title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: "Eucalyptus regnans" is widely known as the mountain ash, due to the resemblance of its wood to that of the northern hemisphere ash ("Fraxinus"). Swamp gum is a name given to it in Tasmania, as well as stringy gum in northern Tasmania. Other common names include white mountain ash, giant ash, stringy gum, swamp gum and Tasmanian oak. Von Mueller called it the "Giant gum-tree" and "Spurious blackbutt" in his 1888 "Key to the System of Victorian Plants". The timber has been known as "Tasmanian oak", because early settlers likened the strength of its wood that of English oak ("Quercus robur").


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: The brown barrel ("Eucalyptus fastigata") is a close relative of mountain ash, with the two sharing the rare trait in eucalypts of paired inflorescences arising from axillary buds. Botanist Ian Brooker classified the two in the series "Regnantes". The latter species differs in having brown fibrous bark all the way up its trunk, and was long classified as a subspecies of "E. regnans". The series lies in the section "Eucalyptus" of the subgenus "Eucalyptus" within the genus "Eucalyptus".


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Genetic testing across its range of chloroplast DNA by Paul Nevill and colleagues yielded 41 haplotypes, divided broadly into Victorian and Tasmanian groups, but also showing distinct profiles for some areas such as East Gippsland, and north-eastern and south-eastern Tasmania, suggesting the species had persisted in these areas during the Last Glacial Maximum and recolonised others. There was some sharing of haplotypes between populations of the Otway Ranges and north-western Tasmania, suggesting this was the most likely area for gene flow between the mainland and Tasmania in the past. Further analysis of the same chloroplast genetic markers by researchers at The Australian National University suggests that there is more natural haplotype diversity in the Central Highlands of Victoria than previously observed. More recently, next-generation sequencing of nuclear DNA identified very little population genetic structure throughout the range of the species, with a considerable proportion of the entire species genetic variation found within any given population of mountain ash. This suggests that gene flow is likely to be occurring over long distances, and that the lengthy generation times of the species has precluded the development of substantial genetic differentiation between Tasmania and the mainland.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Genome-wide sequencing of numerous mountain ash populations suggests that hybridisation with messmate ("Eucalyptus obliqua") occurs frequently, with all populations currently studied having at least one hybrid individual present. In many cases these hybrids show no obvious morphological signs of hybridisation, although some individuals do show intermediate phenotypes in characteristics such as the oil gland density in leaves and the structure and height of rough bark on the trunk. Morphology is generally now considered to be a poor method of identifying hybrid individuals as it does not always accurately reflect the genetic makeup of an individual. A good example of this is a population of purported mountain ash on Wilson's Promontory in Victoria, which are morphologically more similar to mountain ash but genetically much more closely related to messmate. Other populations with high levels of hybridisation include those on Bruny Island and the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania. It is not surprising that the populations with the highest level of hybridisation occur on islands, promontories and peninsulas, as these areas are likely to occur on the edge of the ecological niche of mountain ash, and the small patches of mountain ash still remaining at these sites are probably experiencing pollen swamping from the more dominant messmate trees. Hybrids between mountain ash and red stringybark ("Eucalyptus macrorhyncha") have been observed in the Cathedral Range in Victoria. These trees resemble mountain ash in appearance though they lack the paired inflorescences, and have the oil composition of red stringybark.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: "Eucalyptus regnans" occurs across a 700 km by 500 km region in the southern Australian states of Victoria and Tasmania. The species grows mostly in cool, mountainous areas that receive rainfall over per year. "E. regnans" reaches its highest elevations of about ASL on the Errinundra Plateau in north-eastern Victoria, and its lowest elevations near sea-level in some southern parts of its Tasmanian distribution.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: In Victoria, stands of tall trees are found in the Otway, Dandenong, Yarra and Strzelecki ranges as well as Mount Disappointment and East Gippsland. However, the distribution is much reduced. Most of the "E. regnans" forest across Gippsland was cleared for farmland between 1860 and 1880, and in the Otway Ranges between 1880 and 1900, while severe bushfires hit in 1851, 1898 and 1939. In Tasmania, "E. regnans" is found in the Huon and Derwent River valleys in the southeast of the state.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: In the Otways, the species is found in wet forest in pure stands or growing in association with mountain grey gum ("Eucalyptus cypellocarpa"), messmate ("E. obliqua") and Victorian blue gum ("E. globulus" subsp. "bicostata"). Other trees it grows with include manna gum ("Eucalyptus viminalis"), shining gum ("E. nitens"), myrtle beech ("Nothofagus cunninghamii") and silver wattle ("Acacia dealbata") The mountain ash-dominated forest can be interspersed with rainforest understory, with such species as southern sassafras ("Atherosperma moschatum"), celery-top pine ("Phyllocladus aspleniifolius"), leatherwood ("Eucryphia lucida") and horizontal ("Anodopetalum biglandulosum"). The mountain ash is most suited to deep friable clay loam soils, often of volcanic origin; in areas of poorer soils, it can be confined to watercourses and valleys.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: "Eucalyptus regnans" is a very fast growing tree, with mean height growth rates in young (< 22 years old) stands ranging from to per year. In fact, some individuals grow at more than per year for the first 20 years of their lives. However, growth rates slow with age, and eventually turn negative as old trees senesce and the tops of the canopy are damaged in high winds, lightning strikes or during fires. Mean tree height after 8 years is about 15 m, and after 22 years is about 33 m. After 50 years, trees are typically about tall. In young stands (< 22 years old), mean stem diameter growth is approximately 0.8 to 2 cm per year, with half of the total stem diameter growth occurring in the first 90 years of life.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: A number of environmental factors influence the growth and maturation of "E. regnans", with research showing that the amount of incident solar radiation is positively associated with height and stem diameter growth, and that the amount of sunlight received is strongly negatively correlated with the level of precipitation (although all areas studied still received more than of rainfall).


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: In the absence of disturbance events such as high-intensity fire, individual trees can survive for hundreds of years, with the oldest known individuals identified as being 500 years old. Historically, low-frequency and high-intensity wildfires (ignited by lightning strikes) would prevent many stands from reaching this age, with fires killing mature overstorey trees and a new cohort developing from canopy-stored seedbanks. Despite this, natural variation in the spatial scale and frequency of wildfires meant that 30-60% of pre-European "E. regnans" forests would have been considered old growth (e.g. with living trees more than 120 years old). In addition, studies of older "E. regnans" forests have shown that low-intensity fires lead to the development of younger cohorts of trees without killing the parent trees, which leads to the presence of multiple age classes in old-growth forests.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: As "E. regnans" forests mature, they start to develop characteristics that are representative of old-growth stands, such as large hollows, long strips of decorticating bark, an abundance of tree ferns and rainforest trees, buttressing at the base of "E. regnans" trunks, large clumps of mistletoe in the canopy, large fallen logs, and thick mats of moisture-retaining mosses.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: "Eucalyptus regnans" lacks a lignotuber and hence cannot recover by reshooting after intense fire. Instead, it can only regenerate by seed, and is thus termed an obligate seeder. The seeds are held firmly in woody capsules (gumnuts) until the branchlets die and the capsules dry out. Seedlings require a high level of light, much more than reaches the forest floor when there is a well-developed understorey, and so seeds are not likely to germinate or develop into saplings unless the understorey is opened up to allow light to reach the ground. As high-intensity fires tend to kill all parent trees, after fire there is a massive release of seed from drying capsules, which take advantage of the available light and the nutrients in the ash bed. Seedling densities of up to have been recorded after a major fire. Through time there is a strong stand thinning effect and natural stem density reduction eventually leads to mature tree densities of about .


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: There is substantial variation in the age at which individual trees develop viable seeds, which is largely the result of growth rates, tree size, incident solar radiation, and topographic aspect. Trees as young as 7 years old may contain mature fruit capsules, although this is unusual and most trees probably start producing seeds after 11 years of age. Similarly, there is considerable variation in the rate at which stands of "E. regnans" develop seed crops. Tree growth rates, stand age, and topography influence the rate of development of seed crops in stands, leading to strong variation in the timing of seed crop viability, however, the mean age of reproductive viability appears to be about 21 years.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: As "E. regnans" seeds are not stored in soil seedbanks, the regeneration of the forest depends on the presence of canopy-stored seed crops. With two or more frequent fires occurring in less than the time to stand reproductive viability, "E. regnans" can become locally extinct due to poor regeneration. As "E. regnans" is often the sole or dominant overstorey tree in many locations, this can lead to the replacement of a tall wet open forest ecosystem with a dense low wattle shrubland, which obviously has large repercussions for community composition and function. Conversely, in the complete absence of fire (for hundreds of years), the cool temperate rainforest species that live in association with "E. regnans" may gradually replace it in gullies or other areas where the trees succumb to age rather than fire. Thus it is clear that "E. regnans" forests rely on a particular frequency and intensity of fires for maintenance of the ecosystem attributes. As contemporary fire regimes have been highly modified since European occupation of Australia, there is a clear risk to "E. regnans" forests in many regions.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: The majority of the endangered Leadbeater’s possum population lives in mountain ash forests ("Eucalyptus regnans", "E. delegatensis" and "E. nitens") in the Central Highlands of Victoria. The possums use hollows in old trees for nesting and shelter and forage for arboreal arthropods under bark. The vegetation structure of these forests enables the possums to travel through them. Both Leadbeaters possums and yellow-bellied gliders feed on the sap from the trunks and branches. Koalas feed on the foliage, though it is not one of their preferred forage species.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Yellow-tailed black-cockatoos nest in the hollows of old trees, in contrast to the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle ("Aquila audax fleayi") that builds its nest of large sticks at the top of the trees.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: In a small area of rainforest in Yarra Ranges National Park in Victoria, nine epiphyte species were observed growing on "Eucalyptus regnans", the most prevalent of these being the liverwort "Bazzania adnexa".


