to scientifically explain poltergeist disturbances that have not been traced to fraud or psychological factors. Skeptic and magician Milbourne Christopher found that some cases of poltergeist activity can be attributed to unusual air currents, such as a 1957 case on Cape Cod where downdrafts from an uncovered chimney became strong enough to blow a mirror off of a wall, overturn chairs and knock things off shelves.


title: Poltergeist

text: In the 1950s, Guy William Lambert proposed that reported poltergeist phenomena could be explained by the movement of underground water causing stress on houses. He suggested that water turbulence could cause strange sounds or structural movement of the property, possibly causing the house to vibrate and move objects. Later researchers, such as Alan Gauld and Tony Cornell, tested Lambert's hypothesis by placing specific objects in different rooms and subjecting the house to strong mechanical vibrations. They discovered that although the structure of the building had been damaged, only a few of the objects moved a very short distance. The skeptic Trevor H. Hall criticized the hypothesis claiming if it was true "the building would almost certainly fall into ruins." According to Richard Wiseman the hypothesis has not held up to scrutiny.


title: Poltergeist

text: Michael Persinger has theorized that seismic activity could cause poltergeist phenomena. However, Persinger's claims regarding the effects of environmental geomagnetic activity on paranormal experiences have not been independently replicated and, like his findings regarding the God helmet, may simply be explained by the suggestibility of participants.


title: Poltergeist

text: David Turner, a retired physical chemist, suggested that ball lightning might cause the "spooky movement of objects blamed on poltergeists."


title: Poltergeist

text: Parapsychologists Nandor Fodor and William G. Roll suggested that poltergeist activity can be explained by psychokinesis.


title: Poltergeist

text: Historically, malicious spirits were blamed for poltergeist activity. According to Allan Kardec, the founder of Spiritism, poltergeists are manifestations of disembodied spirits of low level, belonging to the sixth class of the third order. Under this explanation, they are believed to be closely associated with the elements (fire, air, water, earth). In Finland, somewhat famous are the case of the "Mäkkylä Ghost" in 1946, which received attention in the press at the time, and the "Devils of Martin" in Ylöjärvi in the late 19th century, for which affidavits were obtained in court. Samuli Paulaharju has also recorded a memoir of a typical poltergeist, the case of "Salkko-Niila", from the south of Lake Inari in his book "Memoirs of Lapland" ("Lapin muisteluksia"). The story has also been published in the collection of "Mythical Stories" ("Myytillisiä tarinoita") edited by Lauri Simonsuuri.


title: Poltergeist

text: Psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung was interested in the concept of poltergeists and the occult in general. Jung believed that a female cousin's trance states were responsible for a dining table splitting in two and his later discovery of a broken bread knife. Jung also believed that when a bookcase gave an explosive cracking sound during a meeting with Sigmund Freud in 1909, he correctly predicted there would be a second sound, speculating that such phenomena were caused by 'exteriorization' of his subconscious mind. Freud disagreed, and concluded there was some natural cause. Freud biographers maintain the sounds were likely caused by the wood of the bookcase contracting as it dried out.


title: The Mindy Project

text: The Mindy Project is an American romantic comedy television series created by and starring Mindy Kaling that began airing on Fox in September 2012 and finished its run of six seasons on Hulu in November 2017. The series was co-produced by Universal Television and 3 Arts Entertainment.


title: The Mindy Project

text: The series follows obstetrician/gynecologist, Mindy Lahiri (Mindy Kaling) as she tries to balance her personal and professional life, surrounded by quirky co-workers in a small medical practice in New York City. The character was inspired by Kaling's own mother, an OB/GYN. Mindy explores life with the help of her co-workers: Danny Castellano (Chris Messina), her best friend and love interest, whose religious sensibilities occasionally cause some tension; Jeremy Reed, an English physician who manages the practice; Peter Prentice, another physician who was a fraternity jock while attending Dartmouth; Morgan Tookers, a wacky, yet lovable registered nurse and an ex-con; Tamra Webb, a blunt nurse; and Beverley, the libidinous older office receptionist.