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: The spur-legged phasmid ("Didymuria violescens") is a leaf-eating insect that can defoliate trees during major infestations such as one experienced at Powelltown in the early 1960s. Leaves and buds are eaten by the larvae and adults of the chrysomelid leaf beetle "Chrysophtharta bimaculata". Stressed trees can be damaged by the eucalyptus longhorned borer ("Phoracantha semipunctata"), which burrows into the trunk, which exudes a red stain. Eucalypt weevils of the genus "Gonipterus" commonly damage "E. regnans", while the tortoise beetle ("Paropsis atomaria") is a common pest of plantations.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: A study carried out by environmental scientist Professor Brendan Mackey of the Australian National University in 2009 identified that mountain ash forests in Victoria’s Central Highlands are the best in the world at locking up carbon. Mackey and colleagues found the highest amount of carbon was contained in a forest located in the O'Shannassy River catchment, which held of carbon. This area was a stand of unlogged mountain ash over 100 years old, which had had minimal human disturbance. They further calculated that a "E. regnans"-dominated forest with trees up to 250 years old and a well-established mid-storey and upper storey could store up to of carbon.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: "Eucalyptus regnans" is the tallest of all flowering plants, and possibly the tallest of all plants, although no living specimens can make that claim. The tallest measured living specimen, named Centurion, stands tall in Tasmania. Before the discovery of Centurion, the tallest known specimen was Icarus Dream, which was rediscovered in Tasmania in January, 2005 and is high. It was first measured by surveyors at in 1962 but the documentation had been lost.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: A total of 16 living trees in Tasmania have been reliably measured in excess of . The Cumberland Scenic Reserve near Cambarville, became the site of Victoria's tallest trees, in 1939, including one measured at high, following the extensive Black Friday bushfires. A severe storm in 1959 blew down 13 of the trees and the tallest tree was reduced to a height of after it lost part of its crown. The height of this tree was cited as in 2002 following further storm damage in 1973. In 2000, a tree at Wallaby Catchment in Kinglake National Park was discovered to be tall in 2000, however it perished in the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Historically, the tallest individual is claimed to be the Ferguson Tree, at , found in the Watts River region of Victoria in 1871 or 1872. This record is often disputed as unreliable, despite first-hand documentary evidence of it being measured on the ground with surveyor's tape by a senior forestry official (see below). Widespread agreement exists, however, that an exceptionally tall individual was reliably measured at by theodolite in 1880 by a surveyor, George Cornthwaite, at Thorpdale, Victoria (the tree is known both as the Cornthwaite or Thorpdale Tree). When it was felled in 1881, Cornthwaite remeasured it on the ground by chain at . The stump is commemorated with a plaque. That tree was about shorter than "Hyperion", the world's current tallest living tree, a coast redwood measuring .


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Some individuals attain much greater diameter; the largest known being "The Bulga Stump", a charred remnant near Tarra Bulga, South Gippsland district, Victoria, Australia which as a living tree had a DBH of , making "E. regnans" the third thickest species of tree after the Baobab ("Adansonia digitata") and the Montezuma Cypress ("Taxodium mucronatum"). As a consequence of being both the tallest and thickest Australian trees, "E. regnans" is also the most massive; that title being currently held by an individual called the "Kermandie Queen" discovered west of Geeveston, Tasmania which measures in height and has a diameter at breast height (DBH) of .


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Al Carder notes that in 1888 a cash reward of 100 pounds was offered there for the discovery of any tree measuring more than . The fact that such a considerable reward was never claimed is taken as evidence that such large trees did not exist. Carder's historical research, however, revealed that the reward was offered under conditions that made it highly unlikely to be collected. First, it was made in the depths of winter and applied only for a very short time. Next, the tree had to be measured by an accredited surveyor. Since loggers had already taken the largest trees from the most accessible Victorian forests, finding very tall trees then would have demanded an arduous trek into remote wilderness and at considerable altitude. In turn, that meant that searchers also needed the services of experienced bushmen to be able to guide them and conduct an effective search. Only one expedition actually penetrated one of the strongholds of "E. regnans" at Mount Baw Baw but its search was rendered ineffectual by cold and snow and managed to measure only a single living treethe New Turkey Tree: before appalling conditions forced a retreat, Carder notes.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Ferdinand von Mueller claimed to have personally measured one tree near the headwaters of the Yarra River at . Nurseryman David Boyle, claimed in 1862 to have measured a fallen tree in a deep gully in the Dandenongs at , and with a diameter at its broken tip that indicated it might have lost another of trunk when it broke, for .


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Von Mueller's early records also mention two trees on the nearby Black Spur Range, one alive and measuring and another fallen tree said to measure , but these were either based on hearsay or uncertain reliability. David Boyle also reported that a tree at Cape Otway measured , but this too was based on hearsay.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: None, however, had been verified by direct documentation until 1982 when Ken Simpendorfer, a Special Projects Officer for the Forests Commission Victoria, directed a search of official Victorian archives. It unearthed a forgotten report from more than a century earlier, one that had not been referred to in other accounts of the species up to that time. It was written on 21 February 1872, by the Inspector of State Forests, William Ferguson, and was addressed to the Assistant Commissioner of Lands and Surveys, Clement Hodgkinson. Ferguson had been instructed to explore and inspect the watershed of the Watts River and reported trees in great number and exceptional size in areas where loggers had not yet reached. Ferguson wrote a letter to the editor in the Melbourne Age newspaper.""Some places, where the trees are fewer and at a lower altitude, the timber is much larger in diameter, averaging from 6 to 10 feet and frequently trees to 15 feet in diameter are met with on alluvial flats near the river. These trees average about ten per acre: their size, sometimes, is enormous. Many of the trees that have fallen by decay and by bush fires measure 350 feet in length, with girth in proportion. In one instance I measured with the tape line one huge specimen that lay prostrate across a tributary of the Watts and found it to be 435 feet from the roots to the top of its trunk. At 5 feet from the ground it measures 18 feet in diameter. At the extreme end where it has broken in its fall, it (the trunk) is 3 feet in diameter. This tree has been much burnt by fire, and I fully believe that before it fell it must have been more than 500 feet high. As it now lies it forms a complete bridge across a narrow ravine" ... William Ferguson, The Melbourne Age, 22 February 1872."It is also possible that individual trees will again attain such heights. Author Bob Beale has recorded that the tallest trees in the Black Spur Range now measure about butdue to major bushfires in the 1920s and 30sare less than 80 years old and have been growing consistently at the rate of about a year.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: A "Eucalyptus regnans" stand in the Orokonui Ecosanctuary near Dunedin, New Zealand, where "E. regnans" is an introduced species, contains that country's tallest measured tree, standing high in 2012.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: "Eucalyptus regnans" is valued for its timber, and has been harvested in very large quantities. Aside from being logged in its natural range, it is grown in plantations in New Zealand and Chile, and to a limited extent, in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Primary uses are sawlogging and woodchipping. It was a major source of newsprint in the 20th century. Much of the present woodchip harvest is exported to Japan. While the area of natural stands with large old trees is rapidly decreasing, substantial areas of regrowth exist and it is increasingly grown in plantations, the long, straight, fast growing trunks being much more commercially valuable than the old growth timber.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: It is a medium weight timber (about ) and rather coarse (stringy) in texture. Gum veins are common. The wood is easy to work and the grain is straight with long, clear sections without knots. The wood works reasonably well for steam-bending.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Primary uses for sawn wood are furniture, flooring (where its very pale blonde colour is highly prized), panelling, veneer, plywood, window frames, and general construction. The wood has sometimes been used for wood wool and cooperage. However, the wood needs steam reconditioning for high value applications, due to a tendency to collapse on drying. This wood is highly regarded by builders, furniture makers and architects.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: "E. regnans" forests are particularly susceptible to destruction by bushfire, and, to a lesser extent, timber harvesting.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Opposition to logging of wet forests by clearfelling has grown very strong in recent years (particularly opposition to woodchipping). It is a controversial debate with strong opinions both for and against timber harvesting.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Several applications have been made to Victoria's Flora and Fauna Guarantee (FFG) Scientific Advisory Committee to list mountain ash forests as an endangered vegetation community. The committee rejected an application in 2017 as being ineligible and that it did not satisfy at least one criterion set out in the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and its Regulations of 2011. The assessment criteria included, was there a demonstrated state of decline, has there been a reduction in distribution or has vegetation community altered markedly.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Studies conducted by Murray Cunningham and David Ashton found that the re-growth habit of "Eucalyptus regnans" requires high light conditions, and the high nutrients contained in the ash layer. These conditions are found typically following a high intensity wildfire, which are an infrequent, yet periodic feature of mountain ash forests. For this reason clearfellingwith the complete removal of all trees, followed by a high intensity fire and seedingis used by the timber industry and forest scientists to ensure regeneration of harvested areas because it mimics the conditions found after high intensity wildfire.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Melbourne's forested water catchment areas, which provides water requiring little treatment, are composed of large areas "E. regnans" forest. The management of 157,000 hectares of Melbourne’s forested water catchments were vested in the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) in 1891 with a closed catchment policy where timber harvesting and public access was not permitted. These areas are now included in the Yarra Ranges National Park. There has been a long running political campaign to add more areas to create the Great Forest National Park.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Water yields from catchments fall significantly for 20 to 40 years if trees are killed by bushfire or timber harvesting. The MMBW began research into forest cover on water supplies as early as 1948. In the early 1960s they set up a new series of paired catchment experiments in wet mountain forests near Healesville to measure the long term impacts of timber harvesting and bushfire on water quality and quantity. It took another 10 years for the results to emerge more clearly. It was found that while timber harvesting had an impact, the most dramatic threat to stream flows remained catastrophic bushfires like those on Black Friday in 1939 or Black Saturday in 2009.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: In 2018, some researchers concluded that Mountain Ash forests in Victoria represent a collapsing ecosystems. They coined the term 'hidden collapse' meaning an ecosystems that give a superficial appearance of being intact but has lost key elements. At their research sites they found that between 1997 and 2011, up to 50% of large old-cavity trees (trees with big holes that serve as nest sites for animals and birds) had been lost and there had also been a significant decline in the numbers of tree dwelling marsupials such possums and gliders and birds. They identified fast and slow drivers of change: fire, logging and climate change and indicated that Mountain Ash forests would be replaced with Acacia-dominated woodlands.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: "Eucalyptus regnans" is too large for the majority of gardens, but may be suitable for parks. Propagation is from seed, with the best germination rates being obtained by refrigerating for three weeks before sowing. Seed may be stored for several years if refrigerated and kept dry. Seedlings are grown in containers but are more prone to damping off than other eucalypts; they are highly susceptible to "Phytophthora cinnamomi" and "P. nicotianae" Young plants are generally planted out once they are 8 or 9 months old. These are at risk of being eaten by grazing rabbits, wallabies and possums, which can destroy young plantations in severe cases.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: American horticulturist and entrepreneur Ellwood Cooper noted its rapid growth but demanding soil requirements in his 1876 work "Forest Culture and Eucalyptus Trees". "Eucalyptus regnans" requires fertile soil with good drainage and annual rainfall of spread over the year, and has poor tolerance to temperatures below or drought.


title: Eucalyptus regnans

text: Outside Australia, plantations have been successfully established in New Zealand, South Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania.


title: Hapi (Nile god)

text: Hapi (Ancient Egyptian: "ḥʿpy") was the god of the annual flooding of the Nile in ancient Egyptian religion. The flood deposited rich silt (fertile soil) on the river's banks, allowing the Egyptians to grow crops. Hapi was greatly celebrated among the Egyptians. Some of the titles of Hapi were "Lord of the Fish and Birds of the Marshes" and "Lord of the River Bringing Vegetation". Hapi is typically depicted as an androgynous figure with a prominent belly and large drooping breasts, wearing a loincloth and ceremonial false beard.


title: Hapi (Nile god)

text: The annual flooding of the Nile occasionally was said to be the "Arrival of Hapi". Since this flooding provided fertile soil in an area that was otherwise desert, Hapi symbolised fertility. He had large female breasts because he was said to bring a rich and nourishing harvest. Due to his fertile nature he was sometimes considered the "father of the gods", and was considered to be a caring father who helped to maintain the balance of the cosmos, the world or universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious system. He was thought to live within a cavern at the supposed source of the Nile near Aswan. The cult of Hapi was mainly located at the First Cataract named Elephantine. His priests were involved in rituals to ensure the steady levels of flow required from the annual flood. At Elephantine the official nilometer, a measuring device, was carefully monitored to predict the level of the flood, and his priests must have been intimately concerned with its monitoring.


title: Hapi (Nile god)

text: Hapi was not regarded as the god of the Nile itself but of the inundation event. He was also considered a "friend of Geb", the Egyptian god of the earth, and the "lord of Neper", the god of grain.


title: Hapi (Nile god)

text: Although male and wearing the false beard, Hapi was pictured with pendulous breasts and a large stomach, as representations of the fertility of the Nile. He also was usually given blue or green skin, representing water. Other attributes varied, depending upon the region of Egypt in which the depictions exist. In Lower Egypt, he was adorned with papyrus plants and attended by frogs, present in the region, and symbols of it. Whereas in Upper Egypt, it was the lotus and crocodiles which were more present in the Nile, thus these were the symbols of the region, and those associated with Hapi there. Hapi often was pictured carrying offerings of food or pouring water from an amphora, but also, very rarely, was depicted as a hippopotamus. During the Nineteenth Dynasty Hapi is often depicted as a pair of figures, each holding and tying together the long stem of two plants representing Upper and Lower Egypt, symbolically binding the two halves of the country around a hieroglyph meaning "union". This symbolic representation was often carved at the base of seated statues of the pharaoh.


title: Hapi (Nile god)

text: Egyptian historian Al Maqrizi (1364–1442) related in his "El Khutat El Maqrizia (The Maqrizian Plans) that living virgins were sacrificed annually as "brides of the Nile" ("Arous El Nil") and this has been historically accepted as late as the 1970s. but this claim is disputed by some Egyptologists such as Bassam El Shammaa.


title: Ankur Vikal

text: He graduated from the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi in 2000, after studying Architecture at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He has acted with the Motley Theatre Group in plays such as "Manto Ismat Haazir Hain", "Safed Jhooth Kaali Shalwar", "Katha Kollage II", "All Thieves"," The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial", and "Salome". His film career began with the Indian ground-breaking film "Mango Soufflé", followed by the highly acclaimed films "Maqbool" and "Missed Call".


title: Ankur Vikal

text: Ankur played the role of Maman in "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008). It was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight - the most for any 2008 film-including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best adapted screenplay. It won seven BAFTA awards including Best Film, five Critic's Choice Awards, and four Golden Globes. In the film, he discovers the children while they are living in the trash heaps and brings them to his Orphanage. He won a Screen Actor's Guild Award for his highly acclaimed and appreciated performance as Maman.


title: Ankur Vikal

text: He also played the lead in "The Forest". He was most recently seen in Telugu language film "Kedi" and Hindi film "Striker". In Tamil cinema he debuted in "Mariyan" (2013) where he played the role of an oil worker.


title: Ankur Vikal

text: He then worked on Nirbhaya-A play by Yael Farber for 3 years. The play was about the gang rape on a bus in Delhi on 16 December 2012. It was also about sexual abuse, patriarchy and misogyny. It won a fringe first, an Amnesty award and a heralds angel when it opened in Edinburgh. It is considered by many critics and audiences to be one of the most important works of human rights theatre in the world.


title: Ankur Vikal

text: This was followed by films like Phobia with Radhika Apte, Jazbaa with Irrfan Khan, And Yaara by Tigmanshu Dhulia.


title: Ankur Vikal

text: Saina by Amol Gupte, Inside Edge, Season 3 and Baahubali, before the beginning will release later this year.


title: Royal Bhutan Army

text: The Royal Bhutan Army (RBA; ) is a branch of the armed forces of the Kingdom of Bhutan responsible for maintaining the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty against security threats. The King of Bhutan is the Supreme Commander in Chief of the RBA. The Chief Operations Officer is "Goonglon Gongma" (Lt. Gen.) Batoo Tshering.


title: Royal Bhutan Army

text: The RBA includes the Royal Body Guards (RBG), an elite branch of the armed forces responsible for the security of the King, the Royal Family and other officials.


title: Royal Bhutan Army

text: It was customary, but not obligatory, for one son from each Bhutanese family to serve in the army. In addition, militia may be recruited during emergencies. It may, from time to time, be called on to assist the Royal Bhutan Police (RBP) in maintaining law and order.


title: Royal Bhutan Army

text: With intense support from India, the RBA was formed in the 1950s in response to the Chinese annexation and subsequent People's Liberation Army actions in Tibet. In 1958, the royal government introduced a conscription system and plans for a standing army of 2,500 soldiers. The Indian government had also repeatedly urged and pressured Bhutan to end its neutrality or isolationist policy and accept Indian economic and military assistance. This was because India considered Bhutan one of the most vulnerable sectors in its strategic defense system in regards to China. When Bhutan accepted the Indian offer, the Indian Army became responsible for the training and equipping of the RBA. By 1968 the RBA consisted of 4,850 soldiers; by 1990 this had risen to 6,000. Following the increases after an anti-militant operation in 2003, the RBA peaked at over 9,000 in 2007 before being reduced to 8,000 in 2008.


title: Royal Bhutan Army

text: The Indian Army maintains a training mission in Bhutan, known as the Indian Military Training Team (IMTRAT), which is responsible for the training of RBA and RBG personnel. All RBA and RBG officers are trained at the Indian Army's officer training institutes, namely the National Defence Academy (NDA) in Pune, and the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun.


title: Royal Bhutan Army

text: Project DANTAK of the Border Roads Organisation, a subdivision of the Indian Army Corps of Engineers, has been operating in Bhutan since May 1961. Since then Project DANTAK has been responsible for the construction and maintenance of over 1,500 km of roads and bridges, Paro Airport and Yongphulla Airport (upgraded in 2018, with scheduled fixed-wing civilian flights), heliports and other infrastructure. While these serve India's strategic defense needs, they are also an obvious economic benefit for the people of Bhutan.


title: Royal Bhutan Army

text: The Royal Bhutan Army relies on Eastern Air Command of the Indian Air Force for air medical evacuation assistance. Indian Air Force helicopters evacuated RBA casualties to India for treatment during Operation All Clear in 2003.


title: Royal Bhutan Army

text: During the early '90s Indian separatist groups United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and Kamtapur Liberation Organization (KLO) had begun to clandestinely set up camps in Bhutan's dense southern jungles. These camps were used to train cadres, store equipment and launch attacks on targets in India. The Bhutanese government became aware of their presence in 1996, and from 1997 the issue was regularly discussed in the National Assembly. The Government of India began exerting diplomatic pressure on the Royal Government to remove the militant presence and offered to conduct joint military operations with Bhutan against the militants. The Royal Government, preferring a peaceful solution, declined the offer and instead initiated dialogue with the militant groups in 1998. By December 2003 negotiations had failed to produce any agreement and the Royal Government, unable to tolerate the groups' presence any longer, issued a 48-hour ultimatum on 13 December. On 15 December the RBA commenced military operations against the militant groups.


title: Royal Bhutan Army

text: Under the leadership of His Majesty the 4th King, the RBA and RBG, with a total strength of 6,000, attacked an estimated 3,000 militants spread across 30 camps. By 27 December 2003 all 30 camps had been captured. Additionally, the RBA seized ""more than 500 AK 47/56 assault rifles and 500 other assorted weapons including rocket launchers and mortars, along with more than 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition. An anti-aircraft gun was also found at the site of the GHQ of the ULFA"."