title: The Mindy Project

text: The series was initially commissioned by NBC, but the pilot with the working title "It's Messy" was released from NBC's projects on January 27, 2012. NBC then sent the script to Fox executives who read it over that following weekend. On January 30, 2012, Fox green-lit the pilot, with Mindy Kaling attached to star.


title: The Mindy Project

text: On May 9, 2012, Fox placed a series order for the comedy. Two days later, the title was changed from "It's Messy" to "The Mindy Project." On August 27, 2012, the pilot episode was made available to view online on various sites including Fox, in an attempt to garner interest in the series. On October 8, 2012, Fox ordered a full season of "The Mindy Project". On March 4, 2013, the series was renewed for a second season, which began on September 17, 2013. On November 21, 2013, Fox announced that "The Mindy Project" would take a mid-season hiatus, before returning on April 1, 2014. Fox announced the third season renewal of "The Mindy Project" on March 7, 2014.


title: The Mindy Project

text: On May 6, 2015, Fox cancelled the series after three seasons. On May 15, 2015, Hulu picked up the show, commissioning a 26 episode fourth season. On May 4, 2016, Hulu announced it had picked up the series for a 16-episode season 5, which was later reduced to 14. On March 29, 2017, Kaling announced the series would return for a sixth and final season; the final episode of the series aired on November 14, 2017.


title: The Mindy Project

text: Casting announcements for the remaining series regular roles began in February 2012, with Ed Weeks cast in the role of Dr. Jeremy Reed, a sexy, British doctor in the practice. Zoe Jarman and Dana Delorenzo then joined in series regular roles. Jarman signed on to play Betsy Putch, an upbeat receptionist at the practice; whilst Delorenzo joined as Shauna Dicanio, a young, party loving receptionist in the practice. In mid-March, Chris Messina joined the cast as Dr. Danny Castellano, an arrogant doctor who works at the practice. Shortly after, Anna Camp boarded the series as Gwen Grandy, a stay-at-home mom and Mindy's best friend.


title: The Mindy Project

text: A few months later, Amanda Setton, Stephen Tobolowsky and Ike Barinholtz joined the series. Setton replaced Dana DeLorenzo in the role of Shauna; Tobolowsky joined in the series regular role of Dr. Marc Shulman, the senior partner of the practice; and Barinholtz signed onto the recurring role of Morgan Tookers, a quirky rehabilitated ex-con who joins the practice as a nurse.


title: The Mindy Project

text: The first change occurred when Stephen Tobolowsky's role was eliminated after the second episode – following re-shoots that saw his character be re-written into a mere authoritarian figure in the office – when it was decided that "they didn't really want Mindy to have a boss in the office". Tobolowsky returned, albeit in a voice-over only role, in the eighth episode to explain that his character had retired. The second change of the season, which was first reported on November 20, 2012, saw Amanda Setton's role also eliminated entirely and Anna Camp downgraded to a recurring cast member. They both departed after the twelfth episode. Despite becoming a recurring cast member, Camp only made a single appearance in the seventeenth episode. Neither Setton or Camp's characters had their absence referenced, nor were they mentioned again.


title: The Mindy Project

text: The first change for the second season, which occurred before production of the season began, saw Xosha Roquemore upgraded to a series regular role after recurring in the final three episodes of the previous season. The second change, which occurred just prior to the production of the season's fifth episode, resulted in Adam Pally also being upgraded to a series regular role. He had previously signed onto the series in a recurring role but had filmed only two episodes prior to being promoted.


title: The Mindy Project

text: The first change of the third season occurred prior to the start of production and saw Zoe Jarman's role eliminated from the show. Like Setton and Camp's departures in the first season, the absence of her character was never addressed. The second cast change of the season was announced on November 21, 2014, and saw Adam Pally leave the series after the season's thirteenth episode. His departure after the thirteenth episode of the season was a condition of his upgrade to a series regular that had occurred the previous year. It was reported that Pally is "expected to make occasional guest appearances". Pally made multiple guest appearances after his departure, where he was still credited amongst the regular cast in episodes he appeared, making his final appearance as a part of the main cast in the third-season finale.