title: Royal Bhutan Army

text: By 3 January 2004 all 30 camps (ULFA-14, NDFB-11, KLO-5) and an additional 35 observation posts were destroyed and the militants dislodged. A total of 485 ULFA, NDFB and KLO militants were killed or captured; those captured along with the seized weapons and ammunition were handed over to the Government of India. Captured non-combatants were handed over to Assamese civil authorities. The RBA suffered 11 soldiers killed in action and 35 wounded in action.


title: Royal Bhutan Army

text: As of 2008 the RBA stood at 8,000 active-duty personnel. This follows an initiative introduced in 2005 by the Royal Government of Bhutan to reduce the strength of the RBA while increasing militia training of the Bhutanese population.


title: Royal Bhutan Army

text: The Army Welfare Project (AWP) is a commercial enterprise of the RBA established in 1974 to provide benefits for retired RBA and RBG personnel in the form of employment, pensions and loans. The AWP manufactures alcoholic beverages in two distilleries located in Gelephu and Samtse.


title: Royal Bhutan Army

text: The Royal Bhutan Army maintains a camp at Zompelri which is a border outpost under the control of army's Wing I at Tendruk, Samtse.


title: Osburh

text: Osburh or Osburga (also Osburga Oslacsdotter) was the first wife of King Æthelwulf of Wessex and mother of King Alfred the Great. Alfred's biographer, Asser, described her as "a most religious woman, noble in character and noble by birth".


title: Osburh

text: Osburh's existence is known only from Asser's "Life of King Alfred". She is not named as witness to any charters, nor is her death reported in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle". So far as is known, she was the mother of all Æthelwulf's children, his five sons Æthelstan, Æthelbald, Æthelberht, Æthelred and Alfred, and his daughter Æthelswith, wife of King Burgred of Mercia.


title: Osburh

text: Osburh is best known from Asser's story about a book of Saxon songs which she showed to her sons, offering to give the book to whoever could first memorise it, a challenge which Alfred took up and won. This exhibits high-status ninth-century women's interest in books and their role in educating their children.


title: Osburh

text: Osburh was the daughter of Oslac (who is also only known from Asser's "Life"), King Æthelwulf's "pincerna" (butler), an important figure in the royal court and household. Oslac is described as a descendant of King Cerdic's Jutish nephews, Stuf and Wihtgar, who conquered the Isle of Wight.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: Panetolikos Football Club (), or with its full name Panetolikós Yimnastikós Filekpedeftikós Síllogos ("; Pan-Aetolian Gymnastic and Educational Club"), is a Greek professional football club based in Agrinio, Greece. Panetolikos was founded in 1926 and is considered one of the historical clubs in Greece, currently participating in the Greek First Division. Some of the most well known players that started their career in the club are Stratos Apostolakis, former Greek recordman in international caps (96), and Petros Michos.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: Team colors are yellow and blue. The club's symbol is Titormus, the ancient Aetolian hero and their motto is ""Τίτορμος Αιτωλός Ούτος Άλλος Ηρακλής"" ("Títormos" "Etolós Oútos Állos Iraklís)," translated as "Titormus the Aetolian is another Heracles".


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: Panetolikos was founded on Tuesday March 9, 1926 with the purpose, as stated in its statutes: "The development and intensification of Gymnastic and Racing, The -ETHIC- supervision and the possible after-school education of minors, through childhood and EASTERN or Sunday schools".


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: People had the idea of creating the club they did the act: "Healthy mind in a healthy body". The unprecedented thought and goal of the founders, to provide education to the needy children through its Night Schools, added in its title the word "Educational Educator" and became an example to imitate all the Associations in Greece. Beyond sports, his social offer was enormous in very difficult times. Hundreds of poor children learned letters at Night Schools that worked and cared for themselves in society. This athletico-social organization has written glory pages for Agrinio. Sections of classic sports, volleyball, basketball, shooting, etc. were created although its football team was the one loved by Aetolians and Akarnans.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: In the season 1954–55, Panetolikos participated for the first time in his history at the Pan-Hellenic Championship, as the club finished in the first position of the southern group of the regional championship as one of the six teams that took part in his final stage. In the 1960s, Panetolikos played in the Second National Championship and after relegation to the local (1972), he returned dynamically. In the spring of 1975 celebrates the rise to Alpha Ethniki. Panetolikos fought two seasons (1975–1977) and followed an unsuccessful return attempt. It followed for about twenty years where it was in the smallest category to return to the period 1975–76. In the first class, Panetolikos remained in the following year (1976–77), but then returned to the lower classes where the club remained for more than 30 years. Seven years later, Panetolikos was relegated from the 2nd and in the period 1984–85, Panetolikos conquered the championship of Gamma Ethniki.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: Panetolikos winning Delta Ethniki's championship in 1989, Gamma Ethniki's championship in 1992 and 1996, and one year after Panetolikos touches the dream of returning to Alpha Ethniki, which the powerful of the season deprives him. The new millennium finds him on a downward course and is relegated to Delta Ethniki.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: In the summer of 2005, the new Greek owner Fotis Kostoulas, coming from Sweden and wanting to take the reins of the city team from which he came, presented his plans for the future of the club and followed a radical refurbishment of the stadium.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: More specifically, the following projects were completed by the end of 2006: new turf, construction of a shelter above the western pit, renovation of the interior (changing rooms, cafe-bar, clubs, boutique shops), construction of new newspapers and suites, On the two platforms, regeneration of the surrounding area. In addition, in 2009, a new roofed frieze was built with a capacity of about 120 distinct seats above the small east stand.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: Panetolikos won an epic play-offs tie against fellow third-tier side Rodos to win promotion to the Beta Ethniki for the 2009–10 season. The tie was played in Athens at the Nea Smyrni Stadium, in front of full house, with 8,000 loyal fans traveling from Agrinio to support the team. After going down 1–0 early, the team staged an impressive fight back to win the game 2–1 with two goals in the last 5 minutes. Scenes of joy followed as one of the better-supported teams in rural Greece won promotion. Now in the Football League, Panetolikos continue to get terrific support, both home and away.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: After terrific performances inside and outside Agrinio, Panetolikos won the last three critical matches (Ethnikos-Panetolikos 0–1, Panetolikos-Diagoras Rodou 3–0 and Ilioupoli-Panetolikos 2–3) and promoted to Super League. The team's 2010 performances have set new records for the Football League championship: point record (75 gathered after 34 games), away wins record (10 wins out of 23 total). Panetolikos had celebrated their promotion at home with a Friendly match against Panionios, a Super League team, on 20 May 2011.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: After a very bad second round of results at the Super League, Panetolikos demoted to the Football League. The chairman of the club, Mr. Kostoulas after seven years, resigned from his position. After this, the whole board resigned. Most of the players left the club, said that they wanted to return to their countries, or they want to play for other teams with better contracts.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: With Mr. Kostoulas again as a president, Panetolikos got promoted to the Super League via play-offs after six difficult games, especially the last one with Olympiacos Volos, which Panetolikos won 1–2. After the end of the game, the city of Agrinio celebrated the promotion until dawn.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: The team had its most successful year so far in the First Division, finishing in the 8th place. In 2014–15 season, form of the team improved and finished First Division as 7th.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: Panetolikos Stadium (Greek: Γήπεδο Παναιτωλικού -"Gipedo Panetolikou") is a football stadium in Agrinio, Greece. It is currently used for football matches, mainly as the home stadium of Panetolikos. It is located at Prousiotissis Street and it holds 7,500 people. Its highest attendance was 11,012 people during a match against Olympiacos in 1977. There are plans to increase the seating capacity of the stadium to 8,800 spectators. Nowadays the average attendance is 6,000.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: Panetolikos Stadium has three stands. It has been used as a football ground since 1930, however, the first stand (the small one) was not constructed until the mid-1950s. The main west stand was built in the 1970s. Unfortunately, in the years that followed little else happened to the stadium, which gradually fell into disrepair. This was the situation until 2005, when the new owner of the club, Fotis Kostoulas, revealed his plans for the complete reconstruction of the stadium.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: 2011: Works have begun after the promotion of the team to Super League in order to increase the capacity of the stadium by 1,400 seats approximately. Plus, additional lighting was added. Recently the lighting has finished, with the power of each light at 1,600 lux, which more than satisfies the Greek Super League and UEFA's 4 stars (where a team can play UEFA Champions League games) requirements.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: 2019: Recently the Region of Western Greece has approved plans of further upgrade of the stadium, with the adding of exhibition centers, new seating


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: Panetolikos' training center, named "Emileon", in Municipal Apartment of Dokimi, Agrinio. Emileon, the training center that escapes from Greek standards and is approaching the European. Α real jewel, not only for the "canaries", but also for Greek sports as a whole. A jewel made by the president of Panetolikos, Fotis Kostoulas. Soccer fields, swimming pools, courts, tennis, basketball and beach volleyball create a unique place. A place that is enjoyed not only by the football players, but also by the citizens of Agrinio.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: Even though Agrinio is a small city, Panetolikos supporters known as "The Warriors" & "Guerreros" are known for their loyalty to their team. Supporters can roughly be categorized to Gate 6 which represents the most radical and young part of the team's fanbase and other fan unions which attract less radical and older Panetolikos fans. First division promotion has set in motion more Panetolikos fan clubs in Aetoloakarnania and northern Greece (Thessaloniki). Up until now, the prestigious fan clubs of the team are:


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: Panetolikos was given the nickname "The Canaries" (Greek: Τα καναρίνια) in the 1960s, due to the team's colour. Panetolikos is very proud of its nickname, thus its mascot is a canary with the name PANETOS.


title: Panetolikos F.C.