title: The Mindy Project

text: In December 2015 it was reported that Fortune Feimster had been upgraded to a series regular role beginning with the fourteenth episode of the fourth season, after appearing in seven of the first thirteen episodes. Garret Dillahunt joined the show in a major recurring role as Dr. Jody Kimball-Kinney.


title: The Mindy Project

text: In June 2016, it was announced that Chris Messina would not be returning as a series regular for season five, but will instead appear as a guest star.


title: The Mindy Project

text: "The Mindy Project" received positive reviews from critics, with many highlighting Kaling's performance and her unique character, as well as the writing and directing. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has a rating of 81%, based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""The Mindy Project" is such a charming comedy, led by Mindy Kaling's impressive talent, that its faults are easy to forgive." Review aggregation website Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean based on reviews from mainstream critics, season one received a score of 69 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". It was the number-six best-reviewed show according to the site's fall 2012 season.


title: The Mindy Project

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, Season 2 has a rating of 89%, based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Mindy Kaling earns consistent laughs with wit, charm and physical comedy, as she and her cast grow into well-rounded and familiar, albeit peculiar, characters." On Metacritic, the second season has a score of 55 out of 100, based on four critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Season 3 of the show holds a rating of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes with the critical consensus reading, ""The Mindy Project", while still wildly funny, travels further into rom-com country this season."


title: The Mindy Project

text: Season 4 of the show holds a rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes with the critical consensus reading, ""The Mindy Project" begins its online migration with some of the show's best-ever episodes, further refining the balance between heart and humor struck during the first three seasons." On Metacritic the season has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: The Mindy Project

text: "The Mindy Project" has been the object of scrutiny not only from traditional media forms but also from feminists and people of color, who often weigh in on the show's decisions in casting and writing. At the end of the first season, Jezebel posted an article called "Mindy Kaling Only Makes Out with White Guys", a critique of the casting of romantic leads on the show. The same article contains a response from Nisha Chittal, who has defended Kaling's success in the past, who applauded the show for not making Kaling's race central to her character, and for showing that an Indian woman could date non-Indian men.


title: The Mindy Project

text: During the second season, the episode "Mindy Lahiri Is a Racist," which addresses white supremacy, provoked discussion as to whether or not Kaling had made "reparations" for showing a predominantly white cast.


title: The Mindy Project

text: Before the third season began airing, Kaling received criticism for a comment in a "Flare" article entitled "She's the Boss", in which she stated that the show would not address abortion, as "it would be demeaning to the topic to talk about it in a half-hour sitcom." In an appearance on "The Colbert Report" two weeks later, she clarified:


title: The Mindy Project

text: A lot of women look to me and look to the show, and they want me to be a spokesperson for a lot of issues, and I actually think that's a responsibility that's cool, I want to live up to that ... I want to be able to talk plainly on things but I also want to create an entertaining show. We haven't found a hilarious take on abortion that has not been done yet—but we might. I have faith in us.Contrasting with the above criticism, a 2021 "Feminist Media Studies"' article titled "Un/accented: the politics of difference in US popular culture" argues that some of the criticism that "The Mindy Project" received, regarding the predominately white love interests or absence of Indian cultural reference, is not necessarily an issue for Kaling to address but rather indicative of how critics and journalists only see Kaling's work through surface level analysis and how many non-white bodies are present instead of what the work is actually critiquing through dialogue or plot.


title: Groundhog Day

text: Groundhog Day (, , , ; Nova Scotia: Daks Day) is a popular North American tradition observed in the United States and Canada on February 2. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and sees its shadow due to clear weather, it will retreat to its den, and winter will go on for six more weeks; if it does not see its shadow because of cloudiness, spring will arrive early.


title: Groundhog Day

text: While the tradition remains popular in the 21st century, studies have found no consistent association between a groundhog seeing its shadow and the subsequent arrival time of spring-like weather.


title: Groundhog Day

text: The weather lore was brought from German-speaking areas where the badger () is the forecasting animal. This appears to be an enhanced version of the lore that clear weather on the Christian festival of Candlemas forebodes a prolonged winter.