text: Panetolikos crest depicts Titormus, the ancient hero of Aetolia. The club's motto (also depicted on the crest) is "Τίτορμος Αιτωλός Ούτος Άλλος Ηρακλής", translated as "Titormus the Aetolian is another Heracles". The colours of the team are yellow and blue or cyan.


title: Boer republics

text: The Boer republics (sometimes also referred to as Boer states) were independent, self-governing republics formed (especially in the last half of the 19th century) by Dutch-speaking inhabitants of the Cape Colony and their descendants. The founders – variously named Trekboers, Boers and Voortrekkers – settled mainly in the middle, northern, north-eastern and eastern parts of present-day South Africa. Two of the Boer Republics achieved international recognition and complete independence: the South African Republic (, ZAR; or Transvaal) and the Orange Free State. The republics did not provide for the separation of church and state, initially allowing only the Dutch Reformed Church, and later also other Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition. The republics came to an end after the Second Boer War of 1899–1902, which resulted in British annexation and later (in 1910) incorporation of their lands into the Union of South Africa.


title: Boer republics

text: The Dutch East India Company (VOC) first issued land to the Free Burghers in 1657. The Free Burghers established two colonies at the Liesbeeck River near Rondebosch in the Western Cape. Following an application process, the Free Burghers formed two groups, the first group named their settlement Harman's Colony and the second group named theirs Stephen's Colony. By 1670, the VOC decided to grant additional land to the Free Burghers in order to increase grain production for the purpose of sustainability since grain had to be imported. The Free Burgher settlements gradually expanded towards the interior of South Africa.


title: Boer republics

text: The United Kingdom took over from the Netherlands as the colonial power at the Cape of Good Hope in 1806. Subsequently, a number of its Dutch-speaking inhabitants trekked inland, first in smaller numbers, then in groups as large as almost a hundred people, after 1834 even in groups of hundreds. There were many reasons why the Boers left the Cape Colony; among the initial reasons were the language laws. The British had proclaimed the English language as the only language of the Cape Colony and prohibited the use of the Dutch language. As the Bible, churches, schools and culture of many of the settlers were Dutch, this caused a lot of friction. Britain abolished slavery in 1834 and allocated the sum of 1,200,000 British pounds as recompense for the Dutch settlers' slaves. The Dutch settlers disputed the requirement that they had to lodge their claims in Britain and objected that the value of the slaves was many times the allocated amount. This caused further dissatisfaction among the Dutch settlers.


title: Boer republics

text: Boer migrants were referred to as the Voortrekkers during the time of the Great Trek, several mass movements which occurred during the 1830s and 1840s. On the 22nd of January 1837 Piet Retief addressed a letter to the British Colonial Administration in which he concluded "We quit this colony under the full assurance that the English Government has nothing more to require of us, and will allow us to govern ourselves without its interference in future".


title: Boer republics

text: By 1795 the dissatisfaction towards the Dutch East India Company caused the burghers of Swellendam to revolt, and on 17 June 1795 they declared themselves a Republic. Hermanus Steyn was appointed as President of the Republic of Swellendam. The burghers of Swellendam started to call themselves "national burghers" – after the style of the French Revolution. However, the Republic was short-lived and was ended on 4 November 1795 when the Cape was occupied by the Kingdom of Great Britain.


title: Boer republics

text: Public farmers and the government authorities could not agree on policies with regards to the frontier resulting in the 'Cape Frontier Rebellion' of 1795 where after the Boers declared Graaff-Reinet an independent republic. Following the Invasion of the Cape Colony in 1795, the British took possession of the area which led to another revolt in 1799, the uprising were suppressed by British troops that same year.


title: Boer republics

text: In 1899, one of the large groups of Boers arrived at the Vet river. Louis Tregardt and Jan van Rensburg split off from Hendrik Potgieter's group, and continued on to establish Zoutpansberg. Potgieter's group remained at the Vet river and founded a town called Winburg.


title: Boer republics

text: The establishment of the South African Republic had its origins in 1837 when the commandos of Potgieter and Piet Uys defeated a Matabele raiding party of Mzilikazi and drove them back over the Limpopo river. Potgieter declared the lands north and south of the Vaal river as Boer lands. Boers started settling on both sides of the Vaal river and in March 1838, Potgieter, Uys and the men of their commando provided relief to Gerrit Maritz, and early in April 1838, Uys and his son were killed. During April 1838 Potgieter returned to the area north of the Vaal river and founded the town of Potchefstroom. At this time, this new country included the area north (Potchefstroom) and south (Winburg) of the Vaal river.


title: Boer republics

text: In 1848 the British Governor of the Cape, Sir Harry Smith, issued a proclamation declaring British sovereignty over all the lands to the north and to the south of the Vaal river. Commandant-General Andries Pretorius led the commandos against the British forces later that year, starting the First Boer War in which the Boers emerged victorious. The Volksraad from Winburg was transferred to Potchefstroom and the South African Republic (Dutch: Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek; the ZAR) was established as the name of the new country.


title: Boer republics

text: The Boer Republics were predominately Calvinist Protestant due to their Dutch heritage, and this played a significant role in their culture. The ZAR national constitution did not provide separation between church and state, disallowing the franchise (citizenship) to anyone not a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1858, these clauses were altered in the constitution to allow for the Volksraad to approve other Dutch Calvinist churches that separated from the Dutch Reformed Church in the wake of a number of splits. Members of the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian churches were not allowed to become citizens of the ZAR.


title: Boer republics

text: The Zoutpansberg Boers came in 1835, settling along the Limpopo River, where they learnt gold working from the natives. The white settlers in Zoutpansberg had a long reputation of lawlessness, often being called typical "Back-veldt Boers". In 1864, they were inevitably incorporated into the South African Republic (Transvaal) after the Transvaal Civil War. As a district in the Republic, they had the largest native population in the South African Republic.


title: Boer republics

text: In April 1837, a party under leadership of Piet Retief arrived in Thabanchu. In June 1837, in Winburg, the newly elected Boer Volksraad appointed Piet Retief as Commandant-General. An argument between Maritz and Potgieter, both elected to the Volksraad, led to a split. Maritz and Piet Retief decided to secede from the Potgieter- and Uys-led Boer country. The Boers under the leadership of Piet Retief obtained a treaty from Zulu King Dingane to settle part of the lands the Zulus administered or held sway over, but Dingane later betrayed the treaty and slaughtered Retief and 70 members of his delegation. Dingane's impis (Zulu warriors) then killed almost 300 Boers who had settled in the Natal region.


title: Boer republics

text: After Pretorius was recruited to fill the leadership vacuum created by the deaths of Piet Retief and Maritz, he offered to negotiate for peace with Dingane if he were to restore the land he had offered to Retief. Dingane responded by attacking the Voortrekkers; on 16 December 1838 the battle of Ncome River (later named the Battle of Blood River) occurred, during which 300 Voortrekkers survived and won a decisive battle against thousands of Dingane's impis.


title: Boer republics

text: The Natalia Republic was established in 1839 by the local Boers after Pretorius entered into an alliance with Mpande, the new Zulu king.


title: Boer republics

text: In June 1852 a public meeting was held in Bloemfontein where all the European people voted on a resolution whether to pursue independence or remain under British rule. The vast majority of people voted to remain under British rule. Sir Harry Smith, however, had instructions to hand the country over to the Boers. In 1853, Sir George Clerk was sent as special commissioner to give up the land and to establish self-rule. 16,000 people sent a delegation of representatives to inform Clerk that the people wished to remain governed by Britain. Clerk however had clear instructions to establish self-rule, and with a minority Boers represented by J.H. Hofmann, agreed to a convention of independence.


title: Boer republics

text: The State of Goosen was founded by a group of Boer Mercenaries led by Nicolaas Claudius Gey van Pittius in November 1882. It unified with Stellaland on 6 August 1883.


title: Boer republics

text: West of the Transvaal 400 Boers allied with David Massouw, leader of the Koranna Khoisan tribe, when they invaded and took a piece of land, which they declared the Republic of Stellaland. The first president was Gerrit Jacobus van Niekerk and the town of Vryburg was founded and declared its capital. In 1883, The Republic of Stellaland united with The State of Goshen to form the United States of Stellaland.


title: Boer republics

text: The New Republic (comprising the town of Vryheid) was established in 1884 on land given to the local Boers by the Zulu King Dinuzulu, the son of Cetshwayo, after he recruited local Boers to fight on his side. The Boers were promised and granted land for their services and were led by Louis Botha who would go on to prominence during the second Anglo-Boer War. This republic was later absorbed into the Transvaal/South African Republic.


title: Boer republics

text: States were also established by other population groups, most notably the Griqua, a subgroup of South Africa's heterogeneous and multiracial Coloured people. Most notable among these were Griqualand West and Griqualand East.


title: Boer republics

text: The people north of the Vaal River in the South African Republic were recognised as an independent country by the United Kingdom with the signing of the Sand River Convention on 17 January 1852.


title: Boer republics

text: The Orange Free State was recognised by the UK on 17 February 1854. The Orange Free State became independent on 23 February 1854 with the signing of the Bloemfontein or Orange River Convention. The Orange Free State was nicknamed "the model republic".


title: Boer republics

text: The Transvaal and the Orange Free State developed into successful independent countries which were recognized by the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium, the United States, and Britain. These two countries continued to exist for several decades, despite the First Boer War with Britain. However, later developments, including the discovery of diamonds and gold in these states, led to the Second Boer War. In this war, the Transvaal and Orange Free State were defeated and annexed by the overwhelmingly larger British forces, ceasing to exist on 31 May 1902, with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging. A new British dominion, the Union of South Africa, was established under the South Africa Act 1909, in which the Transvaal and the Orange Free State became provinces along with the Cape and Natal.