title: Groundhog Day

text: The Groundhog Day ceremony held at Punxsutawney in western Pennsylvania, centering on a semi-mythical groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil, has become the most frequently attended ceremony. "Grundsow Lodges" in Pennsylvania Dutch Country in the southeastern part of the state observe the occasion as well. Other cities in the United States and Canada also have adopted the event.


title: Groundhog Day

text: The Pennsylvania Dutch were immigrants from German-speaking areas of Europe. The Germans had a tradition of marking Candlemas (February 2) as "Badger Day" ("Dachstag"), on which if a badger emerging from its den encountered a sunny day, thereby casting a shadow, it presaged four more weeks of winter.


title: Groundhog Day

text: Candlemas is a primarily Catholic festival but also known in the German Protestant (Lutheran) churches. In folk religion, various traditions and superstitions continue to be linked with the holiday, although this was discouraged by the Protestant Reformers in the 16th century. Notably, several traditions akin to weather lores use the weather at Candlemas to predict the start of spring.


title: Groundhog Day

text: The weather-predicting animal on Candlemas usually was the badger, although regionally the animal was the bear or the fox. The original weather-predicting animal in Germany had been the bear, another hibernating mammal, but when they grew scarce, the lore became altered.


title: Groundhog Day

text: Similarity to the groundhog lore has been noted for the German formula: "Sonnt sich der Dachs in der Lichtmeßwoche, so geht er auf vier Wochen wieder zu Loche" ("If the badger sunbathes during Candlemas-week, for four more weeks he will be back in his hole"). A slight variant is found in a collection of weather lore ("", lit. "farmers' rules") printed in Austria in 1823.


title: Groundhog Day

text: The Pennsylvanians maintained the same tradition as the Germans on Groundhog Day, except that winter's spell would be prolonged for six weeks instead of four. For the Pennsylvania Dutch, the badger became the "dox", which in Deitsch referred to "groundhog".


title: Groundhog Day

text: The standard term for "groundhog" was "grun'daks" (from German "dachs"), with the regional variant in York County being "grundsau", a direct translation of the English name, according to a 19th-century book on the dialect. The form was a regional variant according to one 19th-century source. However, the weather superstition that begins "Der zwet Hær'ning is Grund'sau dåk. Wânn di grundsau îr schâtte sent..." ("February second is Groundhog day. If the groundhog sees its shadow...") is given as common to all fourteen counties in Dutch Pennsylvania Country, in a 1915 monograph.


title: Groundhog Day

text: In "The Thomas R. Brendle Collection of Pennsylvania German Folklore", Brendle preserved the following lore from the local Pennsylvania German dialect:


title: Groundhog Day

text: Wann der Dachs sei Schadde seht im Lichtmess Marye, dann geht er widder in's Loch un beleibt noch sechs Woche drin. Wann Lichtmess Marye awwer drieb is, dann bleibt der dachs haus un's watt noch enanner Friehyaahr. (When the groundhog sees his shadow on the morning of February 2, he will again go into his hole and remain there for six weeks. But if the morning of February 2 is overcast, the groundhog will remain outside and there will be another spring.)


title: Groundhog Day

text: The form "grundsow" has been used by the lodge in Allentown and elsewhere. Brendle also recorded the name "Grundsaudag" (Groundhog day in Lebanon County) and "Daxdaag" (Groundhog day in Northampton County).


title: Groundhog Day

text: "...it was the second of February, that ancient Candlemas-day whose treacherous sun, the precursor of six weeks of cold, inspired Matthew Laensberg with the two lines, which have deservedly become classic:


title: Groundhog Day

text: – Hugo, Victor. "Les Misérables." Trans. Fahnestock and MacAfee, based on Wilbour. Signet Classics, NY, 1987. p. 725.


title: Groundhog Day

text: The groundhog was once also known by the obsolete Latin alias "Arctomys monax". The genus name signified "bear-rat". The European marmot is of the same genus and was formerly called "Arctomys alpinus". It was speculated that the European counterpart might have lore similar to the groundhog attached to it.