title: Boer republics

text: On 24 April 2014, political party Front Nasionaal (FN) submitted a land claim to the Land Claims Commissioner in Pretoria on behalf of the Afrikaner nation. The claim pertains to the land described in National Archives of South Africa R117/1846: "From Ohrigstad to the north till the Olifantsrivier, then downwards to the Delagoa Bay line; to the south till the Crocodile River; to the west to Elandspruit till the 26 degrees line; east till where the Crocodile River joins the Komati River." FN states that the sale of said land was between King Masous (representative of the Zulu) as seller; and Commandant SJZR Burg (representative of the Dutch South African nation) as buyer. A copy of the agreement is filed in the Government Archives under file R117/46. FN further states that the land was legally bought and paid for on 25 July 1846 as an ethnic group and not as individual landowners and was only in custodianship of the pre-1994 government as they were regarded as descendants of the ethnic group. There was therefore no legal right to hand this land over to a "foreign" government in April 1994 and away from the original ethnic group.


title: Human Development Report

text: The Human Development Report (HDR) is an annual Human Development Index report published by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).


title: Human Development Report

text: The first HDR was launched in 1990 by the Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and Indian Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. Since then reports have been released most years, and have explored different themes through the human development approach, which places people at the center of the development process.


title: Human Development Report

text: The reports are ensured of editorial independence by the United Nations General Assembly. They are seen as reports to UNDP, not of UNDP. This allows each report greater freedom to explore ideas and constructively challenge policies. Each report also presents an updated set of indices, including the Human Development Index (HDI), which is a measure of average achievement in the basic dimensions of human development across countries, and a compendium of key development statistics relevant to the report theme.


title: Human Development Report

text: The Human Development Reports have an extensive influence on the development debate worldwide. They have also inspired national and regional analyses which, by their nature, usually address issues that are more country – or regionally - specific.


title: Human Development Report

text: The report was first launched in 1990 by the Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and Indian Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. Its goal was to place people at the center of the development process in terms of economic debate, policy and advocacy. Development was characterized by the provision of choices and freedoms resulting in widespread outcomes.


title: Human Development Report

text: "People are the real wealth of a nation," Haq wrote in the opening lines of the first report in 1990. "The basic objective of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives. This may appear to be a simple truth. But it is often forgotten in the immediate concern with the accumulation of commodities and financial wealth."


title: Human Development Report

text: The United Nations General Assembly has formally recognized the Report as "an independent intellectual exercise" and "an important tool for raising awareness about human development around the world."


title: Human Development Report

text: The Human Development Report is an independent report, commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and is the product of a selected team of leading scholars, development practitioners and members of the Human Development Report Office of UNDP. It is a report independent of the Administrator of the UNDP, as suggested by Mahbub ul Haq. It is translated into numerous languages and launched in more than 100 countries annually.


title: Human Development Report

text: Since 1990, more than 140 countries have published some 600 national Human Development Reports, with UNDP support. UNDP has also sponsored scores of regional reports, such as the ten-volume Arab Human Development Report series, which have made internationally recognized contributions to the global dialogue on democracy, women's rights, inequality, poverty eradication and other critical issues.


title: Human Development Report

text: The 2010 Human Development Report's review of human development trends showed that most developing countries made dramatic yet often underestimated progress in health, education and basic living standards since 1970 with many of the poorest countries posting the greatest gains.


title: Human Development Report

text: In the 2010 Report, the Sultanate of Oman was reported to be the most improved country in the past 40 years out of the 135 countries assessed (the report reported on improvement in the period 1970–2010). Oman's strides in education, women empowerment and health care under the patronage of the current Sultan of Oman led to it securing the 1st position.


title: Human Development Report

text: Several new indices have been introduced over the years in different reports, including the Human Development Index, the Gender-related Development Index, the Gender Empowerment Measure, the Human Poverty Index. The Gender-related Development Index, the Gender Empowerment Measure and the Human Poverty Index were removed in 2010. The 2010 Human Development Report introduced three new indices the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the Gender Inequality Index, and the Multidimensional Poverty Index. Each Report has its own focus drawn from contemporary debate.


title: Human Development Report

text: The 2009 Human Development Report, Overcoming Barriers, focused on migration - both within and beyond borders. It was chosen because it is a prominent theme in domestic and international debates. Its starting point is that the global distribution of capabilities is extraordinarily unequal, and that this is a major driver for movement of people.


title: Human Development Report

text: The 2010 Human Development Report—The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development—showed through a detailed new analysis of long-term Human Development Index (HDI) trends that most developing countries made dramatic yet often underestimated progress in health, education and basic living standards in recent decades, with many of the poorest countries posting the greatest gains.


title: Human Development Report

text: Yet patterns of achievement vary greatly, with some countries losing ground since 1970, the 2010 Human Development Report shows. Introducing three new indices, the 20th anniversary edition of the report documented wide inequalities within and among countries, deep disparities between women and men on a wide range of development indicators, and the prevalence of extreme multidimensional poverty in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The new report also included a change in the methodology used to calculate the indexes using better statistical methods, as well as new parameters for judging the growth and development.


title: Human Development Report

text: The first Human Development Report introduced its pioneering HDI and analyzed previous decades of development indicators, concluding that "there is no automatic link between economic growth and human progress." The 2010 Report's rigorous review of longer-term trends—looking back at HDI indicators for most countries from 1970—showed there is no consistent correlation between national economic performance and achievement in the non-income HDI areas of health and education.


title: Human Development Report

text: Overall, as shown in the Report's analysis of all countries for which complete HDI data are available for the past 40 years, life expectancy climbed from 59 years in 1970 to 70 in 2010, school enrollment rose from just 55 percent of all primary and secondary school-age children to 70 percent, and per capita GDP doubled to more than US$10,000. People in all regions shared in this progress, though to varying degrees. Life expectancy, for example, rose by 18 years in the Arab states between 1970 and 2010, compared to eight years in sub-Saharan Africa. The 135 countries studied include 92 percent of the world's population.


title: Human Development Report

text: The "Top 10 Movers" highlighted in the 2010 Report—those countries among the 135 that improved most in HDI terms over the past 40 years—were led by Oman, which invested energy earnings over the decades in education and public health.


title: Human Development Report

text: The other nine "Top Movers" are China, Nepal, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Laos, Tunisia, South Korea, Algeria and Morocco. Remarkably, China was the only country that made the "Top 10" list due solely to income performance; the main drivers of HDI achievement were in health and education. The next 10 leaders in HDI improvement over the past 40 years include several low-income but high HID-achieving countries "not typically described as success stories," the Report notes, among them Ethiopia (#11), Cambodia (#15) and Benin (#18)—all of which made big gains in education and public health.


title: Human Development Report

text: The 2010 Human Development Report continued the HDI tradition of measurement innovation by introducing new indices that address crucial development factors not directly reflected in the HDI:


title: Human Development Report

text: The 2020 report asserts that immense human pressures on the planet have ushered in a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, or the Age of Humans. As such, the report introduces a new index to account for these pressures, the Planetary-Pressures Adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI), which includes a country's carbon dioxide emissions and material footprint. In his foreword to the report, UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said that "humans wield more power over the planet than ever before. In the wake of COVID-19, record-breaking temperatures and spiraling inequality, it is time to use that power to redefine what we mean by progress, where our carbon and consumption footprints are no longer hidden."


title: Human Development Report

text: Numerous highly developed wealthy countries plummet as a result of their environmental impact, such as the United States, which drops 45 places. By contrast, countries with lighter footprints such Costa Rica, Moldova and Panama move up the index by roughly 30 places.


title: Uralchem

text: Uralchem Group is a Russian manufacturer of a wide range of chemical products, including mineral fertilizers and ammoniac saltpeter. It is the largest producer of ammonium nitrate as well as the second largest producer of ammonia and nitrogen fertilizers in Russia.The products are supplied in addition to Russia to the CIS countries, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.


title: Uralchem

text: The company has been annually included in the TOP 200 largest private companies in Russia since 2010 (according to Forbes magazine).


title: Uralchem

text: Uralchem was founded in 2007 by businessman Dmitry Mazepin, who was the majority shareholder of the enterprise untill 2022, when he reduced his share to 48%. According to the company website, Uralchem was established after the controlling stakes of chemical companies Kirovo-Chepetsk Chemical Works and Azot were combined to form a single enterprise.


title: Uralchem

text: In 2008, Uralchem acquired a 71.1 percent stake in Voskresensk Mineral Fertilizers, followed by 100 percent stock acquisition in 2011. Equally in 2008, the company bought a 7.5 percent stake in chemical company Togliattiazot and increased its stake to just below 10 percent the following year. It also obtained 44.3 percent of JSC Perm Mineral Fertilizers in 2009. In 2012, Uralchem increased its stake in Perm Mineral Fertilizers to 100 percent.


title: Uralchem

text: In April 2010, the company announced to float 40 percent of its shares on the London Stock Exchange in the hopes of raising up to $600 million in funds to be used for servicing debt incurred by the acquisitions. However, the IPO was put on hold in October that year, citing unfavorable market conditions and investors' nervousness "about external factors."


title: Uralchem

text: The company three years later, in 2013, bought 20 percent of Uralkali, the biggest potash fertilizer producer in the world. Although no official transaction price was ever disclosed, it is estimated that Uralchem paid $2.9 billion for the acquisition.


title: Uralchem

text: In 2013 Uralchem and LLC Riga Commercial Port completed construction and opened a terminal at the Riga Port in Latvia for bulk fertilizers handling and short-term storage, called Riga Fertilizer Terminal. Uralchem became the controlling shareholder of the facility. A year later, the chemical firm acquired a controlling stake in Latvia's liquid ammonia transshipment terminal SIA Ventamonjaks.


title: Uralchem

text: The firm has also sought to increase its presence in African markets in recent years, particularly Zimbabwe, where Uralchem is hoping to acquire a minimum 50 percent stake in Chemplex, the state phosphorus fertilizer producer. Uralchem has also made forays into Zambia and Angola, where it plans to build a urea plant.


title: Uralchem

text: In December 2021 Dmitry Mazepin rewrote his Cyprus-based companies Uralchem Holding and CI-Chemical Invest, controlling “Uralchem”, to Russian jurisdiction at special administrative district on Oktyabrsky Island of Kaliningrad Oblast.


title: Uralchem

text: According to company figures, Uralchem has annual production capacities of 3 million tons of ammonia and ammonium nitrate, 1.2 million tons of urea as well as 1 million tons of phosphate and complex fertilizers, accounting for 27.6 percent of ammonium nitrate, 16.9 percent of ammonia and 15 percent of urea production in Russia.


title: Uralchem

text: Since taking a minority stake in Togliattiazot, Uralchem has criticized Togliattiazot for a lack of transparency relating to its activities on multiple occasions. Uralchem argues that its management has been repeatedly refused access to Togliattiazot's major shareholders and management to important documents such as protocols and internal orders of the lists of affiliated persons as well as quarterly and annual reports.


title: Uralchem

text: The Uralchem leadership has also accused Togliattiazot's majority shareholders Vladimir and Sergei Makhlai of engaging in large-scale fraud involving an export scheme for their ammonia and urea production. According to media reports, the Togliattiazot between 2008 and 2011 had sold its produce in the international markets primarily through Nitrochem Distribution AG, a Swiss trading company owned by Ameropa Holding AG and a main Togliattiazot shareholder, at below market prices. The owner of Ameropa AG, Andreas Zivy, is one of the controlling shareholders of Togliattiazot, along with the Makhlai Family. Nitrochem Distribution then resold the products to independent buyers at market prices. Through the scheme, minority shareholders like Uralchem sustained losses of $550 million, according to "Forbes".


title: Uralchem

text: Investigations by the Russian authorities led to the freezing of assets and shares of Togliattiazot owned by the majority shareholders worth $2 billion. The court also prohibited Sergei Makhlai from holding senior positions at the company, after which he resigned from the board. In July 2019, Sergei and Vladimir Makhlai as well as Togliattiazot's former CEO Evgeny Korolev and their Swiss partners Andreas Zivy and Beat Ruprecht were sentenced to prison in absentia by the Komsomolsky District Court in Togliatti for a period of 8.5 to 9 years.  The court ordered them to pay damages to Togliattiazot in the amount of 77 billion rubles and to Uralchem in the amount of 10 billion rubles.


title: Uralchem

text: The company is running several philanthropic and charitable programs and activities to promote social welfare, culture and education, including providing lab equipment to Perm Polytechnic and hosting concerts. To that end, the company stated that it had increased its financing of charitable projects by 34 percent to 710 million rubles ($11 million).


title: Slave name

text: A slave name is the personal name given by others to an enslaved person, or a name inherited from enslaved ancestors. The modern use of the term applies mostly to African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans who are descended from enslaved Africans who retain their name given to their ancestors by the enslavers.


title: Slave name

text: In Rome, slaves were given a single name by their owner. A slave who was freed might keep his or her slave name and adopt the former owner's name as a praenomen and nomen. As an example, one historian says that "a man named Publius Larcius freed a male slave named Nicia, who was then called Publius Larcius Nicia."


title: Slave name

text: Historian Harold Whetstone Johnston writes of instances in which a slave's former owner chose to ignore custom and simply chose a name for the freedman.


title: Slave name

text: A number of African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans have changed their names out of the belief that the names they were given at birth were slave names. An individual's name change often coincides with a religious conversion (Muhammad Ali changed his name from Cassius Clay, Malcolm X from Malcolm Little, and Louis Farrakhan changed his from Louis Eugene Walcott, for example) or involvement with the black nationalist movement, in this later case usually adopting names of African origin (e.g., Amiri Baraka and Assata Shakur).


title: Slave name

text: Some organizations encourage African-Americans to abandon their slave names. The Nation of Islam is perhaps the best-known of them. In his 1965 book, "Message to the Blackman in America", Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad writes often of slave names. Some of his comments include:


title: Slave name

text: The black nationalist US Organization also advocates for African-Americans to change their slave names and adopt African names.


title: Slave name

text: Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor stated in 2017 that she had changed her legal name to Magda Davitt, saying in an interview that she wished to be "free of the patriarchal slave names." On her conversion to Islam in 2018, she adopted the Muslim name Shuhada' Sadaqat.


title: X 100pre

text: X 100pre (an abbreviation of "Por siempre" in Spanish, meaning "Forever" and stylized in all caps) is the debut studio album by Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny. It was released on December 24, 2018 on Christmas Eve, by Rimas Entertainment. It features guest appearances from Diplo, El Alfa and Drake. It was ranked number 41 on "Rolling Stone"'s list of the 100 Best Debuts Albums of All Time and number 447 on the list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.


title: X 100pre

text: Bad Bunny embarked on his La Nueva Religión Tour Part I and Part II in 2018, which concluded in September. The tour grossed more than $16 million worldwide.


title: X 100pre

text: After releasing various singles during 2018, on December 23 he announced via social media that his debut album would be released at midnight on Christmas Eve.


title: X 100pre

text: Following the release of the album, Bad Bunny revealed in an Instagram live video that he was not working under his first label Hear this Music and his previous manager DJ Luian because he was not able to release albums under his previous management.


title: X 100pre

text: X 100pre is primarily a Latin trap and reggaeton album, which also incorporates elements of pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, bachata, dembow, ballad, electronic, house, tropical, cumbia, and salsa.


title: X 100pre

text: "Estamos Bien" was the first single to be released, accompanied by a music video on June 28, 2018. On October 18, 2018, he released the single "Mia" featuring Drake, marking Drake's second song in Spanish.


title: X 100pre

text: Following the success of "Mia", Bad Bunny released "Solo de Mí" on December 15, 2018. On January 18, 2019, he released the video of "Caro". Ricky Martin sings backing vocals on the track.


title: X 100pre

text: The video of "Si Estuviésemos Juntos" followed on February 14, 2019, and the video of "La Romana", featuring Dominican dembow artist El Alfa, was released on April 6, 2019.


title: X 100pre

text: At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, "X 100pre" received an average score of 84 based on five reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Alexis Petridis of "The Guardian" praised Bad Bunny's "off-kilter creativity", opining that Bad Bunny "feels less like part of the current pop landscape than an artist operating slightly adjacent to it. He is separated from the pack as much by a desire to take risks as by his roots." He noted that the record contains a variety of musical genres, including pop punk, Andean music, Dominican dembow and "windswept 80s stadium rock".


title: X 100pre

text: All tracks were written by Benito Martínez, except where noted. Credits adapted from Universal Music Publishing Group's catalog.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (Ajami: سنوسي لاميط سنوسي, "Muhammadu Sanusi na biyu"; born 31 July 1961), known by the religious title Khalifa Sanusi II (Ajami: خليفة السنوسي), is a spiritual leader in the Tijanniyah Sufi order of Nigeria. He is a member of the Dabo dynasty and was emir ("sarki") of the ancient city-state of Kano. He was born in Kano in 1961 into the royal family as the grandson of Muhammadu Sanusi I. He succeeded his great-uncle Ado Bayero to the throne on 8 June 2014, and spent most of his reign advocating for cultural reform in Northern Nigeria, until his dethronement on 9 March 2020 by the kano state government.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi is a prominent traditional and religious figure in West Africa. As the Khalifa of the Tijaniyyah Sufi order of Nigeria, he arguably has a politico-spiritual authority over the second largest Sufi order, with over 30 million adherents. He grew up in the royal palace of his grand-uncle, and as a youth received both religious and secular education. Prior to his accession, Sanusi was an Islamic intellectual, academic, political economist and banker. He served as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 2009 to 2014, ushering in banking reforms until his suspension after he brought to light the $20 billion oil scandal.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi was born on 31 July 1961 in Kano to a ruling class Fulani family of the Sullubawa clan. He grew up in the palace of his great-uncle Ado Bayero, who reigned for over five decades. His father, Aminu Sanusi, was a prince and diplomat who served as the ambassador to Belgium, China and Canada, and later permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was also the Chiroma of Kano and son of Muhammadu Sanusi I, who was the 11th Fulani Emir of Kano from 1953 to 1963, when he was deposed by his cousin Sir Ahmadu Bello.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi received early religious education at home, where he learnt Qur'an and the traditions of Prophet Muhammad. He then attended St. Annes Primary School, a Catholic boarding school in Kaduna, before proceeding to King's College, Lagos from 1973 to 1977. He received a bachelor's degree in Economics from the Ahmadu Bello University in 1981. After graduating, he spent a year undergoing his National Youth Service as a teacher in a girls boarding school in Yola. He then returned to the university where he received a master's degree in Economics in 1983, and lectured at the faculty for two years.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi later moved to Khartoum where he read Islamic studies at the International University of Africa. He became fluent in Arabic and also studied the Qur'an, law ("fiqh") and philosophy ("falsafa"), amongst others, he read the works of prominent Western thinkers and Islamic authorities and was also exposed to the four Sunni madhhabs of Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: In 1985, Sanusi began his banking career when he was hired by Icon Limited (a subsidiary of Barings Bank and Morgan Guaranty Trust) – as a merchant banker before later becoming head of financial services and manager of the office in Kano. He left the bank in 1991, when he travelled to Sudan, to pursue studies in Arabic and Islamic studies at the International University of Africa in Khartoum. In 1997, he returned to Nigeria and joined the United Bank for Africa working in the credit and risk management division – he rose through the ranks to the position of general manager. In 2005, Sanusi became a board member and executive director in charge of risk management at First Bank of Nigeria – Nigeria's oldest bank, and one of Africa's largest financial institutions. In January 2009, Sanusi became the chief executive officer, becoming the first northern Nigerian to head the bank.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: On 1 June 2009, Sanusi was nominated as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua; his appointment was confirmed by the Nigerian Senate on 3 June 2009, during the global financial crisis. In Nigeria, the effect of the crisis took a hit at the economy and the banking system, with the stock market collapsing by nearly 70%. It was amidst this crisis that Sanusi led the central bank in rescuing top tier banks with over ₦600 billion of public money, dismissing and imprisoning chief executives who had mismanaged customer deposits – and strictly dealing with banks found responsible for financial crimes. Sanusi attributed the crash in the capital markets to "financial illiteracy" on the part of Nigerian investors. He also introduced a consolidation process which reduced the number of Nigerian banks through merger and acquisitions, in a bid to make them stronger and more accountable to depositors. He also led efforts in increasing the level of investment in infrastructure and support for small and medium enterprises.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi's tenure initiated several extensive banking reforms termed the "Sanusi Tsunami". The reforms were built around four pillars: enhancing the quality of banks, establishing financial stability, enabling healthy financial sector evolution and ensuring the financial sector contributes to the real economy. Sanusi developed the cashless policy – whereby financial transactions are not conducted with money in the form of physical banknotes or coins, but rather through the transfer of digital information (usually an electronic representation of money) between the transacting parties; he also introduced and supported the establishment of Islamic banking in Nigeria, a move which was criticized by the Christian Association of Nigeria. He also clashed with the National Assembly, over its budgetary spending of 25% of all government revenue; and rejected the International Monetary Fund insistence for a currency devaluation. He also advised the government on the removal of the fuel subsidy, which he argued engendered a culture of high level corruption and economic inefficiency – the removal of the subsidy was unpopular and led to the Occupy Nigeria movement, which called for his resignation.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: His reforms received both criticism and appraisal from the industry. "The Banker" magazine recognised him as the 2010 Central Bank Governor of the Year, for his reforms and leading a radical anti-corruption campaign in the sector – the first of its kind during the financial crisis. Sanusi is widely recognized for pacifying the overtly corrupt banking industry and his contribution to a risk management culture in Nigerian banking. Sanusi has spoken at a number of international events including the 2013 World Economic Forum. In December 2013, Sanusi in a leaked letter to President Goodluck Jonathan revealed that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to remit US$48.9 billion of government oil revenue to the central bank – the NNPC has a history of financial irregularities and oversees the corrupt petroleum industry in Nigeria. In February 2014, after a series of public investigations and raising the alarm on the US$20 billion NNPC scandal, Sanusi was suspended as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria by President Goodluck Jonathan. In April 2014, he won a court case against the federal government, after he was detained and his international passport confiscated by the State Security Service.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: On 6 June 2014, Emir Ado Bayero who reigned as Emir of Kano for over five decades died, and a succession crisis loomed amongst the royal family. On 8 June 2014, Sanusi a grandson of former Emir Muhammadu Sanusi I; and holder of the traditional title of Dan Majen Kano (Son of Emir-Maje) emerged as the new Emir of Kano. His accession led to widespread protests from supporters of Sanusi Ado Bayero the Chiroman Kano (Crown Prince) and son of the late Emir Ado Bayero, with allegations that Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso interfered with the king-making process.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: On 8 June 2014, Sanusi was selected to succeed his granduncle, Ado Bayero, as the Emir of Kano. His enthronement was controversial, with some believing that it was a politically motivated move to avoid corruption charges from his tenure at the central bank. Many expected Bayero's son to succeed him as The Emir, and protested Sanusi's appointment. He was crowned Sarki Muhammadu Sunusi II (anglicized as Sanusi) on 9 June 2014, the fifty-seventh monarch of the ancient-city Kano; hierarchically the fourth-most-important Islamic traditional ruler in Nigeria after the Sultan of Sokoto, Shehu of Borno and Emir of Gwandu.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: In November 2014, after Sanusi urged his followers to fight Boko Haram, the Great Mosque of Kano was bombed, with over 150 casualties. In December 2014, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau accused Sanusi of deviating from Islam and threatened his life. Sanusi replied that he is "safe with Allah", and likened Shekau's extremist comments (describing Sufis as unbelievers) to those of the heretical Islamic preacher Maitatsine.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: During Sanusi's six-year reign, The Emir reinvented himself as a charismatic figure at the crossroads of tradition and modernity. Major developments, such as the drafting of a new Muslim family law, construction of a 40,000 books library and vernacular modernization of the 15th century palace took place; and the Durbar festival was promoted internationally. Tourism to heritage sites such as the ancient Dala Hill and Gidan Makama increased and was encouraged by Sanusi. The Emir also played a role in revamping the ancient city's cultural objects including in clothing where he advocated for the revival of the moribund 14th century dye pits at Kofar Mata – and through his own style and drapery projected the craftsmanship of the city's leading guilds.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi also spoke out on government policies, breaking with royal tradition. He criticised the government of misplaced priorities. In 2017, the emirate council was under investigation for financial irregularities. Many saw this as retribution over comments he made against the state government. The investigation was later called off by the state legislature following intervention by the ruling class. In 2019, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje signed into law the creation of four new emirates; Bichi, Rano, Gaya and Karaye. This unprecedented move saw the partitioning of Sanusi's traditional domain as Emir. According to the law, out of the 44 local government areas in the state, Sanusi as Emir of Kano will preside over just 10 local government areas; with the remainder carved up amongst the new emirates. In March 2020, the state legislature launched a new investigation against The Emir for violation of "traditional practices", this was coming after a high court ruling restraining the corruption investigation against Sanusi.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: On 9 March 2020, Sanusi was dethroned by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje. Sanusi was in his private residence in Gidan Rumfa when he learnt of his removal, while awaiting for state officials to formally serve him the deposition letter a contingent of police, military, and security operatives stormed the palace. Sanusi later accepted his dethronement as a divine act and urged his supporters to remain calm and avoid bloodshed. He also urged them to declare bay'ah to his successor Aminu Ado Bayero, and stated "It is a thing of pride that made us to rule and end in the same fashion as the Khalifa," in reference to his grandfather Muhammadu Sanusi I, who was also deposed and exiled in 1963.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi was later informed of his exile from Kano to Nasarawa State. Initially wanting to serve his exile in Lagos with his family, his request was denied and was later escorted out of the palace under heavy guard to a military air base. His lawyers subsequently announced they are going to challenge his arbitrary exile in court. Sanusi was then flown to Abuja, en route to Loko in Nassarawa. On 10 March, he was relocated from Loko via police helicopter to Awe a remote local government area in the state. On 13 March, a Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the release of Sanusi, he subsequently left Awe together with Governor Nasir El Rufai, after leading Friday prayers in full regalia to Lagos.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi has stated he will not challenge his dethronement and intends to go on with his activities as a private citizen. He has ruled out the possibility of entry into politics, and is focusing his time on writing and academic pursuits. He is a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford’s African Studies Centre, where he is set to publish a book about his role as central bank governor during the global financial crisis. He also plans to write on Muslim law and cultural practices in northern Nigeria. In June 2021, Sanusi released a compendium of his articles from 1999 to 2005. On 10 May 2021, Sanusi was appointed as leader ("khalifa") of the Tijaniyyah Sufi order in Nigeria, an important position which was held by his grandfather, with immense religious authority in West Africa. He is currently ongoing a PhD in Islamic Law at the University of London.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi has over the years as a public intellectual written on topics ranging from Islam to political economy. He has debated and authored a number of papers articulating his views on:


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi's position has two underlying themes: Islam is concerned with justice and should not be a tool for self-seeking political agendas, and the violent persecution of the Sufi orders by Wahhabist fundamentalists counters genuine Muslim interests. He has written about the role of women in society in his paper, "Shariah and the Woman Question." And has also described his views on non-Muslims. Sanusi has adopted the mainstream position that zakat is an instrument for redistributing income, arguing in favour of giving the role of redistribution to the government.


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi has also advocated for family planning to solve almajiranci. He has called for an end to child marriage, women empowerment, use of mosques for education. He has said that polygamy is increasing poverty in the region and supports population planning. He has also defended his views on Islam in Africa – and has opposed the external influence on the continents religious life, "Wahhabism and Salafism have a certain intolerance in common with groups such as Boko Haram. Islam in Africa has its own schools of thought, its ancient empires and its own history. And we have no need for Saudi Arabia and Iran to explain Islam to us."


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi has called for a cultural revival in Northern Nigeria. In his works he has described his views regarding the Hausa–Fulani cultural hegemony, and is a supporter of Nigeria's unity in diversity. Sanusi has criticized postcolonialism and maintaining English as an official language stating "If you take Kano, for 600-700 years the official language was Arabic. We had British colonialism for 60 years, and today the official language in Nigeria is English. Arabic is not an official language".


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: He has also spoken out for the need to revive the Trans-Saharan trade stating that "The Sahel was a major part of global commerce; it was the transit point of trade from Asia to the Atlantic and to Europe. The cities of the Sahel – Timbuktu, Gao, Kano, Agadez – were the richest cities in Africa before the steamship, before colonialism. Many of the countries in the Sahel are part of a great Arab Islamic civilisation – the official language of communication was Arabic."


title: Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

text: Sanusi believes that fundamental constitutional amendments are required to address misgovernance in Nigeria. He has raised questions on Nigeria's extremely-high cost of governance and opposes having a full time bicameral legislature, 36 states with governors and deputies, and thousands of government aides. He has also called for an overhaul of the Nigerian Civil Service, describing the institution as inefficient and over bloated. Since 2013, Sanusi has ruled out participating in Nigerian politics and seeking elective office stating in a BBC "HARDTalk" interview "I cannot survive in Nigerian politics". He has said with regards to the damaging effect of unprincipled politics on the society "our duty as Muslims is to learn from the ideals of Prophet Muhammad to save the society from eminent danger that is facing it".